What are Cores? P:1

"Hm..." I felt something touching my stomach.

I opened my eyes and Xarana was the one poking me. 'No, I should...'

"Mo-mother?" Mother started crying as she picked me up. (I didn't even know bats could cry.)

"Oh, my little Vess!" She hugged me as I realized we were in an attic of a building.

She was starting to squeeze me a bit too much so I asked her a question in the hopes she would let go. "Did we move?"

Mother released me allowing me to take a deep breath and look around to see the space had makeshift crates and fishing poles. "Yes, the cave was both compromised and trashed."

"Well, that makes me feel better..." She stared at me with distress still evident on her face.

"What?" I stretched and felt pain in my limbs.

"What happened when I was gone?" I stopped stretching but the pain remained, so I just plopped on the ground.

This floor was made of wood and much nicer than the cave's wet stone floor. 'Is this human-made? I'll ask after I answer Mother's questions.'

"Just as you left I heard one of the sticks you set out at the entrance breaking" I explained as Mother scoped me up to hold me.

I realized that she won't leave me alone anymore. 'I prefer it that way... At least until I can protect myself.'

"So I hid in a stalactite as two wolves walked in. The two wolves said they wanted a core and that I had one, Um... Mother?" I looked at Mother and felt a wave of bloodlust wash over me although it wasn't directed at me it still made my breath hitch and was far worse than the wolves.

'I would have definitely fallen, if the wolf was this scary... And probably have a heart attack too.' I couldn't even ask Mother to stop because I could barely breathe let alone talk,

so I had to wait for her to calm down.

It took a few minutes but went away letting me breathe easily. "I'm sorry dear I got carried away continue."

"It's ok I understand. Alright, where was I..." I told her everything including the insect that was waiting for me to leave.

"And that's about it although I felt myself getting jostled around before I blacked out." I knew it was Mother but I mentioned it anyway.

"They could regenerate from that? it means they won't be hard to find them." I felt her release some bloodlust again. 'I have to distract her!'

"But what is a core? Is it something in my body?" The bloodlust went as she looked down at me. I really wasn't sure what a core was but I had a small idea.

Mother gave me a strange look like I said something stupid. "Oh right, you forgot my explanation! A core is what you have in place of a heart."

"It's more than that right?" Mother nodded and continued.

"Just to clarify not all... what should I call them?" Mother seemed to get stuck on the detail.

"Core beasts?" I threw out the suggestion to get the explanation going again.

"That's perfect! thank you Vess~ Anyway, not all core beasts have them in place of their heart. It could be a lung, liver, stomach or even the uterus could be replaced with a core." Mother poked me each time she said an organ in the spot of said organ.

"So they have to replace an organ?" I thought it would be an additional thing not a replacement.

"Yes, otherwise it will act like a tumor in the body." Mother pointed at a mushroom growing on a crate making the wood it was growing in weak.

"It's made even worse since if a core

is removed, no matter where or what was replaced from the core beast will die instantly." I figured that I would die but it still unnerved me to think about how the wolves wanted to rip out my heart.

Mother looked at me probably waiting for me to ask another question. "How do you know where my core is?"

"You told me after I showed you how to find it... We need to do that again after this." I can feel the exhaustion in her voice as she said the last half. '...Is it that bad?'

I shook my head as I thought of my next question. "So what does a core do?"

"Besides improving the said organ's function, it gives a trait like your soul of rebirth trait." I feel resentful over the trait I was given but I can't do anything to vent this besides crying.

Mother rubbed my head probably knowing how I felt. "What's your trait Mother?"

"I have three dear but I'll only tell you my first the other two will be a surprise. My first is bloodlust amplifier, it's pretty self-explanatory but it does make it hard to stay calm." I understood this from my recent experience with it. 'Wait three? She'll tell me how got those soon.'

I knew she wouldn't tell me what they were for the sake of the surprise so I moved back to the main topic. "Why did those wolves want my core then?"

"There are probably two reasons why they wanted a core specifically. One being, that they needed it to evolve and the other being that they wanted to make another wolf a core beast." I didn't exactly understand but Mother continued.