Two months have passed since Ajax and Shaula encountered the merchant’s carriage and the Immortal Emperor Alin.

Currently, they are living in the forest. Ajax and Shaula walk through the trees in the early morning. Ajax has a bright smile on his face.

Enough time has passed that the pain he and Shaula have felt since first coming to this world is… softer.

Since they met with the caravan, they have not met anyone else from this world, no other inhabitants. They’ve spent time wandering through the forest, exploring the land and the nature around them.

As creatures without the need to eat or sleep and with the ability to not be harmed by changes in temperature, either hot or cold, this arrangement is satisfactory to them and has been for quite some time.

Shaula looks at Ajax’s face. She likes the smile he’s displaying. The air smells sweet with the morning dew on the leaves of the trees around them.

The trees in their vicinity are extremely tall with large leaves like those of banana trees back on earth. This is an area unmarred by human interference. No sign posts, no garbage, no carriage tracks… nothing left by anyone but the two of them.

After finding the road two months ago, they sprinted into an area far from it and far from human civilization.

“Hey, Ajax...”

“Hm? What’s up?”

“You know, I’ve been working on something interesting that you might like to see… it has something to do with that lightning storm a couple weeks ago.”

“Oh… What is it?”

“I’ll show it to you around noon. We need to go to an area without so many trees first.”

“Hm, ok...”

Ajax looks at her with slight suspicion. Although they’ve spent time together over the past two months just the two of them, they aren’t attached at the hip.

They are perfectly capable of having independent time, time where they can do what they wish to do without telling the other.

Ajax has noticed that Shaula went somewhere else more often during the last two weeks but since she didn’t mention it, he didn’t need to ask.

The two of them walk towards an area in the forest where they like to spend time. An area with animal friends.

“Do you think they’re running late, Shaula?”

“Hmm, well, they normally come to us when we’re in this group of trees an hour or so after sunrise, right?”

“How long has it been? I can’t tell… But, you know, I wonder if we’ve actually tamed them? Couldn’t they leave us for an area with more food? I mean, I’ve been noticing, like, the horned rabbits running away from us and just never returning, once we reach a new place...”

“No, I don’t think they’re like that… Hmm, maybe they’re injured or something?”

“Injured...”

“Ajax… Remember when we met Alin and he asked us whether… how far we would be willing to go to help people...”

“Whoa, you want to talk about him?”

“Well, I’ve just been thinking about… how far I would go to help someone. How far would you go? That’s what he was… trying to ask, right?”

“Well, y-yeah, I guess. Man, I really don’t like that shithead… but… it’s not like he was lying about that part. I have been thinking about it. Like, for example, if… if Darius became injured… how far would I go to nurse him back to health… Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“No. Tell me right now.”

“Huh?”

“Ajax, remember the promise you made to me? We’re in this world together and if we can’t talk to each other, then who else is there? Spit it out now, you prick!”

“Ok, Ok! Well… I refuse to be weakened by what he said… that guy was telling me all of that because he wanted me to be like him and not get involved in trying to help people… or at least, he wants me to not be a jellyfish with the way I actually try to help people. So… if I do decide to help someone, I’m… I’m going to help them all the way. I’m going to accept the responsibility that their… their lives may be in my hands as soon as I get involved...”

“...You’re sure? Because if you want to become someone like that, I’m going to hold you to it. You have to assume your role and do your duty then…”

“Honestly, I don’t even have to meet my own needs like food and shelter so why not help others? What else am I even going to do… What about you then? How are you going to act when you’re in a situation to help people, to save them?”

Shaula narrows her eyes, still looking directly at Ajax.

“Ajax… I’m simply not like you. For me, there’s only a few people I would lift a finger to help. If I’m gracious enough to help someone then I’ll help them. But, I’m not going to do anything more than that. So, as long as you’re with me, I’ll let you handle all that other shit like… consequences.”

