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“Sorry,” she blurted out, hiding how freaked out she was as best she could.

I’ve gone insane. I’m asking a Duskwalker to stay when most people would be fleeing.

She looked at the colour of his orbs, noting the red hue of them, and lowered her arms.Oh. I didn’t know their... ‘eyes?’ changed colour.Didn’t take a genius to figure out what this colour meant, since he was giving her a warning growl, even though it had softened now that she’d let him go.

She blew a strand of hair from her face as she thought,hypocrite.He’d been the one using her as a teddy bear all night against her will!

Still, she made sure her forced smile remained. “L-look, Mr Duskwalker...”

He sucked in a triple snort before letting it out as a deep, obviously annoyed, huff.

It was impossible to tell if he was actually listening.Maybe they aren’t as intelligent as we were told?So far, this one hadn’t attempted to speak with her, and she wondered if he could even understand her.

Oh, screw it.

Sucking in a deep breath, she prepared to just spit it all out quickly. “I wanted to thank you for saving me. I really appreciate you coming to my aid.”

His orbs shifted to a bright orange, just as he reared his head back and his whole upper body went with it. Linh gestured to where the corpses of Bragg’s men once were, thankful theywere gone, as she didn’t particularly want to see dead and dismembered bodies.

“I’m not sure if you understand what I’m saying, or if you noticed, but those men were bandits who have been terrorising these mountains for the past seven months.”

As if he didn’t care for what she was saying, he twisted towards the water.

“Wait! Please!” She reached a hand out, despite refusing to touch him. “We need help.”

He halted once more, and without turning his body, the Duskwalker slowly twisted his head to the side to face her. Dark yellow lifted into his orbs, swirling inwards to eat at the orange that had been there.

Then he finally gave the first indication that he was truly capable of intelligent thought. The Duskwalker lifted an arm and pointed his index claw against the white protruding bone of his sternum. He creepily tilted his head, and she could almostseea question mark forming over the top of his bony head.

“Yes,” she stated with a nod. “You killed those men with such strength and speed. I know if you were to aid us, they would leave.”

Before he could even think about leaving or denying her request, Linh shuffled to her knees, dropped down to her chest, and crossed her arms against the ground. She laid her head down to bow to him. It was the biggest gesture she could think to give something like him, a monster, but she hoped it conveyed how desperate she was. It also likely showed trust, which was utterly false on her end – she couldn’t trust him as far as she could toss him, which was not at all.

She was willing to bow to him like he was a god.

“They aren’t good people. They choke our supplies, stop us from freely trading, all under the guise of protection. They are killing us, both directly and indirectly, through famine andsickness. They take our food, our medicine, and then barter with us with those supplies we desperately need when towns outside of the valley try to bring it.”

Eerie silence greeted her.

When it went on for far too long, she fisted the grass stalks in front of her. Once more, she wondered what the hell she was doing. But... Linh was so desperate, she couldn’t stop.

I’ll die if I go around the mountain.It’d been a dream, a hope she knew didn’t truly exist. It had been action, but it also would have landed her straight into a Demon’s stomach.But this Duskwalker. If it helps me, us...

“I know you have no reason to care or help us, but I am asking you anyway. It will take me weeks to leave our valley and get to the villages south of here.” She’d have to go northeast and then southwest, just to do a freaking loop. “More people will die, and the chance of me making it there is low. You saved me from them, from being eaten throughout the night, so–”

She flinched when a hand gingerly slid under her forehead, and she lifted her face. Linh tried not to recoil when his snake skull was less than a foot from her nose. She didn’t resist him when he lifted her chin and forced her upright on straightened arms.

His touch was surprisingly gentle, especially with his claws.

Her long, straight eyelashes fluttered as she blinked in surprise.Oh wow, I didn’t notice the tiny streaks of gold in his skull.They were so tiny they were only the thickness of hairs, as if someone had glued perfect pieces of his skull back together. They looked more like hairline fractures, but the way they streaked over his skull made it obvious it’d been broken.

Do their scars always appear golden?

The Duskwalker parted his maw, let his serpent fangs come down, and released a quiet, yet bone-chilling hiss! Her heart clenched so powerfully, it sparked pain all throughout her chest.Before she could even properly react, he dived into the water. A large wave washed over the grass right next to her, ripping a squeal from her as she backed away to avoid its spray.

Her heart nearly came up her throat, and she fell to the side as a delayed reaction to such a frightening and menacing warning. He nearly scared the pee out of her, which was already threatening to burst from her at any second.

But he hadn’t hurt her, and that made her remarkably foolish. She was also just so frazzled from the past twenty-four hours, she let the most unhinged thoughts prevail.