A fuzzy image of the forest floor appeared in Leor's vision, it seemed to be slowly moving away from him, like the entire earth was rushing away into the distance. A look of confusion covered the young man's dizzy face as he stared at the strange scene. Then, as he slowly came out of his dazed state, his eyes shot open wide as he realized that the ground was not the thing moving, he was.
Leor tried to move his body, only to realize that his arms and legs had been firmly bound. Glancing right and left, he saw that he was being carried on the shoulder of one of the cloaked Beasts that had attacked him, and his own body had been covered in a similar cloak as the Beasts wore.
"Let me go!" He began to struggle to free himself out of instinct, flipping his body to the side to pull himself away from the grip of his captor. The Beast allowed Leor to wiggle away, letting his body fall hard onto the earth below. Leor hit the ground face first, filling his mouth and nose with dirt and leaves.
The Beast that had been carrying him, the muscled figure who was the largest of the group, flipped Leor onto his back with one swift kick from his powerful leg. Then, the humanoid Beast leaned forward, so his large hairy face was only a few inches from Leor's own. Thickly clawed hands revealed themselves from beneath the large cloak, pointing at Leor's chest as the Beast spoke.
"You speak, I kill. You move, I kill."
The Beast lifted his clawed finger up to Leor's neck as he said the words, making a slicing motion near the young man's exposed throat. Satisfied that he had gotten his message across, the large Beast rose back up to his feet, still staring Leor in the eyes as he did so.
"Blink now, if you heard my words" The large Beast demanded.
Leor could do nothing but obey, he was tightly bound and totally outnumbered. Even if he could manage to slip the bindings on his hands, the Beasts had taken away his sword, he could do nothing but admit to himself that he was at their mercy.
Blinking his eyes a few times to show that he understood the Beast leader's commands, Leor remained still and allowed the large Beast to lift him up onto his wide shoulder once again and continue their journey through the woods.
Leor remained silent and still as he was commanded, using his time to try to discern anything he could about his captors. All six of the beasts appeared to be humanoid, which was very odd. Even more strange was the fact that the leader had spoken to him. It hadn't used the most articulate language, but it had spoken nonetheless.
By all appearances, it seemed as if Leor had been captured by a group of humanoid beasts led by a mighty Highblood. Beasts attaining humanoid forms was not unheard of, but it was supposed to be incredibly rare. Maybe one out of every thousand Beasts would have the genius talent to develop a humanoid body, but in this realm it seemed they grew on trees for some unknown reason.
Leor tried to get a better look at the faces of his other captors, but they were remaining hidden behind their dark cloaks. All he could do was observe the outline of their forms beneath the cloaks they wore. They appeared to be all different shapes and sizes, some lithe and agile, others stocky and thick, though none quite as large and muscled as the leader.
The Beasts were clearly not interested in simply killing him, as they could have done so the moment they crossed paths. No, for some reason they wanted him alive. Leor reasoned that his best chance of survival would be to cooperate with the Beast's demands until he could find out what they wanted from him.
As they travelled swiftly through the forest, Leor kept an eye on the Beasts surrounding him, watching every detail of their actions with great interest. That was how he noticed when the group started moving more swiftly and with a hint of unease in their body language. Something in the forest had spooked his captors, and they were doing their best to put distance between themselves and whatever it was.
As the Beasts moved ever deeper into the ancient forest at an increasingly frantic pace, a long and mighty howl suddenly sounded through the forest behind them. Leor could see visible trembles spreading through the bodies of the Beasts around him at the sound of the howl, whatever it was that was following them had truly spooked his captors.
The leader of the group came to a stop, turning to face his subordinates with a deep frown spread across his menacing face. He handed Leor over to the Beast beside him as he spoke.
"Too late now, he has our scent. He will follow us home if we don't do something. The human's blood led him to us".
Leor glanced down at his own leg, only to notice that the wound he had received fighting the Twisted one had opened up at some point, maybe during his fall into the dirt earlier, fresh blood was trickling down his ankle. The leader of the Beasts pulled off his heavy cloak, exposing a frame more heavily muscled than Leor would have thought possible if he had not seen it himself.
