Riz used to fight all the monsters getting in her way while inspecting anything that could possibly lead their path to a seal bearer. Her friends would sometimes help, mostly in times of emergency, but Gia was a healer. Her specialty was brewing medicine. Sel was a royalty and had to return home on time and unscathed. If not, her father, General Andres would go mad. Thea had been recuperating on a recovery bud for a century. She could not help even if she wanted to. Now that she was out, she chose to focus on some unstable fairy.
Fortunately, Ayhan was there. When she began teaming up with him, she had more time to focus on her investigations. With his excellent fighting skills, Riz never had to worry about the dangers in her surroundings. She could finally focus on finding traces left by the boar seal.
As Ayhan stepped closer to the flesh eater, its constantly shifting pupils had stopped moving and gazed murderously on him.
The flesh eater raised its thick and long arms to attack. Ayhan dodged then waved his scythe to cut its left hand. The cursed fairy was moving clumsily that it had been vanquished within a few minutes, just as Riz found a possible trace that could lead them to the boar seal. Ayhan watched, with sorrow in his eyes, as the flesh eater faded into dust.
"Let's go," Riz grabbed his hand and pulled him deeper into the Foliage Forest.
The trail brought them to a cave filled with healthy vegetations, a pond filled with fishes, and jars overflowing with various herbs, spices, and fermented dishes.
They searched the entire place with caution. No one was there but the peculiar aura that they followed grew stronger in that area. They discovered an enchanted exit at the deepest corner of the cave. Even though the trail was faintest in that direction, Riz passed through it and meticulously searched the surrounding forest until she discovered a fresh trail that brought them to another strange monster.
It was a small, plump, and pinkish creature. It was fast but Ayhan managed to grab its short and curly pink tail. Riz summoned her flaming spear but the creature had slipped away from Ayhan before she could pierce it.
The creature glared angrily at them. It raised its hand and flicked its fingers. From the ground, two flesh eaters had emerged and immediately attacked.
"Call backup," Ayhan told Riz as he cut and kicked one of the flesh eaters away and slashed at the second. "Tell them we found the boar seal."
Riz immediately called her friends but Sel, Gia, Juliann, and Calix were busy fighting stronger flesh eaters. She had no choice but to call Thea who immediately responded and brought Asuren with her.The latter helped Ayhan in fighting the two flesh eaters while the former assisted Riz in subduing the boar seal.
Thea managed to trap the boar seal with her wind gusts but her grip did not last long. The curly-tailed creature shattered the wind gusts and had thrown a few shards of wooden blades in retaliation.
Thea avoided most of it and Riz deflected a few but one blade still pierced Thea on her right shoulder.Riz attacked the boar seal but the flaming spear only grazed the plump body of their opponent before it completely vanished into the shadows.Riz cursed and tossed her flaming spear to the ground before it faded into glowing embers.
"I'm okay!" Thea yelled because Riz glanced at her with worry. She pulled the wooden blade from her shoulder and tossed it away. It bounced at the ground and faded into dusts. "I'm just… starving."
"You didn't eat? Gia prepared a few dishes before leaving."
"I ate it all. I also ate a lot when Henry cooked for us," Thea rubbed her rumbling stomach. "But when that wooden blade had hit me, I suddenly feel hungry. My stomach is hurting more than my stab wound," Thea shook her head and ignored her painful stomach. "Let's go. We can't let the seal bearer get away."
But before they could spread their wings, Henry dropped from the slit that appeared above them.
"This place again?" Henry sat up and stared at Thea. "What are you two doing here?"
"You've been in this place before?" Thea asked back and her stomach rumbled louder.
"You are cursed," his pupils turned to silver. He crawled closer to Thea and touched her wounded shoulder. "This is an ancient spell. It makes you tremendously hungry."
"I thought I deflected the rest of those wooden blades," Riz was angry at herself. "Henry, you can counter any curse, right?"
"We don't need any counter spell," Henry calmly replied after scanning Thea with his silver eyes. "The curse will fade away after twenty-four hours. You only have to watch what you eat. If you consume meat, you will gradually turn into a mindless creature that only wants to consume flesh."
"She will become a flesh eater?" Riz was horrified.
"Flesh eater? What is that?" Thea asked, momentarily forgetting her rumbling stomach.
"Those cursed fairies that Ayhan and Asuren were fighting," Riz replied with a sigh. "We cannot wait for twenty-four hours, Henry. A lot can happen. What if Thea turned into a monster?"
"Those monsters were once fairies?" Thea suddenly felt bad. She remembered the strange creatures they encountered at the Gailbreeze Mountain. Those creatures were similar to those flesh eaters and all of them had been killed. "I thought the boar seal created them just like what that sneaky fairy did. He made warriors out of fabrics. Can we reverse the curse on those that already turned?"
"If we kill the monster that cursed them, will they return to being fairies?" Riz clenched her fists and suppressed her rage.
"Before you worry about other fairies, worry about yourself first, Thea. You need to isolate," Henry advised. "I will make something that can satisfy your hunger. Don't forget. You need to restrain yourself from any kind of meat. It will worsen the curse and healing you will become more difficult."
"I will guard her," Riz helped Thea up on her feet. "Let's go back to Gia's house."
"Let's check on Asuren and Ayhan first," Thea reminded her friend.
"We're here," Ayhan was carrying Asuren at his back. The latter had a stab wound on his left leg. It was bleeding profusely even though a thick cloth was tightly wrapped against his wound. "Asuren needs help. I think the claws of those flesh eaters are either cursed or poisoned…"
"Cursed," Henry said after putting a hand over the bleeding leg wound. "Let's hurry back to Gia's house before Asuren bleeds to death and Thea consumes meat."
^##########^