“You speak of them as if they are in the past... I’m sorry for your loss,” Aldora said, startling him.She is sorry for me?“In a way... I’ve lost my parents—my family—too,” her voice softened. “But knowing they are still out there, alive, settled in a good life, eases my pain.”
“It would ease mine as well.”
“I am your family now, Vedikus,” she breathed.
He barely heard her words through the wind.Family. My mate readily accepts her fate.His heart beat hard within his chest, and he leaned his nose to the top of her head so he could breathe her comforting scent in. His senses flooded with sweet evergreen, and his tail thumped under his loincloth. “Yes,” he rasped. “You are Bathyr, and you’ll give our clan a way to become the mightiest tribe this land has ever birthed.” Her fingers pressed into his skin and caressed one of his many scars.
“It’s given me hope—” she started.
Hope.
“And a strange sort of excitement.”
Vedikus snorted, and released some of the built up steam in his chest, helping Aldora over a steep, mossy rise. Before long, the boulders that littered the rocky paths were replaced with shrubs, and as they crested the first summit, giant black trees met them for the final ascent. Aldora gasped, and he pressed her closer to him. He refused to look at the trees directly because of their ominous sight, like dozens of dark needles impaling exposed flesh.
They are our greatest defense.Even if his brothers didn’t agree.
But to walk among them was like walking through his home now, even when the mist darkened them to jagged teeth. Blood red markers appeared on the trees ahead in his periphery, all painted seasons past by his clan as a final line of warning.
His eye caught something else... Fresh footprints leading back the way they came.
Vedikus released Aldora and turned to see them end at the rocky path down below, but the shape and indent of them were unmistakable. They were the footprints of one of his kin, and fresh. His eyes narrowed on them.
“What’s wrong?” Aldora asked, moving back against his side where her shivers lessened.
“One of my brothers passed through here recently, descending down to the paths we had just walked.”
“But we saw no one, nor heard anything but the wind?” Her head moved as she took in the unshrouded area around them. “Right?”
Vedikus leaned down briefly to smell the soil. His nose twitched, but he found no traces of magic.Why has my brother not sought us out?“They must have been made during the night,” he mumbled, straightening.
“Then we may have missed them when...” Aldora trailed off, a blush forming on her cheeks.
“Yes,” he said with the sudden need to investigate further. Vedikus folded Aldora back into his embrace as a reminder that he had far more important things to take of.There will be a reason, but it will have to wait.“Let us continue, we are not far away now, and I would like to have you in my furs before the light begins to fade.”
“Are you sure? If this is important, we can follow his tracks.”
“No. You are cold and vastly under-equipped now for residing these lands. Let us go home.”
“Then we will come back prepared and find our answers.”
Vedikus grunted in agreement, settling one hand on his battle axe. The crunch of dead leaves sounded as they made their way up the steep cliff, following the tracks all the way to the top until they faded and were lost when dirt returned to rock. Aldora’s breathing grew more hoarse and labored with each minute that passed, regardless of how much he helped her.
It did not sit well with him that one of his brothers might have gone past their camp the night before, knowing that it was a well-used one among the Bathyr during long scouting trips. The enchantments placed would have alerted the entire clan of its disturbance, like a tiny prick to the back of his neck. When the magic sparked, it had a distinct feeling, unmistakable like its smell. He did not know one of his brothers who would pass a clan member by.The human with me is enough to put the Bathyr on high alert. Her scent will permeate the air.
Aldora interrupted his thoughts, inhaling as she spoke. “Will you tell me more about your brothers?” Sweat glistened her brow, and parts of her loose dress clung despite the chill. “Will they expect much from me?”
“Only your contribution and your strength of will because that is what I expect. They will take you in as one of their own because you are mine. Do not worry what they think nor want, that is not your concern, nor should it ever be.”
“But you were kicked out of your last tribe, I do not want the same to happen to me. I don’t think I could live through another journey through this labyrinth.”
Vedikus looked at her idly. “We were not kicked out, we left at our own accord.”
“You have not said why...”
His hand squeezed the shaft of his weapon as the words burned his throat.She deserves to know.He had no qualm about Aldora knowing his past, even if it could hurt his kind. Like all beasts in this place, secrets were kept close, and minotaurs had little to no weaknesses as is. He knew she would not tell another monster, if only because he would never allow Aldora outside the realm of his control.
“When Steelslash brought my mother home, he brought something else with him as well. Something unseen and dangerous. The elders of the tribe did not know of it until many years later, and whether it was their chief that was responsible or my mother, is lost to history despite my brothers’ and my best efforts.”
