The Boy and the Animal

Part I | Twenty-Eight

"Take your stinking paws off him, you damn dirty ape!" Jesiter suddenly screamed, jumping at the man.

The action managed to put distance between Titus's cutlass end and Dark's neck, the latter using the distraction to back away and turn to face him, but it failed to land. Before Jesiter could get his hands on the prince, Titus held up his other hand to reveal his knuckled buried deep in the long silver hair of a decaying witch's head. Just the sight of it seemed to cast a force against the boy- who stumbled back, holding his head.

With the only one in position to attack cowering behind Dark from the witch head, Titus smirked and pointed his cutlass out at them again. Dark clenched his fists; they were so close, why did he have to show up now- and how did he even find them? He looked passed the man to the forest behind. There was no way he could reach it without getting stabbed. He had enough of sharp objects sticking him, thanks.

The trot of iron boots occupied the silence between them as a group of guards in that familiar armor and steel caught up to the prince. Among them was the woman- 2 or the original Jesiter, Dark didn't care, not when her complacent eyes of icy steel had returned to her. His Jesiter growled at them from behind him.

"So, it's true," Titus mused, surrounded by the protection of his guards. "You taught it how to speak. My, it's almost cute, isn't it?" His smirk dropped into a disgusted frown, eyes boiling in fire. "If you understand then, come here."

"Why can't you just leave him alone? What do you want from him?" Dark growled, casting his arms out in front of the boy.

"Shouldn't I ask you the same thing? If it weren't for Enicrih's influence, you would have no desire to protect this child," Titus grumbled. "But know that the messenger of the wild god is the least of my worries. The game is immortality, and you're but a speck of dust in time."

Dark furrowed his brows. Immortality? What the hell was he talking about?! He clenched his fists and looked down at the ground. He had to think of something, anything. If he gave Jesiter away, there was no telling what they would do to him, and if he didn't they would kill him anyway. Dark was useless to them, so he couldn't bargain that way. So what?

He turned back at Jesiter, who gazed up at him without fear. The boy knew Dark could figure something out; he always did. The man could see the trust he held for him, the belief that he could do anything, but he wasn't so sure. He didn't want to let him down, but...

There was no way out.

"No words?" Titus questioned him. "Even your pitiful brother had more fight in him than this, and he was a sniveling infant."

Dark shot him a glare, and, suddenly, an animalistic heat coursed through his body and surged ever hotter with every pound of his heart. His knuckles whitened, and clenched teeth became hungry.

"You shut the hell up about my brother, you bastard!" Dark growled.

"You don't even know anything about him," Titus scoffed. "He murdered children, burned innocent villages down- gods, he committed so many atrocities against humanity that Hell doesn't have a deep enough pit for him. It was all under my instruction, of course, but he and his unit carried them out like dogs. But that's the rub, isn't it? Humans are just animals. Only the most evolved deserve to live forever in power."

"You bastard!" Dark roared, clutching his chest as his heart tore. He knew I carried an albatross from my days as a mercenary, but he had no idea the extent of the pain. Swallowing, his feet trembled at the itch to leap at the prince. "Why?! Why would you do something like that?"

"For that," the prince replied simply, pointing his cutlass straight at the boy behind Dark. Jesiter grasped the hem of Dark's shirt. "Wherever chaos is, he's drawn. Bring a war, kill innocents, starve citizens- he'll be close behind. It's his nature as his father's child. Bringing fear doesn't hurt me becoming next in line for the throne, either."