Lothar, Traetos Province, Southern Avestria

"I really hope...they are fine" Mythra's voice faltered as he got teary eyed on remembering his family. He was worried about them. Akorak realized Mythra's sorrow. He gently patted over Mythra's back and pulled him closer. Mythra could hardly reach above his waist and he could not resist Akorak's firm hold when he was pulled by him.

"Fret not kid. I am sure they must have been rescued" said Akorak, consoling Mythra.

"How can you be so sure?...I saw people getting killed in front of my eyes. How can you be sure that my siblings and my granny is fine?" replied Mythra, agitated as he pushed himself away from Akorak.

"Calm down, son. Look, I have been to Lothar many times. The Autarch of Lothar is a capable ruler and a righteous man. He surely must have made some provisions for the safe passage of his subjects. I can assure you that they are fine" replied Akorak. Mythra felt slightly comforted on hearing Akorak's soothing tone and his reassuring remark.

"Besides, I know one Kyshatar in Lothar who would never lose a fight for sure," said Akorak. Mythra was perplexed on hearing this.

"Who is he?" he asked, curiously.

"His name is Ramusa Vorcerus....Have you heard of him?" replied Akorak. Mythra grinned on hearing the warrior's name.

"Yes I do! He is a really strong warrior and I want to be just as strong as him" Mythra replied.

He was always fascinated by Ramusa's strength and attitude. He wanted to be as strong as Ramusa and a great warrior, just like him. Mythra told him the episode where he was saved by Ramusa from getting killed at the hands of the two infuriated soldiers. Akorak was flabbergasted on hearing that two men would want to kill a child.

"What harm could they possibly have, that they wanted to hurt a boy of your age?" asked Akorak.

"What is your age, anyways?"

"I am around Eight Mesha old," Mythra replied.

"Eight? You're definitely stronger for your age then. That laceration on your forehead....its not an ordinary wound. It's quite a miracle that you survived that blow" said Akorak.

"A blow?" asked Mythra.

"I found you entangled in the branches of a fallen bark across the river. You must have hit your head on a rock when you were swimming in the river. You are fortunate that you got stuck in the bark. You were morbid when I found you," explained Akorak in a serious tone. Mythra realized the horror. He was frightened of imagining the outcome, if he had not been stopped by the bark of a tree.

"For reasons I cannot fathom, why would the soldiers try to harm you?" asked Akorak as he had digressed from the initial question.

Mythra hesitated to answer it. He was not sure about how Akorak would react, when he came to know that Mythra was a Caligor, born during a Grand Obscura.

"Because..." Mythra paused. Akorak hearkened to him.

"Because I am a Caligor," he spoke. Akorak halted at his place and so did Mythra. It was the exact reaction that Mythra was expecting from him, from anyone actually.

"You are?" asked Akorak with raised eyebrows and eyes fixated at Mythra.

"Yes,"

Mythra was daunted by Akorak's dumbfounded stare. He felt that Akorak was going to disown him, or worse, he could kill Mythra.

"Well. Then that's another matter entirely," said Akorak and he continued to walk. Mythra felt bedazzled knowing that Akorak wasn't scornful towards him on learning about his birth. Infact, Akorak seemed quite ignorant after learning about Mythra's unfortunate birth.

"You don't hate me?" asked Mythra as he followed him. Akorak chuckled.

"Believe me kid. If I did, you would have known that by now," replied Akorak in a jocular fashion.

Apparently, Akorak was the first stranger who did not loath Mythra on learning about his birth. On the contrary, he seemed quite stoic.

"But....Why?" asked Mythra. He was nonplussed on seeing Akorak's ignorance towards his unholy birth.

"Because......." spoke Akorak and took a long pause by extending the last word. Mythra hearkened to him eagerly. He had never felt this kind of relief before, coming from a stranger. After his grandmother and his sibling, Akorak was the only person who was impartial towards Mythra even after learning about his birth.

"Because what?"

"Because... Our existence is defined by our choices and our actions, not by our birth." he replied.

Mythra felt elated in his heart when he heard these words. Only if the people of the village had believed in the same ideology, his life would have been better.

"Why can't everyone think like you?" said Mythra. Akorak laughed, as he adjusted his weight around his staff. "If only," he added to Mythra's remark. They had crossed the canopy and now they found themselves on a huge grassland, lush in bluish green cover. Suddenly, Akorak pulled Mythra towards him and both of them hid behind a huge boulder.

Mythra couldn't understand the reason for this sudden pull but Akorak signalled him to be quiet. His shivering finger pointed at something over the grassland. Mythra followed his finger with his eyes to see something chimerical, standing near the tall trees. He was thunderstruck on seeing what his eyes witnessed.

"What is that?" whispered Mythra as both of them stared at it, astonished by its elephantine size. "It's called a Fyndārin," murmured Akorak.

A Fyndārin was a gigantic, herbivorous creature that ate the nectar inside the bark of the hollow trees. The head of a Fyndārin was like an inverted horn, tapering at the mouth while expanded at the helm. It had three feather-like things protruding out, which acted as its crest, emerging from the crown of its head. It had a protective cover to shield the front area of its face. It was a tetra pedal and its feet were single nailed hooves which were as strong as a tree.

