“Are we going to talk about it?” I ask, crossing my arms as Roharu walks ahead. The vegetation is overgrown and full of life. And the best part is there are no grabby roots trying to seal me away.

Yay for small wins.

Boo for Roharu’s refusal to discuss last night. All I did was mention he had tattoos on his cocks and he shut down. Seriously, I don’t get it. The man…er, fox demon must have known they were there before he took his pants off. Pants I did NOT ask him to take off, but he did so anyway.

Basically, this is his fault, and he’s being all pissy, as though it is my fault.

“There is nothing to discuss.”

I shake a fist at the back of his head. “You’re being poor company right now.”

“And you never shut up,” he sighs. “Does anything stand out to you?” He stops and motions to the large, thick trees with green, pink, and orange leaves. Vines run up the trucks with small blue flowers.

“It’s pretty. A lot nicer than the first forest I saw.”

Roharu rounds on me. I back up, hitting the tree. He pins me between the tree and him. His long black hair creates a curtain effect. I jut my chin up. I will not be intimidated by him. He might have me on height, strength, and other supernatural abilities, but I have heart and the stubbornness of a mule.

“What do you hear?”

“Your heartbeat?”

He closes his eyes and sighs. “No, you don’t.” His eyes open and today they are a lighter shade of purple, and yet somehow more vibrant than the flowers around us.

Roharu is too beautiful. He’s so beautiful, I just want to smack him. I hate it. No one should be that pretty.

“I hear a heartbeat,” I repeat. Maybe it’s not his heartbeat, but I hear a heartbeat and I know what one sounds like. Some things are universal.

“And where is this sound coming from?”

Is this a trick question? I already said it was his that I’m hearing. I cross my arms and raise a brow, giving him the ‘are you serious right now’ face.

He tilts his head and brushes his lips against my ear. “It’s the forest. It has a heartbeat.”

Huh?

He’s messing with me. Trees are living creatures, but they don’t have heartbeats. Even I know that. I push against his chest, but this demon is made of stone. He doesn’t budge. Doesn’t even acknowledge my poor attempt to push him away.

“This is no mere beast.” He pulls away, crosses his arms, and taps his claws on his biceps. The frustration rolls off him in waves. Roharu looks at me and then looks away. “I’m not even getting paid for this.”

“You don’t have to get paid for every good deed.” That sort of defeats the entire purpose of doing good if you have to be paid every time you help someone out. It would be nice, sure, but that village is on the struggle bus for sure. Roharu knows this, and he’s still grumping.

Roharu exhales. “You fail to realize we’ve been set up as sacrifices.”

“How? It’s not like they forced us…. are you saying this is my fault?”

“Both. The blame lies on my shoulders as well for giving in to your whims.” He runs a hand through his hair. His ears twitch, picking up sounds I cannot hear. His tail hangs low, stiff. The ends are raised slightly, like the fur on an aggressive dog. “Come here.”

Getting real tired of him bossing me around. I trudge over to him. “I still fail to see how this is a trap. She said the beast couldn’t be killed or whatever.” A trap would be if that employee told us nothing other than to take the forest to get to the next town or something. She wouldn’t mention an unslayable beast if it was a trap. “I think you’re just a hard ass and think everyone is out to get one over on the other.”

“This is no mere beast, and she manipulated your emotions.” He grumbles something under his breath. I strain to hear over the thunder overhead…wait. The sky is clear. That’s not thunder.

“So, you can make fake heads. Can those claws do anything?” I inch closer to him. Whatever is coming our way sounds angry. Its yell sounds like thunder booming.

Loud.

Vicious.

I rather take my chances with that klara-whatever thing. Roharu steps in front of me. My shoulder sag as I let out a breath of relief. As much as he complains, it doesn’t look like he wants me hurt. The beast busts into the clearing, knocking down trees and trampling the flowers.

It has the body of a spider. Long, hairy legs, with talons at the end. But its torso is that of a woman. I blink. Make that a naked woman, though the long red loose curls, hide its nipples from view. What it can’t hide is the long scar running from its stomach to its neck.

Ouch. Whatever attacked it went for the kill and obviously failed. My hand presses against my front pocket. This tiny dagger isn’t gonna do crap against that thing. Roharu has claws, but he gave me his weapon to hold on to.

We’re screwed.

“So, you’re the beast,” Roharu says nonchalantly, as though he’s going to ask the spider lady out for a meal. I need him to take this a little more seriously. “Prettier than I was expecting.”

“You do not think that thing is pretty,” I hiss.

“Jealous?” Roharu’s lip curls up. He turns his attention back to the beast. “Ignore her. She doesn’t know what true beauty looks like.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. We came out to slay the beast, not for him to flirt with it.

“Flattery will get you nowhere fox,” it remarks. “I know of your kind and your…extracurricular activities. Leave the human and I shall allow you to pass unscathed.”

