Getting Inside

"Why did you stop?" Mutallu asked.

He seemed to have been asleep, but the moment Arawn slowed, he raised his head and looked around with alertness. His scan of the surroundings, however, did not produce any results.

'Soldiers,' Arawn murmured, but his words could not be understood.

It was hard to explain it as well. The soldiers weren't standing like an army blocking their way, but hiding all around the mansion and outside its walls. The compound would seem normal from afar if they ventured toward it down the main road, but it would only be an illusion.

But Arawn could not just leave. Mutallu was still heavily injured, and Sylvester might be in danger. It was hard to believe that the king's soldiers would just leave once they caught whoever they were looking for.

"There's an ambush ahead?" Mutallu asked while sliding down to the ground, and Arawn looked back at him in surprise.

Wasn't the kid a bit too smart? Arawn could have stopped because he was lost or because he wanted to hunt for another meal. They hadn't taken a break since the morning, and it was evening already. The sun would set in a few hours.

"Why can't we go around?"

Arawn turned around and lowered his head to bump his nose against the boy's arm. There was a blood-soaked strip of cloth on it that stank of sweat and something more foul.

Mutallu tilted his head for a moment, as if thinking, then his eyes lit up with understanding. "There's someone who can heal me?" His expression hardened a moment later. "No healer would help me. I'm a renegade."

Maybe no normal healer, but Sylvester was a doctor who had once trained to become a hound. His moral compass had been skewed a long time ago, and if he helped Corwal, he should help them as well.

"You know the healer personally? Is that it?"

There was hope in the boy's voice that he tried to hide, but it was unmistakable. Like most people, he desperately wanted to live no matter how horrible his lot. Despite his numerous injuries, he was still moving about and pushing himself to have a chance to survive.

Arawn nodded, then looked at the road that hid behind a copse of trees. Hope was good, but they still had to get to the mansion. There was also the problem of not knowing if Sylvester was really inside. He could have escaped when he found out that the compound would get surrounded.

"I'll go and find the person then," Mutallu said with confidence. He straightened and placed his hands on his weapon sheaths, but they were empty. A frown flitted past his face, but it was soon replaced byr determination. "Who is it?"

With a sigh, Arawn extended one claw and began writing on the road.

"Is that an h? No? Then k? No again? What is it then?"

Frustrated, Arawn slammed his paw against the ground, erasing all marks, and growled in a dark voice. Two days ago, Mutallu would have jumped back at such a display; a day ago, he would have shuddered but remained still; now, he only rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Done? I still want to know who the person is."

The sun was halfway through setting in the horizon when they finished. Mutallu repeated the name to himself a few times, then nodded and disappeared into the forest.

His steps were as silent as those of a ghost. The moment he got a bit farther away, even Arawn couldn't hear him despite his supernatural hearing. It was quite amazing, but Arawn wasn't happy.

How was he supposed to know if something went wrong if he couldn't hear anything? With that thought in mind, he sneaked closer to the mansion. There were soldiers standing on the lookout all around, but it was getting dark, and Arawn was a creature that blended into the night.

His better vision and hearing allowed him to avoid the soldiers up to around some five hundred meters to the mansion. It wasn't as close as he wanted to be, but the soldiers were packed close together there. They hid only meters apart from each other, and while some abandoned their posts to go chat with their companions, it only created a minor hole in the net. A good five or more men would need to leave for Arawn to be able to get closer.

Once he was sure that there was no more going forward, Arawn lay down and listened. He tuned out the natural sounds of the forest and the whispers of the men and focused on where he had last seen Mutallu.

Soon, he found the boy slithering on his belly past a half-asleep soldier. It was unlikely that the soldier would notice anyone, but Mutallu didn't take chances. He sacrificed any idea of speed for the sake of remaining unnoticed.

In a while, he got close to the wall, but then faced the same problem as Arawn. The network of soldiers right around the mansion was just too thick. There was no way to go through or around them.

'Are they waiting for me?' Arawn wondered, then shook his head. The news from the capital shouldn't have reached this place yet, not unless the king had sent a rider that wouldn't have slept nor taken any rest for two days to deliver it.

'If they don't know me, doesn't that mean that they would treat me as just another wild beast?'

A smile stretched across Arawn's face, and he rose to his feet. The rustle of leaves attracted the attention of a nearby soldier, and he looked over. Seeing nothing, he was about to turn away when a loud howl assaulted his ears.

Arawn made as much noise as he could before running straight into the soldiers before him. They jumped to their feet with shouts of horror and confusion, depending on whether they reacted to seeing him or hearing his howl.

"What was that?"

"Wolves?!"

"Beast! Beast! Someone turned into a beast!"

Various cries echoed in the forest that had seemed empty moments ago. Anyone who saw Arawn panicked and ran away as fast as their feet would take them. No one wanted to face the murderous creature in the semi-darkness by themselves.

This was just perfect for Arawn. He didn't want to kill people, just create some confusion so Mutallu could slip through the encirclement. There was no need for anyone to die because of that.

The boy was surprised at first and remained hidden, but soon, he noticed the clear path before him. All the soldiers were busy gathering up to face the shadowy creature among them and forgot all about their original goal to ensure that no one got past them.

Mutallu got to the wall, then waited for a moment as a squad of soldiers left the mansion to find out what was happening outside and sneaked in through the door they left unlocked.

The clamor around Arawn grew too loud after that for him to be able to listen more. The soldiers had formed up a lot faster than he expected and were harrying him with their spears. Still, his main goal had already been achieved.

To make his act believable, he struck a few soldiers without much force and growled loudly for a few minutes more before running away. While escaping, he wondered if he was destroying the good name of all beasts.

They were known to be cold-blooded murderers that had no idea what fear meant. Even if they were on their last breath, they would still try to kill their enemy. Their viciousness had no bounds.

And then there was Arawn repeatedly passing by humans without doing anything. He hadn't touched anyone in the castle nor in the forest, and when he did attack, it was more to threaten people into getting out of his way than to slaughter them.

His constant escaping from conflict couldn't be a good sign either. If he met any real beast, he was sure he would get a scolding.

His limbs froze, and he stopped with his right paw raised for the next step. He had been just amusing himself with silly thoughts, but that last idea struck him hard. Would he be able to talk to other beasts while in this form?

The ether form was alone like that, so he had taken the beast as such as well. Although he knew other beasts existed, he hadn't connected them with himself to realize that they were of one blood.

Yet wasn't language something that had to be learned? There was no way he could just suddenly break out into fluent beast language, whatever that meant.

Not that he was certain beasts even had a language. Whenever anyone turned, they lost all intelligence. The beasts were smart, but only animal-level smart. They could avoid obvious traps and learn from experience, but they mostly relied on their impenetrable skin and resistance to ether to fight back.

They also killed everyone in their sight, be it their family or friends. This more than anything else spoke about how the people who turned lost their reasoning. No sane person could ever attack people they cared about.

'Does this mean I won't be able to speak to any one of them? But I want to know who we are and why I am an abomination even among them. There has to be someone besides the archmage who can tell me that.'

It was impossible that only one person knew it, but Arawn couldn't go off to explore his heritage. If he tried, he was sure the king would get to whatever was still out there and destroy it to keep him in check. There was no low that the king would not stoop to for the success of his schemes.