Free Web NovelChapter 44: Chapter 44: The Cub
The rain started before Riverbone disappeared behind them.
It fell like punishment, hard and cold, striking the trees and turning the ground into sucking black mud that tried to pull their feet under. Every step made wet, hungry sounds. The old path was already half drowned, and black water filled the lower parts of the forest.
Each time Swanly stepped forward, the surface trembled as if something underneath was breathing.
She pulled the fur bundle higher on her back and tried to ignore the cold water sliding down her neck.
Kael walked close to Swanly.
Too close.
His shoulder brushed hers again and again, but this time Swanly did not complain. His hand hovered near her waist like he wanted to grab her and run. His golden eyes never stopped moving, from the path to the trees, then back to the bundle on Swanly’s back.
He had been tense since they left.
Something was wrong.
He could feel it in his bones.
A pressure.
A watching.
He could not name it, and that made him more afraid.
Soren moved ahead of them in silence. His white tail slid over wet roots and black mud without sinking as much as their feet did.
Raku followed behind them with his stone weapon gripped in both hands. The crocodile beastman was usually rough and loud, but even he had gone quiet. His snout twitched at smells he clearly did not like.
The forest did not feel empty.
It felt hungry.
It felt like it was waiting.
A dead bird fell from a branch above them.
It hit the mud near Swanly’s foot with a wet sound.
Swanly stopped.
Another bird fell.
Then another.
Not one or two.
A slow, steady rain of them dropped through the trees, wings sodden, feathers soaked black, tiny eyes wide open like they had died screaming.
One landed on Swanly’s shoulder.
She brushed it off with a shudder.
It left a smear of black fluid on her hide.
Swanly’s stomach tightened.
"That is not normal."
Soren did not turn around.
"No."
Swanly glared at his back.
"Wonderful answer." frёewebηovel.cѳm
Kael’s hand moved to her waist.
He wanted to pull her behind him.
He wanted to pick her up and run back.
He wanted to tear Soren’s throat out for dragging her here.
Instead, he kept walking because Swanly had agreed to come, and because he would not leave her to face this place with the snake alone.
A distant scream came from the trees.
It rose high.
Then it cut off.
Swanly’s breath paused.
The sound was too familiar.
Her old world had been full of screams that ended too quickly.
She tightened her grip on the bundle strap.
The bundle shifted.
Swanly froze.
Kael stopped at once.
His face changed before she even spoke.
The bundle shifted again.
This time there was no mistake.
Something warm was moving inside it.
Swanly’s blood ran cold.
"No."
She dropped the bundle from her back and tore it open with shaking hands.
For one horrible second, Swanly prayed it was food.
She prayed it was cloth.
She prayed it was anything but what her heart already knew.
Two huge golden eyes blinked up at her from the dark.
The second cub lay curled inside the fur in his tiny black panther form, squeezed between smoked herbs, folded cloth, and dried meat. His little ears were flat against his head. His wet nose twitched. His tiny mouth trembled.
When he saw her face, his voice cracked.
"Mama no leave."
Swanly’s world broke.
For one second, she could not breathe.
Then rage and terror slammed into her so hard her knees almost buckled.
"You absolute little idiot."
The cub shrank smaller, ears flattening more, eyes filling with fat tears.
Swanly’s anger cracked at once.
Under it was raw fear.
"You little mad thing," she said, her hands shaking as she lifted him out of the bundle. "What were you thinking?"
The cub’s lip trembled harder.
"Mama go."
"I told you to stay with Nahla."
"Mama no come back."
Swanly wanted to scold him until the trees heard it.
She also wanted to crush him to her chest and never let go.
"You do not decide that by hiding in my things," she said, voice tight. "You are a baby. This place eats babies."
The cub whimpered.
Kael stepped forward. His face had gone gray.
He looked at his son, then at the flooded forest ahead, then at the black water behind them.
For a moment, he could not breathe.
The Rot Nest was no place for a cub.
It was not even a place for grown beastmen.
Kael took the second cub from Swanly and hugged him to his chest. His arms were careful, but his body was shaking.
"We go back," Kael said.
Soren looked at the cub.
His face stayed cold, but his eyes sharpened.
"Yes."
Swanly turned to him.
"For once I agree with you."
A huge splash exploded behind them.
The path they had crossed lifted as if something massive had rolled under the water. Black water rushed over the mud and swallowed the footprints they had left.
A half-rotted arm burst out of the flood, fingers clawing blindly for the fur bundle.
Swanly snatched it back with a sharp gasp just as the hand closed on empty air.
The thing in the water screamed. frёewebnoѵēl.com
It was wet and bubbling, almost human.
Raku roared and slammed his stone weapon down.
The hand burst under the blow, spraying black blood across the mud, but the water behind it kept moving.
Something large dragged itself beneath the flooded path.
Something dead.
Something patient.
Soren’s pupils thinned.
"We cannot go back," he said coldly. "The path is already swallowed."
Kael held the cub tighter.
Soren looked toward the drowned forest ahead.
"We move forward."
Swanly stared at the blocked path.
The water breathed in wide circles.
Bubbles rose from below in neat patterns.
Kael held the second cub tighter.
The cub looked at Swanly with terrified eyes.
"Mama angry?"
Swanly nearly choked.
"Yes."
His face crumpled.
"Still love cub?"
Swanly’s eyes burned.
"I love you so much that I might go mad."
The cub reached for her.
She took him back because her arms could not bear to be empty.
He buried his face against her neck.
"Mama no leave."
Swanly closed her eyes for one breath.
Then she opened them.
"Stay close enough that I can feel your heartbeat."
The cub nodded against her skin.
Soren turned toward the black forest ahead.
"The Rot Nest begins here."
The flooded trees stood close together like old bones.
Their roots rose out of the water in twisted shapes that looked too much like hands.
Some roots were pale and slick.
Some were black and swollen like veins under skin.
Dead fish floated between them.
Half-sunk bones stuck out of the mud.
Something moved under the water and brushed past Swanly’s ankle.
She jerked back.
Kael pulled her and the cub closer.
Raku stepped into the water first and tested the ground with his weapon.
"It is soft."
Swanly looked ahead.
The air smelled rotten.
Not just rotten meat.
There was something sweet beneath it, thick and dizzying like honey left inside a dead body.
