“Maymun, what are you doing here?” Ilon raised his voice slightly in a surprised tone. A soft smile spread to his face as she released him from her death grip. “It’s been what, five years since the last time we were together?”

As Maymun released Ilon from her grip, he finally got a good look at her for the first time in five years. Her long brown hair was wild as always, and the only major difference was her growth. She had always been tall for her age but in the time that he hadn’t seen her, she had shot up to easily over six feet tall.

“It’s been a while hasn’t it? I was travelling around with Quyon and we decided to stop off here after hearing that there were strange ongoings in order to see if there was a Horror here. We looked all over but didn’t sense anything so we were thinking of leaving soon. Quyon’s in the room right now, she’ll be down soon.” She chatted as she sauntered over to the empty chair in front of him. She sat down in her typical way, right arm swung over the back and her right leg crossed over her left. She wore a casual black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of dark blue pants.

“Anyways.” She continued on, “how about you. How have you been doing these five years? Hopefully the Master didn’t drive you too hard.”

“It was … tough to say the least. I nearly died dozens of times, and I’m pretty sure She would have let me.” The smile that was on Ilon’s face dropped. He was a favourite of Hers and spent a couple more years with her than any of the other Cursed did. It was extremely beneficial for his strength, but the mental weight was near unbearable. Living on the edge of death for days or weeks at a time grated one’s mind to the utmost extreme.

“Yeah. You were alone with her for another four years after we were left behind. At least we had others to give us comfort the entire time.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Memories from that time flashing through her head. They were the trauma that gave her countless nightmares, yet they were also what forged her into what she was today.

The Cursed had all suffered under her. She had even met with Ot, the oldest member of the Cursed, and even he was raised by her from a young age. She had asked and apparently the Master looked the same all throughout those years, even when he had surpassed the average age of the Cursed, 35.

The thought brought the mood of Maymun down, she was already half-way through her estimated life span. She would either die from a Horror, the backlash of her own power, or being put down from the other Cursed for using her power so much they feasted on more people than she saved.

As she was thinking, the waiter came with Ilon’s food which he devoured with haste.

“You alright?” Maymun asked as she righted her posture and raised an eyebrow. That brought a hint of a smile back to Ilon as he continued to eat. Maymun had always been there for him when he needed it, always putting others before herself.

“Haven’t eaten well in a couple of days.” Ilon said between bites of his pork sausage, potatoes, and cream soup. They used to go without food for long periods of time when they were training, but it had been close to a year since then.

“You ran out of supplies?” She asked with a smirk on her face. Although Ilon didn’t seem like the type to make mistakes, he’d train so hard he’d forget to eat, or when they went on long adventures he’d get sidetracked by his curiosity and end up not having enough.

“I was supposed to resupply in a village, but I ended up encountering a Horror. Had to feast as well.” Ilon looked down at the pork sausage on his fork. He popped it in his mouth as a wave of uncomfortableness washed over him. He always felt this way eating meat for a couple of weeks after feasting. The first time he had to feast he had tried to swear off meat forever, but that was quickly beaten out of him by the Master who said that it was necessary for sustenance.

“Have you eaten yet?” Ilon asked as an air of solemnness loomed over the both of them.

“Not yet, I’m waiting for Quyon to come down. Oh, speak of them and they shall come.” She said as she perked up, face coming alight, at the sight before her. The solemnness that sprouted was torn straight from the ground as a smile of pure joy bloomed on her face instead.

“Quyon.” Maymun said in an excited tone as she waved towards the girl coming over. She had long straight silverish-white hair and the same blue eyes that the three of them all shared. Her face was a great deal softer than Maymuns and she carried herself with a natural grace. She wore a light blue blouse paired with a black skirt that reached her knees.

“May.” The girl had a soft smile on her face as she looked over to Ilon. The recognition turned her smile into a look of shock before she raced over and pulled him into a hug, tears streaming down her face. Ilon returned the hug as more memories and nostalgia flooded him.

“Ilon? Ilon, I missed you.” The girl in his arms quietly whispered. He felt another pair of arms wrap around the both of them as Maymun decided to join in. The three of them had spent many years of hardship together, trained together, and had become a family. He hadn’t realized just how much he missed them and the warmth they brought to his heart.

“I missed you both as well.” Tears trickled down and he was barely able to choke out the words. After a couple more seconds of tears and hugging, they released each other and Quyon grabbed an empty seat from a table next to them.

“You’ve been well?” Quyon asked after calming down a bit. He gave a half nod and shared some of the stuff that he had been through. Fighting different Horrors, training with the Master, learning how to survive in the wilderness with nothing. Things that all Cursed learned from the Master when she was raising them.

“We’ve encountered some pretty bad things as well on our journeys. A lot of times Maymun and I were able to handle ourselves, but we had a couple of close calls. We encountered a Horror of the ninth tier that we managed to kill by the skin of our teeth not too long ago.”

