Beastforged Bond

It took me a minute or two, but I managed to drag Daniel away from his parents.

“Good thinking there,” Daniel snickered as he followed closely behind me toward the elevator. “Wouldn’t want our parents to see you getting beaten to a pulp.”

The doors slid shut automatically, and the elevator descended toward the training room on the third basement level.

Looking at my friend, it was hard not to smile. Even though he sounded confident, a flicker in Daniel’s eyes betrayed him.

“Are you sure that’s why I told them to stay behind?”

Peter and Chloe Zerog had wanted to watch the fight. They’d heard all about our exploits, but hearing and seeing were two entirely different things. After a year in the Grand Camp, we weren’t just stronger than before. We were among the strongest cadets from all the Bastions.

They would have been impressed watching us spar. Very much so, actually. But I wanted to go all-out, and I wasn’t entirely sure Daniel wanted his parents to see him get beaten badly so soon after our return. No, he loved to show off. As much as he would deny it, Daniel thrived on attention and praise. That was precisely why he joined me when I told our parents to stay back. Clearly, he sensed something that made him question whether he could still beat me.

“I know we avoided talking about it, but how are you doing?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant, his gaze fixed on the elevator doors. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine too, but… I want to know. It just doesn’t make any sense. Not only did you spend several weeks alone out there and still return before me and the others, but you’re stronger as well. You look like you’ve been on vacation rather than stranded for weeks, surrounded by Forbidden Zones.”

“Nothing makes sense…” he mumbled.

It was almost comical. Daniel avoided talking about his time on the flying ship like it was an incurable sickness. He’d been tight-lipped, grim-faced, and unwilling to speak about the events following the crash. Yes – the ship crashlanded. That alone had taken him a week to mention. A full week of silence, until he finally opened up the night before. A little, at least.

The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open before I could answer.

“Would you believe me if I said that Aureus carried me to the Bastion on his back?” I asked, feeling like I was insulting my friend’s intelligence.

Daniel furrowed his brows but didn’t reply right away. Aureus took that as his cue. He emerged from the inner World as I stepped into the underground training room unfolding before us.

The Earthheart lightened himself with a burst of the Gravity Aspect and leaped into the air, wings spreading wide. His front wings beat rapidly while his hind wings shifted, adjusting his trajectory almost instantaneously. Then he became a blur, zipping across the training room, which was more of a massive hall to begin with.

Did it work?

Aureus inquired naively.

No, it did not work, but you knew that. Still, thank you for trying. I chuckled, ignoring the incredulous look Daniel threw my way.

It was worth a try.

Aureus commented proudly.

If that idiot tree hadn’t teleported us to the Oridon Mountains, I would have carried us through the wild. Easily!

I know you would have. But we didn’t even know which direction to go. We were lucky Thyria teleported us close enough to see the Bastion.

That seemed to bother the Earthheart. He harrumphed in my head and returned to my World.

“Is that a joke?” Daniel grunted, anger seeping into his voice. “Do you really expect me to believe that? So you’re saying you recovered while clinging to Aureus’ scales to avoid falling from the sky again. And on top of that, you look completely unfazed after flying through multiple Forbidden Zones from where you were separated from the ship. That’s several hundred kilometers of uncharted land: Regions dangerous enough that even veteran Blessed avoid them. And you’re telling me you not only survived but grew stronger? Even if you somehow lived through that, you should be a mess.”

Daniel meant well, but that only made it worse. I felt like utter trash lying to him.

So I did something stupid. I told him the truth.

“Not as much of a joke as an attempt to avoid talking about it,” I shrugged, meeting his eyes with a seriousness that caught him off guard. The remaining anger faded from his face as I continued. “What would you say if I told you I nearly died in that poisonous bush? That I burned the poison out of my system and ended up sleeping in a fox den with a few dozen Elemental Fox cubs just to recover a bit. And that after that, I encountered a strange beast – something like a Chimera. It could shapeshift into dozens of different forms, each with its own traits. I fled from that, along with hundreds of hound-sized beasts. I tried using bees to distract it, but that failed too. So I jumped off a cliff into a waterfall, which somehow carried me into a different realm. Some isolated dimension–kind of like the onyx ring and other spatial artifacts. Anyway, I–”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from NovelFire. Please report it.

I trailed off, realizing just how insane it all sounded.

Honestly, it felt good to talk about what really happened. Omitting a few minor facts, such as the Elemental Phoenix’s presence and actions, was fine. It was a lot better than hiding just about everything that happened. Saying “everything is alright,” “I am fine,” and “nothing much happened in the wild. I recovered and returned home” had been nothing more than painful. It only drove the dagger of guilt deeper into my chest. So telling someone, even if it was only one person, just about everything that happened in the last few weeks felt amazing.

