Tasteless

A thunderstorm lit up the night, flashes of lightning tearing across the sky. Thunder rumbled through the Wilds, each crack making it feel as if another bolt was striking the earth every second. It was not just lightning picking up, however, but winds that battered the tall trees; it almost sounded like the forest itself was a screaming beast.

Sitting on a rock, Leander had a good view of the land outside, having sought shelter in a cave that overlooked the forest. His face was half illuminated by the fire at his feet as he looked at the storm ravaging the world beyond his shelter.

As it would happen, Leander was not the only one to seek shelter from the storm.

"My mom used to say that thunder was the cries of a Divine Beast that had given its life in some ancient battle over territory."

Watching as a lightning bolt struck a tree, causing it to topple over in the distance, Leander turned to the person who had spoken. Narina sat on a rock near him, sparing glances at the meat that was slowly cooking over the fire, almost drooling. As she looked at the storm outside, her excited gaze faded.

"Personally, I like to think it's no ancient battle. But an ongoing battle, a war between the Divine Beasts of nature and storms. The elements fighting each other to see who has the right to exist."

Narina returned Leander's gaze, a small smile appeared on her lips.

"I think that sounds a lot cooler, don't you?"

Furrowing his brow, Leander asked.

"Why have you been following me?"

Narina stared at Leander for a few more seconds before looking back to the fire. Its orange flames reflected in her eyes as she scratched at the rock she was sitting on – her nails leaving small marks on the stone surface.

"You're strong… I'm not, I need to be stronger. Will you teach me?"

Leander shook his head, his response was stern.

"I'll give you the same answer that I give you every time. I'm no teacher. I don't want you following me. Leave."

Watching the meat on the fire cooking slowly, Narina whispered:

"You're kind of a hypocrite, Leander. If you didn't want me to follow. Why do you cook the prey I hunt? I could eat it raw without bothering you. When I go to sleep, you're always there when I wake up. When I wander off to go to the toilet, you don't move until I get back."

Narina's words were all true; the chunk of meat cooking on the fire was proof enough. It had originally belonged to a beast that used to walk on four legs, now one of its legs was roasting over the fire.

The two remained silent for a while. When the meat had turned a nice brown, Leander grabbed the stick, pushed through its middle and inspected it. A moment later, he handed it to Narina.

Without a word, she accepted it.

Filling her mouth with every bite, she looked at the meat as she swallowed her latest mouthful and then offered it back to Leander.

"Have some, it's really good."

Back to looking out at the storm, Leander shook his head.

"I'm not hungry."

Having grown slightly annoyed by this response, Narina poked Leander's breastplate with the end of the leg of meat a few times before he swatted the leg away.

"That's what you said the last time I offered, and the time before that, you didn't even have any of Riku's stew... You don't eat anything in the morning or the afternoon. Are you sneaking off to have snacks? How are you even alive at this point? "

A small, humourless smile tugged at Leander's lips.

"How am I even alive? Now that's a question I've been asking myself for a while now."

Leander's words were cut off by the loudest sound of thunder of the night. Whilst Leander was unaffected, Narina jumped, almost falling off of her stone. Looking at her from the side of his eye, he could tell Narina had started shaking.

"You don't like storms?"

Narina was silent for some time, clutching the leg with both of her hands so tightly that her nails had dug into the thick chunk of meat.

"It… brings up bad memories…"

Without a word, Leander leant forward, putting himself between Narina and the raging storm outside. His broad back covered most of her sight.

"Try to get some rest if you can."

After a moment, Leander brought his hands together.

"Nothing but the wind will get past me."

----

The hours slowly ticked by, and the storm raged on.

It had taken Narina some time to fall asleep, but it seemed with Leander keeping watch, she had eventually managed it. Leander had been glancing her way every now and then – just to make sure she didn't somehow magically disappear. A thought had crossed Leander's mind.

Narina only wore furs, but with the wind, she couldn't be warm.

Kneeling next to the sleeping Narina, Leander had removed his cloak given to him by Melaine and draped it over her like a blanket. It was torn in places, the bottom of it looking ragged as threads had begun to come loose, but it would still offer some protection from the wind. Returning to his position beside the campfire, he reached for another log to throw on the dwindling fire.

But his fingers closed around empty space.

Looking down, Leander frowned.

'Out of wood. For the best, I should have let it die hours ago. A light in this darkness... It is a miracle nothing has come to look into it. I'm sure beasts would love to hunt humans this deep in the Wilds.'

Rubbing his face, Leander couldn't help but let out a deep sigh.

His trip to visit the blacksmith had not gone to plan. What was supposed to be a simple journey to fix Sword had gone worse than he could have ever imagined. Not only had he lost access to his weapon, but he had made enemies of the Kitsune – a group of assassins.

The only positives would be that Riku had managed to somewhat repair Sword, and Leander had learnt more about the world. About soul arms and imprints.

Leander ran his fingers through his hair, gripping the strands in frustration. The wind had been toying with it since the storm first began to howl, turning it into a tangled mess. Before, he had the shelter of his hood, but now, without his cloak, his hair whipped wildly around him, becoming more of a nuisance with every passing gust.

Giving the meat a disparaged look, Leander moved one of his hands to pick it up. Holding the leg, he brought it to his lips, taking a small bite.

Leander chewed for a while before stopping. Spitting the meat into the fire, Leander dejectedly spoke to himself.

"Just as I thought, tasteless…"

Leander had no urge to eat. An undead has no bodily urges to maintain, no urge to eat, drink, or sleep. Their senses were dulled, pain - unless inflicted upon the soul - was dim, the feeling of the wind was weak, and even the raging storm with its cold rain felt nothing more than a soft breath on his exposed skin.

