Mira stopped walking. Her endless runner had finally sickened her enough to speak out.
The owl hooted, drifting to a no lower branch just ahead. The forest had rapidly calmed down, no longer spewing predators out at every corner. Beasts were still present though, but pitifully so. Everything else, from the shifting topography to the temperature fluctuations to the blinding mist, also seemed less frantic as time went on.
They had been circling for hours, no closer or farther than they had been at the beginning, just on a different location on the spiral.
Mira swallowed, forcing the hanging words to jerk out of her throat. "Why?"
The owl was not amused this time, it did not smile or tilt its head. It just forward, watching something Mira could not see.
"You are being delayed," it said, a hint of reluctance sparkling in its voice.
She frowned. "Why are you delaying me?" Her voice was smaller than intended. She hated that.
"Not by me, I'm merely an executioner of objectives, incapable of making decisions," it sounded even more somber.
"So what is?"
"The forest."
Mira shuddered. She knew that the term "forest " was just a simplified substitute for the presence in the sky. She imagined what kind of force could make the owl so submissive.
But the power of the superior wasn't too concerning at the moment, what was was the fact that she was a prisoner now, albeit one with more leverage. She had suspected that after seeing the Sam tree twice. After noticing the forest simmer down in its intensity. After feeling the thread that connected her and Pluto fade. Not growing farther apart, just losing meaning.
" Do you have a will of your own," she asked.
"Depends on the day, depending on what the forest sees fit." The words were flat, having no emotional DNA to go by. The owl was neither ashamed nor proud.
It continued. "My will does not have anything to do with this. It is simply necessary. Certain events must happen at certain times," it paused. "And premature occurrences can... hinder balance."
"What balance?"
"People, places, occasions. They are all results of equilibrium."
Her jaw tightened. "And my presence can disrupt, the balance?"
"For now it can."
She huffed. She was just too small in the grand scheme of things. From Pluto's separation, to her desperate call to the owl for help must have been planned. And it all seemed like her idea. If this was true, did it mean she had no free will?
Silence crackled noiselessly between their words. She had just been barred from mingling with the outside world for a period of time, and in actuality, it wasn't that much of a bad thing. She was safe now.
"Where are we? I'm certain this isn't the forest. Too little things trying to kill me."
The owl shook its head. "This is the forest, not just anywhere you remember. Think of it as a corridor through the violence."
She nodded. She had come to a similar conclusion on her own. She was a pawn, but a valuable one no less.
The thought frustration her. Maybe if she wasn't so helpless, she would have had a say in this.
She clenched her fists. "Fine," she said. "We wait."
***
Saul had abandoned the facade of strength. He no longer had the will to keep pretending.
He was now incapable of standing without support. The sonic groan seemed to do more damage the more time passed. It ravaged tissues, it scraped his internals. Every breath had a money tag he could barely afford to pay.
Pluto supported him, oddly enough. Rationally, he was supposed to end Saul's life. He had threatened to kill Pluto and frankly, battle seeds were rare to come by. But he didn't. His reasons were numerous.
Saul grimaced. He was in pain and also uncomfortable being helped so much. "I can walk."
Pluto nodded. "You can," he started. "Badly."
Saul gritted through his teeth, swallowing the copper taste that reoccurred a little too often.
They stopped when a faint rustle broke the silence, carrying mist ahead.
A predator.
Pluto focused and felt it ways description fell short of explaining. Its warmth was quite dim, signifying that it had been wounded. Its size was also of little area, thankfully.
He lowered Saul carefully against a tree. Saul looked up at him. Pluto hadn't told him of his strange ability to see heat patterns, but his seriousness, combined with his analytic expression, told him that Pluto saw what he didn't.
"What do you see?" He asked with an unraveling calm.
"Mid sized. Limping at the left hind leg."
Saul's eyes sharpened. "It'll favor the right. So it won't have exquisite pivot control. Take advantage, and wait for the buckle in its movements. Two turns before attacking."
Pluto nodded. He took the weapon Saul stretched out to him. A dagger with parts too irregular for balance, but he would have to make do. The fate of their survival was in his hands. His especially.
He wasn't just seeing his enemy, his mark made sure of that by broadcasting his signal to the beast twice as hard as he could see it.
The mark on his shoulder kept pulsing, irritated at the slightest movement. The black veins hadn't progressed much, but their faintness had almost reached his collar bone.
He moved without stalking, there was no point in that especially when it could see him. The predator lunged too.
Just as they met, centimetres away from clashing, Pluto shifted weight. The turn was poorly executed, with claws still managing to draw blood. But the predator had missed its primary goal.
Pluto knew he had to end this faster, because the more time the beast spent in presence of his mark, the more the will to kill him grew.
It turned again, following the right in accordance with Saul's words.
Pluto was already moving out of the way before it fully turned. Its pivot was even worse than the first. It was clumsy.
