Hellfrit continued, "Like I said before, I don't remember much of anything," he muttered, scratching lightly behind one ear with his hind leg. "I don't even remember the face of the thing that gave me this job. He seemed to have taken quite a fascination in the brat here."
Brill's head lifted a little at that, his fingers still brushing along the veins on his cheek without realizing he hadn't stopped doing that.
"Fascination…in me?"
Hellfrit gave a small shrug, or at least his version of one, shoulders rising a fraction.
"Yeah. But it gnaws at me, that I don't know much about myself besides the things that matter. Like my name, and my power as a Divine Beast."
Idemay leaned one shoulder against the doorframe, watching him more carefully now. "Are you like the other Divine Beasts?"
Hellfrit's nose wrinkled immediately. "EUGH! Hell no! Gross! Those nasty bastards! In that gate of those Caretakers, all those beasts do is eat grass or hump each other! I, Hellfrit the Calamity, am not to be lumped in with those barbaric beasts." He puffed himself up again, trying to look bigger than he was. "Though… the power of your gods covers them. That's something else. I can feel divine power, or a divine influence."
His eyes moved to Idemay for a moment longer than necessary.
'As for this female giant… I can sense a little power from her too, but it's a slight divine influence. But she's human….how?'
Idemay didn't catch that thought, but she did catch the tone.
"That's what Divine Beasts are. Extensions of a god or goddess' power. The divine gave the world a chance to wield magic, but only through their creations." She pushed off the doorframe. "The beasts act like a limiter, or a filter. You bond with one, you get access to what they can handle. Not more and not less; keeps balance from tipping too far in one direction."
Hellfrit nodded like he understood just enough of that to accept it.
"Ahh. Okay."
'So that's how they work..'
Hellfrit said, "But down to business, I don't really have intelligence or lore or anything crazy on this boy's mark. I just need to make a contract with him as soon as possible. The Holy Land draws near. The thing that sent me here, gave me the gift to feel the arrival of the Holy Land and whatever goddess is coming with it."
Brill's stomach twisted at that, though he couldn't explain why.
'A contract…with a puppy? I can't. I can't do it! I almost died trying to make myself worthy of something cool and powerful at the Ephilm gate! But it knows about my mark… more than me…'
His mouth opened, then closed again before he managed anything useful.
"I…I don't know."
Hellfrit stared at him, then tilted his head. Then tilted it the other way, like he was trying to physically shake the answer out of him.
Then suddenly jumped straight into Brill's lap without warning. "You don't think I'm badass?!"
Brill flinched, hands instinctively hovering like he didn't know whether to push him off or catch him.
"N-Not really…!"
Hellfrit's eye twitched, his expression cracking for a second. "Hmph! You just need to see the great Hellfrit in action! Then you will regret those words!"
Idemay let out a short laugh, pointing at him like she'd been waiting for that exact opening.
"Ha! Yeah right! You're just a little puppy!"
Hellfrit turned his head toward her slowly, ears lowering just a bit, voice taking on a mock grand tone. "Ohoho, just you wait, female minotaur. You'll basically praise the ground I pat on."
"Yeah yeah, doubt it," Idemay shot back without missing a beat. "How old are you anyway?"
Hellfrit paused, looking up like the answer might be written somewhere above him.
"Hmmm… that's a good question. I think I'm around two years old."
Idemay blinked once, then looked at Brill, then back at Hellfrit, then reached out and grabbed his face between her fingers, squishing his cheeks together.
"Awww, he's so wittle!"
Hellfrit's entire body stiffened. "Back off!" He wriggled out of her hands and shook himself again.
Idemay snorted under her breath, then her attention went back to Brill, and saw he'd gone quiet.
His eyes weren't on Hellfrit anymore, or her, but somewhere in between like he was stuck halfway through then both of them.
Idemay let out a breath and stepped closer, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Son…"
Brill didn't look up right away.
"I…I'm so confused, ma."
Of course he was. Eight years old, and dealing with marks no one could explain, beasts that ignored him, one that followed him out of a place nothing should leave, talking about things like Holy Lands and goddesses and contracts like it was normal conversation.
Idemay rubbed her thumb lightly against his shoulder, thinking through it in a way that didn't come naturally to her. She'd fought battles, led men, made decisions in the middle of chaos without hesitation, but this felt harder.
She knew why he went into those woods and knew why he fought that Crowbear. He wanted something that proved he belonged somewhere. Something people wouldn't look away from, and something that could make people step closer to him instead and enjoy his presence without getting disgusted.
And somewhere along the line, he'd started thinking maybe he was the problem, or that maybe he wasn't supposed to be here at all.
Idemay wasn't gonna let that sit at all. "Listen," she said, her tone lighter than her thoughts, nudging him a little bit. "I have a surprise for you tonight at the tavern."
Brill finally looked at her, blinking.
"I don't think I'm allowed to go in, I have to be older than eighteen, right?"
