Chapter 21: Chapter 021

“Here,” the Azure Serpent said, pushing a pile of fish to Henry, who was lying on the ground and recuperating from his injuries. Her eyes were filled with excitement and anticipation but Henry knew that was going to quickly change due to his response.

Now that Henry was larger than he was, the serpent’s towering gaze wasn’t as intimidating as before. Still, there was still a large gap in strength and ability between them. He had no doubt about that. The Azure Serpent had taken him back to her abode, the same cave from before. Just like last time, the serpent offered him fish but this time, she offered him a heap of it. The stench coming off from the fish pile was awful. The fishes were dead for quite some time. He shook his head meekly and refused the offer with a stretched out arm.

“What’s this? You no longer find fish delectable?” the Azure Serpent questioned with a dubious gaze. 

Henry tilted his head. He had no idea he would give an explanation for his refusal. He shrugged, in hopes that the gesture would transmit his intentions.

“This is curious. I thought you didn’t talk because you were low on Murux but it seems you just do not know how.”

Henry returned that dubious gaze of hers. He had heard a word and term he wasn’t familiar with. Guessing from the context, Murux was the equivalent of Mana in this world or something close to that.

“A true Dragon does not know how to use Murux Voice, this is truly curious.”

She knows I’m a Dragon. A true Dragon, she says. 

“Fret not, my dear husband. I shall teach you the way. First off, gather your Murux around your vocal cords.”

The Azure Serpent had started her teaching before Henry even consented to anything but he didn’t make a fuss of it. He just quietly followed her vague instructions. 

Gather my Murux around my vocal cords? How do I even do that?

It didn’t take him long to figure out how. The moment he thought about gathering his Murux around his vocal cords, the magic within him moved so naturally as if it was responding to his thoughts. The Murux flowed and converged at a certain part of his neck. He presumed that was where the vocal cords were. Henry nodded after he felt his Murux had gathered.

“Excellent. Next, slowly and gently spread it out to your brain and heart. Make sure tethers are unbroken. Once your Murux has touched your brain and heart, try speaking as if you’re shouting down a well.”

The spreading of his Murux part was a tad harder than he imagined. It was like stretching out a chewing gum for as long as it could be stretched while hoping it wouldn’t snap. He failed a couple of times but on his sixth try, he realised the chewing gum analogy wasn’t fitting. It only felt like chewing gum at first but it was more delicate than that. It was at his thirteenth attempt that he successfully linked the Murux tether to his heart and mind. After that, he imagined a well in front of him and he shouted into it.

“Testing testing?” he spoke. Contrary to his expectations, his voice wasn’t as loud as he projected in his mind. But more than that, he was surprised that he was finally speaking aloud. The voice didn’t sound like it came from himself but from his surroundings. He couldn’t remember what his voice sounded like when he was human but he was sure he did not sound this deep and intimidating. This was his Murux Voice, as the Azure Serpent would call it.

“Testing testing?” The Azure Serpent chuckled. “What manner of jargon is that?”

“The manner of my homeland,” Henry retorted.

“But this is your home, no? You were born in this forest, am I wrong? Well, no matter. What truly matters is that you can speak now, my dear. This is so thrilling. I’m so happy to be able to converse with my one true love.”

“Hold it right there, missy.”

“Missy?”

“I am not your husband nor your true love. I don’t even remember agreeing to that.”

The Azure Serpent tittered. “After all that you did to my body, you refuse to become my spouse? How cruel of you, darling. Are all Dragons this heartless?”

Henry rolled his eyes. “I don’t have time for this,” he simply said and turned around to leave.

The Azure Serpent slithered into his path in a blink of an eye. “Leaving so soon? You haven’t finished your meal yet, dear?”

“Look, missy. I appreciate your help and all but I’m in a hurry right now. As for the fish, I thank you for the gesture but I don’t eat rotten fish.”

