Content Warning: Some passages may be difficult to read for certain audiences (gore).
After reuniting, Nigin and Eüreuse retraced their steps, taking the same path they had used to reach the edge of the plateau. This time, Eüreuse had no need to run. Although she would have loved to mess around and play with her adoptive father, the young girl knew that the demon who had taken her in was ancient, despite an appearance that made him look no older than twenty.
Eüreuse had meticulously studied the demon race to which Nigin belonged: the Teš. Renowned as the most powerful, this demon race was indeed immortal, and its members possessed an extraordinary wisdom and intelligence. Another peculiarity of the Teš was that they possessed an "other body" waiting for them in the Niwiht, a place in the universe whose appearance evoked a vast cosmic sea.
However, though Nigin was Immortal, he was not entirely immune to the effects of time: fatigue, occasional forgetfulness, muscle aches, and the like. Eüreuse did not know Nigin's true age, and he himself did not know it with exact certainty. Yet, given his immense knowledge and palpable experience, she estimated he had to be at least 100,000 years old. This was the main reason she didn't want to push him by dragging him into a game of tag or any other activity requiring running or sustained physical effort. Her affection and respect for the demon were stronger than her desire to play.
After an hour of peaceful walking, Eüreuse and Nigin finally came within sight of their property, nestled at the edge of a small forest.
The property was marked by a modest dry-stone wall, completed by a fence made of pine logs. Inside lay a vast and lush garden where various medicinal and ornamental plants grew. There was also a neat row of apple trees and a well-tended vegetable patch, holding the promise of future harvests.
Off to the side stood a small outbuilding serving as a shed, where various gardening tools were stored and hung: rakes, spades, copper watering cans, all well maintained.
But the centerpiece was, of course, the house itself. Built of rough stone, its roof was covered in a thick layer of thatch. It had only one level, typical of the farmhouses and peasant cottages once found in the Beautiful Kingdom. Rustic in appearance, it nevertheless gave off an impression of sturdiness and comfort.
Nigin and Eüreuse crossed the threshold through a solid wooden door. The interior was immediately warm, welcoming, and pleasing to the eye. The space was well laid out: there was a rustic but functional kitchen, a living room with a large stone fireplace, a library filled with ancient tomes, and two cozy bedrooms. Another intriguing detail was the presence of a trapdoor or discreet staircase leading downward, but Eüreuse knew she was strictly forbidden from entering it.
"Would you like some tea?" Nigin offered, his voice tinged with paternal gentleness toward his adoptive daughter.
"Yes," Eüreuse replied, grateful for this simple, comforting gesture.
"Good, I'll go prepare it," the demon said, heading toward the kitchen.
Nigin grabbed a metal kettle, filled it with water, and placed it on his stone stove, a sort of built-in hearth. He arranged some dried twigs and small pieces of wood beneath it, then, with no apparent effort and invisible concentration, he used his magic to ignite a fire that caught immediately, crackling softly. The smell of burning wood began to fill the air, the promise of a hot drink and well-deserved rest after their journey.
"Go to the library while the tea brews."
"I was planning to go read anyway."
Eüreuse went into the room that served as their library. The room was circular, containing five bookshelves completely filled, save for one. Perhaps due to the geographical location of the place, bringing back books was nearly impossible, but considering the number of books already there, it was quite an achievement.
The young girl picked up a book with a red cover.
Its title: From Fear to Animals.
"Strange, the cover doesn't show the author's name." Eüreuse muttered, surprised to see the book lacked an author.
Was it an oversight by the writer, or was it intentional?
For Eüreuse, it was a pointless question; as long as the story or the content was good, the author didn't matter. And so, Eüreuse began to read the first chapter of the book.
The first chapter of From Fear to Animals told the story of a man fleeing a war with his daughter, his wife having been crushed to death by a boulder launched by a catapult. The man, named Jean, set off with his daughter Emma toward the royal capital to find safety—a rural exodus forced by war and tragedy. Many families were behind them, and many ahead. But Jean and his daughter had the fewest belongings, and consequently, the least food.
When mealtime arrived, Emma's stomach began to growl, crying out "I'm hungry," and she said it aloud, tugging at the sleeve of her father's dirty shirt. Her father, Jean, gave her a crust of bread, their only food. Emma ate it, but her fragile little jaw struggled to bite into a piece as hard as rock. His daughter's stomach continued to rumble, so Jean went to other families to ask for food, but no one gave him any, for one simple reason: "We cannot help if we are in need ourselves." And it was entirely understandable.
Despite this, Jean could not give up. His daughter Emma was his only family left, and he would do anything for her. So, Jean went further back down the road and stumbled upon a couple having a picnic in the forest; they were aristocrats. Jean approached them and begged the couple for food, but once again, the answer was no. Yet, the couple was clearly not in need. For Jean, taking this food became an absolute necessity, and for the first time, he committed a sin.