The skin of a Fyndārin had small hair of olive green colour which helped for its camouflage to hide from the predators. Since Fyndārin mostly lived in a canopy of tall trees, their skin colour was their survival. They were peace loving creatures and rarely baleful. Their sounds were high pitched roars, not cacophonous at all.

Mythra and Akorak watched carefully as the Fyndārin extended its long tongue to suck the nectar from inside the bark. They realized that it was a female, from her mammary glands situated at the ventral portion of her abdomen. The small offsprings of that female walked behind her. The Fyndārin were extremely slow walkers because of their size.

Akorak slowly crawled his way towards this gigantic creature. He was crouched on his legs and he slowly advanced towards them, warily guessing their reactions. Mythra was petrified on seeing this intrepidness of Akorak.

As he was close enough to them, the female stepped in front of her two cubs. She spread her legs apart and her crest was aroused in order to appear bigger, so as to intimidate the predator who was threatening her cubs. Akorak paused and went lower till his nose touched the ground. The Fyndārin stomped her foot on the ground and let out a loud shriek. It was a threat display, in order to protect her cubs.

Although it wasn't raucous, it daunted Mythra to the core of his being. He was watching all of this from behind the huge boulder. Akorak crouched, slowly and steadily, taking small steps at a time. The Fyndārin was still shrieking in order to warn the intruder. Akorak paused whenever he heard her shriek.

Finally, on reaching a certain distance from the Fyndārin and her cubs, Akorak hid behind a rock and peeped from over it. The Fyndārin was still standing her ground as a stalwart for her cubs. Akorak bent lower and slowly removed a small fruit from the back pack which he had been carrying all along. He stood taller but bending at his knees and at his waist, slowly crouching towards the mother Fyndārin, he advanced his hand forward. The fruit was one of the sweetest fruits that used to grow in the entire continent. It was an Ambila*.

The Fyndārin was still firm on her aggressive posture but Akorak could see her eyes change as they were fixated at the fruit in his hand. The Fyndārin could smell the aroma. She eased her stance and her long neck bent lower as Akorak crouched closer to her with his extended arm, holding the fruit.

Mythra had clutched his fists, with the fear of Akorak, getting killed by the female Fyndārin. Every step closer to the Fyndārin was baleful because she was trying to protect her cubs from this imminent danger. As Akorak was just some distance away from her feet, he raised his hand upwards as if displaying the fruit to the Fyndārin. The creature bent lower and smelled the fruit with its nostrils.

There were two big holes on the periphery of her tapering face through which it smelled the fragrance of the Ambila in Akorak's hand. His hand bathed in warm air from the Fyndarin's breathing.

Akorak could feel the massiveness and strength of this creature as he stood closer to it, smelling its breath which smelled like the moist leaves of the trees. The Fyndārin was somehow placated as it smelled the fruit in Akorak's hand. Akorak moved closer, confidently. The Fyndārin extended her long pinkish tongue and rolled it around the Ambila in Akorak's hand. She galloped the entire fruit from his hand and chewed on it.

Akorak knew that this gesture would somehow pacify the beast by making it confident that he wasn't going to harm her or its cubs. The beast lowered its head in expectation of getting one more fruit from Akorak and he completed the Fyndārin's wish as he offered her another Ambila. Akorak slowly advanced her hand towards the Fyndārin's face and touched her frontal area. The Fyndārin didn't mind and she was busy, chewing on the sweet fruit. Fyndārin were peaceful creatures and they were not aggressive like the predators.

Finally, when Akorak was confident that the beast would not harm him, he stood erect. His knees were strained from crouching for so long and his temple was covered with tiny drops of sweat. He looked back over his shoulder to find Mythra who was hiding behind the boulder. He signalled Mythra to come over, but Mythra was still diffident about getting closer to this beast. Akorak urged him to come by signaling him vehemently with his hands.

Mythra, slowly and steadily, stepped aside from the boulder and started walking towards Akorak. He was still filled in fright as he glared at the elephantine creature standing in front of him. Mythra crouched all the way, till he reached Akorak and stood behind him.

"Don't be afraid. She won't harm you!" said Akorak as he gently exfoliated the Fyndārin's head. Mythra's hand was shivering while he advanced it towards the beast. Akorak was literally pulling him to touch it with his own hands. When Mythra finally laid his open palm over the Fyndārin's face, he could feel the breathing of the beast. The scaly surface of the protective layer of the beast rubbed against his palms as he gently stroked it. All of the fear about the beast was now gone and all that was left was wonder and curiosity.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" asked Akorak. Mythra didn't respond. He was engrossed in looking at the features of the Fyndārin. He had never seen such a majestic creature, so up close. Now when he was able to see it, he was completely dumbfounded by its beauty.

When the mother Fyndārin was confident about these intruders and felt no harm from them, she resumed eating the nectar from the tall trees. Her aggressive stance was relieved and she was no longer concerned about the safety of her cubs from Akorak and Mythra. The small cubs with their fluffy bodies walked towards Mythra and Akorak as Akorak gave them the Ambila. The cubs did not shriek like their mother but they made high pitched humming sounds. It was soothing to hear them, as if someone with a mellifluous voice was singing. The sounds echoed through the trees as the cubs played around Mythra and Akorak.

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Footnotes:

• Ambila is the sweetest fruit found on the continent

• Fyndarin is a creature