That kid… What happened to him…? I shook my head. Mathew wasn't settled and couldn't settle into his bed. I watched as he tried to reach out to me when I closed the flaps to my personal tent. What kind of life did he go through?
Mathew or well Yukina, those marks were not normal— far from it. Especially some areas, of which… Some slavers will be the first few humans I'll kill in a few years..
I should definitely let Frederic know about them too
"Miss Shen..? Are you okay?" I heard Melinda's voice call out from behind me. She sounded well, concerned. Her face was deathly pale, and a cold sweat was on her face. "Wh-"
She was leaning onto her husband— her left leg was still paralyzed; her hands were grabbing his arm tightly. She got closer with a heavy limp.
Meanwhilst… James had the same expression, Looks like I released too much of my killing intent… woops… I took in what I was holding in. "My apologies, Yukina got on my nerves."
"Is she okay? How is she doing?" James helped his wife take a step forward whilst asking. "Are-"
"Yukina's fine. She needs rest." I interrupted him with my hand raised. Worrying too much. Not something I'm not used to however. "Give her a few hours and she'll be screeching to get out."
Both of them let out a sigh of relief; which is something I understood completely— if I wasn't the one not healing her I would do the same.
Melinda let out the biggest sigh, and a weird look quickly took over her face. That look was familiar, and it's the same one I gave after looking at Mathew's new body.
"Yu-Yukina will be fine, right?" Melinda asked, her eyebrow was constantly twitching now. "Good… um, can we talk to you about her..?"
"What for?"
Without responding, Melinda only looked around her— Seems like she knows. No elaboration was needed, she was aware of the scarring on Mathew's— Yukina's body. And that's all that was needed.
Without another word, I pulled them away from the camp. No one bothered to ask us where we were going. It wasn't needed, nor did I want to elaborate. It's a matter of privacy over a serious topic.
It wasn't that far, and I could feel the glances from everyone else. Melinda and James were rather slow due to the former's slight paralyzation; Her leg might become a serious issue… Why can't she just be carried? Guess it's consideration for Shaun.
First, James grabbed her arm, wrapped his hand around her waist. In a quick, easy motion, she was swept up into his arms and he sat cross leggedly. Second, she got out of his arms and rested her head on his arm.
"Is… Is Yukina alright?"
"Mhm." I rested my head on my chin. "I already told you."
"Thank the gods…" Melinda let out a sigh of relief.
"Is that all?"
"N-No— Did- you find anything odd, or serious?"
I nodded my head, and explained the parts I saw… and Melinda had nodded, her face turned serious before she spoke again.
"You're talking about the scars, right?"
Seems like I was right. I observed. I wasn't the only one who saw Mathew's… scars. "I saw them, they're old— every scar, bruise and scratch."
"Ye-Yeah…" Melinda said whilst keeping her eyes to the ground. Seems like she wasn't prepared. She took a deep breath and continued. "Can- can you heal them? I don't— don't want my daughter to keep them…"
"Unfortunately, Melinda I can't."
"You can't…?"
"Mhm." I confirmed her hearing. "Healing needs wounds, if I could heal Yukina's scars I'd need to skin her— not even skin, quite a lot of them are deep tissue scars."
They both held weird looks. Melinda had her mouth turn into a squiggly line as furrowed eyebrows became knitted. As her husband did the same, his seemed more confused.
It was pretty obvious, he had no idea what we were talking about. Melinda had me explain… the marks, bruises and scratches that were all over Mathew's body. With each point, his face became more horrified— plus his hands were balled into fists.
"Yukina's gonna have to live with them— according to her, she doesn't remember where she got them"
"Not even… the ones… on her back?"
"Mhm, I asked her, and she can't lie to me." I claimed whilst pointing at my own bite mark. "The mark I left on her neck… it allows for certain abilities— one, she'd find it much harder to lie to me."
"I see…"
"Anyways, she'll gain them in the future." I said whilst straightening my back. "Although, I recommend avoiding touching her ears.
Every time you touched them she seemed to be in pain… So I'd assume she gained those memories, and the ones who enslaved her before did something."
"..."
