They had cleaned up to avoid being followed. Baelor even stored the bodies in his storage, while Sage buried the blood-soaked earth.
"Come on, pour this on you."
Sage looked up. He'd already wiped most of the blood off on his clothes. He took the vial Baelor was offering and sniffed it, immediately frowning in disgust. "What is this?"
"Masking scent. Makes you smell like something other than fresh meat. Trust me, no beast will follow us if you use it. Come on."
Sage nodded reluctantly and poured it over himself. Surprisingly, once it touched his skin and clothes, he couldn't smell it at all.
"Good. Now let's keep moving before something worse finds us here."
Sage picked up his axe, poured some of the liquid on it as well to mask the blood scent, and followed Baelor, who had transformed back into a bird and taken flight.
.
.
.
After a few minutes of their departure, two humanoid figures emerged from a hill.
Growling softly, they looked human except for their almost burned-up skin and blank white eyes that had no iris or pupil. They appeared naked but had no visible genitalia.
"Grlll... a living human," one growled, its voice like gravel scraping stone.
The other growled back, "The Lord will want to hear this. That bastard Baelor is with him..."
"I'll follow... you report."
They both growled in agreement, and razor-sharp teeth became visible as their mouths opened. One of them began tracking Sage and Baelor's path, moving with predatory stealth. The other dropped to all fours and started running in the opposite direction, moving with unnatural speed across the crimson landscape.
The hunt had begun, and Sage had no idea they were now being stalked by something far more dangerous than flesh hounds.
In the distance, Baelor continued flying overhead, occasionally calling down directions to Sage, completely unaware that their careful cleanup had been for nothing. They'd been spotted anyway.
And whoever this "Lord" was, he apparently had history with Baelor.
Meanwhile, Sage and Baelor continued their journey, and it went back to being smooth and uninterrupted.
But while it was peaceful outside, the same could not be said about Sage's mind, or rather, his thoughts.
He couldn't help but linger on what Baelor had said about having to make decisions the current him wouldn't understand, changing into someone even his own mother wouldn't recognize.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't afraid. Not just of dying, but of what he might become. What if he transformed into something horrible? What if he brought his mother back and she couldn't stand the sight of what he'd become?
What if she looked at him with disgust instead of relief?
He wasn't dumb, or at least he didn't think so. He knew what Baelor said held truth, maybe all of it. That he'd be put in impossible situations. That growing stronger wouldn't just mean killing beasts, but people too. Innocent people, maybe. People who just happened to be in his way.
He would do it. For his mother, he'd do anything. To make Móði pay for robbing him of a father, for breaking his mother's spirit, for taking even her presence away from him now—he'd become whatever he needed to become.
But would he like the person staring back at him when it was all over?
'Come on, just harden your heart and mind like Baelor said. It's kill or be killed. I'll explain everything to mother when I save her. She'll understand. She'll be too happy to care about what I had to do.'
He began to smile at the thought of their reunion.
But then his smile disappeared as another face entered his mind. 'And Móði...'
"You're quiet, kid. What's on your mind?"
Sage blinked, pulled from his thoughts. "Nothing."
"Is it about what I said? About you changing?"
Baelor had hit the mark. Sage sighed.
"Look, don't torture yourself over it now. You'll make those decisions when you come to them, not before. Just make sure you're ready when the time comes." Baelor's voice softened slightly. "Now come on, we're getting closer to the cave."
Sage looked up ahead, trying to push the dark thoughts away. But they lingered at the edges of his mind like shadows that wouldn't fade.
Whatever he had to become, whoever he had to kill, he'd do it.
He just hoped his mother would still love the monster he might turn into.
They finally arrived at their destination—large mountains, red in color, with trees of the same crimson hue scattered around their base.
Sage looked around. It was eerily quiet. He glanced up, and only now did he realize this place had no sun or moon visible anywhere.
'Where does the light even come from?' he wondered, though a dim, ambient glow seemed to emanate from the very air itself.
The mountain in front of them was massive and imposing. But there was no cave or anything resembling an entrance that Sage could see.
"Where's the cave?"
"Follow me."
Baelor transformed into his monkey form and walked directly up to what appeared to be solid rock face. He stood close to the stone and began clapping his hands in a specific pattern.
Nothing happened.
He repeated the sequence, more deliberately this time.
Still nothing.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Sage asked.
Baelor turned, clearly frustrated. "You bastard, come out! You know I'm here!"
Suddenly, a blue translucent frog materialized out of thin air right in front of them.
'Another spirit demon?' Sage thought.
The frog shifted forms, becoming a small, flying humanoid figure, no bigger than Sage's hand.
"You did it wrong, you idiot!" the tiny figure said in an exasperated voice. "It's—" The small human demonstrated a clapping pattern. "Not—" Then he mockingly imitated Baelor's sequence.
'Why do they have different colors?' Sage wondered silently. Baelor appeared red while this one was blue. Was it related to their abilities somehow?
From the way they spoke to each other, casual insults and familiar irritation, they seemed close, like old friends who'd had this argument before.
"Just open the damn door, Kito," Baelor grumbled.
"Ohh nuh uh, you know it doesn't work like that... gotta answer my riddle first. And since you've got a friend..." The tiny blue figure's eyes gleamed with mischief. "I'll make it... a little bit harder."
He didn't seem surprised by Sage's presence, a living being in this realm of spirits and demons. Either he'd expected it, or he simply didn't care. Sage couldn't tell which.
But a riddle... now that was intriguing.
"Come on, Kito," Baelor groaned. "We don't have time for your games."
"Oh, but you always have time for my games when you need something," Kito replied with a smug grin, hovering in the air with his tiny arms crossed. "Besides, rules are rules. Even you wouldn't want me breaking those, would you?"
Baelor muttered something under his breath that sounded distinctly unfriendly.
Sage stepped forward. "What's the riddle?"
Kito's attention shifted to him, and for the first time, the small demon seemed genuinely interested. "Oh ho! The human speaks! And he's eager too." He rubbed his miniature hands together. "I like him already, Baelor. Much better attitude than yours."
"Just get on with it," Baelor grumbled.
"Fine, fine." Kito cleared his throat dramatically and began floating in a slow circle around them. "Here's your riddle, and listen carefully because I'm only saying it once:
I am born from loss but feed on hope,
I grow stronger when you refuse to cope.
I am your closest friend and your greatest foe,
The more you deny me, the more I grow.
What am I?"
Sage frowned, turning the words over in his mind. Baelor looked equally thoughtful, though he seemed annoyed by the whole process.
The answer felt like it was right there, just out of reach...