Hungry Heart - Book #4 - Ch. 15 (Patreon)

Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three / Chapter Four / Chapter Five / Chapter Six / Chapter Seven / Chapter Eight / Chapter Nine / Chapter Ten / Chapter Eleven / Chapter Twelve / Chapter Thirteen / Chapter Fourteen 

Chapter Fifteen – Burns

There had to be a way out of the nest of dark thoughts gathering under his forehead like stormy clouds. If the spirit of the fountain was Elpis, or someone who looked like her, then he had no other path to take but asking the female white tiger about it. Toru wasn’t keen on doing so, since it seemed like the only way to free Niverborg from whatever curse held it in its clutches was for him to turn on his hosts and lay waste to all the warm welcoming that they had offered so far. Even if his suspicions had run rampant in the beginning, they had quickly come together as if they shared the same blood.

If what the spirit of the fountain said was the truth, then he would have to confront Lakan, and it was the last thing he wanted to do. There had to be another way, he thought, and he waited for a moment when Elpis didn’t appear busy so that he could speak to her.

“There is something on your mind, young tiger, isn’t there?”

“I saw you earlier,” Toru accused and crossed his arms.

Elpis looked around and then got to her feet. She pulled him along and soon they were walking through trees heavy with snow. Toru could tell her steps were taken so easily over the thick layer under their feet that she didn’t make a single sound. She seemed as light as a feather as she hung upon his arm, and as they moved further and further from the others, all noises died down. Toru noticed how his warm breath was making tiny clouds in front of him, in rhythm with his heart.

Elpis, however, appeared not to breathe at all, although her chest rose and fell. She blinked from time to time and gazed around, as if she was looking for something.

“That was you, in the fountain of youth,” Toru said. “Why did you say those things?”

“I was compelled to tell you the truth. If you hadn’t gone there, I would have never told you anything.” Sadness rolled off her so thickly that Toru could almost touch it.

“I don’t intend to--” he began, but the ground gave way under his feet and he found himself falling, his arms flailing and catching nothing but air.

He didn’t even have time to shift into his tiger before his body met the damp ground with a thud. The first thing he noticed was that his body didn’t hurt despite having fallen from what seemed like quite a height. A look above his head convinced him that the earth must have closed above him. Nonetheless, he wasn’t trapped in darkness. Around him, the walls shone blue, and Toru quickly understood that his prison lay between water and dirt. Invisible walls held the crystalline waters away from him, giving him room to walk and stretch his arms. “Elpis,” he called out, sure in his heart that he would hear her answer. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“I’m sorry, Toru. I deeply am,” her voice came from the walls, surrounding him. “I hoped against hope that I would never see you here.”

“But why? You have to answer me,” he demanded. Not for a moment did he feel the slightest tinge of anger or fear. His prison seemed warm and kind. All the more reason for him to fail to understand what was going on. Elpis didn’t strike him as a wrongdoer. There had to be an explanation for her behavior toward him.

“I must, indeed,” Elpis confirmed. “You are the true heir to the Niverborg realm.”

“No,” Toru contradicted her. “That’s Lakan. It’s his birthright. He said so, and I believe him.”

“And wasn’t he also the one who told you at the side of the fountain of youth, as people here call it, that blood doesn’t dictate who’s part of the noble class of our country?”

Toru furrowed his brow in thought. Elpis was right, of course, but why would Lakan get so confused? She must have put those ideas into his head, some truth, some not so true. Maybe she was sort of a trickster, just like the hermit Te’cla who played with people’s minds, making them forget what was not supposed to ever be forgotten.

“I can tell that you do not seem to fathom the situation for what it is, so I will explain it to you,” Elpis said in a patient voice. “You see, Lakan is not wrong. A birthright does exist, but it doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to you.”

Toru snorted. To be more comfortable, he sat on the ground, cross-legged. “I have no interest in taking over Niverborg. And why should I? Just because my father was from here? He was just a shapeshifter like the rest of the noble house, so why should he be considered the one to rightfully pass on his claim to this place to me, his only son?”

Elpis didn’t reply for a while.

Toru took that as a sign that he could continue to show her just how wrong she was. “And even if it were so, what business do I have with Niverborg? I only came here because I hoped you people would know something or the other about Nelsikkar.”

“You are so very young, just like Lakan. It is not a choice, young tiger. This place has been waiting for you for a very long time. There is only one way for Niverborg to survive, and that is for you to claim your birthright and take the helm.”

