Chapter Text
The forest whispered of an unwelcome guest. Leaves swayed against the wind, murmuring warning and begging him to turn back, to ignore the danger, to keep himself safe.
He bared his teeth at vines snagging at his cape and hair, stomping on stubborn roots looking to trip him over. He was not a newborn needing to be cosseted. Once he got back, Fiona and her vine-y magic would get a warning.
He forged forward, dashing through the cowering trees trying so hard to keep him away from the danger. The scent of blood thickened; his ears picked up faint heaving and the desperate mismatch of footsteps as the uninvited guest ran through the maze of forest. It brought companies too, lots of them. The constant screeching of the creatures hurt his ears.
The trees had stopped trying to trip him. They were now gathering ahead, blocking off the exit with an entanglement growing bigger and bigger. He snarled a warning. The trees ignored him, enter-twinning thicker and thicker until all he could see was a small circle of exit. He skidded to halt, heaving. Fiona’s protection magic over the kingdom was far too meticulous, enchanting the trees to keep *him* out of danger. He wouldn’t be able to make it through the fast closing opening if he kept running with his speed alone.
“You ask for this,” he crouched down, hands pressed flat on the moist ground, “Don’t blame me if you lose a chunk of your branches.”
And he sped straight ahead, broken through the whining trees and into the outside world. He laughed out loud, as wind ruffled his hair and moonlight shone his way through the mushroomed dirt path. Making a speed dash gloves took two full moons and an odd number of sun shower, and he just wasted one to escape the country protection border. Someone would have his head once he got back. Though that was not the worry for now, as he had something much more exciting waiting for him ahead.
He saw the outsider cut ahead of his path; a wounded, stumbling male tailed by a crowd of Night Ghouls. He unsheathed his sword, ready to lend help when a strange scent reached him. He sniffed the air. There was a sticky sweetness instead of the tartness of Netherlanders’ typical base scent.
The sweetness of human blood.
A human.
A human right at the border of the safe heaven of Netherland.
He sheathed his sword and pivoted on his heels. A human had no business here this close to their hidden homeland; it could die here under the hands of Night Ghouls. As prince, his people’s safety was of utmost importance —
A strangled grunt rang out amidst the vicious chattering of Night Ghouls and the sword left his hands, flying forward to pierce through the head of the ghoul that clawed at the human’s abdomen wounds. His mind blanked of any other reasoning to not interfere with problems not his.
The screech the ghoul released echoed in his bones. He grounded his teeth together The human dropped back on the ground and didn't get back up, not with how shallow his breath had become. He pointed his sword towards the wave of Night Ghouls and grinned.
"You want to die that much, huh?" He grinned, "Be my guest."
Black goo covered his entire body, hot and sticky. The fur on his hands clumped together and with how muted the sound of his breath in his own ears ha become, goo had gotten his ears as well. He grimaced, wiping the thick liquid off the blade with his cape with little success. With a loud sigh, he stopped the fruitless endeavor and sheathed the sword.
The human lay against the trunk, lifeless as corpse if not for the faint rise and fall of its chest. Through the tears along its ragged robe, he saw the veins of blue poison snaking up to its neck. The human had been bitten by a female Night Ghoul, whose poison was incurable. Sooner or later the human would die.
With little grace, he flopped onto the ground next to the human and watched it intently. When the human died, at least he would be there to witness its last moment. Dying alone was worse than living alone.
"Sorry," he said, "Your pain will end in minutes."
Minutes turned into hours, and before he knew it, the night was waning to dawn. The human didn’t die. If anything, it looked to be fighting back the spread of poison.
He frowned, glancing at the sweat beading along the human’s cheeks. The blue veins had reached below its eyes and yet, it was still breathing, just barely. He had never heard of any being surviving female Night Ghoul poison.
The pain must be unbearable, if the human’s twitching fingers were anything to go by and the bloody lips that it kept biting down on.
Death was coming for the human. And yet, it was holding on.
He had duty to take care to in the kingdom and he had been gone for long enough. His claws wrapped themselves around the human’s thin neck. Since he could not stay until the end, he would bring the end to the human.
"What are you holding on for?"
He whispered and tightened the hold. The human’s breath became shorter, its fingers spasmed but it didn’t fight back. It opened its mouth, instead of gasping for desperate air, it mouthed.
“Life.”
The answer surprised him. Of all things, he didn’t expect such an answer. He released the human’s neck and stood up, considering the dying human underneath him. Holding on for life? When had life ever been kind to anyone? Why did this human fight death for life? Why was “life” worth to it? He had a lot of questions but none could be answered, for consciousness seemed to have finally fled the human.
He glanced skywards. The first ray of sunshine cut through the blue. He had duties to attend to soon. He considered the human one last time, its ragged clothes, its unkempt hair, its barefeet and heaved it over his shoulders. It was light, exceptionally light. It didn't make a single noise when he jostled it too much on his shoulders, only a spike in breathing telling him he had touched the abdomen wound.
“My name is Naib, prince of Netherland and I am about to breach 30 levels of secrecy to bring you into our kingdom, human.”
Naib declared for his own sake, uttering the crazies out loud gave him an idea how dangerous his action could be. He didn’t expect an answer when the trees closed off the path behind him and magic barrier descended on him again, shielding him and an illegal humans from the rest of the world.
“Eli,” the human, Eli, breathed against his ears
“Eli? Is that a name?” Naib shook his head, laughing at his own spontaneity. “Whatever, I no longer care. Eli the human, I pray I don’t have to kill you for real.”