Chapter 10
Running through the forest my hair had become disheveled, so I instinctively ran my hands through and tied it into a ponytail using a hair tie I had retrieved from my inventory. Before I had gone to Renay’s house I had cut the sides and back of my hair down while leaving the top untouched so it now looked clean when tied up.
Renay entered the clearing behind me and walked to my side
“Ayke, what is this place?”
Her question had a loaded answer so I told her how my brother and I had been forced to live here for short periods, and further explained this was where we received the two blades that were positioned on either side of my hips.
I calmly walked over to the ruins of our shelter and examined all of the withered and broken pieces. I couldn’t remember when this had happened. The last memory I had of this place was from the dream and even that was foggy to a certain extent.
Feeling her creep up beside me Renay left a question hanging in the air. “What happened here? It looks like something came through and destroyed everything”
“You’re not wrong. My father used to wreck everything we had built when he came to pick us up. Renton and I had just assumed he did it so that next time we were dropped off we would have to start from scratch.”
As I spoke the manifestation of a headache began to pulse lightly at my temples. OverClock was putting in work as several more memories flooded into my brain.
Flashes of images scrolled into my mind. The shelter exploding into a pile of debris, the fire pit being wrecked by a cloud of dust.
“AYKE!!”
Renay’s Screams made my eyes fly open. I was laying on my back with my head squarely in her lap. Looking up at Renay I noticed her face was flushed and her eyes wet with tears.
“What happened Ayke you were looking at that rubble and suddenly collapsed.” The worry leaked out in each word she spoke.
“I…I’m not sure, but I was suddenly hit with a flood of memories when I went over to observe what's left of the shelter.” I rattled off some of the images that I had seen.
As I explained what I saw Renay’s face got darker. “This place isn’t in our world. It's in the same world as the Dungeons. The crystal teleports us to another world called Myarinth. Unlike or world its completely without technology.”
As she spoke, I became more and more aware of where I was positioned. I wanted to stay nestled in her lap but decided against it and sat up.
“So, my father was taking us to this world for what? Does that mean he’s a user like us?”
I was snapped out of my question-driven daze by the appearance of 2 red dots on my Mini Map. Renay took notice not long after and the to of use continued to sit on the ground while discussing what our move was through the systems Whisper function.
I cautiously watched the dots slowly approach us but concern took over since I wasn’t able to physically see what was attempting to sneak up on the two of us.
I abruptly stood up and unsheathed and flipped both of the blades grasping them upside down. This was my preferred way of holding Firio so I applied it to Blizan as well. Energy trickled into my body from the short swords as their Stat buffs kicked in.
“You to may as well come out there’s no point in hiding I’ve known you were there the second you came into the area,” I said letting a little bit of venom into my voice.
The bushes in front of me began to rustle slightly and two faces appeared.
“Big brother Ayke is that you?” The face on the left, belonged to a young boy, with black furry bear ears. said
“Big Brother Ayke you’re back?” the second face belonged to a young girl, with light black bear ears replied.
The two Bearkin siblings jumped out of the bush and landed in a heap on the ground a few feet from me.
Sitting cross-legged with dumb smiles on their face the two children looked at me happy to see their apparent big brother.
Renay was silent beside me with her hand on the hilt of her sword as I examined their status windows with Stat Sight. The results stumped me. I checked the little boy on the left first.
Name: Yunta
Age: 10
Level: 10
Race: Half Bearkin (Human form)
Gender: Male
Health Points: 1000
Mana Points: 100
Stamina: 100
Status: Happy, Excited, Hungry
Since my little episode earlier with my hidden memories flooding back, I recognized the name, he was one of the cubs with the mother bear that had attacked me all those years ago.
My sight full upon the second sibling, her grin was bright. A little yellow ribbon was tied on her right furry ear on top of her head.