“I don’t believe you. And I wouldn’t do such a thing to Lakan. He was born here and has cared for these lands for as long as he can remember. I’m nothing but a stranger. How do you even suppose that I would claim my birthright, as you say?”

“You would challenge Lakan. Spill his blood,” Elpis explained.

“As if I’d do that,” Toru said with another snort. “I will never do such a thing. How can you speak of me having to hurt him, when he’s your son?”

“My heart is heavy as I say these things to you. It is why I’m holding you trapped in here. Because I do not wish for you to harm him, although I know well that Niverborg will die because of my foolish motherly feelings.”

“They’re not foolish at all,” Toru contradicted her. “First of all, why do you consider that only Aneros’ son should rule here? And how come Niverborg survived for so long while I was away and unaware of even the existence of such a place?”

Barely survived, Toru thought, as he remembered the meager meal from the night before and the sorry state of affairs at the Niverborg castle. Still, he had no intention of getting into a fight with Lakan for the sake of something he didn’t want and didn’t believe belonged to him, anyway.

“I thought I was clever,” Elpis said in a weary voice. “To save these lands, I went against the very soul of this forest.”

“What you say makes very little sense,” Toru insisted. “How about you tell me the truth, the whole truth?”

“You are right about that,” Elpis admitted.

She appeared to step through the walls and sat like Toru, a few feet away. It was her, as she had appeared to him at the lake, in white attire, and he couldn’t help thinking that it fit her better than her furs.

“I am not a shapeshifter,” she began. She looked at Toru with large inquisitive eyes. “I am a fae of the forest.”

“That explains why your feet are so light.” He knew very little about such creatures, but he assumed they had to be magical. Elpis was capable of trapping him against his will and keeping him alive inside a fountain, while she was also preparing tea by a fire miles away at the same time. “And why you look so young,” he added.

Elpis nodded. “No one knows it. The good children you’ve met here since your arrival have always known me as Lakan’s mother, a shapeshifter just like them.”

“Why keep it a secret? I bet you can do many magical things. For sure, you could make better food appear than that dry meat and those tasteless chestnuts.”

“I’m afraid my powers are not capable of conjuring food out of thin air.”

Toru scoffed. “You’re like Demophios. You’re only useful when you feel like it.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know who you are referring to,” Elpis said.

“At least, you’re not entirely like him, or you would have known who he was. Continue, please,” he urged her.

“When Aneros heard for the first time about a distant land over which a female tigershifter with hair like fire reigned, he began dreaming of her every night. He grew to be sure that she was his destiny.”

“My mother,” Toru said.

Elpis nodded. “But I couldn’t let him leave just like that. You see, Aneros’ blood is part of what keeps Niverborg alive. Many centuries ago, this place was nothing but a vast forest with its own ways. But tribes came and went and washed over it, some peaceful, some with a taste for war. Aneros’ people fought fierce battles here to keep it, and for every drop of blood that was spilled, the forest became one with it. Now, it cannot survive without it.”

“Was he the only one from that tribe?”

“The one with the birthright,” Elpis explained. “It wasn’t a thing generally known by the people.”

“But you knew, because you’re a fae of the forest,” Toru concluded for himself.

“Yes. Never before had an heir of the old tribe tried to leave this place. The strongest calling was to these lands, not to whatever other places exist in the world. So, I couldn’t understand how he could long for a woman he had never seen in his life. I took the news to the heart of the forest, and we all agreed that if Aneros left, an end for Niverborg would begin.”

“Why didn’t you tell him all that?”

Elpis shook her head. “He had dreams wrapping around his mind, making it impossible for him to get his nightly rest. He was enthralled by the spells of love before he had even had a chance to set his eyes on his beloved. But this new passion of his also spelled our doom, and I had to do something.”

After saying that, she remained silent for a while, her eyes roving over that thread of memory from so long ago without looking at anything in particular. “So I turned up on the steps of the castle, looking for a shapeshifter such as he, finding a way for myself among the others. It was dangerous, and I stayed clear of all the elders who might have wondered who this stranger was. The younger ones believed me when I told them that I was this and that relative of names they did remember. In a short time, they would all swear that I had been with them for as long as they could recall. And, in this new coat I donned, I proceeded to make Aneros fall in love with me.”

Toru threw a questioning glance at her. The fresh memory of Lakan grabbing his hand, the way they raced through the new snow, the pride he had read in the white tiger’s eyes, rushed to his mind.

“Yes, I believe you may guess right now what I’m going to tell you. But let me get to it in my own time. You see, I intend to keep you here with me for a while.”

