Kazem and Farishta confront a far more dangerous mergich man.

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Cold winds blared in Kazem’s ears. Farishta’s fluffy fingers held him in a vice grip from several angles. The landscape rapidly transitioned before his eyes as she made her way to a familiar hill, where whatever remained of the demolished watchtower awaited them.

“FARISHTA!” he shouted, blood still draining from his face.

Farishta finally slowed down, glancing down at him. “What?”

Kazem took a deep breath with his heart pounding in his chest. “Ugh! This shit is a bit… much.”

“Sorry about that!” she said, stroking his back with a thumb. “We’re here, so there’s no need for such urgency anymore…”

As her furred fingers unfurled to create a platform with a palm, Kazem grunted. “Yeah, yeah. I’d rather not die just yet.”

Farishta came to a complete halt, focusing her full attention on him. “I did try to warn you. You were in safe hands the entire time nonetheless!”

“Whatever.” he said, cocking his head to the left to pop his neck. “I still don't see any other mergich anywhere, and we’re a bit too close to Riverside for my tastes.”

True to his word, a few far-off siege engines pivoted in place. Several humans loaded a ballista. Even more men struggled to reload a trebuchet with a small boulder.

Meanwhile, Farishta squinted to spot them all in the far distance. “Oh my. You’re quite adamant about them treating me like a threat!”

Kazem rolled his shoulders. “Just don’t take the risk. Move to the other side of the hill and focus on finding the big bastard who did all of this!”

“But what if there’s survivors amid the ruins?” Farishta asked, bringing a free hand to her mouth. “They might need our help!”

“Doesn’t matter.” he said, crossing his arms. “Odds are this other mergich is doing more damage as we speak, so our chit chat is wasting enough precious time as it is. You can worry about helping others later, Farishta.”

Her ears folded against her head. “I guess you’re right…”

With that, Farishta circumvented the hill and its watchtower remnants by walking around it. Her colossal physical form towered over the sparse trees with only the most massive human structures or surrounding hilltops rivaling her overall stature. This allowed her to move to the other side of the hill with a few huge strides of her legs, exiting the view of the distant siege towers in mere moments. She only stopped to stare at a few clear footprints in the grass afterward.

Farishta’s large and fluffy tail shot up at the sight. “Kazem… look!”

He glanced at the ground as well. Several large and circular imprints next to the stone road marked where a similarly colossal creature marched up the hill. “Huh. I suppose this dude is wearing big boots or something since they aren’t huge pawprints like any of your own tracks.”

“Sounds about right…” Farishta said, scrunching up her toes. “Did he have any weapons or protection?”

Kazem scoffed. “Oh yeah. Dude was locked and loaded. Covered head to toe in some sort of strange armor, he had a massive mace, a gigantic shield… the whole shebang, really. I hardly saw any fur beyond whatever decorated his torso plate and other gear. Very dangerous looking overall.”

Farishta utilized her wooden staff like a walking stick by planting one end into the dirt. “Well, what exactly did his weird armor look like?”

Kazem looked to his left, finding another mergich silently staring at them from a short distance away. His crystalline armor shimmered in the light like ice. The material matched the sharp tidbits on his massive mace and shield, all while brown griffin fur outlined his armor’s collar. Most prominently, his helmet designed to accommodate his feline physique hid his entire head and face.

“Uh… like that.” Kazem said, casually pointing at the other mergich.

Farishta glanced to the side, recoiling. “MROWL!” she blurted, nearly falling over. Her fingers curled around Kazem once more. After regaining her balance, she clutched Kazem closer to her chest and pointed at the other mergich with her wooden staff. “Who are you and why are you hurting innocent humans?!”

The other mergich stayed still like a statue. He didn’t move a muscle. Not a single word escaped his lips as he simply stared at Farishta in complete silence within the adjacent forest.

Only a dozen or so mergich-sized paces separated the two otherwise.

“Vali.” eventually said the other mergich, slightly nodding his head. “You?”

“You… what?” Farishta asked, baring her fangs.

Vali sighed. “What do they call you?”

Her shoulders slumped down a bit, breaking her improvised combat pose. “Um… Farishta.” she replied, recomposing herself to ready her fighting staff. “I’m the guardian of Ashbourne and the keeper of its monastery!”

He nodded. “Noted.”

An awkward silence filled the air again as the two mergich resumed staring one another down.

Kazem found himself caught between Farishta’s fingers in the meantime. He slid against her fur and forced his body back to her padded palm before nearly falling onto it face-first.

Farishta grimaced. “You… uh… never answered my second question, Vali.”

Vali didn’t reveal a hint of emotion. “I didn’t feel compelled to answer it, especially since the humans involved in my personal dispute are anything but innocent.”