Name: Beylin
Age: 8
Level: 10
Race: Half Bearkin (Human Form)
Gender: Female
Health Points: 1000
Mana Points: 200
Stamina: 100
Status: Happy, Excited, Hungry
The two children’s clothing was in tatters. From a glance, it appeared to be some kind of animal hide. It was just enough to cover up the right areas but it was matted and covered in dirt. From their clothing’s appearance and the dirt smudges on their small faces, it was apparent that they hadn’t bathed in quite some time.
Sheathing my weapons and shooting a quick reassuring glance at Renay I knelt in front of the children and pet both their heads at the same time. This made both of them squirm happily. When my hand reached their messy light black hair, memories surfaced of them playing happily with Renton and me however at the time they were bear cubs and not children.
“Hello, little ones it’s been some time.”
“We came here every day for a long time hoping you’d come back but you never did.” Beylin’s face turned into a frown.
“Yeah we even trained really hard so that we could go into our humankin forms aren’t cha you proud aren’t cha” Yunta flexed his tiny arms showing off.
“Yep I’m super proud, you’ve both become strong,” I said petting Yunta’s head again. “I want to introduce you to someone.” I motioned for Renay to join us but she was visibly uncomfortable and so she stood rigidly in place.
Beylin tilted her small head to the side while looking at Renay. “Is this pretty lady your wife?”
I had to choke back a snort as Renay’s face turned bright red.
“New Big Sister?” Yunta chimed in while standing up
This comment made Renay drop to her knees, which again made me force back a laugh.
The two Bearkin children crept up to Renay and looked at her with curious big Green Eyes, making it impossible for her to not react. “so...cu.cu.CUTE!!!” she scooped up Beylin and nuzzled her cheek again the little girls.
Beylin giggled at the obvious sign of affection Renay was presenting and pet her head cutely.
Well that was pretty easy
My head was pounding from the sudden flood of information but I kept my composure. Memories of the time Renton and Me spent with them gushed into my brain one after another. We had taken care of the cubs while their mother was off doing daily tasks. We did everything from cooking for the kids to tucking them into sleep at night in our shelter. Renton and I had both grown quite fond of the little ones and as a result, they had both taken to calling us Big Brother.
“Big Brother Ayke where’s Big brother Renton.?” Yunta asked curiously
“He’s at home it's just me and Renay here today.”
Yunta nodded sadly accepting my words.
“So, your Big Sister Renny Yay?” Beylin struggled with Renay’s name but my girlfriend corrected the little girl while poking her nose.
“Just call me NayNay” she had placed the little girl in her lap and was playing with one of the little girl’s bear ears.
“Kay, Kay Sister NayNay” the little girl giggled sweetly while making herself comfortable in Renay’s lap.
Yunta stat jealously beside me while watching the amount of affection his little sister was receiving from Renay. “No Fair” he pouted.
“Little sisters have it easier, we big brothers have to protect them but we also get left out on times like that,” I said placing my hand on his head.
“We gots to be strong right big brother.?” He replied while leaning into my hand.
“Yep, we sure do” I smiled while looking at the heartwarming view before us.
Standing up and dusting myself off I looked down at Yunta “Where is your mother at little one?”
“She’s back at the village.” He replied while standing up next to me. “Do you wanna go see her?”
“Yep sure do it's been a few years,” I replied while picking up Yunta and placing him on my shoulders. When he was younger, he used to love when I did this so I figured I’d see how he reacted, and just as suspected he let out a cheerful laugh from atop my shoulders. Next to us, Renay had mimicked me with Beylin.
The four of us walked away from the clearing while following Yunta’s directions. About 30 minutes later we had arrived at a large clearing in the forest. Several trees had been carved into sharp points and were staked into the ground creating a perimeter wall around the small village.
Dozens of small huts were contained in this perimeter. They were simple structures made of materials found easily in the surrounding forest and resembled the shelter Renton and I had created. Renay and I placed the children down and had them walk in front of use towards the village.
When we finally made it to the gate of the village several large Bearkin Men blocked our path.