“...Yeah, sure… I guess if that’s how it’s going to be… then--”

Suddenly, a group of three animals appears before Ajax and Shaula. Three feathered velociraptors with bluish white feathers run towards Ajax and Shaula.

“Ah! Hey, guys! How are you fellas doing!”

Shaula jumps to her feet and runs to them. The three feathered velociraptors surround her as she pets each one of them and rubs their feathery coats.

Ajax slowly rises and watches this display. Currently, Ajax and Shaula are still both wearing the clothes they stole from the church and the bandits.

Shaula’s torn dress looks truly beautiful in the light of morning. The scene before him is majestic. Light falls through the leaves of the massive trees onto the feathery hides of the raptors and Shaula’s own chestnut hair, shimmering spectacularly.

Right now, regardless of anything past or future, Ajax is perfectly fine.

“Hm? Darius, what’s wrong?”

Shaula notices the behaviour of one of the feathered velociraptors, a beast that Ajax has named Darius. Although they don’t feel like they’ve necessarily tamed these creatures, Darius still responds when his name is called.

Actually, are you a boy or a girl? Whatever, I don’t care but…

“What is it, Shaula?”

“Darius has some kind of weird expression--”

Darius, the leader of the three raptors, is behaving oddly. It starts walking. It turns back to Ajax and Shaula as if…

“Shaula, he wants us to follow him somewhere...”

~

Ajax and Shaula follow Darius through the forest along with the other two velociraptors named Mace and Ion. Ajax named Darius while Shaula named the other two.

Darius leads them to a location about a kilometre away, in an area of the forest that Ajax and Shaula haven’t explored yet.

Here, the two of them see a large tree, larger than all of the others with a hole where its trunk and roots touch the ground. There is a small cave there.

Darius motions to the cave. Ajax and Shaula cannot see anything at the moment.

“Hm. Maybe something’s in there? Shaula, you mind listening for anything? I’ll up my sense of smell.”

“Sure.”

Shaula increases her ability to hear by directly adding energy to her sense of hearing. It feels like opening the valve to her ears specifically but what flows through that valve is not something she understands.

Ajax does the same for his sense of smell, allowing him to track as precisely as a bloodhound.

“Uh… Whoa, there’s something in there… it’s… I can hear it slithering...”

“Is it one of the big snakes? Be careful...”

Ajax and Shaula have encountered large snakes as big if not bigger than Anacondas in these forests.

They don’t truly pose a threat because of Ajax and Shaula’s powers but… they’re not smart enough to sense Ajax and Shaula’s power so they attack as if Ajax and Shaula are simply human.

Ajax has been bitten by them but nothing happened, so the two of them infer that either its venom is non-lethal or it simply can’t hurt them because of their healing factor.

“I think… Hold on, it doesn’t smell like a snake though.”

Ajax tries to get a sense of its size by detecting changes in air pressure. This is an ability he’s practiced by portioning enough energy to his sense of touch.

“It feels… big but, like, it’s changing size or something. It’s definitely not snake shaped. I wonder what it did to Darius?”

Ajax looks back at Darius who appears… scared of the cave. Darius, Mace and Ion are behind a large tree hiding from it. Ajax can see their reptilian eyes peeking at the scene.

Shaula, meanwhile, looks into the hole trying to sharpen her vision to get a better sense of--

“Holy shit!”

“Wh--”

Shaula runs to where Ajax is and quickly pulls him towards her, running to the tree where the raptor trio is hiding.

“Huh? What is it?”

“Just… Just look… Don’t say I didn’t warn you though, it’s… weird.”

Ajax peeks past the tree trunk to the mouth of the cave and sees… eyes. Many eyes. Tentacles emerge from the cave. This creature looks like… an octopus.

But it has seven, thick, long tentacles, each with a multitude of ping-pong-ball-sized eyes on one side and suction cups on the side that is currently touching the ground.

It is as large as a bear. It has one large, dinner-plate sized eye on its head as well as a long seam distinguishing the two halves of the head.