Oh, that’s just lovely. Does everything want humans around here? This dagger may not do a lot of damage, but I’m not going down without a fight. There’s no way that spider thing has good intentions for me.

“You prefer humans to foxes? I’m hurt,” Roharu sighs. “Unfortunately, this human is mine, so I can’t let you have her. But you can tell me why the villagers are starving themselves for you.”

The spider tilts its head to the side and crosses its four arms. “Starving themselves? I allow them to hunt every so often. Their lack of allocating resources is on them. I have been more than generous with them.” Its tongue snakes out, curling up and scenting the air like a snake. “Clearly, I have been too lenient of them and their lack of respect.” It lunges forward, and I throw my arms out in front of me to block the attack.

I open one eye and then the other. Are those shadows? I rub at my eyes and then squint. Yep, those definitely look like shadows grabbing a hold of the spider monster. It screeches and thrashes about, trying to rip the shadows off of it. Roharu yawns with his hands in his pockets.

“You said you’ve been lenient with them, though they give you the majority share of their crops, leaving them with little food.”

The spider jerks and continues to thrash about. “And yet they still live. You, however, will be tortured for your insolence!” it roars, snapping free of the bindings. It crouches, and a web shoots out from its back.

Aw crap. It is a spider. Of course, it has webs. The ground shakes and the flowers lean to the side as if to avoid being trampled. This forest must be more alive than I thought. Something wraps around my waist, and I scream.

This is it.

This is how I die. Death by a giant spider monster. I should have shown more respect to the ones back at home. How was I supposed to know they’d get their lick back?

“Stop screeching,” Roharu says, dodging an attack. He flips his hair back and pulls out what look to be more daggers.

Wait. Why does he look so far away? I glance down. Shadows? I look over to the right. Somehow, I’m at the same height as the trees. Did Roharu do this? These shadows? I could ask him, but the spider monster is throwing more webs at him, and the one that landed on a tree is eating away at it.

Great. Acid webs. Even better. No wonder no one from the village has been able to slay this thing. How do you escape getting burned alive from freaking webs? Though Roharu seems to be dodging just fine. Not sure why he isn’t trying to attack it, though. Isn’t that like rule one in how to fight? Attack before your enemy can or something like that.

“You should fight back!” I yell, cupping my hands around my mouth like a speakerphone. “Don’t just dodge or we’ll be here all—Mph!” I claw at the shadow covering my mouth. That damn fox! When I get down from here, I’m gonna show him a piece of my mind. Roharu looks up at me and then turns his head, as if to dismiss me.

I am so sick of him.

Roharu sidesteps the spider monster and slashes its back with his claws. I squint. There are daggers sticking out of its back with lime green blood or puss running down. Something hisses. I swallow down the scream and claw at the shadow covering my mouth with more vigor.

Oh no.

This is not happening. I can’t run. I can’t ask for help because someone just had to cover my mouth and leave me hanging in the air.

The giant snake opens its mouth and springs itself forward. My stomach plummets. The ground is rapidly getting closer, and the snake, about the size of a car, hits a tree head on. There’s a sick crunch. I wince. That must have hurt, but thank fuck, it didn’t eat me.

“How do you always attract trouble?” Roharu sighs. He frowns. The spider rises and strikes him in the abdomen with a kick. He grunts but lands on his feet. “And you are annoying,” he says to the spider, who flicks its hair back and sends tiny needles my way.

Why is everything targeting me? The shadow jerks me upward and to the side. I gag. All this whiplash is getting to me, but at least the shadow that was covering my mouth has vanished.

“You should have left the human. I would have let you pass, fox.” The spider rears up and stomps its legs. “How far you have fallen to protect a human, of all things.”

Roharu rubs the back of his head and then flicks his wrist. The spider jerks back as if struck. Green blood splatters on the trees and the grass. Steam rises from where the specks of blood land.

This monster is creepy. Aggressive. And it’s also venomous. I press my lips together. If only there was something I could do to help. The longer this drags on, the worse we’ll end up. Roharu’s movements aren’t as fluid as they were before. The fumes must be getting to him. Hell, the little that is coming to me makes my head dizzy.

“Watch out!” I scream, fear grabbing a hold of my vocal cords and shaking them into action. That giant snake isn’t dead and somehow it has four legs now. Is it working with the spider monster?

This is bad.

A two-on-one and Roharu is feeling the effects of all that poison in the air. All I got is this little dagger that may work on someone my size, but not on something as gigantic as that spider monster. Seriously, that thing is as big as a truck. But I can’t just hang out here and do nothing.

There must be something I can do. I reach into my back pocket and pull the dagger out, and throw it at the spider’s head. The snake doesn’t seem to be nearly as much of an issue as that spider. I bite my lip. Will it hit? Even if it hits, was that even enough force?

Please work.

A bright purple light envelops the spider, and for a moment, purple is the only thing I see. The first thing I see after the light fades is Roharu.

Oh…. that’s not joy on his face.