“Rotten?” She huffed. “How rude. They’re not rotten, just a bit stale, that’s all. Stop being so picky with food like humans do.”

“We barely know each other. We haven’t even been acquainted for a week. We don’t even know each other's name.”

“Well then, my name is Sarynn. What’s yours, darling?”

“Henry,” he responded dryly.

“Henry, that’s a nice name. Granted, it’s a bit odd of a name but it is your name so I wouldn’t fuss about it.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Sarynn. I need to be going.” Henry tried to pass through but Saryn kept blocking his way.

“Go? Go where?”

“To the inner regions.”

“Oh, my. Darling, you are bolder than I expected. More foolish too, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t care.” Henry went around Sarynn but she moved into his path.

“I can’t let you go there, darling. It’s dangerous. If you die, I’ll be a widow before we even left an offspring.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of other candidates out there, Sarynn. Candidates that are stronger than me.”

“But I don’t want a strong candidate. I want you, darling. I want the child of the one who risked his life to save me.”

Henry snapped. “I did not risk my life to save you. I was trying to kill you. Saving you was an accident.”

Sarynn simpered. “I know that, darling, which is why the least you could do is to become my husband as penance for your insincerity.”

Henry scowled. “What kind of reasoning is that? What the hell are you even talking about?”

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“Become my husband, Henry. With me by your side, none would ever dare to harm you again. Unless of course, if it’s the ones from the inner region of the swamp, they’ll still try to hurt you.”

Henry tutted. “This is going nowhere,” he said and lowered his stance, his limbs’ tattoos glowing.

“Ho? What are you trying to do now, dear husband of mine?”

He held his breath and stilled his movements as much as he could in the face of such a powerful being.

“Hmm? You disappeared?” Sarynn blurted out when Henry suddenly faded out of her sight. 

That was the moment Henry kicked against the ground and launched himself past Sarynn, flying straight for the exit. Though he landed some ways from the exit, he quickly turned around and blocked the pathway with fire breath. Sarynn stopped just right before she ran right into the flames.

“You scheming little lizard!” she snarled as she was singed a little on the lower part of her body.

Henry offered her not another glance and ran right out of the cave before she found a way to put out the flames. Since she was relatively quite far from a water source, Henry wagered he could put some distance between them to throw her off his tracks before she emerged from the cave.

Fortunately, he still remembered the way he came from as he retraced his path. There was quite a bit of twist and turns but due to how distinctive every part was, he didn’t have a problem navigating his way back to the lake. He eventually reached the lake in under half an hour and when glanced behind him, he didn’t see Sarynn chasing after him. He didn’t neglect the possibility of her taking an alternative route, which was why he dove straight into the lake upon his arrival. It was now or never. He hadn’t fully recovered but he could afford to stall any longer. 

His first sight upon plunging into the water was the Ruguth Queen’s carcass. It was still floating in the lake but the bottom half of it had been gnawed away by hundreds of those small fish with razor-sharp teeth. He didn’t stay and watch the view. He quickly swam his way across to the other side without giving anything else his attention. He heard a lot of ominous noises as he swam but he resisted the temptation to look and kept swimming. He found himself running out of breath upon safely reaching the other side of the lake. He heaved a heavy sigh of relief while trying to keep his breath under control. As he was about to climb out of the water, a foreboding feeling forced him to glance behind. Three crocodiles with bifurcated lower jaws were swimming towards him at an astounding speed. They had been quite far when he turned to look but in seconds, the dots that they were became large smudges in his view. 

Henry spared not another moment in the water and scuttled out of the lake. There was a great sound of something large breaking through the surface. Henry did not turn around to look. He whipped his limbs into action and sped his way down the unpaved road of the swamp. The ground quaked in his run and the quake did not stop at one time. After a few more heavy quakes, a series of gentle tremors followed. Henry gathered from the clues that the crocodiles were now chasing after him on land. All the more reason to not look back, he told himself. He didn’t know what he did to fill their persistence but he didn’t care to find out. He didn’t even know if he could converse with these crocodiles as he did with the Ruguth Queen and Sarynn.

