A/N Yes, that is a word.

Though the visit to the Sly Vulpes was short, it felt like it had taken a full week. The entire place felt as if at any moment you were going to fall in a trap, or suffocate in your own thoughts. Just being there made your head feel quiet, and everything you thought of or imagined, echoed painfully inside the mind. It made anyone who entered the place want to leave immediately, but they were well aware it was all fake. A trick of your own brain. Something the Sly Vulpes were good at.

Misty had taken them out from the west. Herogi had thoughts of staying a little longer, perhaps to sleep or get some food, but Amante seemed pretty eager to get out. The sun above was drawing near to the horizon, and the moon had already shown half of its face. Yet instead of sleeping, they all just trodged onward into the night. Thankfully, the Sly Vulpes had returned Belki to her.

Herogi felt as though her legs would buckle beneath her, she was so tired. Yes, she was quite used to staying awake for most of the night on her shifts as a protector. But to stay up all night, and walk all day? She could hardly feel her legs!

"Don't trust her," Amante whispered to Herogi.

"I trust her more than you," Herogi scooted closer to Misty, Belki following her actions. Misty took no notice of their conversation, just continued pushing them away from her tribe. She knew where she was going, so the girl took it upon herself to lead the way. Herogi was most captivated by her hair, which was a striking and odd color. It looked much like the coat of a simple fox, soft and radiant in comparison to her sharp blue eyes. Herogi realized how dull her own appearance was, compared to Misty and Amante. Herogi had matted, snarly brown hair, filthy skin, and amber eyes. Nothing interesting, especially compared to the long angelic looking black hair that belonged to Amante.

"I'm serious," Amante said sternly, pulling her back to his side.

"And I'm tired," Herogi snapped. She grabbed the leather saddle–which had been strapped to Belki since the night she'd followed Herogi and Amante into the woods--and hoisted herself up on the large cat's sturdy back. She was tired of walking.

As the stars sprinkled across the atmosphere, the chill of night joined them. Herogi was in a bad mood. She was still coming to the reality that her family was likely very worried about her, and they had good reasoning for that too. She thought of her older brother, and how just a few nights ago he'd been teasing her with the idea of running away to explore the rest of Armonia. It was just a joke, of course, but Herogi was living in that idea of his. She wished she could tell him where she was!

"I never got to say goodbye to my family..." she said with a drifting voice.

"I'm sorry about that but-"

"My brother was the one who wanted to go out and explore Armonia," she said to cut him off. "He's the one who should be here, not me. He could actually kill you, I know he could."

"Gee, thanks. But Herogi we-"

"His name is Kalem. He'll come looking for me, I know it."

"Herogi, we don't know how good Misty could be with her tribal magic," Amante whispered, changing the subject. Herogi could only glare down at him. All this turmoil swirling around in her head, anxious thoughts and frustration, was because of that black haired boy.

"Well if she's evil, at least she'll go after you first, huh?" Herogi sneered. She gently squeezed Belki's sides with her heels and the cat picked up its pace so that she walked alongside Misty. She wished she could make Amante feel exactly what she felt. And if there was any ounce of empathy in this boy, he'd take her right back to her home. Right? Although, it was her decision to chase after him in the first place. And it was with her consent that he'd taken her with him.

Is this my fault? Herogi thought, ignoring Amante trying to say something to her. She wished he would leave her alone already. The longer she thought about it, the more she began to regret her actions back at the village. If I hadn't blown the horn, hadn't picked him up when he was a cat, I wouldn't be in this mess.

"Be careful," Misty warned, interrupting Herogi's inner postulations. "We've been having a manananggal troubling us lately."

"A manananggal?" Herogi raised an eyebrow. She had once heard of such a creature, though picturing it in her head was hard for her to piece together.

"You know," Amante began to say, "the creepy lady things with no torso, and giant bat wings on their back? The ones that suck your blood and devour unborn babies?"

"Yeah, I know what a manananggal is," Herogi waved him off. "I'm just saying that manananggals live out east, so why is there one over here? I've never seen one because they generally live near the Pax Canis, and that's really far from here, right?"

