"DOUBLE EXPLOSION SLINGSHOT BARRAGE!"
The rocks exploded from his hands and into the bear, peppering it with small and large wounds. The bear roared in pain, finally giving up, running past Linnie and into the forest.
He growled, frustrated by the development.
"Hey! Come back here! We aren't done yet! Aw, what's up with that? Who runs as soon as they start losing!?"
"Hey, you won, isn't that enough?" Alwyn said, ruffling his hair.
'Actually, I'd be pissed as hell if that happened to me,' he thought to himself.
Linnie spun around and punched him in the stomach.
"Don't touch my hair. You left me to die, and now you're acting all friendly!" he barked.
"I didn't leave you to die, Lin. You're my apprentice, I expected nothing other than your victory."
'I can't believe he actually scared that thing off, I was totally prepared to have to step in. Thankfully, I didn't have to, though.'
"Yeah, whatever," Linnie huffed.
He wasn't quite able to vent all his frustrations out on the bear. He wished he could've gotten the chance to slay the beast, but alas, he hadn't.
He walked over to the toppled wagon, pulling himself up onto the top of it. Or, its side, really.
"What're you doing?" Alwyn asked.
"Seeing what's inside."
Aliza grimaced, meeting Alwyn's gaze. They feared the same thing—that all Linnie would see was a corpse. Dozens of the bear's quills had pierced through and into the wagon, not to mention the relentless rolling and crashing it faced. Whoever was inside was, more likely than not, dead.
Linnie pulled open the cracked wooden door and peered through. It was dark, and he squinted to make out the shape that was inside.
"Hello? Are you alive?"
The only response was ragged breathing. Then, a low growl and a hiss.
"What the hell—!?"
The creature pounced from the shadows, leaping up into the air and tackling Linnie off the wagon and into the dirt. He shielded his face with his hands, and it sunk its teeth into his arm, tearing a large chunk of flesh away and swallowing it whole.
It straddled him, panting.
Once Linnie stopped panicking, though, he stopped wrestling back entirely. It was out of shock, or awe, as he met the gaze of the 'creature' on top of him.
She was small, no older than him. Though, she was definitely a margin taller. Her strength was feral and unrestrained, and her skin was the color of soft earth, now smeared with his blood. Her hair, pale as bone, sprawled in tangled streaks everywhere, having been clearly unkempt for far too long.
Honey golden eyes burned their gaze into Linnie's, staring like a beast's, and yet there was something human in them—something familiar to the boy.
He couldn't move. Even with his arm torn open, even with her breath hot against his throat, he could only stare. His world had narrowed itself to only her face, its shape, the strange, animalistic energy behind her otherwise human expression.
And though they shared no obvious physical characteristics, besides maybe the small beauty mark that sat beneath the outside corner of her eye, she reminded Linnie deeply of the woman he had seen in the painting from church.
The gentle, beautiful lady in blue, whose head bowed beneath a crown of light.
But this girl was no saint. Her mouth dripped blood, and her ears were as sharp and pointed as her teeth. She much more closely resembled a demon, instead. She was aiming for his throat next, but, somehow, she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Which was saying something, because he already found Aliza plenty beautiful.
The girl flew backwards off Linnie, spinning through the air and crashing into the trunk of a tree. Upon further inspection, she was covered in gashes from head to toe. Gashes that leaked gold, rather than red.
As she stood, she shook out all the quills from her body, and the four (yes, including the cat) watched in awe as every wound closed.
She wiped the red from her mouth and raised her hands in surrender, grinning. Linnie looked behind him to see Alwyn pointing his staff at her, a blank expression painted on his face.
"Linnie, get back."
Finally, Linnie snapped out of whatever trance he'd been in and glanced at his arm, which looked like a half-eaten chicken leg.
"Holy shit, she ate my arm!" he shouted, scurrying back behind Alwyn and Aliza. "Crazy bitch!"
"Hey, that's no way to speak about a girl. Call her a wild beast or something—bitch is such an ugly word," Aliza whispered.
She opened her pouch and brought out a small red vial. She uncorked it and held it over Linnie. Understanding, he opened his mouth and swallowed as she poured.
The wound on his arm turned hot and quickly regenerated, good as new. It resembled what had happened a few moments prior, with the girl. She, however, hadn't had a drop of anything.
"A Siarath?" Aliza asked. "No, she can't be. Far too... uhm, dark. What the hell is she?"
"Seriously, Aliza? I'd expect you to know this," Alwyn scoffed. "It's a half-breed."
"A Siaryn...? Did you think I didn't know what a Siaryn was!? I just didn't think they—well, existed."
"Oh, no. They definitely exist. Not that I've ever met one, either. But this is proof, isn't it? Go on, you're Siaryn, aren't you?" Alwyn asked the girl, still pointing his staff.
She cleared her throat, which had a large puncture wound only moments ago that preventing her from making anything but wet, guttural growls.
"That's right! I'm real sorry about that, by the way. I let my urges control me, there. Usually I'm a lot better at it—it's just been sooo long since I've eaten anything. And I was bleeding a lot, so, like, please forgive me!" she said, clapping her hands together and bowing for forgiveness.
She let out a little, submissive, laugh, as if to lighten the mood and get the strange man to stop pointing his large wooden staff at her.
Linnie narrowed his eyes, feeling inclined, for some reason, to accept her apology.
"What the hell's a Siaryn?" Linnie finally asked after a moment of silence.
He wasn't really thinking about the apology at all—he was just confused and trying to figure out what was going on.