His environment took a drastic change as the vibrant yet pallid plants disappeared and a pool of bubbling mud spread out before him. He skidded to a stop upon noticing the creatures drifting on the surface of the mud pool. One of these creatures rear its head up and bared its maw of a mouth at Henry with a shriek. At that shriek, the rest of the creatures also reared their heads up and turned to Henry. The creatures were akin to giant worms, except for maw-like mouths with rows of razor-sharp teeth in layers of rings. A quick count in his head numbered the worms to around a near hundred of them. Henry looked around for an alternative route but the crocodiles on his trail were far too close for him to take a detour. 

Fuck it.

Henry hardened his nerves and hopped onto the back of one of the giant worms. The giant worm instantly flailed its body in hopes of throwing Henry off but he held on to his grip by digging his claws into the giant worm’s flesh. The other giant worms were closing in on him as he struggled to hold on. They weren’t slow but neither were they fast. Their speed gave Henry ample time to gather his balance before he leapt to the back of another giant worm. A different giant worm lunged at him the moment he landed. He responded swiftly despite his surprise at the giant worm’s speed. He threw an aura blade that cleaved the lunging giant worm in half. 

As Henry leapt to another giant worm, he was attacked with a lunge again. He too fell that one with an aura blade. The Giant Worms were slow in the mud but they had speed in their ambush. If caught unaware by their presence, no doubt one would definitely become their victim. As Henry prepared to hop on to another giant worm, the crocodiles caught on to him. Their sheer sizes threw the giant worms and the terrain into disarray. The giant worms moved frantically away from the crocodiles and the mud pool undulated violently in response to the crocodiles’ rampant appearances. Henry was almost thrown off the giant worm’s back but he dug his claws deep. 

One of the crocodiles continued to give chase by leaping into the pool of mud. But it shouldn’t have. Henry widened his eyes at the unexpected depth of the mud pool. The crocodile, which was a little larger than him, disappeared into the pool of mud with a plop. Due to the thickness of the mud, there was no splashing or floundering from the crocodile. The giant worms immediately doubled back in their retreat and swarmed towards the sunken crocodile. Unfortunately for Henry, he was being carried to the waiting jaws of the two remaining crocodiles that did not leap into the mud pool.

Fuck!

Henry lifted his gaze upwards and his expression beamed at a tree that had grown in a diagonal fashion that left it dangling half of its body over the mud pool. He crouched low and poured strength into his limbs. The tattoos glowed. He kicked against the giant worm’s back and launched him to the tree. His claws were barely within reach but he managed to stick a nail into the trunk. Before his nail broke off from the trunk, he heaved himself up onto the tree and he heaved a sigh as he succeeded. He took a small breather before he resumed running. He heard the two crocodiles roaring at him and also the cries of the crocodile being mauled by the giant worms. He glanced behind and was relieved to see the two crocodiles did not give chase as they stood on the edge of the mud pool. The fury was seared into their glare. Henry couldn’t remember what he had done to earn their ire.

Are they perhaps the friends of the crocodile to who I fed the demonic bear to?

Henry had thrown that thought out of his mind when he descended from the tree. The foot of the tree was a good distance away from the mud pool. His focus shifted back to his main agenda, ascertain the kidnapper’s identity and rescue the princess.

‘Please don’t!’ screamed the voice of the princess. Henry nearly stumbled from the sudden scream. ‘You are hurting me! Please! No more! Just let me go!’

Henry shuddered. He felt the princess’ anguish from the tone of her voice. He surmised her kidnapper must be doing something torturous to her. The more she cried, the more furious Henry was getting. He was no longer following the elderly man’s instruction but the princess’ voice. Somehow, he could tell where her voice was coming from. 

Just as Henry was beginning to look out for the next danger that awaited him around the corner, the crocodiles’ roar shook the air and the ground began to tremble. 