"Shhhh, shhhh," she waved that off immediately. "I can pull some strings… or bash some heads in. Okay?"
Brill hesitated for a second, then nodded.
"O-Okay."
Hellfrit, still perched in his lap, raised a paw slightly.
"Uh, what about me?"
Idemay glanced at him.
"You're coming too. Although I'm tempted to just take you back to the Ephilm Gate and tell the Caretakers they lost one of their mutts. There's no telling if they'll come looking for you. The Caretakers are unpredictable, there's also no telling if they'll show up all violent and such. And as much as I'd LOVE to bash their faces in, I don't really wanna make an enemy of the Caretakers. Those bastards are strong. I've seen them kill people who were rude or were hostile towards Divine Beasts in their presence."
Hellfrit huffed. "Eh, as ruthless as the Caretakers are, I doubt they'll come after me. They barely paid attention to me anyway. And those Divine Beasts kept their distance from me. Wouldn't even get close to me. Same for the Caretakers."
Brill's fingers paused where they rested on his lap.
'Just like me…!'
He looked down at Hellfrit again. "Can you show me your magic stuff? Please?"
Hellfrit leaned back slightly, placing both front paws against Brill's arm like he was settling in.
"I'd need to actually fight something, because I'm running on fumes here. Gotta save every drop of magic I have until I get strong enough to actually have an infinite supply of mana. I had to use my magic to barely slip out of the gate too."
Brill nodded, taking that in like it made sense. "Okay. What do you eat?"
Hellfrit answered without hesitation. "Magic. I eat magic. I have no other diet. Only a badass Divine Beast eats magic."
Idemay, without saying a word, reached over to a nearby plate and picked up a piece of cooked meat, holding it right in front of Hellfrit's face.
"Oh yeah?"
In the next instant, Hellfrit snapped forward and tore into it like it owed him something, small teeth working fast as he growled through each bite, paws braced against it like he was fighting it into submission.
"Oh, oh yeah, oh that hit the spot!"
He chewed, swallowed, then froze mid-lick when he noticed both of them staring at him.
Idemay had a grin spreading across her face, and Brill just looked confused but he was entertained.
Hellfrit cleared his throat, sitting back up as if nothing had happened. "Hm. I can have other food every once in a while."
….
….
Night fell over the town of Cassady, lanterns lined the streets, the light glinting off of cobblestone and worn wood, and people finished their evening outside, securing ropes and corralling their Divine Beasts into their pens, brushing fur, scales, and stranger, undescribed textures with practiced movements.
Laughter still echoed here and there but it was more tempered now than it was during the afternoon, more of a gentle relaxation as people eased off of the last threads of the day and into rest.
This did not apply to the tavern, however, because the Oracle's Mead Tavern was a storm. The doors were wooden planks, crooked and dirty and battered, and right across the middle of the two was a crudely nailed sign, that looked like the lettering had been reapplied at least once or twice:
"NO DIVINE BEASTS ALLOWED IN THE TAVERN! I SWEAR TO MY FOREFATHERS, IF A SINGLE DAMN BEAST STEP FOOT INSIDE, I WILL SKIN IT AND SERVE IT FOR DINNER TO MY PATRONS! DIVINE BEASTS PISS AND SHIT EVERYWHERE! I DON'T WANNA CLEAN THAT UP!"
And inside, the air crackled with living energy.
The rooms were crowded, every table taken, and nearly every person seemed to be adventurers, judging by the scuffed gear, the discarded cloaks tossed over chairs and the weapons leaned against legs like furniture extensions.
They were challenging each other to arm-wrestling contests with elbows slamming onto tables as people cheered each side on and the one that was doing it without their arm seemed to be attempting some other form of game where they punched each other directly in the jaw while laughing, and the sheer force of it looked like it should knock teeth loose, yet instead was rewarded by another drunken cheer.
The bartender was a dwarven man named Orac, with a thick braided beard streaked with copper and ash grey, muscled arms like seasoned oak branches that were in the process of wiping down mugs, a process that they probably hadn't undergone since they'd been originally made.
Orac was a sharp eyed, amber colored, impatient looking dwarf whose gaze bounced from person to person as he argued about payment. "That's the price! You want it any cheaper?! Then you should've settled for a drink of rainwater!"
"But last week the price was two silvers less!" An adventurer argued back.
"Last week you didn't annoy me half as much," Orac shot back without losing a beat.
Over at another table someone was trying to get the person next to them to listen over the din.
"I'm telling you, the Mire Serpent wasn't even worth the effort! The thing's scales were like broken mirrors that almost sliced through my arm when I wasn't careful, and it barely paid out five gold."
"Five gold? You're complaining? I followed a Hollow Tusk Wyrm for three days straight and all I got was a sack of bones and a pat on the head from the lady at the Adventurers guild hall in the capital."
The drinks slammed onto the table.
"Did you guys hear? King Camelot is opening up applications to let people join his troops in a struggle for the borders of the kingdom."