Pluto felt his eel tighten along his hand as he swung his blade out. The strike was shaky but steadied a bit by his silent companion's guidance.
The predator tried to block but its leg buckled and disoriented it long enough to be no more.
The predator fell over with a wet thud. Pluto stood over it, breathing hard. The battle had been short but high octane. He had almost died to the first pivot.
But it was enlightening though. It was a glimpse into how Saul easily dispatched enemies. He wasn't just skilled, he was calculative.
Pluto pondered on it for a moment, then extracted the core and returned to Saul.
Saul had seen a bit of the battle, and was quite shocked it has ended so quickly. But he was far from being impressed.
Pluto slipped the core into Saul's hand. "Have it."
Saul shook his head. "You killed it."
"You guided me," Pluto replied calmly.
Saul paused, he wasn't going to push any further, especially because he actually wanted it. He closed his fingers around it, steading his breathing before absorbing it.
Pluto moved away slightly, pretending as if he was scanning the area. From his pocket he retrieved two cores he had kept from earlier stealing. He absorbed them without the rituals Saul had performed, enjoying the warmth that merged with his blood stream.
For a moment the burning in his shoulder eased. The flickering heat signatures in the distance that were approaching him reduced in speed.
"We need to move," he said as he walked back to Saul. Saul was quick to nod in agreement. This time he didn't protest when Pluto helped him up.
One was the brains, the other was the body. The arrangement was unspoken.
***
Ronan groaned thinly and collapsed against a moss covered rock.
Khalifa did not comment, she instead, joined him. The third member of their group met up with them after a bit of perfunctory surveillance, he also lowered himself silently beside them.
They were no longer tired, they were unable to go on. The sun had redrawn most of the light that passed through the mist, so it was safe to assume that night had come.
They slept without assigning watch. They cared for nothing now, except of the joy of a goodnight sleep.
The core sat between them, glowing a ghostly blue light and laying untouched.
***
The entrant who had seen the tiger-like beast could no longer tell the tale. Not because he wanted its existence to remain a secret, but because he was too dead to speak.
His body laid in the same spot that he had been when the tiger had locked onto him. But it was far from being human anymore. It laid twisted and mangled into a puddle of blood and flesh.
The tiger creature moved with cadence and fearless, almost inviting other abominations to challenge it. It was standout, having flesh instead of vines and bone instead of bark.
And it hunted like it hated.
Not with hunger or instinct, but something sharper.
Soon, something accepted its challenge. It was the hulking brute that had ripped apart the original third of Ronan's group.
The larger predator grumbled, but its deep lungs made it sound like a deafening roar. It lunged forward just after sound settled.
It was a showdown of opposites. Strength versus speed.
The forest tremored as they clashed. Claws met bubbling mass of thick liquid under thin skin. Teeth clamped inches away from throat.
The larger predator dominated the board with titanic force, but the few chances the tiger got, where use optimally.
The brute swung with bomb level destructive power, but the tiger dodged it. It carved deep along the skin of it before it lost the momentum it had used in a missed attack.
The larger beast cracked down against the tiger's shoulder moments later. It bone waned but didn't break.
It struck back, severing blobs of flesh from lose tendons. The battle was ugly and closely matched. No enhancements, just pure carnage.
Blow after blow, the larger predator began to falter. Its swings had been slow, but it got slower.
Eventually it fled, but the tiger did not pursue. It should still for a moment, then resumed hunting.
***
Pluto and Saul had settled in under the thick darkness of the night. Their home was a shallow bore in stone. Two of them couldn't stay in it at once.
Pluto stared into the dark somberly.
" Just mood is too dismal," Saul muttered.
Pluto looked at him, surprised that he had struck up a conversation. Pluto smiled slightly.
"I was raised that way. There wasn't really much to be optimistic about when you lived my kind of life," Pluto said bitterly.
"What kind of life is that?"
"An underdog one. My parents struggled to see me through school. My mum believed education was some sort of get-rich-quick charm. My dad said that life rewards effort, not results."
Saul listened with a plain expression.
"I did everything right," he said. "Right in a mediocre sense that is. I got a job, low pay but stable," his jaw tightened.
He didn't feel right sharing this much with a stranger, but he had started, so he might have as well finished. "Then budget cuts came in, and apparently I was since as an expense the company was better off without. After that, I worked for wages and not salary."
"Bad luck," said Saul flatly.
"Consistently," added Pluto.
He paused for a while, then asked. "What about you?"
Saul's eyes drifted towards the trees. "I never had those kind of problems. Mine was... earlier."
Pluto didn't push, but this was the second time he had gotten cheated in this hellish landscape.
He grumbled and stood up. "I'll take the first watch."
Saul nodded and retreated into the hole.
Just as Pluto eyes adjusted to the abysmal dark, he felt it.
Not a predator.
Not a person.
But a presence that told him the forest, along with its inhabitants, never went to sleep.