Bitter Reencounter

Fenrir manages to enter the zerbarix nest and quickly hides behind a rock to assess the situation. When he looks out he does not notice any movement or sound, everything is relatively quiet for him and he walks cautiously to explore inside.

Despite what the captain told him, the environment seemed calm, there was no threat and he did not feel the zerbarix approaching. However, Fenrir was not fooled by the atmosphere, for him, when the atmosphere is sold as relaxed and good, in reality, it hid the worst traps. Even so, Fenrir would not back down and would find Lion even if it cost him his life. Behind him appeared a shadow that watched him, he was curious about who was that person who had entered the nest, he had no armor like the knights and although he seemed simple, he emanated an aura of danger curious for the being that decided to follow him to see what he was capable of.

"If my brother ended up inside here, he must have left a clue so they would know where he went in case he couldn't continue the fight. But what would that clue be?" he thought as he observed every nook and cranny.

While walking Fenrir hears violent steps on the right side of the nest, the man senses danger, for now, he would try a clever tactic not to fight and stir up the hornet's nest before time. The man hides in a place near a pile of corpses of the knights that guarded the nest. Fenrir wondered that if these were insects that represented the purest and most terrifying hunger, why then were there corpses piled up like garbage? Something didn't seem to fit at all with what he knew of those creatures and what he was seeing.

Three zerbarix had appeared with scars, strange markings, and for some reason different from the other. Fenrir remembered when he saw in books the images and descriptions of a zerbarix. He remembered that they were like the rare combination of beetles with some kind of lizard with blades on their arms, the color of them was brown and the upper part dark. In addition to having eyes with cross irises with huge mouths, looking at the three zerbarix one could see more or less similar to what the man knew, but these had tentacles, barbed tails, and other weird features that did not match the species.

The most curious thing was that even the three zerbarix did not match any of the others, they were completely different from each other and they were there walking while making an annoying sound that caused headaches. Maybe because he was talking to each other, but in a way that the human's ear could stand because Fenrir was going crazy to the point that he fell to the ground because of the pain he ended up throwing a boot towards where the pile was causing a noise that gave away his presence.

"Shit." He hides behind the corpses. "What a crappy sound, I almost got killed with that. Because of that I'm going to be found out, think Fenrir, think." Thought the man with great speed in his thoughts to prepare for a possible fight.

The man looked up a little and his heart almost stopped when he saw a zerbarix ready to gobble the pile of corpses and thus reveal Fenrir's hideout. He prepares his gloves to fight, but when the creature touches a skinless body, the other two zerbarix begin to tear apart and eat their companion for not resisting hunger and settling for a low-quality meal. That terrifying scene had provoked something in the man, he was feeling a fear that he thought he would never feel again. He was no less, he had in front of his eyes the most terrifying creatures in the world, more terrifying than a hydra or a dragon, because they are supposed to be a pest difficult to eliminate because of their resistance and gigantic reproduction rate.

He could see firsthand how violent the creatures were, they were tearing each other apart and when the third one no longer showed signs of life, the two zerbarix were beginning to eat from the corpse's flesh.

"They are practicing cannibalism these monsters!" Thought the man in amazement.

When the two zerbarix finished eating to the bones of that fellow, they left the place. Fenrir swallows saliva trying to regain his composure, nothing happens luckily, but he realizes that these creatures are terrifying. They didn't even believe in companionship, maybe the hunger that the Sun Saviors had caused by isolating him from the world forced them to eat each other to avoid extinction somehow, but it couldn't be that at all. Something didn't add up, but Fenrir didn't have time for that, he had more important things to attend to.

"Fuck, it's one thing to read about a zerbarix and another to see it in person. They really are scary, but I'm better than these knights. I'm not going down, I won't die, we'll get out of this one alive brother." The man said to himself to keep himself calm.

The shadow, watching the fire inside the man falter, felt like he was wasting his time following it, but unexpectedly it was burning again smoothly and even brighter than ever. It was strange, no one had recovered the stability of his fire when he came to experience the same as he did, maybe there was something valuable to keep watching him.

Fenrir notices a white glove with the symbol of a bull formed of fire, it was the stupid drawing of his brother that he wanted to immortalize as his mark when he founded his division. As he gets closer he looks at it more closely and then looks around to find another clue that could tell him the possible direction he went. He noticed another glove with the symbol on it, so he hurriedly ran toward a hole that looked like a tunnel. That man crawled through the dirt and stones to reach a larger tunnel of sorts, it split in two directions.

