Page 118 of Mud

Taland wasn’t playing games with me—he seriously wanted me to help him break into the IDD’s main vault.

Something moved to my side—the vulcera, it’s just the vulcera!

My heart was still about to beat into my throat. I couldn’t fucking believe how fast I forgot she was there. But truth be told, I forgot abouteverythingwhen it came to Taland.

A purr—an actual purr came from the vulcera as she slowly turned around and started walking right toward the same place where I’d tied her up.

“Am I…am I supposed to follow you?” I asked, feeling like I might grow an extra head all of a sudden because the situation wasthatstrange.

The vulcera turned her head and looked at me for a second, then proceeded to walk ahead, between the upright branches that connected at the top.

I guessed that meantyes.

Taking in a deep breath, I sheathed my weapons and took another look around to make sure Taland hadn’t come back.

He hadn’t.

So, I followed the vulcera with a buzzing mind and an aching soul—but my heart, at least, hadn’t stopped beating yet.

“Where to now? Are you going to stay with me?”

The branches all looked the same. If my sense of time could be trusted, I’d say we’d walked for about ten minutes and nothing had changed.

The vulcera kept on going.

Others were around me—all of them with bonded familiars, none alone. Like this side of the tree, wherever we were, was only for those who’d already completed the challenge. No screams, no laughter. It was just men and women and animals walking together toward an unknown destination.

“I’m sorry about your antennas,” I said to the vulcera. Half the curved antennas on her back were still without light, and my gut twisted. I really was sorry to have ruined such a beautiful thing.

The vulcera turned to give me another look but made no sound.

“So, are we?—”

She cut me off when she suddenly jumpedup.

She spun around in the air, jumped up on the branch that was maybe ten inches over my head, and landed upside down on it like it was nothing. Meanwhile I stared after her with my mouth open, too surprised to even make a sound.

The vulcera kept going to the end of the branch, to this hole in the wood I would have never noticed. Her head disappeared inside it for only a second, and when she moved back again, between her jaws was something made of metal. Something that looked a lot like that cylinder I’d found in that puddle of blood.

The key of the challenge.

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps when she jumped back, simply twisted in the air and landed a foot away from me so damn gracefully. I leaned down on one knee and, still cautious, offered her my hand.

She dropped the metal in my palm and sat back on her hind legs.

“I-I-I…thank you,” I said, inspecting the cylinder. It was the same identical metal as the one I found in the blood puddle, only this one had these tiny stones painted green all around it, together with the same rune engraved on the side:Anra Bera Veris.In Honor of Green.

I put it in my jacket pocket together with the first key, then secured the zipper.Two down, three more to go.

“Now what?” I asked the vulcera, not really expecting an answer, but she sort of gave me one anyway.

She rose on all fours and came closer to me, sniffing the air. My instinct was to move way, but then there wassomething else, something that assured me that she was notabout to attack me. Ifeltit, knew it in my bones that she was just curious about my smell.

So, I stood still and closed my eyes, expecting fear to take over me when I felt her body so close, but it didn’t. I was calm, my heartbeat steady.

And the vulcera licked my face, the side of my neck, and then my hands, around my fingernails where I still had dried blood from the Redfire game. Her tongue was soft, wet, and it had little spikes all over it that didn’t feel all bad.

“It’s just blood from the puddle,” I muttered. “I need water. I need a shower so desperately.”

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