The black veil that had separated me from the world was torn as the sun set. I looked at its position and deduced that a good five hours had passed before I regained consciousness. How had the guards not caught up with me? The anxiety between my escape and a possible encounter with beastmen, those formidable enemies, had caused a panic attack. Losing control of myself, I had gone into the forest, out of breath, to lose them. There was no way I was going back to the Kesselt Domain, where Malek’s lies and manipulations awaited me. Even if I wanted to, there was no way I could turn back now.
I had dishonored my family by running away. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would be welcomed back with open arms. Would they also consider me vitiated by the curse of those demons, the beastmen? Spears and swords would undoubtedly await my return to exterminate me.
No, going back was no longer an option. I had to go forward.
As for my disappearance, Sheishou, the village chief and Malek’s father, would surely declare that monsters had kidnapped me to preserve appearances. From then on, hatred of therianthropes would grow and no one would ask questions. The villagers would never find out about the harem at Kesselt Domain, the sacred residence of Sheishou and Malek, and its dark truths.
It all began on a beautiful spring morning. My period was about to start and Malek became more and more interested in me. I had been dreaming about him for a long time, so when he finally approached me, my wish to start a family with him became a little more concrete. But I wasn’t really surprised. He was the only Alpha in the village, apart from his father, and I turned out to be the only Omega living in our area. We had always been a pair, despite Malek’s annoyance with our relationship. I was a friend at best, and he had never seemed interested in me. But he had deceived me, and out of naivety I had followed him with my eyes closed. What a mistake!
Although my parents warned me not to rush into things and to choose carefully, I rushed headlong into the union he soon proposed. “An Omega must be married before his heat for his protection,” he often reminded me. But as the preparations progressed and I moved to the Domain, I discovered that he was not the man I thought he was.
I chided myself as the memories of Malek took over my thoughts. I didn’t have time to think about the nightmare. With my head still in the clouds, I forced myself to stand up. Strangely, I did not recognize my surroundings. I had the astonishing conviction that the place where I had fainted was not here. A river was singing in the distance, but I could not remember hearing it before. Even in my panic, I should have paid attention.
When I reached out to remove the crushed leaves that soiled my palms, I was shocked. They were covered in blood. What could have happened?
Horror gripped me.
Why was I bleeding?
I checked my whole body. Apart from my stiff muscles and a few scratches, I had no wounds large enough to turn my hands crimson. So it wasn’t my blood. But whose was it?
I ran towards the crystalline sound. The clear stream flowed quietly among the rocks and then continued through the tall trees as a few fish swam by. A lively movement caught my attention, but it was only the flight of a frightened rabbit.
I went over to inspect myself in the reflection of the stream. There was blood on my face too, but as I had suspected, there were no wounds. What had happened while I was unconscious? Why couldn’t I remember?
Putting aside the fear that was gripping me, I finally dipped my whole forearm into the river and rubbed it. The fresh blood was diluted into tiny droplets. Then, when no trace of this unknown savagery remained, I splashed my head to remove as much of the foul-smelling, sticky blood as possible.
Finally, after I had cleaned myself several times, I got up. Without any landmarks, I quickly tried to get my bearings. The setting sun in the west indicated where I was in relation to the village. I had to walk in the opposite direction, to the south, if I wanted to escape. So, without further ado, I set off.
Malek’s crazy speech came back to me.
Kesselt, our beloved God, proclaimed in his last words: “One day a moon-haired human will be born who will prove to be the most precious Omega our earth has ever borne. We shall call them the promised Omega. They must be cherished and subdued by the Alpha. Thus vitality and fertility will be ours, but beware, sooner or later vice will corrupt it. As a final gift, the Feishou flower will grow from my divine essence. It must be consumed every week to keep the demons at bay, and the promised Omega must receive twice as much for protection.”
He had thus cleared himself for our marriage of convenience, while secretly possessing a harem of Omegas. I had found many missing friends there, supposedly devoured by therianthropes. I was no longer alone. I was just one man who fulfilled a strange prophecy, and for that very reason Malek had a deranged love for me, a mixture of fascination and disgust. He was convinced that there was a treacherous monster in me and that it was his duty to control it by marrying me in order to protect the village from my future misdeeds. Not to mention that he only saw me as a vessel for his seed, to strengthen the next Alpha and thus improve our protection. I had collapsed in the face of these revelations. My innocent and sincere love was not shared and was being exploited for smoky interests. Malek had laughed at me.
I shook my head to rid myself of these disturbing images. I had to join the group of exiles who lived to the south-east of our village. One day, while running an errand for my mother, I overheard the conversation of the guards, our warriors who bravely faced the terrible beastmen. Thanks to the poison in our weapons, we could easily defend ourselves against a single hungry one, but we were always afraid of being outnumbered. On their patrols, they had come across some women and children protected by fighters armed to the teeth.
If I joined them, would they agree to hide me, or would they send me straight back to the Alphas?
