Chapter 219: Some are attacking animals. Some ignore animals and hunt beastmen instead

Chapter 219: Chapter 219: Some are attacking animals. Some ignore animals and hunt beastmen instead

"She knows me."

Swanly looked offended.

Azren laughed.

Then the brush beneath his tree moved.

Swanly barely registered it.

A dark shape.

Too fast.

Azren’s expression vanished.

Completely.

No smile.

No flirt.

His body turned.

CRACK.

Something hit the earth.

Azren disappeared into the brush.

Swanly’s heart jumped.

"Azren?"

Silence.

Then wings beat.

Azren rose back into view.

Something hung from his hand.

Swanly stared.

A severed infected beastman head.

Blackened veins.

Rotten teeth.

Clouded eyes.

Swanly recoiled.

"What the FUCK?!"

Swanly could not believe how insane this male was.

Azren smiled brightly.

"Look. A visitor."

"PUT THAT DOWN!"

He tossed it into the grass.

Sira stared.

Eira stared.

Swanly covered both their faces.

"Babies do not need to see heads!"

"They’ve seen worse."

"No they have not seen worse!"

Azren’s expression changed again.

Serious.

"The infected are getting worse."

Swanly lowered her hands.

"How worse?"

"Angrier."

"That is not a measurement."

"Faster."

Her stomach tightened.

"Some are moving in groups."

She went still. A frown found it’s way into her face before she could stop it.

"What?"

"I have seen ones that wait."

Swanly’s grip on the twins tightened.

"Wait for what?"

"Opportunity."

Her mouth went dry.

"That’s intelligence."

"Possibly."

Azren looked toward the forest.

"Some are attacking animals. Some ignore animals and hunt beastmen instead."

Swanly’s skin chilled.

"And more are moving this direction."

"Why?"

Azren looked toward Ironwood.

"You probably know the answer better than I do."

The Heart.

Swanly looked at the dead head.

Then at him.

"You touched it."

"Yes."

"Aren’t you worried?"

"No."

"Why?"

Azren’s six wings folded.

"Veskari do not turn."

Swanly blinked.

"At all?"

"Rot can injure us. Damage tissue. Destroy us if enough enters a wound."

His expression remained calm.

"But it cannot take root the way it does in beastmen."

"Like Thalara."

"Similar."

"So you can die."

"Beautifully."

"Azren."

"Yes. We can die."

His eyes lowered toward her.

"But we do not become them."

Swanly’s anxiety grew.

Five children.

Supplies.

Wounded residents.

Families.

Leaving Ironwood had always been undesirable.

Now?

Azren seemed to read the thought.

"Your walls aren’t trapping you in, little fox."

His smile vanished.

"They’re keeping everything else out."

Swanly said nothing.

Then she saw them.

Beyond Azren.

Three shapes between the trees.

Infected.

Standing perfectly still.

Not attacking the Veskari camp.

Not lunging at Azren.

Nothing.

They were simply standing there.

All three facing Ironwood.

Swanly’s blood went cold.

...

Kael found her at the inner wall.

He had both girls now.

Sira was pulling at his ear.

Eira rested against his chest.

He looked from Swanly to Azren in the distance.

Then back.

"What happened?"

Swanly pointed beyond the wall.

"Three infected."

Kael’s eyes sharpened.

"I saw."

"They’re not attacking."

"No."

"They’re watching."

Kael’s expression hardened.

"What do you want to do?"

Swanly looked toward the nearest watch platform.

"Kill them."

Simple.

Kael nodded.

No argument.

He adjusted both daughters.

"Go."

Swanly climbed.

Two guards immediately made space.

One handed her a bow.

Swanly looked down.

Azren watched from outside.

The three infected did not move.

She nocked an arrow.

Breathed.

Released.

THUNK.

First infected dropped.

Second arrow.

THUNK.

Second fell.

The third finally turned.

Fast.

Too fast.

Swanly’s eyes widened.

It sprinted.

She released.

The arrow struck through its temple.

It collapsed.

Silence.

Azren looked up at her.

His smile was gone.

That speed had confirmed his warning.

Swanly lowered the bow.

This was bad.

...

She checked the northwest area later without the twins.

Not the deepest chamber.

Not the main seal.

Just the surrounding stone.

System scanned.

Nothing useful.

Again.

Swanly crouched beside a crack.

"What about this?"

"Old."

"This?"

"Older."

"This one?"

"Rock."

Swanly glared.

"I know it’s rock."

"You asked."

"Can you detect anything useful?"

"Not from here."

Swanly sighed.

"Closer."

"Yes."

"Not yet."

"Then not yet."

But something bothered her.

The Heart had reacted to the twins.

The pulse.

Azren warning her to watch where she stepped.

The System wanting deeper access.

Something connected.

She just could not see it yet.

...

The next morning, the sickness began.

Quietly.

So quietly that nobody understood they were looking at the beginning of something terrible.

The first strange thing happened near the hunters’ shelters.

A lean hunting beast that normally snapped at raw meat before the hunter could properly drop it into the trough sat in the dirt and stared at breakfast.

Its handler frowned.

"Eat."

The animal did not move.

He nudged the bloody strip of meat closer.

Usually, that would have been enough to lose a finger if he was careless.

Nothing.

"What’s wrong with you?"

The animal’s ears twitched.

Its head slowly turned.

Not toward the meat.

Toward the ground.

The hunter followed its gaze.

Nothing was there.

Then the animal whimpered.

The sound was so low and strange that the hunter’s smile disappeared.

"Hey."

He crouched.

The animal abruptly backed away.

Its claws dug trenches through the dirt.

"Easy."

The hunter reached toward it.

The animal snapped at him.

He jerked back.

"What the hell?"

Three nearby hunters turned.

The animal had never bitten its handler.

Never.

Its breathing quickened.

Its eyes looked normal.

No cloudiness.

No black veins.

No rotten flesh.

No obvious Rot.

But it kept staring down.

Then it began whining again.

One hunter muttered, "Check its mouth."

The handler hesitated before catching the animal’s jaw.

"Hold still."

It fought him.

Hard.

Two males came over and helped.

They finally forced its mouth open.

Blood dripped onto the ground.

Everyone froze.

"What..."

The inside of its mouth was bleeding.

It had bitten its own tongue so hard during the night that part of it had split.

The handler released it in shock.

The beast crawled backward, blood stringing from its teeth.

Then it tucked itself against the wall.

And refused to touch its food.

By the time Swanly heard about it, another hunting animal had stopped eating too.

Then another.

She stood near the animal pens with her arms folded, fox ears stiff.

"Any of them bitten?"

"No."

"Were they attacked outside?"

"No."

"Did they eat the same meat?"

The hunter shook his head.

"That one ate river deer yesterday. Those two had ground bird."

Swanly looked at the animals.

All three were awake.

All three were frightened.

And all three kept glancing toward the dirt beneath them.

Her stomach tightened.

"Keep them separated."