Chapter 34: Weird

The relief I felt when seeing that no monsters had reached the dead town didn't last very long. It's been a month and a few days yet no monsters had advanced. Aren't they supposed to be endless and although they have different groups which I've seen two so far their purpose is to poison and drain the land and in fact nature of its life right? Not to forget that as they are monsters they'd want to eat. Not that there's anything to eat in the dead town or the farm we passed which must make them want to advance further to where there's life. It's just too weird no matter how hard I try to understand them.

As mindless as they seem to be I am certain that there must be something that drives them.

'This has never happened before ' said Vale

I immediately felt a chill when hearing him say that, also weird that I couldn't hear a single ounce of worry in his voice.

'what do you mean?'

'you saw how fast they are, if we can reach these poisoned lands in less than a day then what is stopping them'

That is a very good question, an important one but before I could add to his words he continued

'but it's weird that many of these monsters have speed almost rivaling ours yet they never advance in less than a day. It's obvious that they choose not to and maybe it's because whatever place they invade with their poisonous existence they want to make sure it's poisoned thoroughly? ...Still it has never taken them a full month to do whatever it is that holds them up'

Okay so he is smart or maybe it's because him and his pack members have been fighting these monsters for a long time now so he'd be a fool to not notice their behavior.

It can't be that an existence like these monsters sprouted out of nowhere. Someone must've created this. It's definitely not by mistake, we may not be able to understand them but their very existence is a clear intent to destroy the world. So if one is brave enough or noble enough to want to save this world it would be by finding the source. The person or thing that created this. I'm looking forward to who will be able to do that and I'll be rooting for them of course.

'Don't let this scare you, I'm sure it's nothing and if danger arrives I am here to protect you'

Ok I'll admit that for a moment there I got shocked at his deep but now softer voice, is he really comforting me? but I was quick to dispel that. He is tricking his potion making machine and it's stupid of him to say 'if danger arrives' as if we are not going towards it. As much as I am a bit worried about the unexpected I'm also thrilled just by the thought of a dangerous battle.

"of course! and I hope if you aren't able to protect me you won't think of yourself as incompetent"

I blurted those twenty words that were wrapped in sarcasm out loud. I'm sure they reached his ears and I prayed for them to not reach the other werewolves ears but my prayers weren't answered. I felt multiple eyes on me even though they were moving at incredible speed.

After a few minutes of silence that I really appreciated he suddenly talked about Zik.

'you must 'really' like Zik then'

Okay I could've been imagining it but he sounded unhappy, not the usual kind of unhappy. This one was different, there was anger and something like...no! I'm definitely imagining it. There's no way! A person like him can never feel that way. I even chuckled while thinking about it. He probably doesn't want me to be attached to Zik because he sees me as a machine meant to do one thing, potions. My magic was a bonus to him. I was about to give another sarcastic answer but he quickly changed the topic.

'The potions on you, they're different aren't they?'

I honestly didn't think he'd last this long without asking but in the end he just couldn't resist couldn't he.

'yes they are and I made them for myself'

' Thats not the reason why I brought you in my pack. You are to make potions for us not for yourself. The ingredients that you used were collected by MY pack members and everything you used to make them BELONGS to the pack. You're in the pack to assist US! not yourself!'

Ah well not the reaction I was expecting and I'm stupid for that, still I really didn't want to ruin the surprise.

'Their use on me will benefit the pack, It will help your pack and I'm sorry but I prefer demonstrating it. Besides, it's not like you're gonna throw them, you know that they're magical. You also won't forcefully use them to yourselves because you don't know what they are for'

It seems Zik didn't tell him about the invisibility potion that he witnessed being tested and I wonder why. He even looked too excited before we left.

' you're very stubborn, I just hope you don't disappoint '

...

After a while of riding we came to a halt. Before us was a forest or what used to be a forest. It's a huge forest with grey towering trees that were too dead and dry to have a single leaf on them. Staring for too long would make you feel the world itself begging to be saved.

Thanks to there being no leaves or any greenery it was easy to see in-between the trees. The forest wasn't empty, there was a mix of monsters and swift Glooms but they weren't looking at us or even facing us. It looked like they were going to the same direction that we were going, venturing deeper into the forest.

"We mustn't let them escape!" I think I heard Roseanne shout nonsens. There were about fifty monsters and although they were speeding deeper into the forest it didn't look like they were running from us. Okay maybe it does but these are monsters! They are super strong and aren't afraid of us so why would they be escaping when one haven't even laid it's eyes on us.

Before I could even voice my thoughts or thought of the right way to voice them I saw an arrow penetrate one of the monsters on its back.