"Anyways, I'll ask her if something happened."
******
(Yukina)
Y'know, I'm sort of shocked… I can't hear anything. I realized after I calmed down, I couldn't hear anything outside this tent. It was just me, alone, by myself.
There… were a lot of features in here that kinda shocked me, mainly this light. It was a floating orb and it was controlled by some sort of magical light switch. I tried touching it, but it didn't respond to me. Must be tied to Shen solely.
Now I'm just bored. To the point, I didn't bother covering my body, my arm was getting tired. Kind of weird, I feel normal… Shen did say I would still feel exhausted… But, at this moment I feel energetic as crap.
I heard a zipper from the entrance and quickly covered myself up lo' and behold, it was Shen, she was holding folded, large pieces of clothes.
She kneeled on the ground, and said, "Verd lent some of his clothes; the other women's clothes would be too small for you."
Eh? Aren't I the same height as them…? I quietly wondered whilst watching her set the clothes down.
"What's with that look?"
"I-I'm the same height as them, no?" I asked whilst tilting my head. "I don't really understand what you mean…"
"Let me give you a little lesson, but first, get dressed."
"Alright…? Um… can I get some privacy?"
"Sure." Shen mumbled before turning around at the entrance. When I was sure she wouldn't turn around, I grabbed the shirt first. Thank god— I don't want my back to hurt even more.
There was no bra, or underwear.
"Hm? Just a plain shirt." I muttered as I unfolded it. It was a plain old black shirt. This'll definitely make me look smaller…
Next, there were pants. They were similarly colored. A belt was fastened in the loops. Seems like they were prepared.
That was pretty much it.
Shen really thought of it all, huh? Once I was sure nothing would fall, I got to my feet. Huh?
Everything was… off? Did Shen lower her tent? The tent used to be sort of larger, the roof was a lot higher than it is now. Did I get taller?
"You done in there?"
"Yeah… yeah." I responded, and Shen shortly after turned her head to look at me. Even from this distance… I could see a heavy twitch of her eyebrow. "What's with that look?"
"What a load of… Haah…" Shen let out a sigh before grabbing the ridge of her nose. "Wasn't expecting you to get taller."
Her words caused my brain to short circuit— literally, I felt a jolt stream across. When she beckoned me to come towards her, I obliged.
Previously, we were somewhat of the same height… and now she was near my chin level.
"...'
"Did I hit a growth spurt…?" I muttered. Now that I look down, Verd's clothes aren't that big on me… He originally was a giant, well.. I was five one. He's under six foot, an estimate around the average height of a male.
So, seeing how this… well, is slightly large, I grew a lot when I was unconscious. Was it five inches? What was it? And why the heck did I-
"I think you're ready to evolve." Shen randomly said, she now was leaning against the side of her tent.
"Evolve?"
"Mhhhm," Shen let out before shrugging. "Animalkins, humans, elves, dwarves, nearly every race can evolve. Though, animalkins mostly."
"...That doesn'-"
"It's brought by an onset physical change." Shen brought up the pointer finger of her right hand. "You grew taller, and matured. Well matured physically."
Why does that sound familiar… I thought as I listened to Shen's explanation. Evolution reminds me of some crappy show I watched in my past life.
"Though, you still look like a child so don't worry." Shen's explanation wasn't that good. It didn't clear any confusion I had. For some reason she pinched the ridge of her nose and let down her hand. "You hit a level threshold, any time soon you'll evolve into something stronger."
"I see…"
In the next moment, Shen glanced at me and continued from there. To summarize, level twenty was the threshold for most beings; evolution requires certain thresholds, one of which is extremely difficult.
For her? It was to kill another vampire, without help. Apparently, it was so hard she almost died and had to rely on strong artifacts. To continue past that, it comes with abilities unique to the thing you evolve into.
For ninety percent of wolfkins, they'd evolve into some dire wolf variant… Only one was confirmed to be different; that was Valda, she became a rune wolf. And ah, animalkins usually evolve into actual monsters on their last evolution…
But for mine? I decided not to check, Shen gave a warning one could be extremely hard to achieve as one of the requirements. And… well, other things are more important.