Its many eyes are currently trained on Ajax and Shaula whose heads are peeking out from the trunk of the tree. The creature is… careful.

Shaula and Ajax whisper to each other about their next course of action.

“Ajax, I-I really don’t want to fuck with something like that, holy shit, it’s like a fucking squid or something! What’s it doing on land in the forest? This world really sucks, holy fuck!”

“I-It’s really… Wow… You know, I’ve always wanted to interact with cephalopods. They’re, like, really intelligent creatures!”

“...”

“What? Doesn’t it look cool?”

“It looks like a fucking demon!!!”

“What? No… haven’t you heard of biblically accurate angels? It’s basically like one of those...”

“Huh?? Angels have fucking wings and shit, right? Well, I haven’t read the bible enough to--”

“Apparently, the demons have the wings and look beautiful because they want to tempt you away from God or some shit but the angels look fucking insane! ‘Be not afraid’ you’ve never seen that meme before?”

“I don’t care! Let’s get out of here!”

“Hold on, I want to see this thing...”

“Ajax? No, wait--”

Ajax walks out from the tree. The creature enters a state of focus as every single one of its eyes, including the large one on its head looks over at him. None of them blink.

Ajax approaches it slowly, in awe of it. It does look very creepy. But, the biblically accurate angels are servants of God, why should he run away from them because of their appearance?

Well… I wonder if Ahura Mazda’s angels are like that?

Prior to coming here, Ajax would have been more afraid of a creature like this but… he does have power now. An animal like this shouldn’t be a--

“(Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!)”

Shaula silently screams as the creature takes another action. The seam on its head separates. Ajax witnesses in shock as its head separates in two to form a… a large mouth with rows of needle-like teeth.

The head of this cephalopod is not really a head but rather a set of jaws with a large eye on one of two jaws.

Ajax stops walking towards it. Perhaps… perhaps it’s scared of him.

Ajax stands calm and still in order to see what it will do. The eyes continue to look at him. Each of them blinks independently as well, which is perhaps more unsettling than just the fact that it has so many eyes.

Would it be less creepy if it blinked every eye at the same time or more… huh?

Ajax notices the large mouth of this creature start to close. Shaula still hasn't come out from behind her hiding spot where the raptors still cower.

Normally, she and they are extremely brave, far more than Ajax but… Ajax has different sensibilities when it comes to things that look like biblically accurate angels, entities that look gross and horrifying to her.

Ajax sees it slowly reach one of its tentacles towards him; he raises his right palm in return. Ajax, still cautious but utterly fascinated by this Eldritch horror, allows the creature to place its tentacle on his right palm.

It doesn’t seem… hostile… Wow, this world is really quite similar to ours… and quite different.

Suddenly, the creature wraps its tentacles around Ajax’s hand, holding it tightly with his suction cups.

“A-Ajax, are you alright?”

“Yeah, it’s holding my hand right now! Come over here, Shaula, it’s really cool!”

“N-No… that’s ok, that’s alright… I-I’ll just--”

“Whoa!”

The creature starts pulling Ajax. It starts moving with Ajax held securely in its arm.

“Ajax!? Are you alright!?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine!”

“Is it taking you back into its cave or something? If it tries to eat you, I’m going to knock you out for making me fight it!”

“No, it’s not getting me to go to the cave. It’s taking me somewhere else...”

“Huh? Where?”

“I don’t know but… just follow me, let’s see where it wants me to go!”

~

Ajax and Shaula walk with the creature which Ajax refers to as a ‘land squid’. They’ve been walking for about an hour, the creature moving surprisingly quickly on land with no fear towards either Ajax or Shaula.

As soon as Shaula introduced herself to it, the squid touched her as well but as if sensing Shaula’s deep fear towards it, let go of her, only holding Ajax’s hand.

At this point, both Ajax and Shaula believe that the land squid is harmless and friendly. Very creepy though, but friendly nonetheless.

