Chapter 8 (1/2)

Mary frowned. “Aren’t you being too harsh on Vur?” she asked Celia.

Celia turned to look at her patrol companion. The patrol and the elders were gathered in a hollowed out tree trunk. “I don’t think so,” she replied while shaking her head.

“He could’ve died,” Mary said. “How is that not being too harsh?”

“He wouldn’t have. Not from that,” Juliana said. “I was keeping watch over him the whole time; he thought he could trick us with play dead. Play dead lets him cease all metabolic movement; it was essentially a week-long time-out for him.”

“But the curses-”

“Are there to keep his strength in check. If you haven’t noticed he can carry a behemoth bear for who knows how many miles without getting tired,” Juliana interrupted. “His diet’s been the blood and meat of behemoth bears ever since he was born. Not only that, but he has the imprint of a dragon which practically makes him a dragon in a human shell.”

“The spanking?” Mary asked.

“It’s to show him we can hurt him and that there are consequences to his actions,” Juliana replied. Celia looked down and her stomach churned. Vur had been healed, but he still avoided her like the plague.

“Couldn’t there have been a better way to show him?” Mary asked. “I still think-“

“We’re not trying to be his friends, Mary,” an elder interrupted. “If it weren’t for the matriarch, we would have executed him. A human living in the village of elves is unheard of, much less the human who destroyed the sacred tree. We’re here to teach him how to control his magic, a favor for the matriarch.”

Another elder snorted. “I don’t even understand why the matriarch would imprint a human. Humans forced her father to the brink of death and killed our clan leader,” he turned to look at Celia, “your father. There’s no need to feel bad for beating him. The dragons have never imprinted an elf before, but the matriarch decides to imprint a human? That’s just unforgivable.”

Celia bit her lip. “Wasn’t it the demons who did that?” she asked.

“They’re the same,” the elder replied with a wave of his hand. “The demons only started sprouting horns after they forced the fairies out of their mana source and claimed it as their own.”

“Bu-“

“Vur escaped,” a sentry said as he burst into the room. The patrol looked at each other and stood up.

“How? Wasn’t he cursed?” an elder asked as he turned to look at Juliana.

Juliana stroked her chin, “It’s possible to escape a curse if it’s dispelled, but I cursed him with silence too. Did someone dispel him? Could he have learned mana manipulation?”

“Didn’t you say you were watching over him?” Mary asked with narrowed eyes.

“I was for the punishment; I thought a guard would be enough this time since he was harmless,” Juliana said while looking at the sentry.

The sentry rubbed his head and looked to the side. “One moment I was standing by the door, and the next moment I collapsed. I couldn’t speak or move and he just left,” he said.

“Aren’t you glad you gave him more spells to play with?” Mary asked as she looked at Juliana with a smile.

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“Firebolt!” Tafel said as she mimed a throwing motion. An orange ball of fire flew out of her hand and hit a boulder in the distance.

“Well done,” Dustin said as he nodded. “Want to learn something new? It might be difficult though if you don’t have talent.”