Chapter 19 : The Tragic story of the past

After Oric accepted the tree's request for help, he slowly walked to the edge of the huge rock platform, gazing at his surroundings. "Oric, what do you think is the best solution to defeating the alpha haunt hound?" she said, trying to come up with their next move.

Oric took some time contemplating and inquired, "I don't know, so what do you think is the best course of action?" he asked.

Nevata quickly smiled. "Well, I think it would be a good idea to stay and observe for 2 days."

"Why?" Oric interjected, which made Nevata a little timid.

"Well, this creature's behavior is very strange. I think it sensed us but has never attacked, but maybe that was just my imagination," she said with a doubtful smile.

Oric stayed quiet and started to reminisce about their past events and slowly fell into deep thought and he turned to her. "Nevata."

"Yes," she answered.

"Since we have been recognized by the forest, this is our new temporary home," stated Oric.

"Really, but I thought we were supposed to find a way to leave this forest because it's dangerous," she exclaimed with a bit of shock.

"We will leave this forest, but we are staying here, so go and clean the house," said Oric.

"What?" she was baffled.

Oric turned, walking to her, his eyes looking into hers. "I said go and clean the treehouse; don't make me repeat myself twice," a stoic expression formed on his face.

"Why?" she retorted.

"Mmmm!," he sounded with his face one inch closer to hers.

It was so close she could feel his breathing. After a quick stare, she quickly gave up. "Okay," she said while walking angrily to the wooden stairs and into the house.

As she got in, she angrily shut the door in anger. The old door couldn't handle the force, causing it to quickly break.

"You know you are also gonna fix that," Oric said through telepathy.

"How does he know how to use our bond's telepathy?" she angrily looked back, staring at Oric, who was also doing the same from downstairs. "This guy is smarter than he looks."

Nevata took some time to look at how old and dirty the whole house was. "Oh, God of the seas! Why do I have to do so much work? I'm royalty, you know!" she remarked.

Unexpectedly, "I know, but now you are my slave," said Oric telepathically, which made Nevata explode in annoyance, unable to retaliate.

"I'm starting to hate this guy even more, but now is not the time to take action," she said as she quickly started fixing and cleaning the treehouse.

As she cleaned, she came across a few clothes and other things.

Oric, on the other hand, was sitting at the edge of the huge rock while eating a fruit from the tree, which was blue in color. "Oh, this tastes good. I'm just happy this didn't make tree vines grow from within my body," he said.

He quickly stopped as his nose picked up a bad smell. He thought it was the fruit but then realized it was his body odor.

"Fuck, I smell as hell mixed with all the blood. And my hair looks untidy; it's too long and messy. I think I should bathe since we now have a house. I just hope Nevata fixes and cleans everything; she's stubborn, I think her royalty stuff is still in her head," he sighed and went back to his fruit. "What's the name of this fruit anyway? Well, it doesn't matter as long as it's food."

After a few hours, "Oric, I'm done with the cleaning," she said telepathically. "Okay, will be right there."

When Oric got to the house, he was astounded. "I thought royalties aren't gifted, but looks like you proved me wrong. You have some use; keep it up."

"How dare an 8-year-old boy treat a 17-year-old Nexie princess like a 5-year-old," she thought in anger. "I just want to strangle him and make him call me master, but because of the master-slave bond."

"I can read your facial expression that you want to strangle me like a dog or something, right? Hope you made me a warm bath," he said.

"Beshrew dee! I really want to make you pay for making me do all the work alone, but luckily I can't," she blurted in anger but quickly calmed herself and just gave Oric a death stare.

"Sigh! I'm gonna take a bath. I want you to keep watch if anything happens," Oric paid no mind to her anger and went to his bedroom, while Nevata went out to keep watch in case the monster had made any movements.

"I was expecting her to ask for help, but she did everything on her own. Well," he said.

"This place looks clean. Even though the building's design looks medieval, it's still better than living in my old cave," Oric's expression changed when he saw the hot bath prepared in a barrel. "How long has it been?" he said as he quickly removed his things and slowly entered.

Nevata kept watching for hours but still hadn't made any progress. "How long does it take that guy to bathe? I've been keeping watch outside and still haven't seen any signs of Oric."

Suddenly, Nevata spotted the alpha haunt hound staring at her from below the huge stone platform. This made her freeze at her spot, her breathing ragged. It was as if death was staring right at her.

After a few seconds, the Alpha haunt hound left and slowly walked to its cave.

Suddenly, a hand was placed on Nevata's shoulder, startling her as she quickly turned ready to cast a water spell but then realized it was Oric and fainted.

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At night, Nevata quickly jumped off her bed, sweating profusely, with ragged breathing. It took some time to calm her down. "I... I... I saw it. It's after me, it smiled at me. It wants me."

"The mana within her body seems to be out of control. If this continues, she might die." Oric quickly hugged her, comforting her. She cried until she was feeling less scared, and finally, the flow of mana within her body calmed down to a stable level.

When Oric realized this, he tried to give her some space by going back outside to keep watching and gathering info about this creature, but then Nevata held his right hand. "Please stay, don't leave me alone," she said softly.

Oric then turned to her, seeing a scared version of himself when he first arrived in this world. Out of pity, he sat next to her on the bed. "What did you really see?" he asked.

"I... I... saw it. It... it appeared out of nowhere and kept staring at me. Until I finally noticed it, within its eyes... it was scary."

Oric narrowed his eyes. "What did you see...?"

"Wh... within its eyes lies an abyss of pain and suffering."

"An abyss? What is that?" he asked.

"Argh!" she cried in pain, trying to remember. This forced Oric to stop praying for answers.

He stayed in her room and waited for her to fall asleep, but she couldn't. She kept holding his hand tightly close to her, so he slowly went on top of her bed and lied close to her, giving her comfort.

As she used his right hand as a pillow for her head, she looked straight into his eyes. As Oric gazed into her eyes, he could see fear and loneliness, something similar to his.

Suddenly, Nevata heard Oric singing a song that sounded alien to her. She wanted to inquire, but that would interrupt the calming performance. It was a shock to her at first; she only thought he was a heartless guy, but this only shows that he had more layers hiding his true self.

As Oric sang in the moonlight, it started to gather mana particles within the room, and finally, he was done with his song, which left Nevata in awe.

"This song was a song that my grandma used to calm my madness and put me to sleep."

Puzzled, she asked, "How does a person who is calm have a mad side?"

"I've..., its nothing...."

As Oric turned to Nevata, he then realized that she was fast asleep.

He then slowly removed his hand from her soft grip and replaced it with an old pillow and slowly walked out of her room and shut the door without making any noise.

Oric then walked outside to the edge of the stone platform and kept watch. He waited for a long time but made no progress. "I've waited here for a very long time, and these night insects are just sucking my blood for nutrition while I make no progress."

Unexpectedly Oric heard a haunting roar, which had an impact on his soul. Quickly he checked and saw the alpha creature. The creature stared at Oric as he stared back at it. As he stared, blood started to ooze out from his sea-blue eyes.

His eyes started to see an energy emitting from such a foul creature. After a few seconds of staring, it revealed its creepy smile, revealing its sharp rotting teeth and then slowly raised its skinny rotten arm, pointing it at Oric, which sent shivers down his spine.

But then, he realized something. It wasn't pointing at him, so he quickly turned to watch what this creature was pointing and roaring at and realized that it was the moon.

He then quickly turned his gaze back to the creature and saw nothing, as if it had vanished into thin air.

Suddenly, Oric felt a cold arm placed on his shoulder.

End of Chapter 19