Shaula let Darius, Mace and Ion do their own thing while they interact with the squid.

So long as it’s been holding Ajax’s arm, it hasn’t hurt him or tried to inject any venom or anything. It hasn’t tried to drag Ajax, it always allows him to have his footing and doesn’t force Ajax to trip or fall.

But still, neither of them understand what its intentions are.

“You sure you don’t want to hold one of its tentacles, Shaula? It’s so friendly!”

“No! I’m not going to repeat myself on this, Ajax! I-It’s harmless, sure, fine, ok but that’s different from me being ok with touching the creature with the huge mouth and freaky eyes! Ugh...”

“Hey, be nice to it! It’s so cool! Look how it’s walking! I want to see it camouflage too, like octopuses back on earth… Well, I’ll wait and see for something like that.”

“How many of these do you think are in human towns and cities on this world? These must be things people kill here, right, Ajax?”

“Aw, but it’s so cool! It’s harmless and sure, it’s mouth looks really dangerous and the eyes… but, it wouldn’t… well, it could… so yeah, it probably is hunted down, you’re probably right, sigh...”

“Well, at least you can have it as a pet, just so long as--”

“Oh, what’s here?”

Ajax and Shaula leave the forest. They reach a meadow filled with wild grass with a large tree in the centre of it.

“What is… oh no.”

Shaula’s face turns white. Her eyes tremble at something in front of the three of them.

“Huh? What is it, Shaula?”

Ajax looks in the direction she’s looking and sees…

“Oh… my God...”

On the trunk of the tree, ropes are tied and… someone held in the ropes.

Shaula runs to the trunk.

She reaches it quickly, faster than Ajax has ever seen her run. Ajax looks down at the squid who is looking at him with all of his eyes. It is no longer moving. It has reached its destination. The thing that it wanted to show them.

Ajax lets go of the land squid, who has already stopped moving forward and runs to Shaula and… the body tied to the tree.

The dead male person’s neck is wrapped around the tree by the ropes along with additional ropes at the chest and hips.

Ajax and Shaula look at this man, unmoving, his life extinguished.

The body has been mutilated. The man’s hands have long, metal nails in them that have been hammered into the tree trunk through both palms. Similarly with the man’s feet.

The man’s eyes are closed but from the dried tears of blood, it seems that they’ve been gouged out. The man’s tail is fixed to the trunk by nails as well.

Shaula looks at the man’s head with shock and sadness, anguish bubbling forth from the depths of her heart.

This man… his ears… his beast ears on the top of his head have been hammered into the trunk as well.

This… this is… a beastkin...

Tears fall from Shaula’s eyes as she continues to look at the body, unable to move, unable to even think.

“Who did this? Who the… who the fuck did this? This is… this is… I can’t--”

Ajax walks backwards, running away from the sight and vomits into the grass. Tears flow from his eyes as well.

Brutality.

He has been made aware that cruelty is at the centre of the world he’s in now but… surely there must have been a limit to this… surely, there weren’t people who would… do this…

Shaula speaks softly to herself…

“This is… this has to be… racially motivated… they didn’t have to hammer in the ears… or the tail… wait, there’s a symbol on his forehead!”

It is a symbol that Shaula recognizes vaguely. She places where she last saw it almost immediately.

The… those religious freaks… this is their…

This is clearly a hate crime on this beastkin. Shaula had wondered if it was the land squid who did all this for just a moment, but all the rope, the nails, the symbol… a creature like that could not be so dextrous, and it didn’t display such intelligence.

Ajax slowly walks, not to face the corpse again but just to make sure that Shaula is--

Shaula moves frantically, climbing the tree and burning off the ropes holding the man to it. She removes the nails with her physical strength, slightly softening them unconsciously with her fiery hands trembling with anger.

“Shaula, h-he’s dead… He can’t be resuscitated...”

“I-I know, Ajax but… but we can’t… we can’t let his body rot like this on this tree. We have to bury him. Help me bury him, Ajax...”

