Chapter 139: 139: Facing the Music

While Morgana's team relished in the feverish glamour of chaos and slaughter, Ophelia was struggling hard against her base instincts to overcome this haze. She didn't want to show her team an unsightly appearance or give in to the bloodlust when they were counting on her steady hand for leadership.

Her team members were hidden in the low shrubs as per her instructions. Due to their leader sorting through all of the nestlings, every team had been created to have a mixture of different skill sets. So she had instructed them to wait below for her and the creatures she would send towards them, because not all of them could skilfully traverse the treetops as she did.

However, her temperature was dangerously low, and yet her body burnt hot with a raging fever. As she suspended herself over the high branch of a tree, listening to the sounds of the forest below, every breath she exhaled formed a feverish mist.

Hyper focused eyes darted up and down the tree's canopy, fixating on everything in her immediate surroundings. She directed her gaze to the flowers that crowded the base of her tree, listening to the whisper of lives transpiring within them.

The droning sounds of small insects, the satisfied calls of the bottom feeders as they feasted on flesh, the snickering movements of the little monsters that hunted the bottom feeders.

The sounds were a great comfort and listening to them helped keep her calm in the face of the raging bloodlust. The more she listened, the more order returned to her senses, undermining the unsavoury effects of 'her' poison but keeping the intensity.

She saw the silver streak of something moving ahead of her, bringing with it a low rumbling sound. There was a soft grunt, and the mist parted to reveal a large creature shaped like a doe.

The first thing that stood out were its two rigid antlers, followed soon after by the shadowy outline of the creature's two separate heads.

One half was black as night and the other a pure silver that shone like moonlight. It had a body split down the middle like two creatures had merged together to become one, with each of the heads having a separate antler growing out of its forehead. It breathed a pale mist, and she heard the sound of its hooves striking the ground as the forest ground soon covered in frost.

Finally, the prized creature of the hunt had revealed itself.

Ophelia listened to its footsteps gradually fading in the mist. She had been tracking it for hours, and every time her team came close to it, a cold fog would appear, confusing their surroundings. And soon after she became too cold to follow it. Yet here it was appearing again like a dreadful tease.

Ophelia raised her head, holding it suspended out in the frosty mist towards the creature.

There was another scent in the air, one of blood and sweat as a group of wild creatures returned from their hunt. She made out the glowing eyes of canines. They regarded her prey with their wary eyes, unaware of the creature glaring at their figures from the trees.

As they began converging in the direction of the large doe, Ophelia's bloodlust peaked. She was suddenly filled with anger. A wave of desire came over her and she began to sing. There were no particular words, just a droning hiss that fit her mood.

Soon, the insects below her tree began to whir loudly. The feeding of the bottom feeders became chaotic, and the little monsters that hunted them began squealing in excitement. The leader of the canine pack became feverish and began to pace back and forth, panting. Then he rushed at the canine next to him and savagely bit its throat.

The canines squealed in confusion and began to attack each other, some furiously pawing at their peers, others frantically making their escape. But those that fled all seemed to head in the direction of the same hedge, where they were quickly set upon by a group of eager snakes.

When Ophelia stopped, the wounded canines tucked their noses into their chests, whimpering in the absence of her song. The bottom feeders stopped eating and curled their legs beneath them. The little monsters went back beneath the shrubs where they hid from predators and the droning of the insects stopped.

However Ophelia frowned.  Once again the frosty mist was all that was left and the two headed doe was nowhere to be found. She descended from the tree and into the chill to meet with her team. 

The frost covered ground was the only sign left of the elusive monster. The cold was a comfort and she craved more of it to combat the heat of her feverish body.

But she couldn't go after the creature and abandon her team. The canines may have been confused by her sound, but they were still savage creatures. So instead, she went to locate the shrubs she'd instructed them to hide in. 

The area was littered with the bodies of the canines they had killed and here, she was met with her team members who were equally as feverish with bloodlust as she was.

Ophelia was relieved none of them was injured, but she noticed they were down by one member. 

[Where is Apollo?] She asked.

[He went after the last one. It got away.]

Ophelia counted the corpses and saw that they were right. She had sent seven canines in their direction, but she noticed there were only six bodies. But she wasn't happy. [Why did he leave on his own?]

