All of the satyrs sat there quietly taking in the story that the boy told about his life without leaving out a single detail. Their facial expressions could be seen changing at each minute: happiness, sadness, and frustration seemed to become the cycle of emotions they felt listening to it.

It passed by in the blink of an eye and before they knew it, he was done talking.

An awkward silence filled the air and most of the satyrs avoided eye contact with the boy, staring into the fire and those that did looked at him weirdly.

Around an hour passed with silence as the boy sipped his wine and majority of the satyrs fell asleep on the grass.

Suddenly the remaining satyr who was still awake aside from Quo'ah and seated got up and threw his horn containing wine at a tree.

The power at which he threw it made it sound like that of a miniature explosion as it hit the tree, shattering it to pieces.

Then he took back a seat on the ground.

Looking at this satyr he could see that he was slightly different with a patch on his beard not being brown but black, distinguishing him from the other satyrs which were seemingly clones of each other, with Quo'ah being another exception due to his physique.

"Filthy humans," he said as he looked at Quo'ah with a look of disgust in his eyes, breaking the silence.

"I agree" Quo'ah responded.

"This one can speak like me too huh" the boy said in amusement.

"I could have always spoken to you but I wanted to know the type of man you were before I decided to speak to you or not.............my name is Ja'eh child" the satyr said as he looked at the boy.

"I take it you decided to speak to me........Ja'eh" the boy said as he drank wine.

"Do you know why the rest of them looked at you the way they did? It's because you are the living embodiment of someone who has experienced everything wrong with the humans...........from what you just told us, their nastiness knows no bounds, they looked at you not with condescending eyes but the opposite of that" Ja'eh told the boy as he got up and walked over and took a seat next to him and Quo'ah.

"Does this not infuriate you Quo'ah, the humans and their nature" Ja'eh said angrily.

"Ja'eh, of course it infuriates me, if they do things like this to their own kind, things like peace with humans will never be a thing............but the way it looks it might be a good thing not to associate with them" Quo'ah said.

"You have seen the outside world Quo'ah, humans are taking on the same mentality of the dwarves and it seems its been so long that they have forgotten what happened to the dwarves because of that mentality, there will be repercussions," Ja'eh said.

"That is just a folktale Ja'eh, if something like that really existed then where it is" Quo'ah said as he rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry but what are you talking about?" the boy asked as he had no idea of what the conversation was about.

"Just an ancient folkt-"

"It isn't an ancient folktale if it was there would be pureblooded dwarves up till this day..........not to mention the statue..........." Ja'eh said softly, interjecting Quo'ah.

"What do you mean Ja'eh?" the boy enquired.

"Long ago the dwarven race was the most prominent within the lands and with that they developed a sense of superiority and looked down upon everything else...........with that they worked to the genocide of other species which they deemed unfit, they decided to take on the role of the gods.......making decisions about life, who lives and who dies" Ja'eh said with the atmosphere becoming serious and tense.

"You know what they say, short people are closer to hell..........." the boy said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"............"

"..............."

"Seriously, that was funny" he said upon seeing them look at him with poker faces.

"But if thats the case, you're shorter than most of us in the forest so does that make you closer to hell?" Ja'eh asked whilst smiling.

"Fuck you" the boy responded.

"You are not reading into the mood are you child" Quo'ah said.

"Sorry, carry on with the story" the boy said, apologizing.

"...............then "It" descended from the sky, no-one knows where it came from, The Great Beast, stomping them like the ants they were, ripping them to shreds in a rage...........what it taught every species in this continent that day was "Know your place".......... for hundreds of years to pass peace rained after that due to the fear of a higher power in the form of an executioner" Ja'eh said as he continued on.

"And the dwarves?"

"It was the near genocide of their race, it hunted them like wild animals leaving a trail of death and destruction..........blood everywhere.............all of them butchered to pieces.........and what was more amusing about the story was that it actually took the time to hunt them down one by one until I guess it got fed up, in this day and age you can never find a pure blooded dwarf, only mixed bloods in which their main bloodline has been diluted for the sake of survival"

Sounds cool to me...........