"We don't know. She's really old, we think she came over here to die. And we're not that far from the Pax Canis. It's only about a day's journey away from here," Misty sighed. "But the manananggal is dying, and she sure is taking her time to do that. I call her Maggy because when she growls it sounds like that's what she's saying."

"Ok, I would have preferred not to know about the manananggal being here," Herogi shook her head. Belki began sniffing the air, as if she'd heard what Misty said and was trying to smell out the hideous creature. It felt as though the air was stiff and stale, like it had been back with the Sly Vulpes. She glanced over to Amante, to make sure he wasn't secretly using his dark magic again. But the boy, just like her, seemed nervous. His emerald eyes scanned the dark atmosphere, taking in each and every tree, stone and patch of dirt he could see in the low light. As Belki resumed her casual walk, head hung low and sleepy, she pushed the thought of Amante's magic aside.

"Well, just saying, she doesn't really like men. We don't know why, seeing as manananggals prey on pregnant women. I guess Maggy's just different," Misty shrugged.

"Oh, so you're saying it's going to try and kill me?" Amante exhaled, his eyes darting over to where Misty trod in front of him. "Great."

"Yep," Misty smirked, "but you're not scared right?" She wiggled her eyebrows. She was aloof, her presence actually helped to calm Herogi a bit. But it was having Belki there with her that kept her at ease. Misty surely was just trying to scare the two of them. She was much too giddy to not just be pulling some prank.

"No, I'm not," Amante said.

"You sure...?'' Misty giggled. Amante narrowed his eyebrows. Herogi felt chills go down her spine. She was confident with a hatchet, although it would be useless against a manananggal. One of the few things she knew about these hideous creatures was that they could only be killed by magic. And she didn't really have that as a resource.

"Maybe we should find a place to sleep?" Herogi offered.

"Not a good idea," Misty interjected.

"Why?" Herogi raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? What were we just talking about?" Misty exasperated.

"Oh..." Herogi understood. "I thought it only attacked men though?"

"She just likes to torture them. But it's the girls they'd rather eat," Misty explained. Now Herogi was even more scared.

"I can't believe you would sacrifice me like that," Amante rolled his eyes at Herogi.

"Sorry, but I'd rather sleep than keep you alive," Herogi shrugged. Amante scoffed with offense, and they continued walking in silence. Herogi still carried her hatchet in her hands for extra security. Her lack of trust in Amante wasn't of any help to her either. She felt like she had to keep an eye on him, while looking for any place where the supposed manananggal lurked.

It had been about a half-hour when they suddenly stopped. Before them was a set of legs. They were wrinkled and decaying, yet somehow lively. The legs were nude which revealed something they didn't really want to see. But in the area where the torso should have been, was a shriveled waistline. Like a sun-dried fruit. Its body innards spread out around it in the bloody dirt, quite grotesquely.

Belki growled at the sight, and the trio came to an immediate halt.

"Maggy," Misty whispered as she pulled out her bow, notching it with an arrow. Amante pulled out his spear instinctively. "Ok, there's no way she's not going to see us."

"Are you saying..." Herogi's eyes darted left and right, looking for the rest of the old winged manananggal. "She's here?"

"MAGGY!" Misty called out. "You left your legs in the middle of nowhere, can you put some pants on, please?!"

"What are you doing?!" Amante hissed.

"Relax, Maggy and I are practically best friends," Misty said but still had her bow at the ready. A loud shriek emitted from the woods like a squealing pig. Herogi's heart was beating a mile a minute, but her comrades appeared to be calm and composed.

"Maaaaa......ckk.....eeeee," A voice groaned. Herogi could feel Belki tense up beneath her.

"Sounded more like a Macky than a Maggy to me," Amante said, his voice shaky.

"Eh, I hear Maggy," Misty crouched below a bush, as did the others.

A disgusting figure flew down from above the trees. Its middle, or at least what should have been a middle, was shriveled and dried, crusted with old blood. More of its gutted insides dangled out loosely from under its ribs in a gnarly manner. She wore no clothes upon her old, grey, papery wrinkled skin. Her head was balding, and the hair that remained was white and silvery. On her back, two mutilated bat wings held her worn out upper torso in the air. The manananggal's twisted old face was hollow with sunken eyes and dried lips.