The leader slowly hung his cloak on a branch beside him, then turned to face his subordinates as his body slowly expanded and swelled in size. The voice that came out of his mouth grew deeper and more menacing by the second.
"Go. Now! I will find you when it's done!"
With that, the remaining five Beasts set off again into the forest, carrying Leor along with them. As he was carried away, he watched the leader's figure grow to almost double his original size. Taking on the shape of a great apelike Beast of some kind, with arms as thick as tree trunks, and teeth as thick as Leor's arms. Just as they had almost moved out of sight, Leor finally caught a glimpse of what had been hunting them.
In the small clearing a few dozen meters away from the leader's great form, another figure slowly moved out past the trees into view. As soon as Leor laid eyes on it, he felt a blast of pressure cover his body from the creature's powerful will. It was a corrupted Beast, a wolf of some kind. But its powerful beastial body had been so warped by the defilement that its original form could hardly be recognized. Great red tentacles grew out of its fur all over its body, slithering around like a thousand terrible snakes. Leor's breathing became shallow as he realized he might have walked right into that defiled monster alone if these Beast's hadn't captured him.
Just as the two massive creatures were about to clash, Leor finally lost sight of them behind the receding line of trees. Though he still heard the sounds of the terrible battle as cracking tree limbs and the thundering of great bodies crashing against the ground spread through the forest.
The dreadful sounds of the battle sent a chill running through Leor's body. The leader was a Highblood humanoid Beast. That was the equivalent of a human master. What kind of defiled would it take to challenge such a Beast? The monstrous wolf was at least a Twisted one, and likely carried the body of a Beast as well. Maybe a Dire-Twisted one? The combination of a beastly body and a defiled will was a deadly combination, almost as powerful as the draconic combination of human will and beastly body. So, even at a lower tier, a Dire-Twisted one could certainly put up a fight against a Highblood beast, maybe even win. The fear he had observed in the subordinates of the Highblood leader certainly suggested that they were not confident in their leader's ability to win the fight.
Leor remained silent as they travelled through the gloomy forest, mouthing a silent prayer that they would not run into a second defiled beast while the leader was away. After the meeting with the wolf, they travelled for the better part of the day without incident, eventually passing over a large river by wading through the shallows. Leor couldn't help but stare down into the dark water of the river as he was carried above it, wondering what sort of awful monster might be waiting in the darkness to swallow him up.
Thankfully, they were able to reach the other side without incident. The Beasts seemed to be well aware of exactly how to travel through the forest in order to minimize the danger. After reentering the forest on the far side of the large stretch of river, the group made their way to a rocky hillside, where a massive boulder sealed the entrance of a small cave.
Two of the stockier Beast stepped to the front to roll the boulder aside and give the rest of the group access. It appeared to be a small cave, the Beasts must have known about it and used it as a safe place to stay when passing through this area. They placed Leor down against the damp stone wall on the interior and set about making a small fire to cook some meat. The smell of the cooking made Leor remember that his own breakfast had been interrupted by the sudden ambush of this very group of Beasts, so he couldn't stop his mouth from watering as the smell of hot meat filled the tiny interior.
He waited expectantly as the Beasts cooked their meat, watching as they sprinkled herbs and salt on the flesh, carefully turning it over again and again as they did. When it was finished, the tallest of the group stepped forward to portion the meat into five servings. When Leor saw that a portion hadn't been made for him, he loudly cleared his throat as he stared up at the tall Beast.
"Ahem. This is no way to treat a captive. You ruined my meal, so the least y—" His words were cut off as a furry hand was hastily clasped against his mouth to quiet him. The tall Beast raised a slim finger to her face to urge him to remain silent. Then, she tore a small chunk off her own portion and stuffed it in Leor's mouth.
The meat was still scaldingly hot, Leor began to tear up as he tried not to drop the piece of precious meat, but also tried to keep it from burning him at the same time. It was not an easy task with his hands tied behind his back. The damned Beasts had such durable and strong bodies that they didn't even realize how blazing hot the meat still was.
The tall female Beast seemed to have mistook Leor's tears of pain for tears of gratitude, as she gently patted his head a few times before taking a seat near the fire.