YUVEN

Almost there, but never close enough.

Ancient spires of alabaster marble tore through the dark and cracked in a crimson bubble of torment. It lifted off the frosted walls and cupped the canopy of snow and rained blood. Chains clanged against a pit of stone, empty of a heart. Rage rumbled in his throat and released the roar of Derelicts, but when he breached the surface of muck, he awoke to the beautiful sun. He brushed his feathers out of the extra tangles of his hair, but the taste of bile and rust remained on his tongue. He fumbled for a phial before it drove itself through his nose and stole his sense of taste and smell both. Free of the endless irritant for the time being, he returned the phial to his strap and glared at the mess he was left with.

I wanted to get out of this forest sooner.

Adara sat on the ground and rifled through a lie, while Fenrer rested on his stomach, head tucked in his arms without a response. This wouldn't be a problem if he stuck to the schedule. Yuven hauled himself off his stinging back to move for his Oathbound and ignored the Anima for the time being when she raised her head. Knees bent, he poked Fenrer's cheek, where he awoke — if he had been asleep at the start. His gaze drifted to him with an unseen yawn. Shadows weighed down his face, and Yuven said, "Just because you're tired is not going to stop me from getting us to the steppes."

"Do you know the meaning of rest?" Adara, the Anima, asked while she rubbed her lower back. "We sleep, and then walk."

"You have enough energy to complain." Yuven poked Fenrer on his spine when he lowered his brow back into the embrace of his forearms with a soft groan. "We need to get moving, Wolf Boy." He returned to his pack when Fenrer stirred in full and grabbed the parchment taking them home. Ink roads shimmered with magick and correction of their path, with the environment reflecting off the fresh parchment. Time abandoned him the longer Fenrer took to lift himself out of his stupor and gave Adara more time to waste in getting home.

"Where exactly are we heading?"

"Haneka, Sivaport," Yuven repeated and glared at Adara. "I said this before we left."

"I mean — can I just take a look at the map?" Adara reached for it, but Yuven leaped to his feet and kept it out of her reach. Her hand snaked its way through his space, and he tugged it further out of her reach. "Can we not do this so early, Yuven? Give me the map."

"Why do you want it?"

Adara's nostrils flared while Fenrer straightened himself out with a stretch. "Why are you not letting me take a look?"

"Because I don't want the path to get jumbled," he bit and put it back in his pack as Fenrer gathered their packs and handed it off to their owners. "Let us go. We're not out of Dyrin yet." But once we are... I am that much closer to you. He brushed his fingers down his throat, and longed for a warm touch instead of the bloody taste on his tongue. It shimmered with heat waves, but he shook them out and got them moving once more.

"Yuven?" Fenrer questioned.

"I took my medication."

The forest edge broke into expansive fields. Mills rose from the landscape, dotted across farmland. A cobbled road went around the forest and back into the basin and terraces, but he followed the wheel tracks. Underneath one of the posts directing to the nearest towns, a small, roadside shrine sat in the dirt, in the visage of the Ancient Ivara. He folded his arms when Fenrer went for it and set it back on the stone before kneeling in front of it.

"We can't be stopping for every little overturned statue," he grumbled. "It will survive without your reverence."

Fenrer sighed and turned back to him. "I can't ignore it if I see it, Yuven." He got off the dirt path and brushed off the grime from his pants. "Besides, nothing wrong with praying for a quiet journey." He smiled, bright as the dawn, but Yuven rolled his eyes and pushed them down the direction the marker pointed — the town of Jankha. Out of the way of the bustling roads and lacked Warden outposts from his recollection of studying reports.

Predictably, Derelict attacks were common.

The Forest of a Thousand Eyes disappeared through tussocks and knolls, and he stopped at the fork. Runefences surrounded barns, where the wardstones sat in suggested fashion on the strongest points to lift a constant barrier around the home of livestock. What a shock... Yuven turned his back on the property to continue down the road, where stones lifted against the road to create nature-made staircases up the hills.

"Quiet..." Adara mumbled.

"Keep it that way," Yuven said and wind tickled the edges of his primary feathers, dictating a shift in temperature.

Their footsteps squelched in the muddy patches of well-trodden dirt, and daylight crossed the threshold of noon when the silence broke at the baying of a cow. Decay wafted straight into his nostrils, with Adara choking behind him. His hands wound around the fence at the pile of cow, where dung interlaced, but never covered the stench.