"What happened to the beast?"

"....................it fought in a great battle, then after that, no-one knows, it vanished into thin air after that, some believe it must have died at one point whilst others believe it is asleep somewhere waiting for a major balance shift as it was in the past..............."

"Ja'eh that is enough, it is just a story our elders invented hundreds of years ago to teach us that no-one should be above the other" Quo'ah said.

"If it was a story, then explain the statue Quo'ah, the statue the remaining dwarves made of the beast to the east, depicting the great battle"

"..................You do not understand do you Ja'eh, we have no choice but to believe that it is a myth, statues can be made by anyone depicting their imagination, coming into the acceptance that something like that exists breeds fear and with fear violence will be born, there is a reason why it is now a myth which is has been forgotten through the passage of time"

"You believe it exists don't you Quo'ah, just as I do"

"..................It does not matter anymore in this day and age"

"You are wrong, the humans are just like that of the dwarves, have you seen how their world is right now, war is on the horizon though they do not see it yet, their urge for supremacy in everything will be their downfall and what I fear is, something will come for them..............what disgusting creatures"

"You understand that I am a human too right"

"You are no human boy" Ja'eh said without hesitation.

"JA'EH" Quo'ah shouted.

"Listen to me boy, you have potential to be so much more than live a life by human standards, where there is rejection there is acceptance elsewhere, always remember that, humans may be wrong for you but you may find comfort elsewhere, mentally you are already superior to those filthy humans, they would've lost it since they were children if they went through what you went through, you are something else entirely at this point" Ja'eh rambled on.

*Thud

"......................He is right about that, the longer you live with the humans the more your soul will get tainted by their corruption...............I know this is the.......................oh it seems he fell asleep Ja'eh" Quo'ah said upon noticing the boy had fallen asleep on the grass.

"He probably had too much to drink, it was his first time after all" Ja'eh said.

"True, let us rack up for the night, it seems the others went to sleep awhile ago as well" Quo'ah informed Ja'eh upon noticing the others sleeping.

What the fuck is shining so bright, it's burning through my eyelids......

"WAKE UP" a voice shouted.

"WHAT THE FUCK" the boy said aggressively upon being woken up.

He slowly opened his eyes to see Quo'ah looking down at him from the side accompanied by Ja'eh along with the sun's bright rays of light shining through the leaves above.

The two satyrs could be seen armed with a massive longbow strapped to across their arm along with a quiver filled with arrows tied to their backs.

"It is already daylight, can you move or not, we should get a move on to the nymphai, the others have already got a move on us" Quo'ah said to the boy.

"Ah ok, I think I can probably wa *Blerghhhh*"

He couldn't contain it, he just felt a spontaneous need to throw up.

"Hahaha, already throwing up so early?" Ja'eh said laughing at the boy.

"You motherf- *Blerghhhh* [wipes mouth].............I'm never drinking again" the boy said solemnly as he grabbed his stomach in pain accompanied by nausea.

"They all say that" Quo'ah said and Ja'eh could be seen walking into the forest.

After about 5 minutes of the gut wrenching pain, Ja'eh emerged with what looked to be a brown grass with a reddish tint along the sides.

"Chew this, it should keep your urge to vomit and the stomach aches down until we reach them" Ja'eh instructed the boy, extending his hand to him.

He didn't even question it and he grabbed the grass from Ja'eh's hands and began to chew it like a cow.

It took about 5 seconds for the taste of the grass to register to his brain...............absolute shit, that's what it tasted like.

In the moments whilst he chewed it the taste made him feel to vomit even more than before but upon swallowing it, the nausea immediately faded away and the stomach ache took about a minute to pass away.

"Ah much better, what is this?" the boy enquired as he let go of his stomach.

"The Plir grass, it helps with nausea, we use it alot" Ja'eh informed the boy.

He slowly sat up on the grass and looked at his legs and then proceeded to shakes his arms and legs.

"My body feels better[tenses leg muscles] I think I can walk" the boy said to the two of them.