Although I had no idea, I could not let this opportunity pass. I was sure that I would be doomed if I remained alone in the forest, at the mercy of the demons. Despite my instinct to give up and not walk into a trap, my reason urged me on.
If the rumors were true, they were former villagers, exiled or on the run. So the young people in the group were certainly their descendants. So the odds were in my favor when they found out about my situation. But I still had to find them. I had no idea how far I was from my village or this community.
After a final hesitation, I set off in search of them, crossing the stream at the narrowest point. Further on, I came to land that was firm enough not to impress my footsteps. Nevertheless, I was careful to leave as little trace as possible. If I could delay the guards from following me across the river, it would be to my advantage.
As the sky grew darker, revealing only the faint light of the stars, I grew increasingly tired. My feet, though used to physical labor, were burning. Blisters were forming, but I didn’t dare stop. For fear of being caught, or for fear of not being able to get up and walk again, I drew on my strength to carry on, one sluggish step at a time. I had no other choice. There was no turning back.
By crossing the village border, I had condemned myself to death.
When we were children, if we stayed overnight in the forest to prove our courage, Sheishou would reprimand us on our return and we would be severely punished, but it never went any further than that. This was not the case with the adults. When they decided to go beyond the protection of the village, it was a conscious decision.
We were often told stories about the Therianthrope people. If we did not die in their clutches, they would curse us. I soon learned that these were not just legends to frighten children.
Shortly after my tenth birthday, a man from the village disappeared. Weeks later he returned, but while his family wanted to welcome him and embrace him, he had changed. His pupils had narrowed to two slits and thin scales had invaded his face. His human fangs had grown longer and sharper. A guard had reacted immediately and attacked him. But the man had fought back, grabbed him by the throat and bitten him before letting him go. The poor guard had fallen to the ground. Two holes were visible and the wound had begun to fester. When one of our doctors arrived, he was not breathing. He had been overcome by a fiery poison.
Later, when the killer had been surrounded, captured and taken to a safe room, Sheishou told us that he had become a snake man under the curse of demons. The man who once had a loving family and was valued for his blacksmithing skills had become a bloodthirsty, vicious beast. That is the risk I would take today. If I were captured by these beastly men, but not devoured, I would end up being cursed by these vile people. The demon was finally executed in public. Since then, I had prayed to Kesselt that such a tragedy would never happen again. Before tonight, I had even avoided going near the village barricades. I didn’t want to turn around and see the disgust in my relatives’ eyes.
But now it was different. Malek and his hateful eyes and hurtful words frightened me more than anything else. The Domain was far from the paradise I had imagined…
The more the idea of turning back came to me with fatigue, the more I was reminded of the absence of the guards and the memory of my bloody hands. Was it a coincidence?
I had lost consciousness and woken up in a completely different place, covered in blood. Had I already suffered the curse of the Beastmen?
I wondered, though, when I might have been affected. I had met no one on my flight.
Was it from that moment when, as a child, I had faced one of those monsters who had disfigured me? Had those cuts given me the vice of which the prophecy spoke?
If so, I was now a danger and had to leave for the sake of the village. But I did not feel that I had changed. Nothing seemed to have happened. There had to be some other explanation, one I was still unaware of.
Lost in my anguish, I saw a mirage. A flicker of light in the distance gave me hope. Were these finally the exiles I was looking for?
I approached, trying to be discreet. The forest led to a clearing where a camp had been set up. The tents were dimly lit by burning torches. A few men gathered around the fire, their backs to me, were talking in a language I did not understand. Their guttural accents made their conversation far more menacing than it needed to be.
I looked around at the rest of the camp. To the right, more imposing tents were set up, with racks of swords and spears. The warriors were in front of my eyes!
The playful and cheeky exclamations, from what I could make out as I watched them, were flying. They were not afraid of being discovered, and from the look of their weapons, I doubted they really cared.
I hesitated to join them. They were my only chance of survival, but I feared I was wrong. How would I react if they thought I was an enemy? So I prepared to approach them, looking as harmless as possible. If they let me speak and understood me, I would be safe. I had to convince myself of that.
But just as I was about to step forward, a man emerged from one of the illuminated tents. He raised his head to sniff the air and revealed his face.
He was no ordinary man. Dark black hair covered his skin. His mouth was slightly open, revealing a pair of sharp canines. As he looked in my direction, his glistening, stern, almost cruel eyes, which stood out on his dark face, crinkled. His ears, which had been laid back on his skull, perked up at the slightest sound.
I was paralyzed with fear. I didn’t dare move for fear of being discovered. I glanced quickly at the warriors near the campfire. What I had thought were helmets were, in fact, animal features. Now that I was concentrating on them, different shapes of ears appeared to me. Some of them had tails of different thicknesses, which swung happily when they laughed or argued.
I had not discovered the exile of the village. On the contrary, I had encountered about fifteen therianthropes armed to the teeth, and I was about to throw myself into the lion’s den.
As I was about to back away as quietly as I could to escape again, my back hit a hard surface.
I turned my head and opened my eyes; I was trapped.
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