Struggle to Survive

In the dead of the night, and in the middle of trying to escape her shackle, Yilas had thought she heard a howl, a sound so familiar that she had thought it was Viosus's. Yilas dropped all that she was doing and looked to the moon and tried to listen but it was all her mind playing a trick with her. No howling was ever there, just herself and the moon.

Yilas admired the nightlight and reminiscent of the night her clan ate together. Viosus, Sabal, and Neo were by her side, Merth, Berthort, Lyth and little crow all happily enjoyed their food. They converse with one another in laughter, the atmosphere was always warm when she's with them. Opposite to how cold and lonely she felt right now.

'Are they still alive? Are they doing well?' Yilas asked herself 'Did Bryok send people to kill them? Why haven't they come to find her yet? What if Bryok had already got rid of them so that's why nobody had come to find her yet'. Yilas's mind filled with dark desperate thoughts, she couldn't explain why to herself, she had treated them like family and they seemed to have to share the same feelings toward her, yet Yilas couldn't help but feel scared. She was scared of what she was thinking was true.

Shaking herself off the thoughts, Yilas tried to focus again on escaping the ties. She was on her knees, kneeling with her wrists and ankles bound around a cylinder-shaped tree trunk that had the texture of a rose stem. All this time since she woke, Yilas was using her nails to try to pick the ties on her wrists. But it had proved itself to be rather impossible.

Yilas wonder why the stranger came and help her, and who he was. If he had wanted to help her, why not untie her? Maybe he wanted Yilas to continue staying bound to this tree. A million questions ran through her mind when suddenly Yilas picked up a noise coming toward her from behind, it had sounded like Bryok's guard coming to check on her again. Yilas fell limp on the ground again and pretended to be asleep.

"I swear I heard something" a voice coming from nearby, even with her eyes closed, Yilas could feel the voice was coming closer to her.

"We checked all over, there's nothing, this is the last place, just drop it" another voice accompanying the first one that Yilas could hear, they were walking closer and closer.

"Hmm… it's strange but I don't see anything changed since earlier" the first one said again.

"I told you" the second one huff in an annoyed manner.

After a long while of silence, Yilas opened her eyes to check around as she had thought those beasts had gone away. Yilas quickly resumed with her plan by trying to untie herself, this time using the prickly thorns of the tree, slowly cutting the tie.

"Ahh haaaaaa!!! I told you I heard it!" The voice came back from behind Yilas, making her heart jump out of her chest. Yilas froze immediately and looked for the voice nearby, but she could barely see anything under the dimly lit moonlight.

The two beast-men took no time to get to Yilas, one immediately check the ties on her arms before coming to look her in the face.

"You can't escape female, stop trying!" The first one came and kneel down to catch Yilas's face, making her look him in the eyes.

It was not one of the guards that Yilas had to remember, the man had long slick dark hair, and also he was a centaur which reminded her of Zassar.

"Zassar...?" Yilas squinted her eyes trying to get a better look at the man but she couldn't tell, they were similar but something didn't feel right to her.

"If you dare to speak his name again, I'll kill you!" The man hand's on Yilas's cheek squeezed painfully, he meant to threaten her. It wasn't Zassar, Yilas knew for sure now, but they are somehow very similar.

"You must be his brother..."

"Shut up!" The man cut off Yilas, throwing her face to the side forcefully as he once again stood up to his full length. The other man who was checking on Yilas's ties now stood next to the first one, his shadow looked smaller, but also half centaur, the only difference was the pair of horns on his head.

"If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be in the state that he's in!" The centaur man angrily grunted, his voice was hoarse and it sounded as if he was the one that was in pain.

"Wh-What's wrong with him?" Yilas immediately asked she had thought Zassar might also be captured by Bryok's soldiers and brought back to receive the same punishment as she had. She had known nothing good will happen to him, yet she still worried that he was worst off than her. And it made her heart filled with guilt.

"You even dare to ask me what's wrong?" The centaur man scuffed angrily as he crossed his arms on his chest.

"I-I am really sorry, I will testify that Zassar had nothing to deal with me escaping..."

"You think your words mean anything to master Bryok?" The centaur laughed, what he said wasn't entirely baseless. "But you should know after Zassar was left in that dark forest, his spiritual energy suffered greatly, he is still unconscious right now..."

"Wh- What?? How could it be? I didn't hit him hard, I was only making him sleep, so I could follow Mohsen..." Yilas murmured to herself as she thought of what she did, though she remember what happened, it didn't cross her mind that it could have hurt Zassar so greatly.

"No matter what you did" The centaur man snared angrily once again at Yilas "or what that forest did, it drained Zassar of his energy, he still hasn't waked and nobody knows if he will ever wake."

The man stoop closer to Yilas and spoke these few words extra slowly, making sure it got through her thick head.

"So you better fix him or I will make sure you pay with your life."