They had been caught. Even as he watched the yellow orbs disappear to his left, he knew what would follow.

The protection of the night had vanished almost instantly, thanks to the lone light from Alma’s lantern blazing to life. While the old witch struggled to hoist herself out of her bed, he sent a command to his creature while they still had time. Hide.

Another vague demand, but neither of them had much time to think of any more clever plans. He had clearly felt his creature’s panic through their bond, likely a side-effect of his own fear rubbing off on the poor thing. While he tried to think of what to do, the witch had sighed, “I suppose our arrangement never would have worked, anyway. I really tried...” The sadness in her voice worried him a great deal more than he felt it should have. As though she had come to some sort of conclusion that involved him.

With shadows dancing across every wall as she moved towards his creature’s pot, he watched her investigate the many hanging plants she owned for the source of the noise. She had decided to start with the one that had a gaping hole in its container.

The flickering light of the lantern’s flame gave him a clear view of the sorrowful expression she had been wearing, “What the others would say if they could see me now…” Others? There’s more of you!?

“I knew the risks. Even still, I went against my nature. For that, I truly am sorry, little core, but you've forced my hand.” Why is she telling me these things? Either she had simply gone insane and decided to talk to herself, or she was about to do something drastic and felt it didn’t matter what she revealed to him anymore. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What do I do?

She stood over where he imagined his creature to be hiding. When she hadn’t immediately screamed, he felt relieved that it had managed to hide so well.

He had to distract her. He had to do something so she didn’t find his creature. There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that she would attack it on sight. I’m so sorry.

A failure of a core if there ever was one, he couldn’t even protect his own creations. Even though one of them was a fucking pebble.

“What I don’t quite understand, however… is why you would send them all the way over here?” She had gestured towards the broken pot. ...Excuse me?

She had seen his creature earlier. That had to be the only explanation for why she would have said such a thing, and it had effectively paralyzed his mind with fear. He hadn’t even stood a chance? Life truly is cruel.

After Alma had plucked out his twin from the pot and held it between her tattooed fingers, he felt his fear only grow. Leave it alone, dammit! You already have me, you don’t have to do this! He flashed his energy ring in the hopes of catching her attention, but she was focused solely on his fake core.

Yellow-ringed irises stared in confusion at his replica, similar to how she had looked at it after first seeing it drop down alongside him inside his bowl, “For this…?” She looked inside the flowerpot once more, grabbing a handful of soil and dropping it back into the container. She gestured wildly around the room, “It wasn’t the soil you were after…”

Put that down. NOW! He could hardly register whatever it was she had been saying, his fear quickly warping into something more volatile.

With another grand sweeping motion towards the room rest of the room, she pointed at all the various potted flowers resting among the shelves his creature had passed, “You specifically chose to go to this one…” He forced the reserve symbol to stay visible, hoping she would be inclined to look at him instead.

“I have to know why. Tell me, now.” Who the fuck does she think she is!? Give me that back! She had still turned to look at him, though. His only ploy had been the equivalent of shining a bright light in her face, but it had still worked. The moment she had, however, had been the moment he felt his non-existent heart shatter.

A cloud of dirt had erupted out of the pot in question after she had turned, his creature already sailing through the air, tendrils outstretched. It had responded to his pleading to the woman, he felt sure of it.

It had managed to latch onto the woman’s palm before she understood what was occurring. It had immediately begun trying to wrestle his replica out of her grip.

She screamed in surprise, or disgust, and tried to pull it off of her. It would not let go.

No…

Everything had gone so wrong, so quickly. Because he hadn’t been clever enough, hadn’t thought through his plans well enough, or had just been plain unlucky.

A sudden thumping on the floor had roused him from his depressing thoughts. It was his twin, newly freed, and rolling across the floorboards before it had come to a stop near the center of the room.

He had already begun pleading for the witch to spare his creature’s life as she inspected it. Both of her hands had firmly wrapped around its body, stopping it from moving. It had taken her seconds to fully disable his strongest champion. Please…

“This isn’t right…” Don’t talk about them like that! He had made his creature exactly the way he had intended to. It was perfect in his eyes...

He tried forcing his body to build another creature or just anything that might have actually been able to save the others. All he had managed to create was a massive core-ache.

