“Big Brother!” came the joyous cry of a little girl with auburn hair and chestnut eyes as she sprioward the trio.

  Rexar gracefully dropped to his knees, arms open and wearing an affeate smile. “Half-Pint!” he called with a blush, only to be met with shod heartbreak when the girl leaped into Daisuke’s arms instead of his own.

  “April?” Daisuke excimed in surprised disbelief. “Wait! What’re you—”

  “It really is a small world, isn’t it?” said Feng with a hand cupping his hip, an aloof smile teasing his lips.

  "It's such a relief to see you're alright," added Sylvia tearfully. "We've been on edge this whole time, going bad forth with the idea of f a search party."

  “Haxks!” shouted Aldric with a firm salute. “I protected April as promised. Everyone was worried sick, but I knew a stupid monster wouldn’t get the best of you.”

  Mia had her fingers ced gracefully behind her back with a ile. “I knew you’d find your way back to us.”

  Daisuke’s expression softened. Everyone’s all right, he thought in relief, then his gaze settled on Mia. It retty reckless for her to follow us all the way out here alone; her nights must have been painfully long.

  Even as he pted this, a part of him felt a flicker of happiness knowing that she was willing to make such a sacrifice for him. Despite the betrayal he endured, Mia's aade it abundantly clear that not everyone shared Brek's misguided beliefs.

  “So wait—are you telling me Haxks is the big brother those twoing on about all this time?” Rexar scoffed in surprise.

  “Then why were they calling him Julian?” asked Milo.

  “It’s the alias that Mr. Langley—I mean, Haxks, devised to protect their identity and fool the man who took us all in as sves,” expined Sylvia.

  “Big Brother,” cried April as she smothered her fa his chest. “I-I was so scared,” she sniffled. “I thought that monster had—”

  Daisuke gently stroked her head, his rare show of affeaking Elena blush as she watched from a distance. “I’m sorry I made you worry,” he said tenderly, relief unfurling within him as much as it did within her. “And I’m gd you were all able to escape safely,” he said, his eyes passing over Sylvia, Feng, Aldrid Mia.

  Zephyr, feeling ed, got up on his hind legs and braced his front paws against April with a whimper. Sensing the attention, the little girl retreated from the warmth of Daisuke’s embrad clumsily began wipiears. Then she looked down at the pup with uainty.

  “It’s okay,” Daisuke reassured with a f smile, "he's perfectly harmless. His name's Zephyr—he's a friend I made whe separated."

  Readily vinced, April tentatively extended her fingers, which the e pyfully licked. Her face lit up with a radiant smile as she reached down to pat and embrace the rown marshmallow of a wolf.

  The other Beastfolk who remained in hiding observed the warm iion. Ears and tails that once sagged in fright now perked up with curiosity, and they gradually began to emerge from their dwellings. The kids, in particur, sloroached April and Zephyr, eager for a ce to pet the curious wolf.

  “So, this is the safe haven you mentioned,” remarked Daisuke, shifting his gaze to Sylvia.

  "Yes... the safe haven she willingly abandoned," interjected an elderly woman acgly, causing the girl to bow her head dejectedly.

  “And you are?” Daisuke asked with a hint of indifference, evidently annoyed by the verbal attack.

  “My name is Timartha. I’m the vilge chief,” crified the elderly woman with a slight ination of her head. “Thank you for resg the young ones; I’m eternally grateful.”

  Daisuke appraised the woman who was no taller than four feet i, her small stature supported by an old wooden staff. Her round face overflowed, the cheeks resting against her shoulders with creases flowing through her skin like a time-worher bag.

  “What brings you to our humble abode?” she questioned cautiously, one eye holding the stranger in its paze. “Did one of the kids teach you the birdsong?”

  “No, that was me,” said Rexar with a grin, stepping forward so that he was within range of the woman’s poor vision.

  “Haxks is the reason we were able to e home,” admitted Elena as she approached with a smile.

  “Rexar! Elena!” the elder excimed in a hushed tone, both eyes popping open in shock.

  “He’s also agreed to help us protect the vilge against the demons,” Milo chimed in.

