“UUUHGUULLAAHHGHHHHUGHHHLLLLGFFFPLGFLLGDHLLLU

UUUHGUULLAAHHGHHHHUGHHHLLLLGFFFPLGFLLGDHLLLU

UU–Eheck!

Ehhckk!

Pffttt

Puhtch!

Let me go!” Shiryu spits out a mouth full of dirt, 

His captor pulls him along through a forest by a chain wrapped around his ankle,

“Would you like me to put you back to sleep then?” Aki growls stopping her march she gets closer to beast in order to blow the gas in his nostril,

“No.. wait..” Shiryu begins to protest before fading out of conciseness

….

“Urrrgh” Aki stretches loosening her grip on the chain slightly now that the boy was back to sleep,

She has been traveling for a decent while since leaving Soterra with her catch, 

The night buzzes of fireflies and crickets amidst the density of a bushy woodland,

“Hahh!” Shiryu suddenly springs up yanking the chain out of Aki’s hand,

“You may have got me the first time by catching me off guard but I was prepared this time!” Cackles Shiryu vaulting up into a tree immediately snapping the chain with his sharp claws once there,

(Now I’m free I can easily out run this human woman, bu–)

Crrrkkkk!

Baadumn!

A sharp spinning blade slices up vertically through the branch bringing Shiryu back down to earth,

Aki pounces at him instantly, tossing two kunai at his head while diving low for a slide tackle,

Thumd!

Shiryu busy trying to evade the blades losing his balance from the slide tackle, of which Aki smoothly rolls up on his back pulling his leg back,

Chack!

She snaps another chain around his left leg,

“If I can’t put you to sleep, then I’ll have to start breaking bones,” Aki pulls out a small hammer and a steel pick,

(How much weapons does she keep?)

“Aghh,” he struggles out loud,

“This is kidnapping you, know I’m an official knight of Soterra, you can’t kill me!”

“I can if I want, and you’re not a human so it doesn’t matter what I do to you, 

Now stay quiet while I steady this…

Eiinghk!” she winces as Shiryu violently kicks his right foot into her ribs,

Chacnk!

“I’m not going through this human convincing routine for a third time,” he breaks the second chain,

“Take me back to Soterra, you can ask Zinnia yourself who I am,”

“She-ur-erggh” Aki leaps at Shiryu but he pushes her back easily 

“She is in no mood right now to entertain your trickery,

I have respect for the woman, but she is clearly an airhead, of course you could lie your way into her good graces,

How much humans did you eat for you to learn to speak so casually?

Heeh–yahh” 

Aki leaps up for a jumping spin kick,

“Ya–”

Shiryu swings claws to bat her out the air

Pooff♪

Aki disappears in a cloud of black smoke to him, but in actuality the smoke covers Shiryu just long enough for her to flip over him,

“Got you!” she lands on his back, 

Taking out some pins Aki sticks them under Shiryu’s scales behind his neck,

“What did you do?” The young man’s body slumps down, limp and unresponsive

“Temporarily disabled your nerves, your valiant attempt at a fight is over monster,”

“You know you’re really judgy Shiryu comments he doesn’t seem bothered by his current state 

“Zinnia is actual much smarter than she appears, and I’m not a monster,”

(If I use some of my dark energy then I should be able to move again…

But do I really want to get more monster-like?)

“Shut up or, I’ll sew your mouth shut,” Aki growls,

“I’m taking you to my nation,

You will be painfully tortured and dissected until we learn every secret of the beasts,

Intelligent types like you are rare to come by.”

“Here is my proposal,

We skip the torture and dissection, and I tell you for free,

You let me go back to Soterra, and I’ll even chip in to help you guys kill the dragon,”

“…….” Aki doesn’t pay heed to his words, instead gathering up some branches in a pile she prepares to start a small fire in the forest 

“Huh miss Aki, you didn’t answer,

What did you think of my proposal?”

“I think that I want to take a quick nap before continuing, and keep in mind the drop of feather could wake me from sleep, so don’t even try to or think about trying to escape”

“I promise you are going to regret this once you find out who I really am.”

“And who is that exactly?” Aki yawns uninterested in conversing with the hybrid

“….A person just like you, and not just that, I am also Apollo’s estranged brother,”

“Don’t disrespect the dead like that, I may not have known Apollo at all, but do not use his death to help yourself,”

“You can ask Zinnia–”

“–I said shut up”

“……”

Shiryu gives up and silences himself, there was no way around talking to brick wall that was Chief Aki,

Tsszz♪

Tsszz♪

The small fire burns in a contained heap, little embers of wood going up with the smoke into dark night sky,

To Shiryu the sky still alight given the dark he has been used to for so long,

Even when he was at a place he fit in, with the beasts, he didn’t mix well, and now with humans it’s clear that he will never fit into their society either,

(If the rest of my life is going to be like this, how will I ever find love?)

“…..”

“Make your victims quiet to,” Aki suddenly breaks the silence that had gone on for a while,

She sits crosses legged around the fire, arms folded and eyes closed, light slumber,

“What.. victims?” Shiryu still lays in an awkward heap

“You may have been able to hide it from Zinnia but not be,

The moment I stepped into the room with you, I heard the lonely hollow calls from inside of you, begging to be set free,

That’s how I knew you were a monster,”

(Lonely calls coming from me?) Shiryu thinks feeling a familiarity with those words

(I was told this before)

“Well I’ve never eaten humans nor do I ever plan” he responds outwardly

“I think what heard was my heart,”

“I don’t have any such ability”

“But I do, I thought I didn’t anymore because it only happened once before when I was a child,

When I called out the person who answered was just like me, or at least they felt the exact same as I in that moment…”

A deep hunger, not for flesh but for companionship, a black hole that repalaces your soul begging for something to fill it up

“I am not a monster miss Aki, because I’m like you,

Or maybe you’re just like me,

Lonely.”