"What is that?" Adara asked and covered her nose with her sleeve.

About what I expected — Fenrer should know better. Yuven phased through the fence without waiting for Fenrer to race for the agitated herd. "Get," he snapped at their stressed moaning. Little bells hung around their necks, woven with a tapestry while they trotted their dumpy bodies out of the way to reveal the source of the stench.

"Oh, Gods," Adara said.

A half-eaten, mangled cow corpse rotted from the inside out. Innards spread onto the ground in their murk from the empty chest cavity. Flies buzzed, and he held his hand out to prevent Adara from stepping closer. The rest of the herd shook out their heads and stomped out of range of him as he knelt closer to the corpse. "It could've been a predator," he murmured, and glanced at the eyes. Void of life, where blood clotted near its mouth. "Fenrer?"

"I don't sense anything," Fenrer admitted.

Adara kept her mouth covered and her brow furrowed. "What predator does this?"

"Many," Yuven mused at the ridiculous question. He got off the mushy ground and eyed Fenrer before paying attention to the cows, where their small tails flicked back and forth on a string pendulum. Sinew tore off the opening of the cow's wound, but never quite matched the teeth of a hungry animal longing for an easy meal. One part of him longed to continue onto the road and let the vultures deal with death, but the sky remained empty while the clouds hung in an illusion of stasis.

"Yuv," Fenrer whispered with a hand on his shoulder. "It won't take long to give a cursory examination of the area — to confirm what it's not. If there's a town nearby, we need to ask around." He motioned down the carriage trodden path. "If it's affecting the road ahead—"

One day wasted.

He released himself from Fenrer's firm grasp and switched his direction from their route to a newfound destination — the town around the bend of the knolls, surrounded by wasting wheat fields. Wind broke apart the tips and scattered the bulbs to the last breath of peace. Out of the farmlands and onto the cobbled path into Jankha. Window shutters slammed closed with the breeze and locked tight at their approach. On the front step in front of a small house, they glanced up at their approach with their hands wrapped around a woven doll, but an older woman dragged them inside with a cautious frown in their direction before shutting out help.

Of course... Yuven stopped Adara and Fenrer in the middle of the town, brushing his boot against the wet mud.

"I thought they'd be happy to see Storm Wardens," Adara mumbled and rubbed her forearms with a shudder through her lips.

Yuven barked out his laugh, which echoed around the empty streets, but he never raised his voice to scream into the ice. "You're going to be heavily disappointed — all those tales of heroic golden warriors? If only the world treated us as such. Thankless job. Association is more powerful than their sense of gratitude for their peaceful lives." He sniffed and huffed out mist to regulate the heat gathering along his feathers, a warning. "It is fine, we do not require their permission to do our jobs. Not if they want to stay alive." Hands tucked against his straps, he followed the small streets to the center of town to find directions or a hint of what plagued the little village. On the post-board, several notices from the capital city of Azahama, along with Derelict infested routes and timeframe of cleansing from Wardens. But we're such a strained force already... He thumbed one of the full phials, but frowned when Fenrer narrowed his eyes and tucked his chin against his chest. "Fenrer?"

"We're being watched," Fenrer explained when he straightened himself out, then tipped his head to the tiny storage hut on the corner.

"We are?" Adara asked with no sense of volume control. Yuven pushed his hair to tangle with his feathers and groaned at the silence.

If only I could just walk away if they reject help. He scowled when Fenrer glanced at him. You'd never let me. He found the handle of his seax and headed for the small storage hut. It fell into his fingers as he took each step cautious and poised for a fight against a relentless beast. Ice poured through the runes on the slicing edge, but when he rounded the corner, a quiet, fearful gasp stopped him short.

A young, brown-haired boy about ten turns sat in the dirt, covered in tattered linens with patchwork hemming. He gripped onto a wooden soldier and tucked deeper into the stone foundation of the hut. Yuven sighed and sheathed the seax, but no adults showed themselves to retrieve the lost child.

Fenrer and Adara joined him, and the boy shrank into his shoulders and scooted along the stone wall to hit the small outside basement stairwell.

"Are you okay?" Adara asked in an instant, not allowing the tension to die as she came forward, but when Yuven tried to grasp the crimson shawl around her neck to stop her, the boy bolted to the other side and clung onto his little soldier toy for protection. "You don't have to be afraid," Adara whispered and knelt down to his level. "We just want to help. Where do you live? Is there someone who can—?"

He ran.