“YUNTA, BEYLIN WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT HUMANS HERE.” A large brown bearkin man shouted angrily while pointing a spear towards me.
“I recommend you get that out of my face before I force you to.” My voice was dark and my left hand had was resting on Firio’s hilt. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Renay was facing a similar situation, as the Adult Bearkin men surrounded us.
Stat Sight informed me that most of the Bearkin men were between level 18-30 which was still far below Renay and me, if push came to shove, we could fairly easily push through them.
“Uncle you don’t member Big Brother Ayke, he’s finally come back,” Beylin said fearfully while approaching the men who were holding me at spearpoint.
“Get behind me younglings These are humankin they are to be feared not made into friends.” The bearkin that Beylin had referred to as Uncle replied while grabbing her by the arm and dragging her behind him.
“You have 3 seconds. In three seconds, I’m going to not only knock this spear out of my face but ill also take your arm.” The venom dripped from my voice as I unsheathed and inverted both of my blades. I wasn’t generally an aggressive person but I also wasn’t fond of having weapons aimed at me.
My response made several of the would-be attackers shifted uncomfortably.
“You can’t beat us all Humankin, we will stop you from destroying our land,” Uncle replied while dropping into an aggressive stance.
“3,” I didn’t bother finishing the count down. Knocking the spear out of my face with Blizan I leaped into Uncle’s breast while using Firio to slice his left arm off cleanly, and followed up by bashing him in the face with the butt of Blizan’s hilt. The force of my attack sent him sailing backward several feet and caused a scream to leave his mouth. A look of fear spread across every one of the Bearkin warrior's faces, as I reached down and picked up the severed arm from the ground beside me.
Tilting my head to the side and giving them a sadistic smile, I casually said “Now then who else wants to lose some body parts. I helped raise the children and thus would like to speak with their mother. It has been several years since my last visit but I didn’t expect you all to forget me that easily.” I finished my statement by throwing the arm at the man who it belonged to.
He was sprawled on his back grasping the bleeding stump that was formerly his left arm.
Nodding my head towards the village I motioned for Renay, who looked horrified at my brutal actions, to join me in walking into the village.
Before re-sheathing Firio I wiped it on the Bearkin who was on the ground’s tunic, to clean off the blood that had accumulated from my attack and continued walking forward.
“Beylin, Yunta lead the way to your mother,” I said shooting them both a warm smile.
Yunta beamed up at me. “Big Brother got so much stronger right Beylin.”
“Uh-huh,” she was a little unnerved by the fight but had recovered quickly. It was clear to tell that incidents like this happened often. Normal children from our world would be completely frozen in fear. Yet these two were looking up at me admiringly.
As we walked past the gates of the village and by several huts, Renay moved close to me and whispered into my ear.
“Were you always so terrifying, that was some legit villain level acting.” Her voice was shaky as she spoke.
“In this village Strength rules all. When I was younger if it wasn’t for the children’s mother Linta, Renton and I would have been killed simply for being humans.
As we moved through the village several Bearkin took notice of us and stayed clear. Looks of both fear and hatred were adorned on each of their faces. It was evident that they hated humans, however not one of them dared to attack us. Word had spread quickly of what I had done at the gate.
After several minutes we arrived at a hut that looked no different from any other except for the fact that smoke was billowing from the chimney atop the roof.
The children burst into the house and Yunta spoke up first.
“MAMA, MAMA LOOK BIG BROTHERS BACK.”
As I entered the small hut, I took notice of a bearkin woman with long black hair standing at the other side of the room preparing dinner. She looked several years older but still had a youthful body. She was wearing a simple animal pelt dress and when she turned around at the sudden burst of sound her emerald eyes met mine. Multiple expressions rapidly spread across her face. But settled on tears and a kind motherly expression instead.
“Ayke, you’ve finally returned.” Her soft voice quivered slightly as the words left her mouth.
“He-he, yep sure am Mama Linta.” She raced over to me and the two of use shared a warm hug that only a mother could give.
To Be Continued
