Connection with the underworld 17.3

The other beastman stared at me when I got into the deck. My yellow eye stared back at them, and they quickly looked the other way. I growled lowly and then yawned. (Every beastman has its human form... This should do.) I jumped, and when I landed, I had two feet on the ground.

My beastman humanoid form had black hair long enough to go past my waist, I was taller than usual, and my muscles weren't as ripped as my elf form. I found a white towel and wrapped it around my waist. The onlookers were mesmerized. One of the beastman dropped his crate and came to greet me.

"I haven't seen you boarding this ship. But since you're our kin, I'll let it pass. Where are you from?" The man was probably a rhino or a bull. He had the muscles of a fighter, tick hands of years of heavy labor, a shiny bald head, and a long gray beard. His eyes were blue and somewhat fearless. "I prefer to know your name first, before I answer, of course."

The old man laughed. "Martin, from the silver horn tribe." He said that with pride. (A rhino then. As for me...) I bowed slightly. "I'm Ewan. As for my clan..." The old man gestured for me to forget it. "Being a panther is hard these days. Back in my young days, you guys were pacific but strong." I sighed. "But our number was very low. Strong individuals can't win wars. I wish my father knew that..."

The rhino sighed. "But then, what brings a panther to my ship?"(Oh? Quite the way you have with the words old man.) I looked back and leaned my back on a crate. "My mother escaped to the human continent when I was very little. We lived among humans, but when the Temple found out that we were beastman, they hunted us for months." I put on a sad mask on my face.

The old man also leaned his back on a crate, waiting for me to continue the story. "My mother was captured, but I was able to escape. Unfortunately, not unscattered." I had my hair covering my right eye all the time, and with my right hand, I showed him my scar. He stared at it for some time and whistled after a while. He looked the other way and gestured for me to cover it again.

I cover it again. "It happened ten years ago. Now, I'm on my way to the north island. I want to start over, somewhere where I don't need to sneak in broad daylight to not be killed, among my kin." The old man remained silent after I finished talking.

He crossed his arms and stared directly into my eyes. "I'll give you a piece of advice from my life experience. Dreaming about a bright future is good, but don't expect it to happen. You're young, and you have a good aura around you. Use your strength to seek revenge on the ones that killed your parents, and if you can, on the ones that destroyed your clan. A pacific life doesn't fit a panther."