Toru didn’t ask why that was so. He was more curious to hear her story, as he had an inkling that it would reveal the mystery that surrounded her and these lands of snow.

“I used the weak magic I had and trickery of the female kind,” Elpis said with a small smile, “to ensnare him. It wasn’t easy. He was convinced that he would have to be prepared with lavish gifts and a name for himself to travel to that redheaded beauty. So, he got himself in every battle he heard about, hungry for fame and wealth. Each time, he believed himself closer to fulfilling his purpose.”

“Is that why people here think of him as foolish?” he asked.

“That, and I might have had a hand in fostering that misperception as well. They needed to forget about him for my plan to work. To continue, during the times when he chose to rest his weary bones between military campaigns and whatnot, I proceeded with care to approach him and worm my way into his good graces. He might not have considered me as someone suitable for him at first, but I was the convincing kind. From the tales of the forest I knew that the fire burning in his heart for that Raine was true, but the least I could do was to keep a part of him here, in Niverborg.”

Toru blinked a few times to chase away unexpected moisture from his eyes. “That’s why you had Lakan. He’s my brother.”

Elpis nodded. “Yes, he is Aneros’ son, and only because of my deception Niverborg didn’t die with the last heir of the tribe.”

“It lived because of Lakan,” Toru noted. “But I don’t understand. He is the true heir, isn’t he? Even with my… our father no longer alive, that’s the tribe’s blood in his veins.”

“Half of it. I’ve fooled everyone for a long time, Toru, but the forest cannot be fooled. They knew Lakan was my son, and that I committed the unpardonable act of mating with a mortal.”

“You’re immortal? Then I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t seem to get old. It’s how you are, isn’t it?” He stood to his feet. He had a brother. The notion seemed so strange, but it filled his heart with new excitement and hope. At the orphanage, he had thought himself all alone in the world, and now, he had a brother. Unlike his parents, he was alive and Toru could touch him and talk to him and have races in the snow with him.

“You are right, of course. Because of what I did, however, I inadvertently sent Niverborg into this sorrowful state of being not dead and not alive. Lakan’s blood keeps it breathing, the few that are left, but he’s not strong enough to make these lands survive. Not forever.”

“What happened exactly? And why did Aneros leave you and Lakan behind? I thought he was a more honorable man than that. You told me so yourself.”

“The pull on his heart remained strong. I knew that my deception wouldn’t be able to keep him here, but I thought I had secured a way for Niverborg to continue to thrive. And, for a while, even after he left, it did. You ask me how he left Lakan behind. He didn’t know the boy was his. Like everyone else, he believed him to be the son of one of the warriors who hadn’t come back from one of their many battles. I have the power to take away some memories, and I did so with him. He did love Lakan dearly, and of all the kits running about, he had always been his favorite. Lakan barely remembers him. It’s for the best.”

“I don’t think it’s for the best. I think you should tell him who his father is.” Toru moved around the small enclosure, trying to understand how it worked. He put his hand on a transparent wall, and his hand went through, feeling the wetness and cold of the water on the other side. When he pulled it back, not one droplet of water fell on the his side, and his hand was dry. He stared at his palm for a while, pondering over what that could mean.

“It is my decision as his mother,” Elpis said in a tone that brooked no contradiction. “With Lakan, I thought that the future of Niverborg would be secured. He would choose a mate once he was of age, and they would make new heirs. So I thought. But then, travelers came to tell us that Aneros and Raine were keen on waging war on the heart of the world, Scercendusa. That was something I couldn’t understand. Why would he undertake such an impossible task? I knew him to be proud and a fame seeker, but he already had his redheaded princess and even a son with her, as I had heard. I blamed Raine in my heart. You see, a part of me, the smallest one, had always hoped that one day he might return. I imagined myself telling him that Lakan was his son.”

“Why didn’t you tell him while he was still here? He might have stayed.”

Elpis shook her head. “I know true passion when I see it. And it all makes sense now that you’re here. It wasn’t some call of lust driving him to that female tiger from such distant lands. No, it was the call of destiny, because he had to come together with her and have you. You say you rid the world of Hekastfet, that name I do not know. And while I am ignorant of so many things, I recognize a savior of worlds when I see one. And you’re here to save Niverborg.”

Toru stared at her, considering his following words carefully. “At the price of hurting Lakan? No.”

“Hurting Lakan? You must kill him,” Elpis said and cast her eyes down, her entire face scrunched up as if she was about to break into tears.

“That makes me all the more sure I do not wish this,” Toru reinforced his conviction. “Lakan is my brother. How would killing a brother save this forest?”