Ajax understands. He sees the pain on her face.

Ajax doesn’t hesitate and jumps to the tree to help her remove the nails. He shatters them with his powers, being careful not to damage the corpse too much.

Finally, they release his body from the tree, carefully carrying it down to the ground together. The blood in his body still falls to the ground. This beastkin man must have died only last night.

They carefully lay him on the ground. Tears continue to flow and Shaula’s face gets more frantic and desperate at the sight of the man.

Ajax looks at Shaula… her face doesn’t seem… like her…

Shaula has seen people like this in their home world. Not people who were brutally killed but people left to die, waiting for the air to freeze their bodies…

When she was homeless herself, she saw more than a few homeless people frozen to death during the winters. The city wouldn’t provide the shelters necessary for them and their shanty towns were demolished over and over again by the police.

Shaula starts digging with her hands in the ground. The ground is too hard however. Her fingers start to bleed, her nails…

“Shit…”

Shaula changes tactics by applying heat to the ground to soften it up. She releases heat from her hands and the ground starts burning. The part of the ground where her hands touch instantly burns and then liquifies.

“Shaula...”

“What are you standing there for!? Help me dig, Ajax!”

“Why don’t… why don’t you… cremate him?”

Shaula looks at Ajax whose face is still crying, his eyes deadened. Why didn’t she think of that? Why didn’t she think of just cremating him? That would be respectful enough, more respectful than allowing wild animals to eat the beastkin man’s rotting corpse.

The injuries to her fingers have already healed.

Her soul has been shaken by the cruelty she has witnessed. She’s thinking slightly less than rationally.

Shaula quietly stands up while nodding her head affirmatively to Ajax. With her hands, she touches the body of the man. Instantly, his body burns. Like it was nothing.

She continues holding him as ashes appear. The fire still burns however and grows.

“Uh… Shaula?”

Shaula’s face twists into an expression of grief. More tears flow from her eyes as the area around her catches fire; she sobs and sobs.

Her clothes catch fire. The tree itself catches fire. The grass around them catches fire. Shaula kneels in anguish while the area burns around her.

The body is already no more.

In moments, the fire rushes up to the top of the tree, the lone tree in this meadow.

The tree where this man had been killed.

Ajax doesn’t wish to stop her. He feels her grief. Her pain. He cries with her as his own clothes burn away. He walks over to her, kneeling while her hands cover her face. Her body is completely naked.

Ajax embraces her and she reciprocates. Then… he absorbs. The tree that has been burning, has already crumbled to the ground, leaving a large pile of black ashes.

Ajax absorbs the fire and heat in their vicinity. The raging fire that could have escaped past the meadows into the forest dissipates.

Ajax and Shaula cry together as their tears freeze while falling down their faces.

The two of them sit there for a few minutes…

This world…

“Ajax...”

“Yeah?”

“I want to… I have to… I have to find the ones who did this… I… I can’t live here anymore… Things like this… will continue to happen… I can’t turn my eyes away from it. I’m strong. We’re strong… we… we can stop this… we… have the… responsibility. We have the power.”

“...Are you sure? Are you sure you want to go to where people are? To confront the people capable of this?”

“I’m not asking, Ajax. I will find those who did this. You won’t be able to stop me from doing what I want to do to them, Ajax.”

“Do you… Do you know who did this? Where are you going to start?”

“The man… he had… a religious symbol carved into his forehead… a symbol I saw with the church’s people.”

“We’re going back there?”

“No, there’s probably people nearby who are doing things like this… this is clearly… clearly a hate crime and I have to think that multiple people were involved… I… I have to stop this… I have… to stop more deaths like this…”

“...Sigh… Ok. I’m coming with you. I know I won’t be able to change your mind and I’m not going to try to… but I’m not going to let you do this alone… Shit... I knew we couldn’t live here forever.”

“...Yeah. We’ll… We’ll finally have to meet the people of this world for ourselves.”