Chapter 9.

Agony.

His body trembled and his neck tensed, the young man began to scream, the pain was far beyond what he was willing to bear, to the point that it brought him to his knees. 

And that was when the Gargoyle made a movement and the Harpy pulled her claws from his skull, the Mermaid released his right side and the Owl released his left side, and that mixture of hearts poured from his head to his feet: it was viscous, it was smelly because there was a heart that was decomposing, and through the liquid that filtered through his eyes he saw everything cloudy between reddish and the four species pass in front of him, but he could not hear them clearly ...

He knew he was saying something, but his words did not reach his ears, despite being so close their voices were heard too far away, then he felt how they placed as if it were an acupuncture needle on the nerves of his back, something that immediately put him to sleep, but in that forest the species do not sleep and can live hundreds of years...

The only thing that can evolve are animals, not them. If it weren't for the fact that the young man was soaked in the King's scent, they would have already torn him apart, eaten him for dinner, and used his bones as toothpicks. 

But he didn't smell like just any son of the King; he smelled like his firstborn. It was clear he wasn't one of them, but he did know his lineage...

His hidden lineage, and that's why they were giving him the knowledge of the impossible by mixing the hearts of his parents: one of medicine and one of chemistry, mixing the young knowledge of the little Mermaid he had hunted and of the Owl, but there was also even the claw of a Harpy that had been injured. 

And with the permission of the parents of these fallen, they had used parts of their bodies, because they had witnessed and heard from young people about The Knight of Time. 

Perhaps the fact that they were finding the King's firstborn was a sign that he would return from wherever he was, and together with the other Knights they would go to a new battle, and they, as the dominant species in the forest, would have to support him until the last enemy fell...

The boy didn't know it, but he had spent three days in the same position. When he opened his eyes again, his surprise was that he was inside his own property. 

There was a notarized death certificate in his parents' names, and there were some wreaths in the living room indicating that an intimate ceremony had taken place on the property, but he remembered absolutely nothing of the last three days...

He didn't know how it all happened, and his first instinct was to run to the basement, and sure enough, the girl was there, but she wasn't alone. She was eating the bodies of her parents, the Mermaid, and the Owl...

The image was chilling, even more so when her bloodshot eyes saw him as the next juicy dish. So he quickly closed the door and looked through the window.

 So, now he was alone, he was on his own, he had his parents' enormous fortune in his name... the property was huge for him alone, but he knew that with the girl there he couldn't simply locate someone else but on the contrary, the more unnoticed he was the better it would be for him.