“What was it like?” Ilon inquired. He had only seen a ninth tier Horror once before when he was travelling with the Master. He didn’t remember much about it because she had killed it in just seconds, but even then he could feel the amount of power that it had.

“A bad matchup for us.” Maymun took over for Quyon who looked like she didn’t want to talk about it. “It had six spear-like appendages that were able to grow in length at the cost of the length of some of the other appendages. It was a fun and challenging fight, but damn did it get close to skewering my heart.” She had a big smile on her face as she spoke of almost dying which got a death glare from Quyon.

“Don’t talk about almost dying with a smile on your face. I know you love fighting, but I don’t want to be left alone.” Quyon said in a pout and turned her head away from Maymun.

“Sorry.” Maymun said as she grabbed Quyon’s hand and rested her head on Quyon’s shoulder. “You know I wouldn’t die and leave you alone.”

Ilon watched the display of affection from the two of them as they completely forgot about him. A slight smile rose onto his face. “So you two got together, huh?” He teased.

*Kuhum* Quyon cleared her throat as she released Maymun’s hand and pushed her head off her shoulder, a slight blush climbed onto her face.

“Yeah, we’ve been official for nearly three years now.” Maymun said proudly as she put her hand over Quyon’s shoulder. “We’ve been together for so long that it just felt natural.”

Ilon thought back to his past. He had travelled a lot and to many different places. He had met a great variety of people and yet not once did he meet anyone that he thought he could even potentially fall in love with. As his thoughts wandered, the server came over and took Maymun and Quyon’s orders.

“Have you heard about anything from the Master or where she’s at? I’ve already contacted Kalamush through the network but he didn’t know either.” Ilon asked as the two girls were finishing up their food.

“Wait. Even Kalamush didn’t know where she was? She’s usually always in contact.” Quyon said with a bit of concern.

“Maybe the old coot decided she had enough of us and left.” Maymun winced as she got an elbow for her comment from Quyon. “I’d call her worse but I know you’d get upset. Calling her an old coot is only out of respect for you” She said with clear spite in her voice.

“I don’t like Her that much either,” Ilon interrupted, “especially not after everything She did. But She did save us, you have to admit that.”

Maymun just looked back and forth between Ilon and Quyon before nodding her head. While the Master was by no means a role model, it was true that she had saved the cursed. They were often rejected by the people around them for their odd blue eyes and red veins, and a lot of times it got to the point where the people around them wanted to kill them for their differences. Ilon had met with most of the Cursed and had heard most of their stories. Some went through much worse than the others, but overall it was always negative.

“Anyways, no, we haven’t heard anything about her for a while now. I’m sure it will be fine anyways, not like anything would be able to kill her, right?” Maymun said as she looked Ilon in the eyes. He had missed this, the comforting and reassuring gaze that she always gave when he was troubled.

“I know that nothing will be able to do anything to her, it’s just … I need to find her. I need to ask her something about what she said to me before she disappeared.” Ilon said as he clenched his fingers together and squeezed.

“What did she say?” Maymun brazenly asked without reading the mood, which got her an elbow to her side from Quyon. “Ow, sorry. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not something that I can just tell to others. I just don’t know why she told me.” He unraveled his fingers and looked around the room as he noticed it had gotten quieter. Lunch was over and most of the people in the restaurant section had already left, returning to their jobs, leaving behind a few stragglers like them. He noticed some of the waiters cleaning tables and trying to shoo the remaining few people out. He saw that the innkeeper's daughter Fessal was walking over to them, carrying a couple of plates and bowls.

One moment she was just an average girl who was the daughter of an innkeeper. The next moment the plates and bowls crashed to the ground, the sound echoing in Ilon’s ears as he watched the girl drop to all fours. Her eyes were completely bloodshot as she bared her teeth, a slew of saliva trailing down her chin. She let out a guttural growl towards the three of them. In a matter of seconds, with no warning or sign, the girl in front of them went from acting like her usual cheery self to that of a rabid animal.

“Fessal!” The innkeeper Cudlin saw this and let out a shout. Fessal’s head swirled around from the three of them to him as she heard this. Then, on all fours she began running towards Cudlin snarling and growling. The broken pieces of ceramic plates and bowls dug into her hands as she ran, causing a trail of bloody handprints behind her, yet it seemed like she didn’t even feel the pain.

As she got closer to Cudlin, he froze up at the sight of her. His beautiful, cheerful daughter had turned into something that he didn’t recognize. Fear overwhelmed him that she might stay this way forever, that he would lose her forever. As she got a couple feet away from him she pounced into the air, her mouth wide open, preparing to tear his throat out.

He felt the teeth of his daughter start to pierce his throat, before they were jerked back suddenly. The pain in his neck refocused him as he saw something wrapped around his daughter, dragging her away and onto the floor. He looked over and saw the young boy with light black hair and blue eyes that he had checked in not too long ago holding a whip.