My Wild Beast-Chapter 83: The Call of Tayun (6)

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Trial of the Mirror Beast °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Yoa skidded to a stop, and his friends raced ahead, Aiyana leaping into the trees, whooping as she took the lead, and Atia tearing across the jungle floor, growling in frustration as he tried to outrun the Chief’s daughter. Neither of them noticed Yoa falling behind, or stopping altogether.

He had no choice but to stop.

His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, and he worked to calm them as his eyes settled on the cloaked figure standing in the middle of the path, as if conjured by the jungle itself. The brightness in Yoa’s gaze, sparked by the adrenaline and joy of running with his friends, hardened. He set his jaw and rolled his shoulders back.

Gone was the twelve-year-old, enjoying a rare moment of freedom.

What stood now was the warrior he was becoming.

Without a word, Zahul, the guide from the second trial, beckoned him forward with a bony hand. Yoa stepped in his direction, then he followed silently, his heart rate thumping wildly, and it wasn’t because their little hike was strenuous. Zahul was leading him to his third trial.

He should have known better.

Yoa bit the inside of his cheek, scowling at the ground in frustration at his own foolishness. He felt unprepared. Had he just wasted all his strength and energy messing around with Atia and Aiyana?

But then he realised this was likely a lesson in itself.

Zahul had never spoken much. Since the second trial, he came and went like a shadow, appearing without warning every few moon journeys. Sometimes he simply watched Yoa train from a distance. Other times, he set him with strange tasks with no explanation. They weren’t official trials, but Yoa had to drop everything to appease the guide. Ignoring him wasn’t an option.

He wasn’t tired yet. Not really. But the sun had already begun its descent in the sky. Zahul’s sudden appearance was no coincidence. The message was clear: no matter what else was happening, the island came first.

If Yoa was Tayun’s guardian, then this was the weight he had to carry.

Zahul led him away from Oncari lands and towards Soluma near Apatka territory, then gestured towards a tree with his staff. Yoa didn’t question the guide as he knelt beneath the roots and crawled along the earth. It was claustrophobic.

He’d grown a great deal since the last trial, lean and long-limbed, looking more Halform every passing moon.

Yoa’s breath caught when his hand slipped through the earth, and he tumbled through darkness and slid down a smooth slope. He blinked profusely, his jaguar sight reflecting back in the shadow of the earth beneath the tree.

Zahul appeared beside him and walked ahead. The roots of the tree thrummed with life, and glowed faintly in lilacs and blues, crawling across this underground cave, providing light and revealing the tunnel ahead. Yoa tucked back the loose strands that had slipped from the knot at his nape and trailed after the phantom guide, slowing only when four figures emerged ahead.

Two more cloaked figures stood silently before an archway made of rock, engraved with patterns and the symbols of the tribes of the island. Zahul stepped up to stand beside the other two, who wore exactly the same outfits, their features cloaked in shadows. But they weren’t the ones who took the young jaguar’s attention.

Yoa had sensed the presence of a powerful predator before he set his eyes on him. Two tall and muscular Halforms, almost men, turned to face Yoa. They looked him over from his feet all the way to his head.

The Vohraki wrinkled his nose and puffed out his chest more, smacking it a few times, the thuds loud in the underground tunnel. But Yoa didn’t pay him attention. He was in the middle of two predators. He might be younger than the monkey, but it was clear he felt threatened.

One of them, not Yoa, enjoyed eating the Vohraki on a regular basis.

Yoa glanced at the other guy, whose wings were folded behind him. His arms folded as he stared Yoa down like he was not something worth his time. In fact, he acted like this entire ordeal was a waste of time, and he already thought himself the winner.

"In this trial, you will go in one by one," said the guide on the far left; his voice was croaky and raspy, like he needed something to drink.

"We offer you no answers," said the guide standing in the middle, blocking the archway and the trial that was clearly beyond it.

"But know this," Zahul added like they’d all rehearsed this moment. "You will face what walks behind your eyes. Try to fight it, and you feed it."

Silence followed their words.

"That’s it?" The Vohraki warrior growled, glaring at the guides.

None of them answered.

"Noko, you are the oldest. You will go first," said the guide in the middle, and stepped aside for the Vohraki.

The Vohraki, Noko, grunted and smacked at his chest again, bracing for what was to come. Then he entered the darkness beyond the archway. The guide returned to the spot like a guard at his post, blocking the remaining Marked Ones from seeing past him, not that they could anyway, the tunnel wasn’t lit up like the tunnel they stood in.

Yoa stepped into the spot Noko had been standing in, allowing the luminous roots to cast him lilac and blue lighting more as he focused on the archway and not the eagle shifter standing taller beside him. There was something about the guy he disliked, but he didn’t understand why, and it was making him lose focus.

Only a minute passed before Noko cried out back to them. Then another minute passed, and the guide standing in the middle dipped his head. "Noko has failed." Then he vanished into thin air.

The eagle shifter smirked, eyes alight in amusement.

"Vulcan," The guide on the far left gestured to the tunnel. "You may enter."

The eagle shifter stood taller, rolling his shoulders back and strolled inside like he had no care in the world. The guide stood in front of the entrance.

That left only Yoa to stand in the darkness and patiently wait his turn. He felt restless, eager to see this challenge through. Was this the last trial? Surely not. He was only twelve.

Yet, that Vulcan guy looked to almost be Rooted.

The guide in front of the archway looked up. "Vulcan has passed." Then he vanished.

Zahul gestured towards the archway. "Your turn, Yoa."

Yoa inhaled deeply, hands curling into fists as his jaw locked with determination.

In just moments, his fate would be revealed.

In just moments, he would learn if he was worthy to walk this path any further.

He stepped past the archway—

and the darkness swallowed him whole. freeweɓnøvel~com

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