My Pet Fox Is Actually A Demon Prince-Chapter 32: Quitting
They did not heed her words.
Kyva could not fathom why they believed she had any hand in the monster’s strange avoidance of her. In truth, she had scarcely recovered from the swamp monster of the previous day, and the sight of those great footprints spoke of something far more dreadful prowling nearby in this part of the jungle.
But if these two were prepared to meet their end, she was not.
She had just begun the slow mending of her life after fleeing from the accursed establishment. And now she had snowpuff as well.
If she were to fall here... who would see to Snowpuff’s care?
There were many things she longed to accomplish before meeting death.
But what was she to do?
"Ah," she heard Finn muse as they pressed deeper onward, "even the trees grow thinner here. So many have been cast down. I don’t think it’s safe to proceed without proper guidance."
Finn’s brows drew together as he pondered on the atmosphere surrounding the path ahead. He glanced around and noticed something on one of the fallen trees. He leaned closer to study it, even touching it. It was slimy and had an awful rotten smell. His stomach churned from merely perceiving the abomination, and he drew back from it.
What could this be?
None among them knew what manner of creature had trespassed into this quarter of the jungle, and it seemed folly to venture further toward it.
He cast a glance at Vera, then at Kyva, whilst resting his hand upon the hilt of his blade. Vera followed his line of sight and frowned upon noticing how much his gaze lingered on the slave. Also, she noticed the slave was being suspiciously docile now.
"Let us turn back," Finn said at last, shifting his attention back to Vera. "The monster left some of his traces behind, and from the look of things, it’s still fresh, which means it hasn’t left this area yet. It’ll be foolish to wander anywhere further. There... may be another path we can use to depart this jungle. Come with me."
Vera simply nodded, and she tugged harder upon the ropes, causing Kyva to stumble forward. A small measure of satisfaction stirred within her at being able to remind the slave of her place.
"Let’s go," she said shortly.
Kyva winced as the ropes tightened painfully at her wrists, and each time pull sent a sharp, searing pain flaring through her arms. She swallowed the glare that threatened to rise and pressed on.
In that instant, a low rumble rolled through the jungle. At first it was faint, so subtle that they looked up, thinking it was a distant thunder. But not long after that, the ground began to tremble.
Finn stopped.
"Did you feel that?"
Before Vera could respond, something massive crashed through the undergrowth not far away. Branches snapped, and trunks splintered from the weight of its descent. The three candidates hurried back at once, immediately taking cover behind the broad trunk of a towering tree. Finn hid by himself, while Vera chose to hide behind a different tree, keeping Kyva within her reach.
’Should we not be fleeing?’ Kyva thought to herself, bewildered as to why they chose to hide instead.
They stilled behind the trunk, scarcely daring to breathe. After a tense moment, they leaned just enough to peer beyond the bark at whatever had landed but several paces from them.
What met their eyes was... a rounded mass of dirty white fur, curled into a great ball, near the size of a mounted man.
They watched in silence as the strange shape trembled and slowly began to unfurl itself.
What rose before them was no monster they had heard tales of.
The thing unfolded slowly from its curled shape, limbs stretching outward with an unsettling length, until it stood hunched yet towering above the shattered brush. Its body was swathed in filthy white fur, matted and uneven, hanging from it in ragged clumps like old frost clinging to a corpse in winter.
In its face, where a proper face ought to have been, there was instead a warped, clustered mass of dark, glistening eyes, too many and set closely together. Beneath them hung long, tar-black tendrils that Finn recognized was the thing he had touched on the tree.The tendril dripped and swayed as the creature moved, trailing from its maw like foul roots.
The forearms nearly brushed the ground even as it straightened, knotted with unnatural strength beneath the pale fur. Each movement carried a dreadful weight, the earth groaning softly beneath its claws.
Dust still drifted in the air where it had landed, and shafts of light from the canopy above fell across the creature’s shape, turning its pale coat ghostlike.
For a moment it stood there, regarding its surroundings with a strange and dreadful indifference.
A chill crawled along Kyva’s spine upon the monstrosity she was seeing. This... this must have been the thing that left those footprints.
Yet that wasn’t the true horror.
In grim silence, the three watched as the creature reached toward its matted fur along its side, as though retrieving something hidden within its foul coat. When its arm drew back into the light, it held the limp body of a fallen candidate.
Horror tightened in Kyva’s chest.
The creature raised the lifeless form to its maw and began to devour it, heedless and unhurried. The sound alone was enough to turn her stomach. Kyva swiftly averted her gaze, pressing her lips together as nausea threatened to rise.
"Brother Finn..." Vera started, her voice trembling, but Finn silenced her at once, lifting a hand in warning. Even the faintest sound might draw the monster’s notice.
With careful, urgent motion, he signaled that they must withdraw, now, while the creature remained intent upon its grisly meal. Quietly, they maneuvered through the path, their steps silent.
Kyva could hear the frantic drumming of her own heart in her ears.
This had become far more than any trial ought to be.
The monster had eaten a person!
A human!
She could not unsee it. No matter how she tried to look away, she knew she would not soon forget it.
Silently, she prayed that Selene and the others had found a safer ground, wherever fate had carried them.
But she would not endure more of this. It was far beyond what she had expected when she decided to join the Sacred Order. Who cares if she would be mocked for quitting. At least she was not stupid to stay and die. She needed to find her signal charm. The senior adepts would surely come if she activated hers, and they would be capable of slaying such a creature before it claimed further lives.
Staying alive was more important than her ego to succeed.
"I would have my signal charm," she whispered to the siblings, her hands still bound. "I shall not go on with this."
"You have no such choice," Vera murmured in return.
In truth, Vera had no intention of letting Kyva go, not when the slave might yet serve as bait should the monster turn their way. They were still pulling her with them, but Kyva refused to be dragged around anymore.
"Give me the charm," she pressed, her voice low but steady. "Something is clearly not going right. No matter how skilled you believe yourselves to be, none of us are prepared to face that thing."
She stopped moving, the ropes pulling taut. "We need the senior adepts."
Vera slowly turned her head at her defiance to not listen, her expression tightening with displeasure, but Kyva did not waver under her glare. She had made her choice, and she would not be the one to back down. They can stay here and face that monster if they want. But she wasn’t going to offer her life up like that.
"So eager to call for the senior adepts, are you?" Vera retorted mockingly. "Since when did you begin deciding such matters for us? You forget yourself, slave. Trials are meant to be difficult. Or has fear already undone you?"
Her lips curled slightly. "You’re not our leader, and we don’t have to return your signal charm either. You don’t get to speak like you stand amongst us. I’d advise you to stay quiet and move before that monster finishes his meal."
"Come on," Finn muttered, continuing his silent retreat. He wondered why the slave wasn’t repelling the beast away this time, and that made him slightly frustrated.
Vera simply followed, and she dragged Kyva forward. However, her attempt to show dominance led to Kyva stepping on a branch, and it snapped.
The sound, though small, rang far too loudly in the stillness of the jungle. Almost instinctively, all three of them snapped their heads around to see that the monster had lifted its head, those warped, clustered masses of glistening eyes staring in their direction.
Kyva used the siblings’ distraction to shove Vera aside, and she ran.
