Chapter 12 – The One Who Bit Back

The rain had changed.

It no longer fell like threads of sap, thick and slow. Now it poured — jagged and cold, pounding the moss-brick roofs of Ashroot with a rhythm that felt… off. Like something in the sky was panicking. Like the clouds were trying to drown a secret before it sprouted.

Yuzu stood beneath the arch of the Shed, watching the downpour twist the paths into rivers. His pact mark pulsed faintly under his ribs — not in pain, but in warning.

Then he tasted it.

A flavor in the rain. Sharp. Burnt sugar and something… unnatural. It wasn't thunder.

It was arrival.

Before he could move, Mira appeared beside him, one hand on her blade.

"You feel it too?"

He nodded.

A shadow moved between the trees beyond the village's edge. At first, it was shapeless — just a suggestion of presence. Then it stepped through the curtain of rain.

A boy.

No older than Yuzu, maybe younger. Dripping wet, coat clinging to him like moss to bark. His boots were caked with mud. His eyes were unreadable — one pale blue, the other leaf-green.

But his aura…

There wasn't one.

Not floating, not flickering. It wasn't masked. It was consumed.

The villagers began to gather behind Yuzu, silent, hesitant. Even the plants along the path seemed to shrink away.

The boy stopped ten paces from the gate.

"I'm looking for Yuzu Kaien," he said. His voice was calm. Steady. Almost polite.

Yuzu stepped forward. "You've found him."

The boy studied him for a heartbeat.

Then: "You're the one who bit the First Fruit."

Yuzu's breath caught.

Mira stepped between them. "Who are you?"

The boy tilted his head, raindrops slipping from his dark curls.

"Saro. Saro Mellethorn."

A name like a rusted bell. Faint, but familiar.

Yuzu frowned. "You were at Verdantspire Academy. Years ago."

"I was," Saro replied. "Until I wasn't."

Rumors came back. A student gone missing after a failed awakening. A sealed dormitory. A tree that split its own roots.

Yuzu looked at Saro's hands. They were calloused. Not from gardening.

From clawing through bark.

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

Saro smiled faintly. "Not what you think. I'm not a Watcher. I'm not here to prune you."

"Then why—"

"I'm here to warn you."

A silence fell.

"Something followed you back from the Orchard," Saro said, stepping closer. "It's not part of you. Not yet. But it's growing. And if you don't dig it out…"

He didn't finish.

Yuzu's fingers clenched. "You know what it is?"

Saro shook his head. "No one knows. That's the point. It has no flavor. No aura. No truth."

Mira narrowed her eyes. "Then how do you know about it?"

Saro's expression darkened.

"Because it came for me first."

He pulled back the collar of his coat, revealing a scar just below his collarbone — jagged and blackened, shaped like a fruit pit cracked in half.

Yuzu flinched.

"I survived by doing what you did," Saro said. "I bit back."

A wind rose through the trees, carrying a strange scent — like wilted jasmine and something older. It curled through the village like a whisper.

Mira stepped closer. "If it followed him, it'll come again."

Saro nodded. "Soon. And it doesn't come as a beast."

Yuzu swallowed hard. "Then how?"

Saro's pale eyes gleamed.

"As someone you trust."

The wind died. The rain slowed. Somewhere deeper in the forest, a crow screamed once and fell silent.

The villagers dispersed quietly. Instinct, maybe. Or fear.

Saro turned toward the old watchtower. "We'll talk more tomorrow. I need rest."

He began walking, then paused.

"And Yuzu," he said over his shoulder, "when it comes… don't trust its flavor. It tastes like what you want most."

Then he vanished into the rain.

Yuzu stood motionless.

The sigil on his hand throbbed once.

And beneath it — deeper — something else stirred.

Something that was not his tree.