“When what I had done was discovered, the heart of the forest berated me for going against destiny when it wasn’t my purpose to do such a thing. According to her, I went against fate, and that kind of thing is punishable by death. I am, as I told you, immortal, so I cannot be destroyed. But the fruit of my love, the savior I thought I made by lying with Aneros and then erasing that night from his mind, he can be destroyed. His blood spilled would make everything good again with this place.”

“I don’t want to stay here and rule these people I don’t know,” Toru insisted.

“It is not a matter of choice. You are here, and you are the true heir. The balance must be restored, or this place will die altogether. What would you choose, Toru? The death of one, or that of many?”

Toru pursed his lips in anger. “I thought I destroyed the greatest evil in the world when I killed Hekastfet. But I see that there is still evil in the world. Go to that heart of the forest and tell her that she needs to accept Lakan and stop holding back all the animals that are no longer living on these lands. I’m sure she’s guilty of it.”

“You are so completely self-assured that you are right in your assumptions. You are so very young.”

“Stop saying that. I’m not that young, and I know very well what I’m saying. What would have happened if I hadn’t asked you for the truth at the fountain? You, my brother, and the others would have lived. So, it’s my fault, and I’ll make this right.”

“Your brother and the rest of his kin wouldn’t have lived for long. There are no more young ones being born. The ones that are still here are just dragging their days about. I am to blame.” Elpis hid her face in her palms. “I should have never ensnared Aneros to get him into my bed, in my foolish hope that his blood would still be here, and that would be all that mattered.”

Toru knelt by her side and took her hands, expecting his touch to go through them like it did through the walls of water. “You did what you thought was right. And you gave me a brother, so you see, that can’t be wrong. Take me to the heart of the forest. Let me convince her. I know I can do it.”

“Are you truly sure that your words can move that wretched cold soul?”

“I’ve worked against greater foes before. Some old witch in the middle of a forest doesn’t scare me.” Toru was convinced that it had to be something like that to imagine about this character Elpis was talking about.

Elpis laughed softly. “I will take you to her. Forgive me for having the slimmest hope that my son would continue to live even if you are here, and you claim your birthright.”

***

“Have you seen Toru?” Varg asked Duril as they set out on their journey back to the castle. They had failed to hunt anything, but they still had plenty of fish, so they wouldn’t go hungry. Thinking of dinner, he had immediately thought of Toru, too, and how they hadn’t seen him for a while.

As Lakan was there, with the others, it looked like the young tiger might have taken it upon himself to get to know all these lands, root by root and tree by tree, by himself.

“No, and it appears that he has been gone for many hours. One of the young ones told me that Elpis took his arm, and that they went for a walk.”

“That’s quite the long walk. I assume that they will be home for dinner. Toru wouldn’t miss it, if I half-know him by now.”

Duril laughed. “That’s how we will know it’s dinnertime. He’ll be at the door, asking for his share.”

Claw approached them. There was a deep frown furrowing his bushy eyebrows, and Varg immediately caught the change in his mood. “What is it, friend?”

“These forests are not all they want us to see them to be,” the bearshifter said. “The lack of animals to hunt is just a part of it.”

Varg and Duril moved nearer, and now brought their heads together and made a small circle, inaccessible to those around them. “What have you seen?” Varg asked Claw directly.

“I saw burns on the trunks of some trees, not very far away. And not only that. If you push away the soot, you will see signs of claws, gouging deep into the wood.”

“What do you think those are? What kind of animal could have made them?” Duril asked. “And I would say that this forest is unlike others. I barely managed to get one of the trees to talk to me, and it was just to ask them about some mushrooms and whether they were edible.”

“The animal that must have made those marks must be quite large and have some hefty claws,” Claw explained. “The burns and the marks were fresh, and even on the ground I saw traces of paws.” To show them what he meant, he showed one of his hairy hands. “I could put three of this in a single indentation in the snow.”

“If there is such a fantastic animal about, maybe we should put together a hunting party once more.”

“An animal that must be breathing fire,” Claw said. “Those burns didn’t get there by accident. They must have been made by the same animal. There is no other explanation. Now, how could such an animal remain completely undetected by the people living here? I bet they would have found a way by now to corner it and turn it into steak.”

Varg nodded in thought. “Do you think we should ask them?” He gestured vaguely, but Claw and Duril both knew exactly who he meant by that.

“How about we go on a little exploration of our own? Lakan and the rest have told us plainly that animals haven’t been seen here for decades. They wouldn’t lie. Not when they were as good as starving just last night, and they’re so happy for all the fish today.”