The witch had begun walking over to his fallen replica, squirming ball of death still held tightly, and stooped down to pick it up with an outstretched finger. He could clearly see his creature fighting with all it had in an attempt to free itself. Then the gap in her hands became covered by his twin, concealing his creature from his view once more. She now had both in hand and had been walking towards him, clearly mocking him for his failings.

She wants me to watch. She’s going to ruin everything I’ve made. All because he had been impatient. If there had been any higher power in the world, he prayed that one day this horrible person would get what they truly deserved.

She lowered her head until it had become eye-level with his bowl. If he had had any energy to spare, he would have tried to kill her.

The moment he had imagined building a massive stone spike to pierce through her skull, had been the moment she had started crying. He had barely even registered it, still seeing red.

“I… It’s just been… There’s so few like us left...”

I am going to break every bone in your body.

“You have no idea how long I’ve had to wait… Finally.” One of her tears had fallen into his bowl.

Disgusting fucking witch. I am going to burn down every flower you own.

“Everyone’s grown so careless, greedy, and vengeful. Because of you.” She had clearly decided to blame him for her own shortcomings.

I will hunt down every member of your entire fucking species if you hurt them. I promise you.

“Look at you, though. I can feel your hatred.”

Good.

“I can feel your intentions.”

Then you know what will be coming for you if you can’t shatter me.

“I promise you--” She had placed his two creations next to him, before stepping back toward the middle of the room, “-- I’m not going to be the one to hurt either of them. We aren’t like the other nine, I swear. Please, believe me.”

I will drain the marrow from-- Huh?

“Ever since the cores started the tradition of those terrible dungeons... everything has fallen out of balance.”

“No regard for the purity of life, not even their own kin. The loss of respect for the sanctity of nature--” The symbols across her body had begun to glow, moving along her aged skin and coalescing near her temples, “--has worn me down and made me a cynic. Please. I beg you, forgive me for how I’ve treated you…” She had begun to quietly chuckle to herself, “If the other Antho could see me now... How far I’ve fallen. Taking advantage of a fledgling, the shame my ancestors must feel...”

Massive horns had formed out of the inky masses swirling around her temples, spiraling around her ears and winding down throughout her hair.

“You would not believe how much effort it takes to keep that little spell up. Illusion certainly isn’t my main affinity, but necessity is the mother of invention after all.” He had no clue what to even begin to think, especially when her wrinkled face had hardened into some kind of... wood? That mane of white hair had also begun to expand, covering her body as a cloak might. The flowers within its depths appeared even brighter to him, as though they had decided to bloom twice.

Her massive horns had quickly become an after-thought, now that she had started to sprout what appeared to be antlers as well. What the fuck is happening.

His creature had already placed itself in front of his core and the now.... seven?...foot tall woman. The antlers had given her a sizeable wingspan though, and he had no doubts that if she had tried to turn her head she would have knocked absolutely everything off the nearby shelves, “I have deceived you, little core, because I assumed you to be more of the same. I have never been happier to be so wrong.”

Her slitted eyes closed in an exaggerated fashion, likely as some sort of intended apology, “This is who I truly am. An Antho, the protectors of nature.” You look like something I would have made. He hadn’t intended it as a compliment.

Clearly, he had just been given a free pass. One that he did not intend to let slip by.

Though, he was still struggling to reign in his emotions after such an intense night, “After the first dungeons had appeared, we did nothing. Why would we? The affairs of the nine had never been our primary concern, neither the cores and their varied creations.” She had decided to tell him about her life story...?

“Of course, the stray hero may have stirred up the occasional trouble, but we had always handled such a threat as one world, united... ” Once he had fully looked over his creations and confirmed their safety, he calmed his mind.

Until…? He felt stable enough to at least listen to what the amalgamation in front of him had to say.

“Until it became our primary concern. Within a year, the Guild had formed to explore the new dungeons. A decade later, and the first country had been taken over." Whoa. That guy sounded pretty cool.

"A core with a proclivity for spilling the blood of children had decided it needed to gather more sacrifices for the perverse kingdom it had been building. So, it did. Until it had spread its roots across the entire continent.” Oh.

You lie. He belatedly realized her feet had been replaced with hooves, while her hands had grown hooked talons.