“Pardon me?” Farishta said, blinking a few times. “By all means, it looks like you’re attacking innocent people for no good reason, and according to my friend here, you demolished the watchtower overlooking Riverside too!”

Kazem’s head perked up. “No need to tell him I told you that…”

“Who’s the human you’re holding?” Vali asked, directing his attention to Kazem.

The aforementioned man crossed his arms. “Dismas.”

“Kazem!” Farishta said almost immediately afterward, smiling.

Kazem grumbled. “You just… give information too freely, don’t you?”

Farishta’s tail slumped down. “What’s wrong with him knowing our names?”

“Farishta…” Kazem replied, sighing. “We don’t know who this man is or what he’s capable of.”

She sneered. “Yeah, and he seems to think he’s really tough with the way he carries himself!”

Kazem rolled his eyes. “It’s less about that and more about him being potentially dangerous.”

“I am dangerous.” Vali said without skipping a beat. “You two are highly amusing though.”

In response, Kazem took a step back and put a hand on his hip. “At least he has a dry sense of humor…”

Farishta frowned, momentarily kneeling on the ground. “Sorry Kazem, but it might be for the best if you stay out of this. I’ll handle it!”

With some hesitation, Kazem hopped off her hand and landed on a cobblestone road. He took several seconds to recover afterward. “Just be careful, Farishta. Dude seems somewhat reasonable since he hasn’t attacked us yet. Ideally it stays that way.”

She grabbed her fighting staff with both hands, letting her wield it more effectively. A simple swing made a swooshing sound before she pointed it at Vali once more. “He still hasn’t explained why he’s been harming innocent souls!”

Vali huffed, puffing air from his helmet’s nose guard. “How do my affairs concern you again?”

“Your actions affect all mergich!” Farishta answered, taking a step towards him. “I’ve been having nothing but issues ever since I arrived at Riverside! For example, people have been scared of me. Guards have been wary. There’s a general sense of unease. It’s all thanks to you attacking humans for little to no reason, giving our kind a bad name!”

Vali craned his neck to the right. “I don’t care for… unnecessary violence. Much less needing to harm fellow mergich.”

Farishta shifted her fighting staff, holding it so that each end pointed to her sides. She spent a moment balancing on one foot. “Your actions speak louder than your words!”

“I don’t care for your posturing either.” Vali said, snarling a little for emphasis. “Whether it be the moral lectures you out of touch monks like to give or… whatever you’re currently doing.”

She returned to pointing the staff at him like a spear, taking a few steps to the left.

Kazem avoided her large and fluffy feet by backing away from her.

“Then explain yourself!” Farishta said before frowning. “I… don’t like this either…”

Vali let out a grunt. “The baron ruling these lands offered a bounty for a hydra. I killed it. He refused to grant me the payment he originally offered since I wasn’t a human. As a result, I will continue to terrorize his holdings and make his life a living hell until he gives me what I’m owed. Either that or I’ll find… alternative compensation.”

Farishta’s jaw went agape. “You’re attacking innocents over money someone else owes you?!”

Vali nodded. “Technically, yes.”

“That’s absurd!” she said, scowling. “What you’re doing goes directly against the scriptures! I haven’t encountered another member of my kind in decades, but it's a shame that it had to be some sort of thug or mercenary killing for money!”

“I prefer the term bounty hunter.” Vali replied, growling. “And you’re right. At least about the scriptures. Don’t you think they’re a bit hypocritical though?”

Her face scrunched up. “How so?”

“You hunt, right?” Vali asked in a neutral tone.

“Of course!” Farishta answered with her ears perking up. “Every mergich does.”

Vali nodded. “We don’t have a choice, really. We’re apex predators. Mother nature wasn’t enough to sustain me at times, so I went about hunting beasts and bad people as an alternative to fill my belly in these human lands, then you religious types condemn me for it. I suppose violence is only okay when you do it, right?”

Farishta unsheathed the claws on her fingers as she gripped her fighting staff. “Violence should always be a last resort!”

“Is that why you’re threatening me with your wooden staff?” Vali asked, cocking his head up.

At these words, Farishta lowered her staff with her shoulders slumping over. “No, I… I didn’t mean to come across as hostile! I was just preparing to defend myself…”

Vali shook his head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Farishta’s tail and ears slumped down. “And I don’t want you to keep attacking humans that had nothing to do with your business with the baron!”

The other mergich shrugged. “Oh well. Perhaps we can come to a compromise since I specifically sought you out for a reason, Farishta.”

“You were looking for me?” she asked, purple eyes going wide. “I was actually looking for you since you keep attacking the locals!”

As before, Vali barely nodded. “Indeed. Some moronic pyromancer told me you happened to possess a certain ouroboros amulet, actually.”

