Chapter 56
Tonsil gave a deep sigh of relief when she saw Ash walk out of that cave alive. He took his human form as soon as he met her gaze. His body was braced with bruises of all sorts all over and he shook his head at her, "come on."
"I thought you had died in there with all of the noises I heard coming from over there, oh my God." Tonsil said, hoping he would come get his wife that was lying by her feet helplessly.
"Is she conscious?" Ash asked, going on one knee and picking her up.
"I do not know. She has made a few mumbling sounds but that has honestly been all."
"Let's get out of here, who knows how many more of these dead creatures lurk around,” he groaned, slinging Myan onto one shoulder.
***
"This is where I have to say goodbye." Tonsil announced as soon as they got to Vi stream.
Ash didn't think he would miss her, but he was somewhat grateful for the information that she had been kind enough to give to him. It wasn't very likely that he would have understood what the Bingsols had in mind although these Tonners had been intrusive, he thought he owed them.
"Thank you for your help,” he simply muttered, leaving without waiting for her response.
"It wasn't the best thing I had done nor enjoyed doing either, but I hope in the future, if we have to meet again, it is for nothing but joy." With those last words, Tonsil gave him a weak smile that faded once she glanced at Myan. She shook her head with a sigh and disappeared into her world after her transformation into a Tonner.
Ash was determined, nothing would happen to his wife, as long as he was alive. He would protect her and that child she had in her.
The child.
Yes, how would Myan take the news?
She had showed no symptoms in the last two months, no sign of protrusion either, but he knew the Tonner could not have lied to him and the events made perfect sense.
He would deal with that later.
***
“My love, are you doing better?” Ash asked when he noticed a small stir on the bed.
“I have a terrible headache.” Those were her first words.
Her memory was blank. She was drowned in a world of the subconscious. She wanted the answers to so many things, but she didn't even know the questions to ask.
Myan sat up with a heavy pain on her shoulders, scrunching her face in reaction. She looked around the room, blinking twice as fast, on repeat. There was a fire in the center of the room providing a strange warmth, in fact, the fire was doing too good of a job and was causing some parts of her to sweat.
She noticed just then, the even stranger scent that followed the smoke. It was not just any wood burning. It was the famous healing wood.
"Ash?" She finally muttered.
"I'm here." He hurried to sit beside her on the bed. "I'm here, there is no need to worry."
"What happened?" Myan groaned, pointing in the direction of the door and nodding slowly in realization. "First, I went to check on Maria. Yes, that was it. She wasn't there and then something—or someone—grabbed me with full force and pulled me out of the room. I was so scared Ash,” she finished her sentence with a sob, wanting nothing but comfort. She pulled him closer and wrapped him into a tight hug.
"It's all okay now, I promise Myan. I have dealt with everything. You don't need to stress, all you need is rest, I will explain some more after you rest,” he said, patting her back softly with each word.
"Who else is in here with us?" She lifted her head from his chest and furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"There's no one, I ensured that the cave is empty, servants, visitors, nothing." Ash hoped she would wipe the worried look she wore.
Myan stood to her feet sharply. "Then what's that noise?" She swallowed, spreading her arms in front of her and bending her knees a little. She was ready for attack.
"What noise?" Ash raised one eyebrow in confusion. He didn’t like how uneasy she seemed.
“There’s someone else here with us,” she swallowed, I can hear them.”
Her eyes moved to the small bowl of warm water on the table beside the bed. There was a wet napkin next to it and Ash must have been pressing it against her forehead the whole time.
She controlled the content of the bowl with her mind and formed a small ball of water a few inches away from her face.
Pressing her first two fingers on both hands against each side of her forehead, she aided her concentration, squeezing her face tight and that seemed to cause the ball to grow bigger in size.
Ash watched in confusion, his eyes widened, and his lips squeezed but he didn’t alter what she was doing with even the slightest word.
The ball grew a hundred times in size and was soon as big as the door.
Like she expected, the door came open and not one, not two but a hundred Bingsols ran in with screams of terror.
Ash flinched, taken aback. How had they not made any noises to his ears? And why had Myan been the only one to hear them? He thought he had gotten rid of all the Bingsols he could.
Because she had been prepared for an entrance, she released the ball of water immediately, washing a few of them out of the room with the full force from the water.
That was not enough to stop them, Ash knew he must step in. This was too far, even for him.
The last encounter, he had beat them with his hands but this time, he was going to show them he was the Lord of fire for a reason. These Bingsols admittedly looked stronger. They had horns and furry skin, four fingers with sharp, crooked claws and huge feet. They were brown, some red, others black, and they all smelled like unwashed feet.
Myan needed more water to work with, she thought. But she didn’t want to leave Ash by himself.
Ash charged at them with huge balls of fire from his feet, but they were prepared for that too. The fire hit some of them, catching them by the head and they fell to their feet with cries for help while the rest held up a shield that was fireproof, the more Bingsols they struck, more of them were crowding the small room every second, they never ended.
This would be a good time for the palace guards to be present but there was no hope since Ash rid the cave of any humans at all.
“We can’t contain them any longer, we have to get out of here!” Myan cried. She had only recovered and was still exhausted from her headache and now she had to deal with this.
Ash shifted into his Aeu, picking her up and wrapping her firmly in his arms. He walked out of the room, stepping on Bingsols, ignoring the sea of them that hit him and dodging the angry attack tools they tossed at him.
The endless population of them outside his mountain caused him to feel nauseous, how many of these beasts were in existence and why wouldn’t they leave his Myan alone?
The ground shook under his feet when they got outside, and he saw how the stones trembled. That was a notification sign that the Bingsols were running after them as they furthered out of there.
"There they go!" One Bingsol announced. The loud shrieks deafened him, but he held his wife tight as if his entire existence was dependent on that.
Myan looked over Ash's shoulder, worry drowning her soul. She widened her eyes with a gasp as she saw one of them toss a boulder in Ash's direction. She would have wondered how he managed to have the strength to throw a boulder that big, but her husband's safety mattered the most to her.
"Ash look out—” she began, trailing off at the interruption of the boulder striking Ash.
With an angry growl, Ash fell to his knees.
"Ash!" Myan wailed on the top of her voice, tears streaming down her cheeks. Ash shifted into his human form uncontrollably, bleeding profusely.
That still did not do it for these creatures as they formed a sea around them. That was the peak for Myan.
With a deepened frown marked across her face, she broke free from Ash's hold, rising in her erect form, her legs slightly spread apart.
The effect was accompanied by a strong wind out of nowhere that swept the Bingsols backwards.
She kept rising above the crowd, literally.
She spread her arms apart and in between them, a huge water ball was forming without a water source. Her eyes were a bright, illuminated white light and her loose hair swung around aggressively like a pack of loose snakes.
Ash watched with terror. What happened next struck him in shock, the water ball she was creating caught on fire. Hot, red fire.
What was happening to his Myan?