He got up quickly and dug his bare feet into the grass until it reached the dirt, tensed his calves and then he swung it upwards and stretched it like nothing and then proceeded to start stretching his back, he felt no pain from his wounds.

"Huh......." Quo'ah said with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"Something wrong Quo'ah?" Ja'eh asked upon seeing his facial expression.

"No, it is nothing..............let us go" Quo'ah instructed as he returned to his original calm state.

"So where we headin to?" the boy asked.

"East, it should take us a while to reach" Ja'eh responded.

"Cool, let's move out" the boy responded.

Quo'ah took the lead and walked into the thick trees with the boy and Ja'eh following behind.

Looking at it, he could see that this region of the forest was comprised of so many trees of different kinds with humongous oak and cypress trees which were old to the point where they could be categorized as ancient, towering over 30 meters in the air with large branches extending, outwards providing shade in some areas but heavy sunlight in others and were spaced out decently to allow atleast 4 people to walk in a row.

They walked for what was seemingly hours in silence, just following the lead and taking in natures air.

Along the way they could see various wildlife hiding in the bushes, grass and trees.

Snakes and spiders seemed to be abundant with numerous different species with regards to each.

As they walked, they entered what could be considered a "hot-zone", there were no branches extending over them to shelter them from the harsh rays of the sun.

Looking up at the sky, it was a nice sight, when he had entered the forest to fight the Glutton it was something he had never expected to see again upon meeting the creature.

It was fresh and vibrant and cheered him up a bit.

The more he looked at the sky whilst walking the more he could see something was off.

He stopped in his tracks for a second and began to look carefully at it like that of a hawk.

Large numbers of black things moving in the air in a circular motion above something in the far distance to the right could be seen but the sun's bright light was obstructing his vision even when he used his hands to attempt to block out some of the light.

One of the things seemed to have gotten closer and he finally got a clearer look at it. They were vultures. So many he couldn't even begin to process the amount but averaging it had to be over a hundred.

The sheer magnitude of vultures meant that there had to be a lot of dead things and the thought of the field filled with bodies popped into his mind.

He ignored it and moved forward re-entering the shaded area of the forest shortly after.

At least another hour had passed of continuous walking and it was nearing the afternoon and his body showed no signs of running out of energy but that wasn't the only surprising thing he felt.

This is odd, no pain as usual?.........my body feels different..........lighter?............no...............its stronger than it was before, what's happening here.............

"You okay boy?" Ja'eh asked upon seeing the boy with a worried face.

"Yea, question, how come we're so far away from the nymphai?" the boy enquired.

"We could not have left you there, who knows what they would have done to you whilst you were asleep, much less when you woke up, so we carried you on a wine run" Quo'ah responded.

"Wine run?" the boy asked.

"We robbed some merchants of their wine obviously hahaha" Ja'eh responded laughing.

"You're joking right?"

"Unfortunately no, no humans were hurt though, we just needed the wine" Quo'ah said.

"Ha, that's fucked up, but still, I was hopin we would've been close to reaching"

"We would have already reached if we ran but we are walking for your sake" Ja'eh informed the boy.

"For my sake? You can run you know" the boy said.

"No, our perceptions of speed are different, you would get left behind in the blink of an eye" Quo'ah informed the boy.

"He's right, you would get lost easily not to mention you still haven't eaten properly so you'd get exhausted quickly and you still haven't fully recovered from your injuries" Ja'eh added.

I need to find something out........

"Then move at a slow pace like jogging so I can keep up, I don't feel tired at all, I can keep up once you don't go bird speed on my ass" the boy begged.

"You serious?" Ja'eh asked.

"Yea, let's try a thing" the boy said.

Quo'ah looked at the boy's face and he could see for some reason he had a look of strong determination and then he looked at Ja'eh.

"Okay" Quo'ah and Ja'eh said in unison.

They both pushed their feet into the dirt and with one push, all his eyes could process in the second after was both of them at least 15 meters ahead and the dirt flying up into the air.

If this was them moving at a slow pace he had no desire to see what they could've done if they chose to run.

