Page 44 of A Soul to Embrace

The fresh, cold powder of winter’s snowfall was half a foot thick at first, but became minimal the further to the coast they traversed. Their mountain was small, and it resembled a string of rocky hills.

The walk felt gruelling and lengthy under the weight of her guilt. Minutes passed, and each silent one with a fuming Jabez storming forward only made time seem to drag on.

When he purposefully slowed to force her to his side, he finally broke his silence.

“You asked about fertility cycles,” he muttered in a low voice. His ire was still present but had softened in the half an hour, if not more, that had passed.

Her head perked up at the conversation, as she was eager to add to her knowledge.He is going to tell me?

“It is something females of many species go through. For humans, they bleed midway through their cycle, and the other half they become fertile. It’s how they produce children. For some animals, that can be different; their blood and fertility happen at the same time, or right after each other. It solely depends on the species. It’s something you should be consciousabout, as you don’t like to harm any creature. Knowing this will help prevent you from doing so.”

“What about Mavka?” she asked, tilting her head.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye before stating plainly, “I can’t answer that.”

She took a few steps forward to be partially in front of him just so she could see his face. “Why not?”

His expression turned dull, his eyelids lowering to show indifference. “Because you are the only female Mavka I’ve ever heard of. From my knowledge, the rest of your kind are all males.”

That was a rather curious thing. She lifted her head enough to view the canopy of bare branches above them in thought.

A giddiness had her tapping a claw against the side of her bony snout. “So there is something you don’t know about us?”

“There are many things I don’t know. I’ve lived a long time, but that doesn’t mean I know everything. The world is ever-changing, and tomorrow may be different from a decade from now.”

She hummed in answer. At first, she’d thought Jabez to be all knowing because he’d taught her so much, but this wasn’t the first time he’d been stumped by one of her questions. She liked that he was willing to admit it.

“Do Demons go through such a thing?” she asked.

Jabez shrugged. “Depends on the Demon and their evolution. Some females go through a ‘heat’ cycle, but the closer they are to completion, the less likely that will happen. They start to become like the humanoids they eat, whether that be human or Elf. However, that isn’t always the case, and some females continue to have one. Demons and Mavka are similar in that they start to become what they eat, although for Mavka, it’s mostly limited to their intelligence. I’ve concluded in my studies that you willnever lose your fur and your skull will never grow flesh, nor will it change into anything humanoid.”

Zylah took everything in while nodding her head to show she was able to comprehend it all.

“I saw many interesting things in the village,” Zylah said coyly, hoping it didn’t remind him of his earlier ire.

“I’m sure you did,” he answered, shuffling one of the satchels on his shoulder. “Do you want to talk about them so I can explain?”

“No. I understood them. It was nice to see those things in person.”

He nodded before wordlessly leading their return home.

The silence wasn’t heavy like before.

Just as the sun was rising, dawn coming to touch the world and shower it in light, Zylah’s sight shifted to bright yellow in joy as she remembered her rebellious adventure.

Tonight was fun.

Still wearing his cloak in case he accidentally knelt in the morning sunlight, Jabez rolled out his newly acquired bedroll. His senses were homed in on the female Mavka sitting in his periphery with her knees propped up and excitedly flicking through pages. Each book he’d acquired for her was of a different genre and choosing had taken up most of his time in the village.

She wasn’t very keen on reading stories of war and history, so he’d chosen those with less gory content.

One was of gruesome but heartfelt fairytales, and he was curious to see how she’d question him on unknown andfictitious creatures such as dragons or centaurs. Two others were of adventures throughout fabled kingdoms, apparently part of some kind of unfinished series – the books appeared new, as if someone had chosen to be an author in this dark era. Lastly, he’d taken a more scientific book about herbs and animals, so she had a better understanding of the world she lived in.

Zylah had been rather giddy to receive them. Her claws had twitched with excitement at each one he pulled from his satchel bags.

He eyed her growing pile that had already been six books tall.She really likes to read,he thought with humour.

She was already seven pages deep by the time he set up a bedroll for her as well. Then he collected the blanket and pillow he’d taken for her and left them at the head of the roll.

---