Zyra’s eyes were a blurry, watery mess. She took a long, loud snivel, wiping her nose with the back of her free hand.
Her mother’s words cut deep into her chest, each line feeling like a physical blade. For years, she had wondered why her parents had vanished into thin air, where they had gone missing and what had killed them. She had dreamed of finding them someday, after her bloodline awakened and she was strong enough. Now she knew they were probably alive and why they disappeared.
The Scorpion bloodline was the ultimate curse, and the ultimate gift depending on which angle you looked at it.
Her mind quickly drifted to the silence of her parents. If they were alive, why hadn’t they reached out? Had their enemies found them? A cold, fiery anger began to replace her sorrow. She wanted to know who those people were. Who were the monsters that tormented her parents and broke her family into pieces?
A family that was now completely ruined anyway, considering her twin brother had turned into a coward that who didn’t couldn’t stand up for her. She wanted nothing to do with Ian anymore. This would even break her parents’ hearts because they wanted them united as a family, but she would never forgive Ian....Never!
It had taken two lifetimes for her to give up on him completely.
"Mother if you knew what Ian has done, you would be very disappointed and disgusted." Zyra muttered, looking at the glowing red vial. "How am I supposed to live quietly knowing what I know now?"
Hadn’t she chosen to live quietly in her last life? Even then, had she been spared? It was possible that her uncle had even gotten his hands on the glove back then, and that is why he was suddenly agreeable to her burning.
She wailed, screaming her anger out loudly, after all she was bothering no one in the beast domain.
The snake crawled over, and laid on her lap, it’s head bobbing up and down.
[Ding! Green horn serpent feels empathetic to its master....Resonance points +1, bonding levels rise to 3%]
Zyra wiped her tears and let out a long sigh; she tapped the snake’s head lightly. "I guess that you are the only family that I have for now. Let’s work harder in this life to make sure that you are not barbecued."
The snake hissed softly as if agreeing with her.
Carefully, she picked up the glass tube and deposited it next to the dog cage. For now, she would not use it. According to her mother’s warning, it was better if she didn’t awaken the bloodline unless she had to.
The people who went after her mother were likely to be keeping an eye on her. If she awakened, maybe her enemies would detect it and come looking for her. When they got their hands on her and proved it was active, she would be in greater danger. But if she was captured and there was no dark bloodline, maybe they would let her go.
If she wanted to get her revenge, she needed to play the long game. Besides, what was a bloodline in comparison to this system? The system was actually superior because it could make her bond with thousands of beasts. Her bloodline could only bond with two, like any other Soul maiden.
The tips of her scale moved in favor of the system.
After packing everything away, Zyra looked down at her hand. "Uh, right. Now how do I take this thing off?" she wondered aloud. "Beauty? Do you have a manual for this?"
Before the system could even respond, the glove hummed, almost as if it had read her mind.
"Oh, shit!" Zyra cursed out loud, bracing herself. She closed her eyes tight and gritted her teeth, fully expecting the agonizing, bone-crushing pain from when she first put it on. She prepared to scream. But the pain never came. Instead, the leather softened, sliding off her fingers as smoothly as silk, and dropped harmlessly onto the glowing moss below.
Zyra opened one eye, then the other. "Well, I’ll be damned, it’s a smart glove. These Somnivores sure knew what they were doing when it came to technology." She said cheerfully, letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
She inspected her left hand thoroughly, wiggling her fingers, flexing her knuckles, and cracking them just to make absolutely sure none of her bones were broken. Everything felt perfectly fine.
Well, almost everything.
Right on the back of her right hand, there was a fresh, faint red mark all the way up to her shoulder. It looked a bit like a drawing, or a brand, but not quite. It pulsed with a very dim red light before fading into her skin.
"Great. Another mystery. Will this never end?" Zyra sighed, too exhausted to care anymore. She yawned loudly, her eyelids weighing a thousand pounds.
She dressed, ate a compressed biscuit and fed the snake some fruit from the tree. But not before taking a bite herself. "Sweet, like a mango." Zyra had only eaten two mangoes in her lifetime, but the taste was imprinted in her mind.
After the meal, she carried the snake to the dog cage, curled up on the soft doggy bed, closed her eyes, and immediately fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
********
The edge of the Wild lands near Greenwich town howled with windstorms, dust spiraling across the horizon as three hunting guilds pressed forward in their relentless search. Hundreds of men and women rode half-life beasts, their eyes shielded by thick goggles, bodies wrapped in protective gear.
Guns and modern bows with arrows strapped to their saddles, while a handful of drones buzzed overhead, scanning the shifty, unclear terrain.
The search party was made up of three hunting guilds: The Cold Blood Guild, led by General Garron Borne, a scarred veteran, with a voice like gravel. His half-life beast was a Stone salamander, a large creature with a strong hide and massive claws. Its smelling abilities were incomparable to most mutated beasts.
At the moment, its head and feet were wrapped in leather to withstand the terrain and weather, but it had still led the group towards the edge where Zyra had fallen from.
The second guild was the Windclaw Guild: their leader, Sheila Blue was a sharp-eyed woman with a buzz cut, whose calm demeanor masked ruthlessness and cunning. Her half-life beast was an avian wolf hybrid with wings and talons in iron caps. The rider and her beast shielded their eyes with glass lenses.
They were relying on a drone to follow Garron and his salamander. Those drones also scanned the environment and mapped tracks across the dust.
The last guild was the Embers guild: their leader was Kinn Davos, a charismatic young man with a taste for spectacle. His half-life beast was a Fiery-scaled Ashmaw, a mutated cat that was the size of two tigers, with glowing eyes that were hidden beneath its fur. Its padded feet allowed it to move silently across the dust without detection. The feline and its rider had their eyes covered by obsidian glasses.
Their guild carried voltage nets and sonic lures designed to confuse prey before capture. If they found Zyra, they were sure she would be easy prey.
The three guilds moved together, though rivalry simmered beneath their cooperation. First to the prize, won the reward.