Tears had still been falling freely down her cheeks as she recounted her tale to him, “Everyone had agreed such a thing would not stand. So, we gathered the ten, slaughtered all of the core’s abominations, and shattered the one responsible.” That had grabbed his full attention, making him wonder if she been the one to shatter the core involved.

Why would a fellow core have done something so horrible, though? He would not believe the slanders she had been spouting. We aren’t the monsters of this story. You are.

“The fallout had been worse than we could have imagined. The Antho had ended up being the ones to take the blame for such a horror being allowed to occur. Never mind that we had been the ones to first bring the dungeon to the attention of the others.”

She sighed again, deeply, “That’s the crux of it. When you call your entire race the ‘protectors of nature’, people tend to hold you to it after something inevitably goes wrong. Even if it might have had nothing to do with us.”

Why was she making up such an elaborate lie? He could think of absolutely no reason she would. Although, he hadn’t really factored her turning into five different animals at once into his plans either.

Now that his creations were safe, for the moment anyway, he tried to understand what she stood to gain by telling him such things.

“A century later, and the Guild had only grown more influential. They claimed themselves the new ‘protectors’, and we had believed them. Why not? They employed people from every race and creed and had found a way to negotiate with the cores so everyone could benefit. Who wouldn’t be relieved that the mistakes of the past would no longer be repeated…?”

Her earlier mane of hair had created the appearance of fur on large portions of her body. The exposed skin that he could see had already taken on a similar wooden appearance as her face had. Even so, she still looked a day away from passing away due to being older than time itself.

She smiled at him again, and he remembered she had some way to read his ‘intentions’ or emotions or… whatever. Big deal. The building process already did that, and he hadn’t heard it brag about it.

“The resentment of the past never faded, though. The nine’s anger at us had only grown as we became more and more unnecessary. Soon, any issue involving the safety of the world had to be handled solely by the Guild.” She lowered her head slightly in what he had figured to be shame, her antlers had gone mere inches from scratching the ceiling. “Some of my kind had been relieved... but I could see the writing on the wall for what it was. We had become expendable. A terrible thing to be when everyone harbors disdain for your race.” He disliked the fact he had begun to relate to and feel pity for the Antho.

“Another century, another catastrophe, and the dam had broken. My kind was hunted down out of fear. Some of the worst of the nine had even taken to killing us for sport, indulging in the challenge.” Her eyes had darkened considerably, “They took to parading my dead brethren through the cold streets of their capitals, taking our bones as trophies to decorate their homes with.”

That’s horrible… His anger had long since deflated, especially after seeing the sincerity she had expressed toward him. The cruelty of the world around him was something he could understand well.

The anger in her eyes had vanished, replaced with a sorrowful look, “I fled. We all did. The fruits of our loyalty to the world over the centuries had become worthless. What few that could, had disguised themselves as members of the nine other races. The others decided to isolate themselves until after the world had healed.”

She shrugged, “I chose to do both. The only reason I am alive and they are not is because I had been fortunate enough to be born with a slight affinity for illusion. Not something common to my people… Many of my kin had even begged me to disguise them from the glory-seekers attempting to hunt them down. Still, those memories haunt my dreams.”

Tragic backstory aside, he didn’t have a single clue why she had told him all of this. Sure, she had promised him information in their initial deal, but that had clearly been taken off the table after he tried to escape.

It had been an unbelievably sad story to hear but… could he leave now? It wasn’t like he was about to bring a race back from the brink of extinction, nor would he want to choose to dedicate his life as the Antho had. Look where it had gotten them.

She looked down at him briefly, wiping away one last tear before continuing, “Being able to sense the emotions of every living creature had been our greatest advantage against the nine. Now, it’s nothing but a curse and a burden. Run, then, little core. You truly are the best of your kind. All I ask is that you don’t make the same mistakes your brethren have. Learn from all of our failures. Please.” The sincerity in her eyes had overwhelmed him. If she had been lying the entire time, she had already succeeded in her attempts to influence him.

It wasn’t like he would be taking on whatever that guild thing was, especially when they had clearly been responsible for the slaughter of an entire species. Not that he had threatened her with the same thing only five minutes ago...

I will be better. If he had to bear the burden of a race’s dying wish on his non-existent shoulders, so be it.