Page 22 of A Soul to Embrace

“Yes. Name. Your name is now Zylah.” The corners of his lips quirked, before he let out a soft chuckle. “See? I knew giving you all that humanity would benefit you. If you don’t end up liking the name, we can always change it later.”

Staring down at her finger, she kept it pointed at the long white bone in the middle of her chest as she repeated thenamehe’d given her. Her orbs turned bright yellow in joy, and her tail swayed along with them. She didn’t even know something like this existed and was utterly thrilled.

“Alright, Zylah,” Jabez stated, instantly making her gaze lift to him in recognition, finding that his red eyes appeared softer than they did moments ago.

Bouncing forward in excitement, understanding that he was calling to her, she exclaimed,“Me Zylah!”

Her anger in him subsided completely, and she was pleased that she not only saved him but also went back to get him after their argument. She was given a true sense of self-identity, one which she could use to interact with the world.

She released chitters of thanks, her tummy feeling all fluffy and warm, and they only grew stronger when he made that pleasant chuffing sound at her for it.

“Yes. You, Zylah. Now, let’s learn what body parts are. Should we start with toes or face?”

She tried to decipher what his gaze meant. How it crinkled the corners of his eyes and tops of his cheeks, as the sides of his mouth curled upwards. Even though the motion bared his fangs at her a little through a small gap, she didn’t find it threatening when it was accompanied by the softness in the rest of his expression.

Her heart even sped up a little, and she found herself wanting to get closer to him. It looked positive, like a good thing, and the fact he was shining it at her felt nice.

Yes. Zylah no hurt Jabez.

Walking around in the shade of dawn, Zylah followed behind the male quite closely.

In the past two days, she’d been learning all sorts of things from him. What he was, although she didn’t quite understand what an Elf was, but now understood he was different from a human. She also learned he was half of one of those void-like, cruel creatures calledDemons.

She’d been a little put off discovering that, as she didn’t really like those ugly monsters. They were mean, and they’d bitten and scratched at Zylah unprovoked in the past. She’d had many fights with them.

Her feelings were quickly put at ease as he moved onto other subjects, buried by the knowledge he shared with her. Every minute of every hour, he taught her a new word. Whether it beroot, like what dangled from the ceiling of her home, orburrow, which was the style of home she had.

In the dark of night, Jabez had managed to convince her to let him leave – supervised, of course. Zylah didn’t plan to let him out of her sight, as he’d proven he was a naughty Elf-Demonmale who played tricks.

Once they were outside, he taught her about the sky, the world, and gave basic names for everything. Tree, grass, moss, moon, stars, lake, water, and so much more.

Today, now that she was letting him venture further – her trust in him had grown – he was teaching her specifics.

As he crouched down low into a patch of grass, she inspected the clothing he wore. She now knew the names of the various items, as well as theircolours.

The black material attached to the bottom of his brown cloak crimped around the backs of his heels, while the plain hood rested between his shoulder blades. Since he’d begun to wear it, and the cream tunic underneath, he stopped shivering as much. He appeared to be a cold creature, which made sense since he lackedhairon most of his body, unlike Zylah, who was covered in sleek black fur.

His mauve pants were tight around his knees as he parted grass stalks to better reveal a yellow plant in the ground. The black leather around his calves creaked with a strain over his taut, bulky muscles. Wayward strands of his long, straight white hair slipped forward to hang down his broad chest, while his ears twitched, making the golden earrings dangling from them glimmer. A streak of moonlight glinted and sparkled off the singular bangle around his left biceps and right ankle.

Zylah was happy to know what most of these things were, and momentarily looked down at her claws as she subtly wiggled her fingers. To understand her own body had been utterly enlightening, and she was growing more beholden to the male.

“Dandelion,” Jabez stated quietly, plucking the small yellow flower. Still crouched, he turned and lifted his dark-red eyes up when showing it to her.

“Dandelion flower?”Zylah asked, crouching next to him, and she purposefully brushed her shoulder against his.

“Yes, correct. This flower’s name is dandelion.”

Even though she didn’t understand the structure of his sentence, the fact he continued to speak to her as though she did meant she was piecing it together in her mind. The language was complex. She often made mistakes, but hegentlyinterrupted her responses to correct her.

Although that crushed her confidence, she knew he had good intentions behind making her feel this way. This was a step in her development oftalking, as he put it. She liked the clarity it brought to her mind, although much of what remained was a jumble of pictures rather than words. With Jabez’s help, that would fade and her abilities would grow, and she was appreciative of that.

Still low to the ground, he leaned on one hand and shuffled forward to obtain a stick of leaves. She came closer to inspect it along with him.

“Leaf branch,”Zylah stated confidently.

For some reason, he quietly chuckled at that – which instantly had her shoulders turning inwards self-consciously. She’d learned what chuckling was by asking him when he produced such a pleasant sound. She did this often, pointing at him and making him explain until she understood something he said or did.

“Branch,” he stated, before gesturing to the small, bushy deep-red leaves. “Leaves.” Then he raised his hand towards the tree beside them. “Claret Ash tree.”

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