"Right or left? Life always forces us to take a path, but it's not always the right one. If it were Lion, which one would I have taken?"

Fenrir looks at his surroundings looking again for possible signs or clues to take the path that was his younger brother, something told him that by taking the wrong one he would not be able to return at ease. He sees a path of blood, it is not the track he likes, but it is his best option because maybe only Lion was able to move longer out of danger, he just hoped that blood did not represent something fatal.

Fenrir notices a strange smell, he hides through the same tunnel to wait to see who was the owner of the stench that was approaching. It was another zerbarix, a rather fat one, with holes that expelled a foul substance that caused nausea. A fourth variant of the species was flashing before Fenrir's eyes, more questions were swirling in Fenrir's head as he looked at more differences between the same zerbarix that were alive. How were these differences possible, what was going on, or if it had something to do with the location of the nest? When the substance fell on Fenrir's arm, he noticed how his clothes dissolved, he reacted quickly to tear off that piece before it touched his skin, he saw how that piece of cloth turned to juice and the trail of blood had been replaced by a trail of what looked like excrement from the creature that passed by a little while ago.

"If I remember correctly, the blood mark was pointing to the right, but it's alarming to see variants of zerbarix coexisting down here. Come to think of it, I haven't seen the zerbarix corpses that Rinhood's group of knights have managed to eliminate, maybe it would be good to take a look when I leave here with Lion." He shakes his head in the negative. "Don't think stupid Fenrir, you are not looking to learn from these things, you should get your younger brother out of the place and then go far away where no one can find us to live a quiet life."

The man walks towards the tunnel on the right, the shadow following the man was getting more and more impressed to see the kind of things he could be capable of in enemy territory. Compared to the groups of humans, elves, orcs, and beast-men that had entered to fight in that nest only to die, this one entered without drawing attention to himself and walked avoiding being discovered or fighting with the zerbarix. The shadow was interested to know what was the purpose of these strange acts and movements, he could not understand what kind of living being entered to move from one place to another without searching, killing, and consuming.

Fenrir found a narrow passage as to pass for a person; besides the sheath of his brother's sword for having his name engraved on it. He was glad to feel that he was getting closer and closer to finding him, there was no trace of blood, and he felt that maybe Lion was able to control the situation. Even, with any luck, maybe Fenrir wouldn't have to carry his brother back out, with his brother in good condition, maybe they could both leave to return home to Hilfur.

"Please, if you are well I promise not to tell you that I was right until the day you die, because what matters is that you are well Lion. I know it was hard for you, but I have arrived after a whole year without help," Fenrir said between tears of joy.

The man began to slow down his steps while his voice faded, something was wrong because his joy began to disappear with every step he took. Fenrir stopped at a considerable distance from his brother while tears began to escape from his eyes and his body remained motionless like a statue. At last that wretched thief could find his younger brother, he had finally discovered the truth after a year of disappearance, unfortunately, he had been too late.

"Lion..."

Fenrir remembered the times when his younger brother would shed tears every time he got sad and this one would try to calm him down, telling him that tears were only for children with parents who would come to comfort him. But in the world of the two of them, tears were forbidden to be two children of the streets who had nothing and no one to protect them from danger and it was better to harden themselves to never suffer. However, Fenrir knelt on the ground, letting that bitter feeling run from his eyes. Fenrir was upset with his brother for not listening to him when he warned him, but he was more upset with himself for not being there to protect him.

"Why didn't I accompany him? Why didn't I become a stupid knight to be there to protect you? I'm a bad brother, I didn't keep my promise, Lion. "Forgive me Lion!"

Fenrir began to shout several times the name of his younger brother while hitting the floor. Fenrir's actions began to cause an echo that alerted different zerbarix of the presence of a living being different from them. The eyes of these creatures turn red as they enter a state of violence to find the origin of that life and extinguish it.

The shadow approaches but keeps its distance trying to understand what it meant what the human was doing for the corpse of the other person, it did not consume it as a zerbarix would do, it only saw it approaching while it embraced the decomposed remains of its younger brother while it continued to let out its sorrows and pain.