Kazem stopped leaning against a nearby tree before a chill descended down his spine. “Wait… what?”

Farishta covered her mouth with one hand. “You met Horace?” Her circular ears perked up. “Is he okay?”

Vali shook his head. “Not really. He attacked and threatened an acquaintance of mine unprovoked. Apparently he thought she was an associate of yours. After figuring out he was after an amulet, I disposed of him since I decided the world would be better off without foul men like him living in it.”

“Oh my gods…” Farishta said, reeling. “You killed him?”

Kazem let out a sigh of relief. “Thank the gods.”

Her face scrunched up at Kazem’s words. “Ugh.”

“Then I took a strong interest in your amulet.” Vali said, staring at the ouroboros and its amethyst eyes. “So I’ll make you a deal. I have no idea how or why you acquired an artifact like that, but I’ll accept it as compensation for slaying the hydra. I’ll stop terrorizing these lands and leave the baron alone if you give it to me voluntarily.”

Farishta froze.

Kazem rose to his full height, alert and ready. “Oh shit.”

“I don’t think I can do that…” Farishta said, shifting a foot in place. She grabbed the amulet with one hand. “My father gave this to me. He told me to protect it with my life if need be!”

Vali nodded yet again. “Understandable. That means you’re fully aware of what the amulet is capable of doing, correct?”

She scratched the underside of her muzzle. “Not really, but I know it’s really important to people…”

Upon hearing this, Vali covered his eyes with a free hand. “I see.” He paused and transitioned to extending his hand towards Farishta. “I suppose it doesn't matter. It’ll be safer in my hands either way, so hand it over.”

Farishta clutched her ouroboros necklace. “Absolutely not! I’ve been told by my father that it shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands as well, and I don’t exactly trust someone like you!”

“Very well.” Vali said, raising his mace and shield to take a proper combat stance. “Rather than asking politely, I’m now demanding you to hand the amulet over. Or else.”

Farishta spent several seconds twirling her fighting staff around before taking a fighting stance herself. “Or what?”

He stayed silent for several long seconds. “Or I’m going to take it from you through force.”

Meanwhile, Kazem unholstered his pistol and approached Farishta from the side. “Have you lost your mind?! There’s no way we can fight this guy!”

Farishta glanced at the ground. “I’m not going to let him take my amulet, much less continue to harm innocent humans! It’s my sacred duty as a guardian of this world!”

Kazem scoffed. “For the love of… Farishta, the amulet!”

Vali took several steps forward. Each stomp practically crashed into the ground, creating fresh footprints and nearly shaking the earth itself. He toppled a few trees over during the process.

“JUST RUN!” Kazem shouted, putting some distance between himself and the two titans.

Rather than heeding his words, Farishta stood firm.

Vali raised his shield and charged at her.

The ground rumbled like a miniature earthquake erupting.

Farishta reacted first by swinging her staff overhead, taking advantage of its greater reach. It quickly made contact with Vali’s helmet and made an audible bonking noise. However, this failed to faze him. He returned the favor by swinging his mace, prompting Farishta to hop back with a subsequent thud filling the air once she landed on her feet. She raised her staff again as Vali swung his mace once more, causing its jagged teeth to shred and smash the wooden staff in rapid succession before it abruptly broke into two pieces.

Following this, Farishta found herself flabbergasted, holding each half of the broken staff with both hands as she took a few more steps back.

Vali didn’t hesitate to close the distance.

“HEY ASSHOLE!” shouted Kazem. He promptly aimed his pistol at Vali and squeezed the trigger.

A loud crack like lightning emitted from the handgun alongside some smoke.

From there, a lead bullet struck Vali’s bizarre armor. An insignificant piece of the material similar to ice chipped off. Worse yet, it failed to even distract Vali as he ignored Kazem in favor of bashing Farishta with his sizable shield.

She recoiled altogether. “AH!”

The force knocked the wind out of Farishta’s lungs before she dropped her broken weapon, causing each half to slam against the ground with the same force as two free-falling logs.

Kazem could only scurry away like a mouse as he held his pistol high in the air.

As this occurred, Vali took advantage of Farishta’s stunned state to knock her over. A brief squeal escaped her muzzle. She then fell to the ground on her back. Another resounding thoom echoed around the area, then the surrounding vegetation received a strong gust of wind that ruffled the leaves and grass. Vali wasted no time by putting a knee on her chest, clipping his mace to his hip, then grabbing Farishta by the throat with his gauntlets only increasing the applied force.