[He said too much noise would startle it.] The snakes responded.

Ophelia frowned. It wasn't that long he'd been wounded. If he had moved from the place she told them to wait, who knew how her sound had affected him. He was fast but he couldn't outrun the effect of confusion. She wanted to go and look for him, but there were other things to take care of first. 

The canines she affected were still wounded, so she rushed over with her team members to finish them off. In addition to the creatures they had killed before, their hunt was quite a success. The only thing bothering Ophelia was the absence of the main meal that had run away. 

For now, the logical thing to do was to hide the corpses. If they waited any longer more creatures would appear, and their hunt would be fruitless. She had found a cave not far from their current position while scanning the ground, so she directed them to it. 

[Stay here, while I go off to find him.] 

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With all the corpses inside the cave and her team members safe, she took off after their lost member, determined to bring him back. 

It didn't take long to find him – she simply followed the trail of the canine who had fled, and her sense of smell was strong. Ophelia soon came upon the dead corpse of the savage creature with bristly fur.

Apollo wasn't far from it. He was crouched next to the dead creature. Seeing he was not in any danger, Ophelia went over to him immediately, but what she saw left her stunned.

The body of the canine had been overrun by writing bottom feeders and Apollo simply stood by, without doing anything while they ate his kill, seemingly watching them with fascination.

[What are you doing? Why are you letting them eat it?] Ophelia said with disgust.

Apollo didn't look up as she approached him, but his voice was calm. [They're harmless, they only hurt those that can't fight. Besides I'm more interested in them.]

[What's interesting about them?]

Ophelia simply couldn't understand why he would abandon his hard won kill for nothing. He didn't seem afraid of the disgusting creatures. Rather, it seemed he had willingly let them take it. She wondered if he had completely recovered from his previous injury. Maybe he wasn't quite himself yet?

However his next words stopped her cold.

[I heard you left me there in the cave as bait.]

Ah…It seemed he was talking about what happened when 'she' finally returned.

[She was never going to hurt you, surely you must know that now.]

Apollo wasn't convinced. [You didn't know it at the time. It could have been anyone, a complete enemy and yet you did that.]

[But it wasn't an enemy, was it?] Ophelia stopped him short. She wasn't ready to have this conversation. Especially not out in the open, so she ordered him to stand up and follow her. 

If he was okay with letting his prey get stolen, that was entirely up to him, and so, Ophelia left. 

Overhead, she began to make out the shapes of creatures moving through the trees as their location was quickly filling with creatures, drawn to the aftermath of the battle.

[You didn't answer!] Apollo said as he followed after her.

[Shhh!]

They both stood against a tree, watching, and listening for the creatures approaching. They were still far but if they moved fast they could make it to the others before anything attacked them. So, Ophelia ran as fast as she could, making sure Apollo was following behind her.

They made their way through the low shrubs without stopping until they arrived at the mouth of the cave where the others waited.

[Will you at least be honest with me?] Apollo panted as they came to a stop. [Was it the punishment for leaving the cave? Did you want me dead?]

Ophelia was at the limit of her patience. She quickly pushed him inside the cave to shut him up. 

Inside, she saw the rest of her team was all safe and she relaxed enough to confront Apollo's questions. [We would never have let anyone get to you. You were only there to distract her, no one was ever going to get hurt.]

She thought explaining to him would make him stop asking questions, but instead of understanding Apollo pushed back with resentful questions of his own. 

[Just what do you see us as? Are we mere things to be played with just because you're more intelligent than us? In all of your plans do you ever consider what we think? You don't treat us like individuals. You treat us like things.]

Ophelia was stunned at his outburst and the rest of her team was silent. [That's not true.]

[Don't lie. You have always thought you are better than us, like we're no different from those bottom feeders you despise, and I want to know why.]

[That's not…] Ophelia didn't know how to answer. He was wrong of course, but as she looked around the cave, the words she wanted to say vanished from her head.

The cave walls were charred and burnt black, and there were skeletons scattered all around the inside. She only now noticed her team members were amongst the bones.

And of the numerous bones found, they were of a similar size to them and all seemed to belong to snakes.

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