Page 45 of A Soul to Steal

Gideon’s gaze softened as he took in her expression. Despite the sternness within the hard line of her mouth, the artist had managed to capture her eyes in a tender way.

Aleron came up beside him and then pointed. “That is the Witch Owl,” he explained. “This is how she appears when in human form.”

“The Witch Owl?”Aleron spoke of her.

“She once called herself mother. I only understood what that meant when Weldir explained it to me.”

“She’s beautiful,” Gideon complimented, taking in the grey stone.

“Really?” Aleron tilted his head, his orbs turning dark yellow. He shined them down at Gideon. “I think you are more so.”

An embarrassed, awkward chuckle came from him.Cute, Aleron.

He averted his gaze to the side to check out the rest of the chamber, noting other statues. He pulled Aleron over to them.

Each statue appeared to be a Duskwalker in their more monstrous form.

“Hey, it’s you.” Gideon pointed to the statue of Aleron. It had to be him, considering it had a bat skull, long twisting horns like a goat, and was the only one with massive wings. “And that’s Ingram, correct?”

He gestured to Ingram’s raven skull and short, upward-jutting goat horns. Intricate scales had been carved, with protrudingbones on the outside of most of him. He’d also seen that long lizard tail before.

On the right of Ingram were two little creatures he couldn’t even begin to name. He let go of Aleron’s hand so he could crouch down and inspect them. They appeared to be crawling over each other, one with no distinct shape other than a blobby baby body that had a featureless oval for a face, and the other with some kind of animal skull – a wolf or a fox of some sort.

“Do you know what these are?” Gideon asked.

“No. I have never seen them before,” Aleron answered, an obvious shrug in his voice.

“Fair enough.” He stood and subconsciously reached out without even thinking about it, only to flinch when Aleron suddenly wrapped his large hand around his own, but his surprise faded quickly. “Who’s this then?”

Moving to a Duskwalker who stood taller than all the others at their skull height, he thought their impressive antlers made them even more formidable. A fox skull was collared by large feathers covering the upper part of their torso, as well as the backs of their forearms and calves. The rest of them wasn’t fluffy, like Aleron, except for their long fox tail.

“I do not know if he has a name, but we called him the fox Mavka.” He pointed to the next Duskwalker. “That is Kitty, or Faunus. He has two names; I am unsure why. He is nice – we like him.”

“Kitty? What kind of name is that?” Gideon shook his head as he took in his feline skull and the ram horns that curled backwards before going forwards, so the ends could jut out near his cheeks. Although fluffy all over, his tail was long and thin like a cat’s. “What’s up with his face, though?”

A crack filled in with some kind of molten material lined the left of his skull. It surrounded the entire horn on that side as it went down over his eye before going over his cheek.

“The Demon King hurt him. His skull broke completely, but he was put back together. We were not sure how he did this.” He covered his fangs with a hand and tapped a claw at the side of his bony face in thought. “Perhaps I can be put together the same way?”

Gideon peeked at Aleron as he leaned forward to take a closer look. Aleron didn’t hold a hint of sadness or pain in his voice, only thoughtfulness, nor had his orbs changed colour. Still, he decided to move on from ‘Kitty/Faunus’ so Aleron didn’t dwell on it.

“This is Orpheus,” Aleron stated when they came to a wolf-skulled Duskwalker with twisting horns like the impala they saw recently.

Fur covered most of his body, while long fish fins went down his back, forearms, and calves. He looked strong and seemed to have the least amount of bones protruding on the outside of his body so far. He had a small, upward-curling deer tail.

“We... we were not kind to him,” Aleron admitted. In his peripheral, Gideon noted his orbs morphed to a reddish pink. “We hurt him and destroyed part of his home where he kept humans. He was very untrusting of us after that, although heusedto let us rest within his salt circle.”

“He had a home and kept humans?” Gideon asked, surprised to learn a Duskwalker would do this.

Somehow, Aleron’s orbs brightened in their hue. It didn’t seem like embarrassment, but rather... inshame.

“He became rather angry when we tried to eat one,” he stated honestly. “He refused to allow us anywhere near his territory after this. It is hard to remember, as I fell into a bloodlust and my memories are often fragmented when like this. I only just remembered now because I am looking at him. But... I think we hurt him very deeply.”

“You tried to kill his friend?” Gideon asked, narrowing his brows in disappointment. “I would have been furious with you too.”

“I am sorry,” Aleron whimpered.

“I’m not the one you need to apologise to,” Gideon grumbled, turning away while rubbing at the side of his neck. He hadn’t meant to upset Aleron, and now felt rather bad about it. “Who is this one?”

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