"I've never seen one of those, I thought they were supposed to be beautiful," Herogi muttered as the other two pulled her and Belki behind a tree line to hide. Herogi quickly dismounted.

"Yeah, well this one is old. Super old," Misty replied. The manananggal turned its head in their direction, now fully facing them.

"Maaa.... Ckkkkkkkkkk...," She beat her wings, arriving at the tree line in an instant. She hissed obnoxiously loudly, which sounded more like a screech. Belki hissed in return.

"Maggy you're getting old," Misty whispered to herself. She let the arrow go, striking the old woman in the collar bone. The woman screamed and dove at the three. Amante disappeared, unnoticed by Herogi, while Misty rolled to the side. The manananggal landed right on Herogi.

Herogi let out a scream of terror as the creature grabbed her shoulders, keeping her to the ground. Her nails sunk into Herogi's skin painfully. Belki began throwing a fit, batting her claws at the old figure.

"Don't let her tongue touch you!" Misty called out. Just as she said this, Maggy opened her mouth revealing a serpent-like tongue, slithering towards Herogi's face.

"It's not poisonous, right?" Herogi shrieked, leaning her face as far away from the tongue as possible.

"No, but it's sharp and will get in your skin. Try and stay still, I'm going to shoot," Misty commanded. Herogi tried to keep Maggy steady, but the creature had other plans. Misty fired anyway, hitting it in the rib cage, which seemed to have no effect on it. It snarled, bearing its sharp petrifying fangs. It then lifted Herogi off the ground, flying up into the air.

Herogi shrieked, almost dropping her hatchet. Belki yelped up at her, trying to jump up and grab Herogi in her massive paws, but Herogi was much too far from her. She began to beat Maggy with the butt of the golden hatchet, as Maggy lifted her higher and higher into the air. Herogi swung her blade, hooking it into the woman's side. Maggy made a blood-curdling scream of anguish, then shot her tongue out of her mouth at incredible speed.

Suddenly the tight grip on her shoulders which held her suspended in the night sky disappeared and Herogi found herself in a free fall. Maggy was shrieking in agitation, as she hadn't intended on dropping Herogi. Instead, Amante had somehow placed himself where Herogi once was. Whether it was through dark magic or just pure strength and will, the boy was now in the grip of a frightening monster and Herogi was tumbling down to the earth.

Maggy moved her hands to his neck, strangling him in the air whilst screaming like a banshee. Amante placed his hands on her cheeks, which began to glow in black aura of light.

"Die, witch!" he snarled. Suddenly, its head blew up outlandishly, blood sprinkling down from the heavens like a red sheet of rain. Herogi jumped to the side as the remains of the manananggal fell beside her. Amante and the creature's body hit the ground hard as well. He got up, finding his spear somewhere on the ground.

The body of Maggy twitched, still slightly alive. Her arms pulsed out beneath her, eventually lifting her beheaded shoulders from the ground.

"H-how is it still alive?!" Herogi asked and frantically scanned the ground for her beloved hatchet. Belki placed herself protectively in front of Herogi.

The headless body lifted itself from the ground and swiftly flew towards Misty. Amante caught the body, and slammed it into the ground. The manananggal's wings beat furiously, wrestling against Amante forcing it to the dirt. His hands began to radiate a dark black aura once again, and instantly the ground crumbled beneath them like an earthquake.

Herogi acted on instinct to grab her hatchet, just before she fell through the large hole in the ground, sinking into a pit of darkness.

Fun Fact!

Amante is left handed!

When I was designing and drawing my characters way back when, I accidentally always had him fighting with his left hand because I was stupid and forgot he, when I draw him, mirrors me (just because it's my right didn't mean it was his). The quirk kind of just stuck and now I intentionally draw him using his left hand, and even mention it a few times (at least in book 2 and 3, idk about this one) that it is his dominant hand. 

He is now the only character I am *aware* is left handed.