"Oh? Against the enemy forces of Ormegard, right? I think Camelot should just walk over and destroy Ormegard with his Divine Beast. After all, he's at the Convergence Level with his bond, and his Divine Beast is a Stage Five Disaster State. He could merge with it and flatten anything!"
The woman in front of them tapped the table with two fingers.
"Do you think it's really that simple? Velkrund is sitting on the richest vein of divine energy in this part of the land. The Gates, the beasts, everything. Ormegard doesn't want land to farm on or things to trade over, they want control of that stream. If Camelot marches on them with his Divine Beast and leaves his kingdom exposed, they won't be able to beat him in a straight fight, and will simply sneak around and carve out the center of the kingdom from under him. Camelot has the strongest contract in Velkrund, he needs to be here at all times during this ongoing fight."
Divine energy sits at the center of everything people in Velkrund rely on, even if most of them never say it outright, because it fuels the necessary substances that feed the Divine Beasts. It seeps through the soil, runs under rivers, lingers in the air in ways scholars argue about and farmers quietly depend on, and where it gathers thickest, beasts grow stronger, contracts last longer, and warriors reach levels that turn entire battles on their own.
A kingdom built on top of a dense vein of that energy becomes more than just land, it turns into a living resource, something that can raise armies with stronger bonds, heal faster, produce rarer beasts, and sustain power for generations, so of course other kingdoms look at it and see more than territory, they see control over the very thing that decides who gets to wield magic and who gets left behind scraping for scraps.
Another person spoke up. "Plus, Ormegard isn't structured like this kingdom. It's a scattering of walled cities connected only by terrain that's too unstable to remain the same. Mountains and ridges form on their own and collapse in on themselves without notice. No map would stay true there for even a week and people guiding you would need to read the land instead of relying on a map, a skill no one in Ormegard knows. Which means anyone heading in blindly would simply get lost and before they even reached their destination they'd have failed their mission. Even if the king goes, no one knows how strong Ormegard's king or his inner circle is either."
Someone else snorted, nearly drowning their own drink.
"Which means he might get lost and aren't even found by anyone searching, thus ending any hopes of them having seen anything useful."
"Exactly. Their own citizens trust nothing about permanence and build as if their lives will end that very day; a lifestyle which can be quite difficult for someone even as powerful as a king to deal with."
The thought lingered for a moment before the door once again burst open. Wood banged loudly against the wall, a sound that caused a few heads to turn, and the tavern noise softened with their turning attention.
Idemay stepped in first, stepping on the dusty floor as if she had every right to be there, Brill close behind her and Hellfrit trotting at their heels without any hesitation.
For a moment the tavern silenced and everyone turned to stare at the newcomers before trying to gauge their next movement.
Brill instinctively moved closer to Idemay as his fingers wrapped around hers for stability and he did not realize he was doing it until she looked at him once without flinching.
Brill watched Idemay's eyes slide around the room, deliberately taking her in while she didn't do a thing to change the subtle red energy crackling about her fingers, a flicker of red lightning that appeared and then disappeared. And Idemay was mean-mugging all of them.
Then someone laughed, then two people.
"Ah! There's the young lad! Brill, was it? I heard he defeated a Crowbear!"
"Damn right he did, let's hear all about it!"
"When I was his age, I pissed myself when I was attacked by a Crowbear!"
"You're always pissing yourself!"
"Brill! Come over here and tell us about what happened!"
The room once again became filled with a noise that had doubled, and it was all focused on him. Brill stood still for a moment, his ears ringing from the sound that washed over him all at once, the cacophony of voices and eyes and the absolute certainty that they were staring.
Brill stood with his cheeks flushed with excitement as one tear ran down his face, but as he felt it, he quickly wiped it away, turning his head so that they wouldn't be able to see and straightening his shoulders, looking as though he belonged there, and not like a simple boy standing in a tavern with hardened adventurers.
He looked up at Idemay and, despite the sudden blush of humiliation at his tear, asked with bright eyes, "Can I?!"
Idemay merely nodded once, a smile curving the corner of her lips, "Certainly. Go tell them how you fought a Crowbear."
That was all he needed. He dropped her hand and raced to the group he'd just been addressed by, already trying to babble an explanation for something far too large to be captured with just words, his hands flailing about.
She watched him run off, and then her eyes turned towards the back of the room where a minstrel bard sat; a lean, willowy man with a long necked string instrument resting in his lap.
The minstrel saw Idemay's intimidating glare, inclined his head briefly, and then began to play. His fingers danced across the strings, weaving a melody that permeated the room and captured the attention of the patrons, drawing their eyes back toward Brill who had now been surrounded by a half-circle of adventurers eager to hear his tale.
Hellfrit had followed his own plan and was now at the entrance, scanning the giant humanoid forms looking down at him. His ears flattened back but then, before they could drop any lower, they perked up as if refusing to accept anything but victory and he snarled, "What the hell are you giant minotaurs lookin' at? Wanna get bit in the ass?"
A pause, then laughter exploded around him.