38 Chat on the Road

"Yo, Old Hollen! How much longer till we get there?" shouted Rathe impatiently, looking for anything to distract him.

"Usually it takes three or four days, but with our pace, we might make it there in two," Chief Hollen yelled from the front.

He was overjoyed. The benefits from his visit to the new rulers of the territory were beyond his expectations. Not only is he getting an escort of divine beasts, but he and his tribe will also be helping build a town. The future was looking much brighter for the Thick-skin Stallion tribe.

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"Why so impatient, Uncle Rathe?" Oli joked with his uncle as they walked side-by-side. "You might as well spend the time chatting with me and filling me in on how things are going to play out when we get there. How do you plan to handle these bandits?"

"Simple. I'm gonna pummel them," the straight-faced Rathe didn't even hesitate. "If they show their faces, then they die. If they hide like cowards, then I'll search the border for any stragglers. We gotta get you to see at least one human while we're here, who knows when you'd get another chance?"

A perplexed look crossed Oli's face as he thought, "Oh yeah… we might be killing humans… What will I feel when I see them? Will I feel anything at all? Can I bring myself to—"

"What's the matter? Are you getting all soft on me cause you used to be a human?" Rathe whispered and poked fun at Oli but kept a serious face, wanting to know Oli's answer.

"Well," Oli took a deep breath to help calm his mind and continued, "it's not like I'm against killing a human if they deserve it. I just… I just don't know how I feel about it until I see them, I guess. Till then, I'll be a little anxious, but I'll be okay."

"I guess that's fair, you wouldn't be the first person I've met with a soft spot for humans. Now that I think about it, Vloz might have it worse than you in some cases," Rathe began to think out loud.

"Wait, Vloz likes humans? I knew he liked their big cities, but I didn't know that he liked humans," said Oli.

"Yup, soon after he formed his mortal core, he was abducted by a human. He was separated from his family and forced to live in a cage." Rathe's aura started to turn hateful. "He spent a year in that cage while he was taken from town to town and put up for sale to the highest bidder. One day a young human saw him and took pity on him, buying Vloz immediately. By then Vloz had long been tamed and didn't fight as his new master's guards led him back to the young man's clan. Apparently, that kid was the clan's young master and that's why he could afford Vloz's high price. The kid then used a soul binding scroll to make him the master of Vloz's soul. After that, Vloz got pampered daily and became nothing more than a house cat."

"Soul binding scroll? What's that?" Oli asked.

"It's a scroll with a special seal that the humans developed over the ages and one of the reasons why they survived against so many beasts. It binds the victim's soul to the beast's new master and the new master then has full control of whether their soul exists or not. It's the human's way to force obedience," Rathe frowned. "I'd rather die than be held down by someone else's will, I just want a carefree life. If any of them somehow get me, I'll kill whoever's unlucky enough to become my new master."

"But that doesn't make sense, why would Vloz have a soft spot for them? I would be filled with hatred and bloodlust if I was treated like that." Oli couldn't ignore his primal urges to be free and roam the wild as he pleases.

He may have been a human before, but he was now a beast with instincts and feelings. If humans were to live together in peace, Oli would be glad, but something like abusing beasts with soul seals was unacceptable for him.

"He may have been mistreated by those who captured him, but the kid who saved Vloz treated him very well. In a matter of a couple of suns, the two were inseparable. The kid took Vloz everywhere and Vloz became entranced with the big city the humans had built and all the things they had developed. Humans are far weaker than us by comparison, but they are typically far more intelligent. That's why if a human can step into the divine class, they are very dangerous. There's no way to read their actions and their abilities are foreign to us beasts," Rathe grunted.

"Oh, so Vloz grew up in human society but was too young to understand how it all worked. That explains his burning desire to build a city. But, if he was soul bound to that human, then how did Vloz leave that place and run into you?" asked Oli.

"He was set free," said Rathe as he shrugged his shoulders. "That's all Vloz ever told me, but I know there's more to it, I could see it in his eyes. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask that house cat yourself."

Oli pondered Rathe's story and hoped that Vloz would be more open about himself when Oli asks later. He thought he might have a chance since he was human before and might relate to Vloz's youth more than Rathe did.