As I looked at the deep fear each human bore, I knew I had won.

I glanced down at my body and was not surprised to find that, despite the spears' violence, their steel had left behind no wounds. What skin had been pierced and slashed had already closed. The Konac maij's fire had even burned away what blood had been spilled.

"(Monster)..."

I perked up at the word, the curse that dribbled from one of the warrior's frightened lips. Because my survival was unnatural, as was my manipulation of the maijiks around me. And yet none of it came as a surprise. I knew even if I did not remember.

How easy it would be to lash out at the remaining humans with their own summoned flame. It bounded around me in an excited hustle. I could see how much it drained Cibor the maij. He tugged constantly at the fire's leash, helpless and horrified for it.

"But is that the correct choice," I said. I stroked my smooth chin, and with a wave of my hand, the red-blue flame petered away.

Cibor the maij collapsed, which seemed to wake his kapatana from her stupor.

"Cibor?" the blonde-haired woman said. "Cibor, wake up!"

These humans had sought my death, and had failed miserably in their venture. There seemed no reason to punish them for their mistake. After all, there was much I could learn from them.

I cleared my fire roasted throat, and said, "W-who are you?"

My voice cracked with an unexpected rush of human (anxiety). Because I was about to converse with my first set of humans.

"(Maijster)!" Cibor cried from the ground. He clutched the colored sleeve of the kapatana. "You must... flee! This... this creature is not... not human!"

"I won't leave you, Cibor!" the kapatana said, and I puzzled over the master and her servant with an anxious stare. Had they not heard me? Or had they not understood the question?

I raised my voice, and said, "Who are you all?"

One of the Konac warriors loosed a manic scream. He charged me with his spear, his eyes wide with terror.

I felt the crunch of steel push through my ribs, and I threw my hands in the air as a sudden surge of human (exasperation) took hold. Because as powerful as I was, I still could not stop a frightened human from skewering me with his spear.

"Run, my kapatana!" the sweaty warrior said. He was so close that I could have counted the number of hairs on his upper lip.

"Get off of me," I said, but the words had no effect. The warrior only jammed and shook his spear all the more violently, pinning me to grass of the plains.

"Fall back!" the kapatana shouted over the warrior's exhausted huffing. "Collect the wounded and fall back!"

"You cursed godson fiend," the warrior over me hissed. Some of the sweat poured off his face and trickled into my right eye.

"Enough!" I shouted, full of frustration and failure. I could scarcely see anything at all with how the warrior smothered me with his steel armor.

But the dead woman's husk still sat beside me, and she did not blink.

"Get him off of me," I said, and the husk spasmed with lightning bolts of life.

Beyond the warrior's embrace, I could hear the click-clack of fleeing boots. If anyone noticed the dead woman rise from her silent stupor, none thought to shout about it.

The husk did not move as a human should move. Each movement was a spastic jerk of energy. It tried to snatch at the warrior's hands, but the dead woman's own wrists ended in two handless stumps. The husk stilled, as though in thought, and then launched herself, mouth agape and slathered with drool, at the warrior's gloved fists.

The Konac warrior loosed a horrible wail as the husk pulled and tugged at his fingers with her bare teeth. He let go of the spear and tried to punch the husk, but the two went to the ground, the husk snapping and chewing like some wild beast.

Beyond their feral struggle, I watched as the kapatana and her warriors fled down the hill. The sight of their backs filled me with a human fear. There was no reason to believe that the blonde haired woman or her maij servant held the answers I needed, but who knew when I would come across more humans?

Still skewed on the spear, I closed my eyes and wondered what I should do.