He picked up a large rock and smashed it into the skulls of both the girl and the man, cracking their heads open and letting their brains spill out. He then dragged their bodies deeper into the forest to hide them, but pieces of their brains remained on the ground. Jean had no other choice. A horrific choice for any man: he ate the pieces of brain. Then he took the food. It consisted only of fruit, but as long as his daughter ate her fill, that was all that mattered. Jean returned to the spot where he had told her to wait.
Upon arriving, he dropped the basket of fruit and fell to his knees.
"Why..." his voice betrayed sheer panic.
And this panic stemmed from the horrific scene before him... numerous bodies were scattered everywhere, some completely charred. But among the bodies lay the frail, tiny frame of his daughter, resting in a pool of blood.
Jean crawled on his knees toward where his daughter lay. He could only see her back; her body was turned over, her head completely submerged in the immense pool of blood. Around her groin, the blood was darker and more opaque, showing that she had voided her bladder. Then, Jean turned his daughter's body over, and vomited.
It was absolute horror. His daughter had been severed in two, sliced cleanly from head to toe.
Of her face, he could only see the bone of her skull fractured in two, revealing the labyrinth of the sinuses and nasal cavities, lined with bright red mucosa gorged with blood. Her tongue, too, was completely sliced down the middle, exposing a massive, red, extremely dense muscle plunging deep into the throat, occupying almost the entire space of the oral cavity.
Half of her brain was also cut in two; it had the consistency of flan. In the center, the pure, smooth white shape of a capital C was visible, alongside the cerebellum. Cerebrospinal fluid leaked out, mixing with the heavy hemorrhage from her scalp that flooded what remained of her face.
Her chest was open. Her severed lungs revealed a spongy texture, the bronchial tree surrounded by rigid white cartilage. Visually, it looked like hard white rings embedded in soft flesh, weeping a pink, frothy foam. Her heart, too, showed the thick myocarde, the endocardium, and the fibrous cords. The blood spilling from the heart was no longer liquid; it formed dark, gelatinous clots, like blackberry jam, clogging the cavities.
Her abdomen was laid bare, exposing a layer of yellow, granular, oily subcutaneous fat, then the dark red muscle, and finally the peritoneum—a thin, translucent, shiny membrane encasing the organs. Then the omentum, a tissue resembling a greasy yellow lace net dotted with tiny blood vessels.
Her intestines spilled from the gash, showing a grayish-pink, smooth, and wet exterior. The small intestine, also protruding, was covered inside with millions of tiny villi, looking like wet, pleated velvet. The contents leaking from it were neither blood nor excrement, but chyme: a frothy, yellowish-green or brownish liquid mush of half-digested food, bile, and gastric juices. The large intestine was smoother, highly vascularized, and leaked forming fecal matter, dark brown and pasty. Blood poured heavily from the severed mesentery.
Her bladder had been completely exposed due to the urine it held. What remained was the detrusor muscle—a fibrous, interwoven flesh of pale pink bordering on gray, much less red and irrigated than heart or thigh muscle. The uothelium, a watertight, incredibly glossy membrane, was visible. Because the bladder had been full or half-full when cut, this inner wall was not flat; it was covered in deep ridges and folds (rugae), resembling the inside of a stomach or a wrinkled walnut. The trigone and the two tiny ducts bringing urine from the kidneys were destroyed.
Even her legs were cut in two, along with her arms. And her neck.
Jean was completely destroyed. He cradled his daughter's ruined body. Despite her being dead, the red blood spilling from his daughter mixed with her father's dirty shirt. Then Jean picked up his daughter and continued his journey, noticing as he walked that every single body on the road had also been sliced perfectly in half.
Finally, Eüreuse slammed the horrible book shut, waiting for a sudden urge to vomit to pass.
Then Nigin called her to drink the tea.
His face showed a hint of annoyance.
"Sorry, Eüreuse, we are out of sugar."
Eüreuse truly loved sugar in her tea; for her, not having two sugar cubes was unimaginable.
"Arhhhh! Arhhh!"
"Calm down."
Eüreuse began to have a panic attack because she had no sugar.
"Breathe deeply."
Eüreuse calmed down, taking deep breaths.
"I'll go get some."
Eüreuse fully intended to go find some herself.
"I suppose you are grown up now, but be careful. The demons are hunting you. Besides, do you even know where the sugar is?"
"No."
"In the Elven markets."
"Where are the Elven markets?"
"In the Warm Lands."
"Then I will go tomorrow."
"Be careful, then."
Nigin wanted to give Eüreuse her independence; he no longer wanted to be an overprotective father. He wanted to grant his adoptive daughter her freedom.