“They’re with them.”
I knew that the shadow creatures were mostly under the control of royals, with free ones rounded up by hunters.
“There are royals in this village?” I asked.
Shadow shook his head. “No, the royals of Fraple are a few days’ walk from here. Their compound is near the border of Trinity because we all like to keep an eye on our royal neighbors.”
“So what’s with the creatures, then?”
“Every city and village has creatures,” Shadow told me, looking out into the horizon. “Descendants of royals can control them, as long as a full-blooded royal has tamed the creature in question.”
“Not to mention that those with royal blood are often called into their armed forces,” Angel added.
“Okay, yeah, that makes sense.”
It did make sense, but every time I learned more about the creatures and how they were treated here, an uneasy feeling swirled in my gut. They were nothing more than possessions. Expendable. They were used and abused to keep the royals and the human-like freilds functioning.
“The creatures I pulled to Earth,” I said, “would they have been under the control of a royal?”
“I doubt it,” Shadow said. “I couldn’t feel the energy of another in theirs, so they were probably pulled from The Grey Lands, where the free beasts roam. The point of origin, where the two mists converge, is there. It was once a place of pure creation and power.”
“It used to be known by another name, that land, right?” Angel asked.
Shadow nodded. “Yes. As it changed over the years, parts of it dying inexplicably, it was renamed ‘The Grey Lands.’ But it was, once upon a time, a very different place. Still, it’s where the young royals make their journeys for their first creatures.”
This was what had me so riled. The creatures were just out there minding their own business when some punk-ass fucker sauntered in to steal their freedom?
Kind of made me want to kill a few royals.
Shadow smirked. “I know what you’re thinking, and trust me, when the unbonded creatures make it to our lands, they carve a path of destruction second to none. You don’t understand because you can control their energy, as can I, but for the regular citizen of the realm… there is nothing but blood and guts left by the time the creature is done.”
I wasn’t convinced. If it was anything like Earth, the reason that land was dying would be totally due to something the royals had done. And of course, as their land died, the creatures would have to search farther afield for nourishment and shelter. It wasn’t their fault.
The creatures I’d met over my time with Shadow had held a true intelligence and pure energy, and I’d grown pretty fond of them. Even the creepy ones with poison sap.
“I know some fault lies with the royals here,” I said, my disgust seeping out even when I tried to hold it inside. “I know it.”
Shadow didn’t argue, and I wondered if deep down, his personal thoughts on the creatures were more aligned with mine than with the royals’. In truth, Shadow had lived here for twenty-two years, and out of the realm for a thousand plus. How much of him still thought like the royals?
I sincerely hoped not a lot.
Since this world’s issues were not going to be fixed today, we started on our journey. Our path was the same as yesterday, and when we left the slowly growing oasis, we were back on the harsh black rock. I settled into the monotony of walking, feeling thankful that Shadow found a way around the first village, leaving us free and undetected to continue on.
And we did. On and on and on. Thankfully, Angel and Shadow both remembered my frailties, allowing me water, food, and a pee break more than once. Neither of them seemed to require anything, and as the day slipped away again, we had made our way around two more towns that stood between us and the royal compound. I saw quite a few of the inhabitants from a distance, and not all of them looked like Shadow. He was an overly enhanced, super fucking hot, giant version of a human. But some of the regular folk, the freilds, were quite different.
“Blue skin?”
Shadow turned to where I was looking at a small family having… a picnic? “Subspecies of the freilds,” he said. “Mixed with water sprites. They call themselves ‘fronds.’”
In my head, I was keeping a running tally of what beings I’d learned of here. Creatures, royals, and freilds, which included the Shadow Hunters, and now fronds. “How many other different races and subspecies are here?”
His lips twitched. “We also have the clordees, who are a mix of shadow creatures and freilds.”
I paused. “Uh, are you saying some of the freilds had sex with the creatures?”
Angel and Shadow both laughed, probably at the absurdity of my question, and possibly the look on my face. I hurried on. “I mean, I know that shouldn’t be weird to me. I’m a wolf and I’ve heard of more than a few having a go at fucking in their beast forms, but it feels weird.”
Shadow’s smile was slow and contemplative. “What did you think of the Brolder inhabitants?”