"Good job," Yuven mumbled while Fenrer examined the area. "You should let us handle things."

"Better than giving him the death glare. I'm not sure how you think that was helping," Adara said and shook out her short hair off her brow while Yuven followed the young boy to answers — duty bound to those who associated them with the burning world of Derelicts and feared the help of the Storm Wardens.

To them, wherever we are - there are Derelicts and death.

The boy tried to lose his pursuers, but he expanded his spatial distortion magick to track the echoing, mushy footsteps through his ears. Around several corners, he scowled when the boy scrambled up a stone path to a small shack on the hill. He rushed through the door and slammed it when Yuven reached the second to last step.

Why do people have to make this difficult? Yuven knocked on the door, but the response on the other side was nothing more than a pair of scuffling boots and a quick, irritated shush. One more bang of his knuckle, and the shuffles on the other side stilled.

"Go away!" a small voice said on the other end.

Yuven scoffed and turned to Adara and Fenrer before rapping on the door, harder, and with the village's reluctant urgency. He stopped when Fenrer grabbed his wrist with a small shake of his head, raising three fingers with a point at the shuttered window.

Three inside.

Adara pushed past him, and Yuven sniffed at her bullheaded physicality without regard for caution and their work. "We only want to help. We don't mean any harm. We-We were just on the road and saw one of the cattle... dead." A word caught on the tongue, but Yuven carried it with ease, but she pushed on with a touch of desperation. "Please, why are you shutting out Storm Wardens?"

Silence.

"Storm Wardens kill Derelicts," another quiet voice said on the other side, shaky with tears.

"I said go away!" the first voice snapped, but then hushed, "Stop talking to them Suka, or they'll—"

"Or we'll what?" Fenrer questioned. "We can still hear you."

Yuven set his hands on his belt when something kicked wood on the other side with another small complaint. The door creaked open to reveal a young girl, who held onto the door while the young boy from before seethed behind her, but never let go of his little soldier toy.

"See? No Derelicts here?" the boy snapped, but Yuven placed his hand on the door when he pushed the other child out of view to try and close it, and a stench of feverish death slammed his nose. He dug his fingertips into the rotting wood of their haphazard shack. Tears slipped down the boy's cheeks while he fought against his worthless, fading strength. "Go away..."

Go away... a memory sniffed and fled from the pale-haired wyvern rider.

"What are you hiding?" Yuven demanded.

"Nothing!"

"Maybe we should tell them, Asu," the young girl said from the side. "Maybe they can help..."

"They can't help. They'll make it worse. Elder Tezin said so, Suka!" Asu bit.

Fenrer, ever the diplomatic hand, took Yuven's place and knelt down on their level with a smile. "We don't want to make it worse," he said. "We want to figure out what's going on around here. If it's nothing more than a bad harvest, then we'll be on our way if that'll help."

No, there's something. I can feel it in the air, and I'm sure Fenrer can sense it too.

The pressure against the door lifted, and Yuven let go for it to swing open to reveal the two children in full — in tattered robes, while Suka wore a dress of patchwork flowers. Asu frowned with balled fists, heading into a dark corner by the fireplace. Adara peeked around him, but Yuven pushed her to the side to keep her out of the way.

Suka sucked in a breath then raised her hand to them. "I am Suka."

Yuven scowled when she moved her hand to the three of them, expecting a connection. He folded his arms and took in the house's straw matting and clasped windows. Adara stepped forward with a beaming smile to grab Suka's hand, shaking it.

"I'm Adara," she introduced herself, a waste of time, and a bad influence, for when Suka switched her hand to Fenrer, he smiled too and took her hand. Genuine and full of life.

"Fenrer," he greeted.

Yuven examined the tipped shelves full of empty bottles, where wilted spices hung off the racks. He scowled when Adara nudged him in the side with a point to Suka's outstretched hand.

"What were you two trying to hide?" he questioned, causing Suka to drop her hand. "Do you live here?"

"We weren't hiding anything," Asu grumbled. "And no, we don't live here. We're just..." He hugged himself. "Staying here until it's safe."

Suka frowned at Asu, then whispered, "Could you help?"

"We'll try," Fenrer said. "But—"

"We can only do that if you tell it all," Yuven added.

Suka wrung her patchwork dress with a frown at him, and her eyes drifted to his ears and hair. Her eyes bulged. "You're an Avaerilian! I've only seen your people in storybooks!"