But for a moment, Leander had hoped that he might be able to enjoy the meat.

Contemplating throwing the leg away. Leander knew it would be better to leave it over the fire. Narina would have to eat in the morning, even if he didn't.

'We're not far from the lake now. After the storm subsides, it shouldn't take us long to reach the mountains again.'

Resting his head in his hands, Leander listened to the sounds of the world. The fire slowly dwindled until faint embers weakly glowed, their faint light not even strong enough to illuminate Leander's face.

The storm raged for hours longer. Leander stared at the fire's dim embers until even those had grown cold, and all the while, Narina softly slept in the corner.

Suddenly, an inhuman chittering howl cut through the raging storm, echoing across the Wilds, distinct from the bolts of lightning that now sounded like feeble imitations of this howl.

Leander was on his feet before the sound had ended. His eyes took on a stern expression, akin to how he looked as he was readying for a fight. His hand instinctively moved to his empty scabbard - the resulting action caused his stern expression to grow annoyed. 

Taking a step towards the mouth of the cave, Narina called out to him.

"No! Don't go out there!"

Her voice was distraught.

Turning back to her, Leander caught a glimpse of her face as a bolt of lightning lit up the world for a fraction of a second.

Her expression was one of pure, unadulterated terror.

"Please- Please don't go outside. Don't let that thing see you."

Narina wanted to scream, she wanted to beg Leander not to go.

"If it sees you…"

"If what sees me, Narina?"

Moving to her side, Leander dropped to one knee. Putting a hand on Narina's shoulder, Leander frowned - in the split second the lightning bolt had lit up the cave. He hadn't noticed how much she was shaking.

"You know what's out there, don't you? What was that noise?"

Narina spoke so quietly that Leander could hardly hear her voice over the storm. Having to move his ear closer to understand what she was saying.

"It's in the tongue of beasts, it is a warning, 'run, I am hunting. The weak stay out of my way, the strong face me, I am hungry' is what that noise means…"

Leander softly shook his head, unable to understand why such a threat would cause this reaction in Narina.

"What could it possibly be to make you this scared? It's only a beast, I've killed beasts of all sizes. I killed a beast prince only last week; out here, what could be stronger than that?"

Narina covered her face with her hands. Her breathing grew laboured as tears welled in her eyes.

"The thing that kills princes."

Looking to the mouth of the cave, Leander grimaced.

As he stood, Narina reached out into the dark to grab him - only for Leander to gently hold her wrists. Kneeling, he tried to make his softest smile, even knowing Narina probably couldn't see his smile in the dark.

"Stay here, Narina; wrap yourself in my cloak. I'm just going to check that that beast hasn't spotted us. I promise you I will be back soon."

Narina was unable to offer a response, simply wrapping herself tighter in Leander's cloak.

As Leander exited the cave. Disappearing as he walked down into the forest. Narina's fingers lightly touched the scar on her collarbone.

"It's just like then, this storm… and it's here… Stalker."

Descending the short distance between the cave mouth and the forest, Leander's stalwart expression grew grim – not due to the fact he was going to potentially face a beast that Narina had tried to desperately warn him to stay away from, but because his hair was madly thrashing around in the storm. 

Holding up his right arm, he held his hair at bay to prevent it from irritating his eyes.

Leander was alert as soon as he entered the forest; he could hear a fight happening within the forest. Something crashed into trees, causing them to fall crashing to the ground. Despite the frantic sounds caused by the fight, it only lasted for less than a minute before the sounds of a struggle ended.

 Approaching where he believed the fight had taken place, Leander moved between trees, his only source of light being the intermittent bolts of lightning.

With one more lightning strike that illuminated the forest cast in shadow, Leander saw it. 

For a fleeting moment, Leander caught sight of the creature's back - a towering wall of black chitin, its armoured shell gleaming dully in the dim light. Its fingers had pierced deep into the writhing beast, pinning it effortlessly in place. The trapped creature let out a final, shuddering gasp as the Stalker fed, its movements slow and methodical, savouring the kill. A sickening crack echoed through the air as Stalker fed on not just the beast's flesh but its bones as well. 

The moment the world returned to darkness, the Stalker disappeared, its black armour the perfect camouflage to hunt when the sun had set.

Leander had seen enough.

Turning around, he began to move away slowly, not wanting to fight this beast. He was at too much of a disadvantage. With no weapon and no source of light, Leander knew he had no chance.

This caused Leander's instincts to go into overdrive as a small noise was created by his step. Leander had tried to move as quietly as he could, but in the darkness, he had no way of seeing the stick beneath his foot.

Driven by instinct alone, Leander turned the instant the noise was created.

The Stalker was already upon him, one of its large arms moving towards his neck.

As Stalker lunged forward, a bolt of lightning struck the ground in the distance behind Leander, momentarily carving its grotesque form out of the darkness and into the light. In that flash, Leander saw the truth – what he had mistaken for fingers holding the beast down were, in fact, two massive double-edged scythes, their obsidian blades gleaming with lethal precision. 

Beneath these formidable appendages, a second pair of smaller arms twitched, each ending in three clawed fingers, grasping at the air with an unsettling dexterity. Stalker's insectoid eyes, cold and unblinking, caught the lightning's glow, fracturing it into jagged shards of light. Its mandibles remained eerily still, as though savouring the inevitable moment before the strike.

As Stalker's scythe-like appendage was moments from severing Leander's head from his neck. Leander managed to block at the last second, the arm he had happened to raise to keep the hair out of his eyes, saving his life.

A variety of factors had played into Leander's survival.

Had there been no storm.

Had he not given his cloak to the sleeping Narina.

Had he not been annoyed by his hair whipping into his eyes.

Leander would have died.