“Should we wait for Toru?” Duril asked.

“I haven’t seen him in a while. And we are just planning to search for traces of this creature. We won’t engage it for now,” Claw suggested. “Let’s see for ourselves if there’s a lair close enough to house the beast. After that, we should be able to decide if we need every living soul, not only Toru, to be able to hunt it.”

Varg agreed. A look at Duril convinced him that they could form a little search party of three to clarify whether or not some strange beast was roaming those forests without ever having been spotted by anyone around.

***

Elpis brought them to the surface in the same effortless manner she had used to drag him underground to that strange prison with walls of water. She still held him by the arm, but she no longer seemed as tense as she had been before.

“I will tell her I have no intention of ruling here,” Toru assured her again. “This heart of the forest, as you call it, must be reasonable.”

Elpis nodded. “I hope so. And she must see you, now that you are here. All the things she believes she knows as being set in stone, maybe she will see them in a different light.”

There was genuine hope in the fae’s tremulous voice. Toru understood why. “Yes, we will convince her, and then I will tell Lakan that we’re brothers. What do you think he’s going to say when he finds out?”

Elpis laughed softly. “I have a feeling that he will like it very much. While he was young, he kept pestering me about wanting a brother or a sister. The others around, all seemed to have so many siblings, except for him. He even cried bitter tears on occasion. Of course, he will be mad at me for lying for so many years. But that is something I can live with, as long as he lives.”

“Not only that, but he will rule over a world that will thrive,” Toru said. “I’m sure there has to be an explanation for not having children, and maybe she has the answer.”

The bone-chilling growl that rose in the evening air made them both stop.

Elpis grabbed his arm hard and pulled him back. “This is not good. The beast has awakened. How is that even possible?” she whispered quickly, as if she was talking to herself and not to Toru.

“I thought the forests here were deserted by all animals,” he said. “Wait, why do you want us to run?” He could tell that she was now frantically pulling at his arm to make them break into a sprint. “I can take on this beast, and maybe turn it into delicious steak.”

“There’s no delicious steak to be had from this monster,” Elpis said quickly. “Its maw breathes out fire that destroys everything. Its head is so big and bony that it can break through the thickest castle walls. And its claws are deadly, dripping with poison at will.”

Toru wanted to convince her that he had seen worse in his adventures, but she was nothing but a frail little fae, while he was a mighty shapeshifter. “Wait, why are you afraid? You cannot die. And I’m good at fighting monsters.”

“If it woke up,” Elpis continued in the same rapid manner, “it might seek victims. We should go back to the castle and find haven within its strong walls. They will still stand.”

“What if we destroy it here, and then everyone’s safe?” Toru asked, wondering how come a second growl had yet to be heard after the first.

He didn’t have to wonder anymore. The second growl sounded nearby, and Elpis let out a small gasp of terror. “Go hide,” he told her, convinced that despite her immortality, the beast scared her out of her wits.

Elpis didn’t let go of his arm. “If it’s coming to confront you here, and you alone, I will not leave your side.”

Toru pushed her behind him, nonetheless. Before him, only a stone’s throw away, a beast like no other rose up on two feet.

***

“Did you hear that?” Varg sniffed the air and perked up his ears.

“Hard not to,” Claw assured him and shifted into his bear.

Duril hurried after them. “What is that overpowering smell?” the healer asked while running as fast as his feet allowed him.

“Not easy to tell, but my wager would be on poison of the meanest kind,” Claw offered. “Do you think it’s calling for a mate, this beast?”

Even under such conditions, the bearshifter still had it in him to joke. Varg couldn’t say that he blamed him, especially since that long sonorous growl could only belong to the beast that had left the burn marks on the trunks of the trees, along with a signature of sorts, carved with its claws.

The pack of white tigers hurried up to their side. “What is that? Is it some animal?” Lakan asked, excited by the prospect of a hunt, just as the rest of them were.

Varg could read it in all their eyes. A hunt, after so much time. Yet, somehow, he felt that this animal wouldn’t be the kind worth hunting. No, that growl made it sound more like they should be ready to fight for their lives before considering themselves as hunters.

“Don’t you recognize its voice?” Claw joked again. “I thought it would be some old friend of yours, seeing how these are your lands.”

“No. I haven’t heard such a thing before,” Lakan replied.

Something hissing moved through the air and they all tipped their heads back to see a winged creature flying over them and breathing fire, intent on burning everything in its path.

TBC

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