Page 16 of A Soul to Embrace

Since he lacked the speed of a Mavka, nor did he care to hurry, the daylight hours passed until the gloaming wasn’t far from darkening the skies as he reached her territory. Her lingering scent made it difficult to track which way to go, so he searched for other means.

When he found traces of her purple Mavka blood, which was lighter in its colouring than the inkiness of Demon blood, he crouched down next to the droplets. He examined her tracks around them, noting which way she was heading, before following both.

Long before he heard whines and whimpers reverberating through the forest, his pointed ears twitched in alertness. He softened his steps so as to not startle her and approached slowly.

He found her limping as she headed to what he figured was her filthy home. One back leg was lifted, while each press on her left forelimb caused her to let out a higher cry of pain.

He could see just how much she’d changed.

Her torso was thicker to the point he thought hugging her midsection would feel normal. In her monstrous form, the flesh between her ribs didn’t appear so sunken or like her skin was about to rot off. Instead, it was full and bulging, nearly consuming most of her skeletal torso. He even thought two, albeit small, mounds had formed over some of her rib bones, but they only hid a few of them from view completely and still left a portion of her sternum exposed.

Her hipbones and collarbones had sunken in and disappeared, as had the bones of her arms and legs. Only those across her knuckles remained.

She no longer appeared ghastly, nor starved. Actually, her figure looked rather curved – almost hourglass – despite the Mavka being hunched forward in her four-legged monstrous form.

She’d eaten many humans, and now she’d only need to eat meat of any kind to thicken her body. Wolves, bears, fish, or birds – it wouldn’t matter the creature.

Removing the satchel so it wouldn’t clunk around and spook her, he placed it on the ground as he lowered himself. He held up his hands submissively and crawled towards the wounded female with caution.

Hearing his approach, her white orbs flared bright red as she snapped her skull to the side and snarled in warning. She stumbled as she backed up while turning, then lowered herself into a defensive stance.

Jabez lowered himself further to appear smaller and non-threatening.

“Hey there,” he gently cooed. “I mean you no harm.”

He scraped at the ground to catch her attention and distract her, further showing he meant no danger. She was littered with injuries and had many arrows sticking from her. Although bloodied and matted, her fluffy fur was lifted in a highly agitated state.

He’d offer to remove those shafts, but he’d only do her more harm. She’d heal them soon enough, and once the night fell, her injuries would mend one by one. His lack of intervention would ensure he didn’t needlessly heighten her pain.

“I know it hurts,” he offered, shifting his weight to his hands in a crouched position to inch closer. “But you’ll feel better soon. You will be smarter, more understanding, and I can teach you.”

He could teach her how to speak, how to think, how tosurvive.Jabez could mentor her and hopefully make her compassionate to his goals. She would come to thank him.

He paused his approach when she parted her maw to threaten him more loudly, and he raised one of his brows.

The inside of her mouth has formed flesh around where her cheeks would be.There was no longer a gap between her jaws; jagged teeth made of flesh lined either side and filled in the hollow spaces, particularly behind her cheekbones. The appearance was similar to the teeth and mouth of a baby Mavka, and was a sign that she’d fully matured to fill in the crevices and gaps of her skull properly. Her maw now appeared more seamless and fully enclosed, so the inside of it would no longer drool or dry out.

He also noticed her antlers appeared...smaller,and had lost their fuzziness.He’d never seen a Mavka’s horns change before.

Most female creatures don’t have horns or antlers.

He’d been wondering why she had them, considering she was female, but he figured all Mavka needed some version of them. However, as she was the first female he’d seen, he hypothesised that the females of her kind went through an additional head evolution to compensate for the change.

Instead of being large and imposing, with four forks on each branch, her antlers had reshaped to only have one main stem and a fork just over the sides of her skull. They appeared daintier, blunter, and their shade of brown had even lightened.

Once she realised who he was, her head tilted and her orbs flashed dark yellow in curiosity. Then they turned a deep blue as she pulled out of her defensive stance. She sat on the ground and chittered at him while patting her body. She visibly tensed and hissed out pained breaths.

His ears flicked when he registered that her chitters weren’t as high-pitched as they were before, like her voice had evolved into a more human tone.

She pointed at him as she released more.

“Yes, yes,” he stated with a nod, placing his hand on his chest. “I know it’s my fault.”

She bashed at the ground as her orbs went bright red before pointing at him more sternly – from what he could tell. She was blaming him, justifiably, but Jabez had zero regrets. A few hours of pain against what she had surely gained was minor in the overall scheme of her life.

He’d also suffered very similar wounds, and in the same quantity, and they, too, had made him stronger. Life was cruel, merciless even, but each fight, each adversity he’d faced had strengthened him, as it would her. Nothing was gifted without sacrifice, and he’d saved herdaysof pain over the course of what would be decades, if not centuries, by shoving it all into one night.

He was the embodiment of her reflection, just with healed wounds, both inside and out.

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