I told them to jog..............motherfuckers

There was no time to waste, he was already left in the dust.

The minute he took his first step as he dug into the dirt he felt it for the first time.

It was the first time he had felt contractions like this, his bones trembled from the force as he took on a sprinter's form and chased after.

They had a large gap but they were within sight and he was keeping up with a seemingly limitless supply of energy.

All he could hear was the sound of twigs being broken to pieces, grass being trampled and seemingly miniature explosions from both satyrs to the front as they ripped large chunks of dirt out the ground with each powerful stride.

As he slowly closed the gap to about 6 meters behind them, he could hear them speaking in their native language and then Ja'eh turned his head around and simply stared at him for about 5 seconds before turning face forward again.

They took a sharp turn to the right, jumping over some bushes which were roughly a meter high.

As he arrived at the bush he pushed off into the grass, digging both grass and dirt out and he leapt for the sky.

He had no expectations of making a meter high jump and simply expected to get caught within the bush but he made it over at least 8 inches over the meter and landed safely on the ground and kept on moving to his surprise.

It was thrilling, running at such a pace and moving through all sorts of different trees ignoring all old branches protruding through the sides scraping him with every passing second.

They kept running on and on and before he knew it he could see both Ja'eh and Quo'ah slowing down and then they suddenly emerged through the trees into an area with blinding light bursting forth as he followed.

As his eyes registered the light and slowly acclimatized he could see them standing over what seemed to be a large stone cliff above him and Quo'ah slowly walking ahead on the cliff with Ja'eh looking down at him.

Ja'eh jumped down and immediately picked the boy up and then with a powerful leap he carried the boy to the top of the cliff.

He was seemingly unfazed.

"We're here" Ja'eh said.

As the boy looked forward he could see Quo'ah directly ahead at least 30 meters ahead at the edge of the cliff looking down.

There were no trees within sight, just the cliff which now extended into the air.

"So what now?" the boy asked.

"We go down now child, they all wait for us at the bottom, come over here both of you" Quo'ah instructed.

Go down?

As they slowly walked forward the boy looked to the sides of the cliffs and it was then he could see the huge forest beneath them with seemingly no end.

They finally came side by side with Quo'ah and the boy looked down.

At least 1500 meters down he could see clear blue water in a seemingly large lake like area directly below with the forest continuing directly ahead of it.

His stomach and throat tightened at the height and then h

Quo'ah walked to the side and picked up three stones in his hand and walked to the boy and Ja'eh and passed them a stone each.

"This is to break the fall" Quo'ah said.

"Wait, I can't swim....." the boy said fearfully.

"You are going to learn now" Quo'ah informed the boy.

"Sorry what?" the boy asked bewildered with a dumbass look on his face.

"Trust me, you'll learn to swim, this is how we learned to swim, well not this exact scenario but being thrown into the water so it's similar I guess" Ja'eh said.

"Similar my ass" the boy said in disbelief.

"We are pretty high up so we will be falling at an extremely fast pace, when you are about 20 meters before hitting the water, throw the rock at the water to soften the blow" Quo'ah instructed the boy.

Can I even survive this drop in the first place?

"I know you're thinking about if you can survive the drop alone and the answer is yes, don't be worried,also, we won't let you drown providing you don't learn to swim in the moment" Ja'eh said as he patted the boy on the back.

"I am going first" Quo'ah said.

Immediately after saying that he jumped off the cliff without hesitation and the boy quickly ran over to the edge and looked down at him falling.

Quo'ah's figure slowly disappeared from sight as he fell downwards due to the distance from cliff to water.

As he turned his head to look behind at Ja'eh, all he could hear is the wind break and see the satyr's legs as Ja'eh leapt off the cliff to join Quo'ah.

He waited till Ja'eh's figure disappeared and then he took a minute looking down.

Slowly he mustered his resolve and ignored the choking, tensed up feeling he had gotten upon reaching the cliff due to the height.

As his fear slowly faded he looked up at the birds flying high in the sky.

Fly......

He grabbed the rock tightly and jumped off the cliff.