The Boy and the Animal

Part I | Eighteen

Dark had thought the worst thing that could happen to him was being dragged down into that dungeon after watching his entire life burn to a crisp. But he was very wrong.

A clink of metal rattling against the lock of the cell roused him from his doze. Only half-asleep, Dark jolted up and leaned against the wall as far away from the intruder swinging open the door as he could. He swallowed. That intruder was the woman from hours ago.

She didn't say a word, her ghostly frame passing by him and leaving a chill in her wake on her way to Jesiter, but she held in her hands a metal case whose sleek exterior gleamed in the torches' lights. Dark squeezed his eyes shut and looked away. His heart pounded again in the frozen air as he listened to the sound of Jesiter's muzzle falling to the ground.

The boy growled and nipped at her in a deep aggression to a degree of hatred he had never heard from him before. It was as if, at the sight of this woman, he lost the humanity that had been given to him. Then, abruptly, those growls were interrupted by a slice, and the boy yelped.

Dark flinched, covering his ears. Jesiter continued to yelp and cry, whimpering in pain as the metallic slices sounded. A heavy dread dragged its nails down his chest and into his stomach. But what could he do? He couldn't save me, so how could he save anyone?

"Finished," the woman said. Jesiter's whimpers continued, though much quieter. "Results: 49% human makeup. 51% Enicrih makeup. Enicrih's child confirmed."

That robotic voice sent shivers down Dark's spine. It was unnatural, almost as if the owner was imitating a human's voice. And just as she had left the day before, she did again just as quietly. Her absence left nothing but a shivering man and a sniffling boy.

Hours must have passed by, the constant dripping of something echoing in the long, dark hall. Jesiter's whimpers died down after some time, but Dark hardly noticed over the words still ringing in his ears. They seemed like gibberish. Nonsense. And they cut deep into him.

Enicrih's... Child?

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was she saying that this boy, this anomaly that had suddenly shown up in his life and brought it all down in flames was a demigod? There was no way. He was a lap dog, and yet... That wild spark inside him was responsible for more than a dozen deaths.

The more he dwelt on the words, the more they made sense. The woman had no reason to say something so preposterous unless it was true, and, while he had become more docile in the recent months, he couldn't forget the way he used to be.

Jesiter was a monster. He was a creature that was never supposed to be created, a heretic, a disaster that had somehow dragged him down into its troubles. The boy belonged in this place, not him.

For some time, Dark peered around the room for an exit. He wondered if he could make some kind of bargain with the guards to escape, possibly by giving them all the information he had on the boy. He just wanted to be done with this and go back to his inn, restore it to its glory- just go back to how everything was two years ago.

"Dark?" A low voice whispered in the darkness. The man didn't even know what time of day it was- how many days or centuries had passed in the outside world. "Dark okay? Not hurt?"

Dark ignored the voice. There was nothing he could do to get away from it or escape, but he hoped if he ignored it it would just disappear. It did not, however. Instead, the boy began sniveling again and let small sad mews out into the cell. Dark sighed and rolled his eyes, finally peering over to the figure of Jesiter chained to the wall.

"Shut it," Dark ordered him. He seemed to light up.

"I thought you gone, they take," Jesiter mewed. "Safe."