  Flustered, Timartha staggered forward, and the female aides at her side scrambled to help her before she fell. “Milo,” she uttered, her voice quivering. “It’s been two moons since you three left for the guild; we all feared the worst.”

  The trio approached the woman so that she could take turns holding their hands, theuro Daisuke with renewed enthusiasm. “You’ve only been here for a moment, and already I’m deeply in your debt,” she said with a chuckle.

  Daisuke allowed a wan smile. “Despite the hardships that this vilge faces, you all still went out of your way to keep April and Mia safe, so that makes us more than even.”

  “And yenerous too,” the woman plimented with a smile. “Except for Milo, who ted since birth, no other human has ever set foot inside Elmridge. But the fact that you would aid a Beastkin, no matter the circumstances, proves that you are deserving of ratitude and hospitality.”

  “Why don’t we tihis versation inside,” suggested Feng while pointing to a nearby mound. “I think we’ve kept the barrier deactivated long enough.”

  “Yes, you’re right,” the elder agreed, regressing into a state of dignified posure. “Let’s slip bato the veil.”

  Following her words, she tapped her wooden staff on the ground, which was adorned with a rge blue orb at the top that was remi of a mage’s a relic.

  At the andiure, the orb hummed with power, and a shimmering barrier gradually regeed, like a delicate danystical threads, coing Elmridge vilge once more in its hidden embrace.

  Daisuke watched in astonishment.

  ***

  The cavity ihe mound was more spacious than Daisuke expected, but fort seemed like a fn cept in the dwelling. The bare grouhe chamber susceptible to the merciless cold. Like the floor, the surrounding walls and ceiling cked insution. Wild pnts and is overran every surface, creating a makeshift ecosystem within the earthen abode.

  April ged as she watched earthworms aipedes crawling in and out of holes in the soil.

  Acc to the chief, this stark enviro was a necessary sacrifice to keep the vilge hidden. The natural musk of the earth and its anic matter masked the st of the people, fog their lives on survival rather than fort or societal development.

  April’s stomach suddenly grumbled, and she squirmed unfortably on Daisuke’s p, but she didn’t breathe a single word of pint. Feng, Sylvia, Aldric, Mia, the elder, even her aides—everyone was evidently famished, yet openly ighe violent demands of their stomachs.

  It was bizarre.

  “Hungry?” Daisuke whispered to April, who responded with a meek pout.

  “…So that’s what happened,” sympathized Timartha after Elena reted the st few weeks. “I’m sorry you three had to endure such hardships for the sake of the vilge.”

  “Don’t be,” Rexar respoly. “Those hardships are the reason we mao foster our current power.”

  “I clearly feel that you three have gotten signifitly stronger,” said Feng with a satisfied smile. “Rexar may actually be able to nd a punow.”

  “Che,” Rexar clicked his tongue, arrogantly cog his head to the side and brandishing his gaus. “Whatever. Normally I would recklessly demand a duel with you, but I have to be careful with this new power or else I could actally hurt the people I love.”

  “Whoa~” Aldric beamed at the boy’s cool disposition. “So cool~”

  "Pff! Ha-hah!" Feng burst out ughing, pointing at Rexar's nose, which seemed to grow longer from the praise. “Get a load of this guy. He falls into a dungeon for a few weeks and feels like he’s suddenly groair!”

  “Huh?” Rexar’s mature and posed demeanor crumpled as soon as it was established. “Why you… You wanna take this outside?”

  Ign the banter, Elena thought back to the fewer people she saw while entering the vilge. “Was there… atack while we were away?”

  The question, and the grievous way it roposed, dismissed the altercatioween Rexar and Feng. They dejectedly settled bato the cold floor, their gazes shifting to the elder as she posed herself to speak.

  “…We were attacked a fht ago,” she admitted, her lips pressing to a thin line.

  Elena, Rexar, and Milo visibly te the revetion.

  “They didn’t e from just one dire,” the elder tinued, her frail fiightening arouaff. “Like predators stalking their prey, they surrouhe vilge and attacked. Those of us who were incapable of fighting hid in the houses while the men struggled to drive them off.”

  “We didn’t drive them off,” corrected Sylvia in a mix of anger and grief. “They simply had their fill a.”

  There was a moment of stunned silence.