Here we go... Yuven stepped around Suka and studied the other door into the small pantry. Herbs and moldy bread filled the baskets, though some of the covered boxes with runes of ice. Someone's come to check on them, at least.

He jumped when Suka came closer to him. "Could you help our mom?"

"Suka!" Asu gasped, shrill.

"It depends," he said, ignoring Asu while Suka frowned at her brother.

Fenrer lowered his head to the floorboards.

"They'll kill her!" Asu leaped off his chair to rush to Suka and grabbed her arm. "You know what they say..."

Suka pushed Asu off her and trembled. "I can't watch her suffer anymore, Asu! Maybe they can help! Maybe... Maybe Elder Tezin was mistaken," she said and came closer to him and Fenrer. "Our mother is downstairs, a couple of suns ago something came through our village in the night." Her voice came out rushed and ragged. "It screamed and tore through several houses. Mom went to investigate with some others, but..." Tears dripped down her grimy cheeks. "She came back in the morning alone, bleeding, and now she won't wake up. One of our village Healers comes up to take care of her, but... the Elder says she's been corrupted—"

Yuven lurched and snapped around to Fenrer, who twisted his lips in confusion.

"We must see her and determine the cause," Fenrer whispered, then prodded Yuven's back and added under his breath, "I might also need to see the bodies if they haven't been burned, Yuv."

"You'll kill her." Asu stepped into the doorframe of the pantry and held out his scrawny arms.

"No one will be killing anybody," Adara interjected and got on Asu's level. "I promise."

Asu glared at her, made of immovable stone so young, but Adara smiled at him, and broke the visage of strength in an instant. He dropped his hands from the doorframe and stepped among the mold and darkness to point at the entrance to the underground bunker of the shack. Fenrer nestled past Yuven and opened it, where heat breathed out a plume of torment and agony. Yuven sent a whisk of ice to push out the intensity of scattered flames as Fenrer slid down the ladder.

"Wait here, Adara," he ordered. "Stay with these two."

"Fine." Adara sat down on the bench.

Yuven joined Fenrer downstairs. Walls of fragmented stone pulsed out struggling shields. Straw beds lined the walls with small trunks at the end. Fenrer headed to the farthest bed, where a shape trembled behind a curtain. "Derelict bite?" Yuven asked with the children out of sight and earshot.

"I didn't sense corruption, so..." Fenrer pulled back the blinds, where a woman laid in bed. Her chest rose and fell in uneven waves. Bandages wrapped around her arms and tucked them over her chest. Blood matted the fabric while a bucket sat nearby, where face-cloths hung on the edge. Yuven leaned against the wall and waited for Fenrer's report.

"Of course people think Derelict bites cause corruption," Yuven hissed out agony as he dug his fingers into the fragmented stone. "Ridiculous, thinking that we kill people for getting chewed on..." He tapped his foot, then eyed Fenrer. "Can you help her?"

Fenrer examined her. "The poisoning is severe," he commented. "Yes, but I don't think my suppressant will help in this case, not all at once. I can try some healing magick, but I've never been as good as Maria."

Yuven tasted her love. "Maria is not here."

"No, so I'll do what I can," Fenrer said and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. "We still need to figure out where the Derelict is or went. It's fed on magick if what they said is any indication, so it'll more than likely come back for more. A group of people went to find it — one came back." He set his hand on the woman's arms, and she writhed at his gentle touch and unraveled one half of the bandage. Yuven went to rejoin Adara and the children, but stopped when Fenrer tipped his head.

"Now what?"

"Do you wonder why they called her corrupted?" Fenrer whispered.

"No?" Yuven grumbled. "I feel like I lose brain trying to think about what thoughts pigheads have running through their empty skulls." His words fell off his tongue when Fenrer scooted out of the way.

Crimson crackled around the wound, drinking at her layer of magick and weakened it to nothing, a lie of what Derelicts leave behind. Green spiderwebs of air tangled around Fenrer's hand when he drew it over her wound. Sinew tangled and stitched, but Yuven flinched when he tugged out a bloody tooth which refused to burn gold.

An animal's tooth, cracked with blood and shadow ooze dripping out of the cavities.

It seems we do have a Corruptor on our hands.

Yuven threw his fist into the stone of the bunker.

Damned.

"I'm going to go find it. Stay here and do what you can to help her," Yuven instructed. "It'll come back."

They always do.

It growled in his soul, and slathered with blood drool for the feast.