They’re not giving up on me? Tenacious bastards!

Henry groaned and gritted his teeth in great vexation. There was no end to the problems and while he was facing those problems, other problems would come barging in unannounced. As his mind was wandering in the field of his problems, he emerged into a clearing. He saw six bear-like monsters covered in mosses sleeping on the shallow puddles of water on the damp field. He stopped in his tracks immediately and climbed up a tree. Thankfully, the trees here were all thick and strong but he doubted the trees could support his weight for long. The crocodiles’ gradual approach woke the Moss Bears up.

What the fuck is wrong with their faces?

Henry blinked a few times to be certain of what he was seeing. The Moss Bears’ heads were furless and also meatless as they looked like skulls. Their eyes were also hollow. There was no iris, pupils, or even an eyeball. It was just plain empty sockets. Henry thought they were just wearing skulls of their kin as armour but as they growled, the way he saw the skulls moved so naturally told him that the skulls were indeed their heads.

The crocodiles eventually also stumbled upon the Moss Bears and Henry could see the quick change in the crocodiles’ complexions as if they knew what they had chanced upon. The Moss Bears turned their gazes to the intruding crocodiles. Henry knew all too well the look on the Moss Bears’ faces. It was the groggy and infuriating look of having one’s sleep being disturbed. The Moss Bears gave a hollow screech that sent shivers down Henry’s spine. The two crocodiles roared back in response to the Moss Bears’ screech. 

One of the Moss Bears spewed a puff of dark grey smoke from its mouth. The crocodiles appeared to shudder and retreated in their steps when they saw the smoke inching towards them. Henry also picked up the smell of smoke that trickled to his nose. It was a heavy smell that bore a very queer manner of aroma. It smelled a little like petrol and that realisation instantly caused Henry to hold his breath. The crocodiles shrieked as they were touched by the smoke. They wiggled further away from the Moss Bears. The others were also spewing dark grey smoke from their mouth, dyeing the whole clearing in dark grey as if dusk had arrived early. Henry could no longer see a thing below but it wasn’t a problem for him. In fact, it worked in his favour. 

Henry slowly crawled his way down to the foot of the tree but halfway through, a loud hollow shriek nearly shocked him into letting go of his grip. At the beckon of his instincts, he let go of the trunk and dropped to the ground just as a Moss Bear crashed into the trunk where he had been. He gave Moss Bear a glimpse and saw the huge missing portion of its belly. Contrary to the Moss Bear’s appearance, it had full functioning organs as a living being had, but the organs stopped functioning after some twitches. There was another roar and another great tremor. He heard a crash of something large, presumably another Moss Bear getting flung. The Moss Bears were losing, Henry realised. He needed to get the crocodiles off his trail quickly but now that he was in the fog, he no longer knew which way was which. The fog had turned incredibly thick. He could only rely on smell and sound to navigate but with the heavy scent of the smoke and the constant cries and tremor of the monsters, those two senses weren’t helpful at all.

Henry heard another sharp cry but it wasn’t a hollow one. Therefore, he could only guess that one of the crocodiles had fallen in battle but with the fog permeating the air, he couldn’t be certain. 

‘Help… Anyone… Please… help me…’

Henry heard the princess’ voice again.

Damn it! I am coming to help you! Just be quiet, lady!

Henry knew he shouldn’t be lashing out at the princess that couldn’t even hear him but he couldn’t help it. He was trying his damndest but everything just kept getting in his way. 

‘Please… anyone… help me…’

Reaching his boiling point, Henry roared into the sky. His roar somehow silenced the vicinity and stopped the scuffle between the crocodile and the Moss Bear as all of the monster's attention had turned to Henry. The next thing he did, Henry gathered his breath.

Fuck all of y’all.

And he unleashed a blazing roar that set the whole clearing alight. From afar, the fire looked akin to one large funeral pyre. 

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