“You’re very lucky that I’m not going to kill you over this.” he said, grabbing the amulet with a clenched fist. “Believe it or not, I still adhere to some basic moral principles outlined in the scriptures. Odds are these humans will eat you alive anyway if this is the first time you’ve wandered outside a monastery, you sheltered fool. They’ve only driven off or decreased our numbers over time, and this amulet is definitely not safe in some self-righteous goofball’s hands…”

Rather than awaiting a response, Vali clenched the amulet and pulled. The weakest link on the golden chain acting as a necklace snapped. He rose back to his feet with the amulet in hand, tucked it into a pocket, then looked at Farishta’s petrified face on the ground.

“Don’t pursue me or the amulet again if you value your life.” Vali said with a low growl. He walked away without looking at Farishta, saying a few final words to her. “So much for my offer. I guess the baron still owes me my money after all.”

As he spoke, Kazem hid with his back behind a tree. His heart pounded in his chest with some droplets of sweat forming on his forehead as he clenched his pistol, prepared to fire a second time.

Vali stopped near Kazem’s position. “I can smell and hear you too, rodent. Nice try with the gun. If we cross paths again, don’t even attempt something like that unless you want to get crushed like a bug. You’re not worth my time otherwise.”

After saying this, Vali stomped away without looking back. His huge body gradually vanished from view over time.

As for Kazem, he only left his hiding spot behind once he took a peak and barely saw Vali anymore.

“Farishta!” he said, sprinting toward her location.

She let out a deep breath and brought a hand to her chest. Eventually, Farishta sat back up. Teardrops adorned her eyes as she looked at him.

“My gods…” Farishta said, sniffling and shivering a little.

Kazem moved directly in front of her. “Are you hurt?”

Farishta hugged her legs, softly weeping.

“Talk to me!” Kazem said, looking up and down at Farishta’s body. Her robes were partially covered in dirt with a few notable scratches or torn segments, not to mention her pristine white fur taking on a disheveled and messy look. “You’re not bleeding, are you? Fucking bastard knocked you on your ass and roughed you up! Then again, it could have been so much worse…”

“I… I should have listened to you.” Farishta replied, rubbing her eyes. She choked back some tears. “I should have ran. I’m… I’m such a fool!”

Kazem held up his hands. “Yeah, yeah, but what’s done is done.”

She covered her face with both hands. “My utter foolishness meant I just lost the amulet my father gave me! This is far from over, Kazem. Who knows what that man will do with it now? How… how will I even look my father in the eye and tell him that I lost the amulet if we find him?”

“It wasn’t your fault.” he said, glancing over his shoulder to spot Vali’s distant silhouette. “We couldn’t have known that Vali was going to beat you up over that damnable amulet!”

“But I tried to fight him.” Farishta replied, sighing. “I’ve trained with that staff for decades if not centuries, then he broke it like a stick! I thought I knew how to fight too…”

“Please tell me he didn’t break any bones at least.” Kazem said, holstering his pistol.

Farishta spread out her hands and unsheathed her claws. “I think he broke a few fingernails and gave me some bruises. I don’t see or smell any blood though.”

“Good to hear.” he replied, balling his hands into fists. “Still, he’s really fucking lucky that I’m only a fraction of his size. I’m fuming to say the least. Should have shot my second bullet too, but it might have been pointless if it wouldn’t have helped you at all!”

“Thanks for trying to protect me at least…” she said, sighing. “I put us both in unnecessary danger.”

Kazem gave her a blank stare with nothing but tranquil fury in his eyes. “You can’t change the past, Farishta, but you can change the present. Let’s lick our wounds for now.”

Farishta broke eye contact. “But… what about my amulet?”

“We’ll worry about it later.” Kazem replied, crossing his arms. “It might even play in our favor if people start targeting him instead of you, but this definitely isn’t the end of it! I’ll need to talk to my people first. Maybe even gather more information about this Vali guy and pay the baron himself a visit to figure out his side of the story.”

“Do we really have time for that?” she asked with her entire body slumping down. “I… feel like such a failure. He could have killed us both, and that would have helped no one. And with the amulet in his hands…”

Kazem shrugged. “Quite frankly? I don’t know. He could do a variety of things with the amulet now, but that’s out of our hands now. What I do know is that the shoemaker still needs some time to finish your commission and that there might still be survivors in the watchtower ruins.”

Farishta finally calmed down, closing her eyes. “I guess there’s no point in crying over it.”

“Exactly!” Kazem said with a nod, strolling to her side. “Now come on. Pick me up! We need to find anyone that might need your help… mend the damage he did to everyone.”

A small smile spread across Farishta’s face as she lowered a hand to the ground. “I knew that you were a good person deep down, Kazem.”

Kazem looked away from Farishta before stepping on her open palm, allowing her to carry him away. He rubbed his eyes as internal priorities conflicted with one another yet again. “I’m glad you think so, Farishta, because I definitely don’t.”

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First Chapter

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Chapter Selection