“So when the Emperor beast calmed down a little, we had a chat. I am still trying to figure out what exactly happened, but when the human-devouring tree, the Emperor beast I just mentioned, didn’t want to eat me anymore, she gave me her daughter to bind. I had to do that or she wouldn’t free me, so I did exactly that. She then teleported me into a nest of Silverwing Gryphons in the Oridon Mountains.” I finished the story, adding details here and there.

Since I didn’t know how strong Thyria was, I called her an Emperor beast. She was stronger than that, but Emperors were the strongest Rank I knew. Only Spirits were stronger, if I wasn’t completely mistaken, but I wasn’t going to come up with an entirely new Rank for them.

Relief flooded me as the truth came out, my lips curling into a bright smile. “So… what do you say?”

“I’d call you insane,” Daniel said right away, the look in his eyes leaving barely any doubt.

I chuckled. “That’s fine. Maybe I am a little insane after all. I’ve been feeling insane for a few months now.”

“Anyway, I guess you understand why I wouldn’t tell anyone. Telling you about the Emperor beast puts you in danger. Knowing that I bound the sapling of a human-eating Emperor beast.” Another burst of laughter escaped my lips. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

Daniel snorted. “Would you believe me if you were in my shoes?”

“Not for a second,” I said without a moment of doubt. “I’d think you were pulling a prank on me. Knowing myself, I would want to punch you in the face for sputtering so much nonsense when I was just worried about you.”

“That’s about it. I feel like punching you.” Daniel nodded slowly.

He clearly didn’t believe me, but that was fine. Maybe it was for the better.

“You don’t have to believe me. Just make sure you don’t tell anyone. If news spreads, the Zerog household will be flooded by Rulers, and you would be very, very lucky if they came with good intentions.” Thinking about it for a second, I added, “Or they’d destroy the estate, kill everyone inside, after removing me to extract the Emperor beast’s kid from my World and bind it themselves.”

The latter was far more likely, and I really didn’t want to take any risks.

Daniel laughed lightly, but the joke died on his lips when he realized that I was serious.

“You don’t seriously mean that, do you?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do you remember when Raffael Torch visited our dorm?”

“The Ruler of Fire? Of course I remember. He came to give you Kazriel’s belongings shortly after…you know, the incident with the Caldera.” Daniel nodded.

“When the Rulers attacked the Caldera’s home to defeat and bind the Elemental Phoenix, you mean,” I corrected my friend sharply. “Back to the topic: the Ruler of Fire failed to bind the Elemental Phoenix. It killed itself to escape Raffael Torch’s grasp, and I somehow survived the phoenix’s last-ditch effort to harm the others. That was enough for Raffael Torch to suspect that I somehow ended up with the Elemental Phoenix when he couldn’t find a trail leading to its place of resurrection. That was why he came to the dorm, using a fucked-up technique.”

I shuddered, memories of the day resurfacing. “Our eyes met, but the Ruler of Fire wasn’t looking at me. He stared into my World and ripped it momentarily apart just to be sure. My World nearly shattered because I was suspicious for surviving the Emperor beast’s fire. So tell me, Daniel… what would have happened if Raffael Torch had detected the Elemental Phoenix bound to me?”

Daniel stared at me, lips parted, but no words came out.

“Do you think he would have kept me alive? That he wouldn’t have given everything to extract the Elemental Phoenix and bind it himself? To become an Emperor himself? Do you really think that?” I asked, sounding more and more agitated.

He said nothing. He didn’t utter even the faintest sound, but that was answer enough.

“Tell me what would happen if other Rulers–someone with a nature-attuned World–were to find out about a sentient tree sapling with the potential to become an Emperor…” I asked, shoving aside the thought that I had almost exposed my bond with Volix. It was an accident, and it should never happen again.

“I-I…” Daniel sputtered, the doubt in his eyes growing.

“I don’t need you to believe me, Daniel.” I sighed deeply. “Like I said before, I wouldn’t believe it either if someone else told me. But I do hope that you keep my warning in mind: do not tell anyone about it. No one!”

I made my decision and took a leap of faith to trust Daniel. What he did with my trust was for him to decide.

If he spills the beans accidentally, we can always return to the wild. Worst case, we go back to the idiot tree, drain her energy, and return to the Bastions as Emperors to tail-whip a few assholes.

Aureus declared.

Suppressing a smile, I responded.

You spent too much time with Nox in Thyria’s domicile.

Kill enemies! Break trust, blade to head.

Nox spoke eloquently, a bit too excited about the prospect of ramming his scythes into Daniel’s skull.