As I pushed the snow with my feet to make a path in front of me, I thought of how stupid it was of me to think I could get my hands on some fresh slumbershade.

Only the bear lords in Vencross would have had any at that time of the year. An who would have been foolish enough to steal from their gardens?

"Gods have mercy!" I cried out loud as I hit my foot on a boulder. "I fucking hate this," I waved my hands through the piles of snow in an annoyed manner. "Why can't things ever go my way?"

I felt my chest tightening and my wrist ached as small droplets of blood dripped down through the bandage, onto the white beneath me, melting it as it stained it in scarlet. I could sense the vampire venom flowing through my veins, pulsing as it tainted my insides.

I barfed impulsively, and spilled the little food I managed to dig in as I left the Dark King's fortress.

I let myself plummet down in the snow, and gazing at the clear night sky above. I wondered how much longer will I be able to make it as I did up until that point.

The Tavern of the Lost.

I had never heard of it in my life. And I did not trust whoever that son of Gamza might have been. For all I knew, that place could have been the end of me.

But I did leave the Nest with that in mind. I was ready to risk it. But that didn't mean I would just foolishly walk into a random cohort in the middle of nowhere without a plan.

I wondered how Maia would have felt if she truly knew what was going through my head. And I wondered if, given a different circumstance, if she would have minded being by my side.

"No, impossible..." I mumbled, and shook my head.

Maybe if I had been born in a different time, in a different place. Maybe she and I would have been more than just a thought. If I had not been me.

My tail stiffened as some snow slipped under my garments, and I felt the baby hairs tense up on my back.

I jolted upwards as the tingling sensation trailed down my spine. There was no time to dwell and be lazy. I was just about to reach the place I was told to seek help.

I followed the trail indicated by my compass, but it felt like I was turning in circles. Snow, snow and more snow. I felt like I was hallucinating.

I couldn't smell anything, I could barely feel my limbs from the cold, and all the snow everywhere I looked didn't provide much of a guide. The king told be to trust the winds and that they would lead me to the right path.

Whatever that meant.

I didn't like what he suggested in regards to her.

"Mark her?" I mumbled under my breath. "Me? Mix blood with a digressive?"

I frowned as light flashed before my eyes between the thick branches of the spruce trees. I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head, and inhaled sharply as I reverted my form.

Thick smoke rose from behind the green conifers, trailing up to the sky, and the smell of roasted meat filled the air.

As I walked towards the source of the light, I found myself face to face with a two-story building. The stone façade reflected the light from the torches hanging on the walls which rose into steep roof pitches topped by three large chimneys. The windows, with yellow stained glass, arched in pairs on each side of the double doors.

"That's what I am telling you!" laughed a giant, who was leaning against the front door surrounded by three aeterian women and a cervitaur. "All she wanted as to get in my pants. And for what?"

The small group threw me a quick glance but didn't seem to care at all about my presence. The giant who seemed to capture all the attention of his companions, chugged the remaining drink in his stein.

"You know you have to pay for those drinks one of these days, Vurek," pointed out one of the aeterians, twirling her finger on his abdomen. "The boss will have fired if I keep giving them to you for nothing."

"I'll pay, I'll pay... You know trade's been tough these past few weeks, with the patrols and everything." He paused, and pulled her close to him, brushing away the tentacles which slid down on her face. "The tavernkeeper will understand..."

This was the place, for sure.

I made my way inside. A dimly lit hall, wood and stone covered, was filled to the brim with all kinds of kin. Pixies, spitfires, lamia men crawling their tails with aeterians and vencrossians. It was an unusual combination.

The undistinguishable chatter and the clinking of glass was accompanied by cirrian music which filled the atmosphere.

♪ There once was a king who took to see ♪

♪ A child of a lower rank than he ♪

♪ He was a swine with all his men ♪

♪ He couldn't call them friends ♪

A large fireplace stood guard, letting out small fiery particles to rise to the ceiling. It crackled as it warmed the place, throwing playful light around the dimly lit corners and the objects around.

I made my way through the crowd as I spotted the bar across the room. When I finally reached it, a fae pulled the chair I was about to sit on and took it for his own without saying a word.

I clenched my jaw, and muffling my nose with my hand to stop the stench of booze from reaching my sense, I leaned over the bar towards the tender who was polishing some steins.

"Do you know someone..." I tried to ask, but the loud noise overshadowed my voice.

"Do. You." I attempted once again, but the tender turned one of their heads towards me and threw me a displeased glare.

"You are blocking the other customers."

"I just want to-" I managed to say before they cut me off again.

"Buying anything?" The tender turned their other two heads towards me while the third mumbled something under their breath,

"No. Well..."

"Looking for someone?" asked the second head, on a calmer tone. "I can tell you aren't much of a drinker."

"Gamza," I said, and all three heads jolted towards me extending over the bar as they dropped the glasses onto the floor making it shatter. "I am looking for the sons of Gamza."

The tavern fell silent for what felt like a split second, and the next thing I knew, with a painful sensation in the back of my head, I felt myself being thrown across the room, stinging eldritch tentacles tangled around my neck and wrapping around my body. I was sure they would snap my limbs in half before I could utter one more word.

"Should I swallow him whole, brother?" uttered a voice, and struggling to clear the sight in front of me, I spotted a purple scaled man, his flower mouth, the size of my forearm, wide open close to my face.

"Easy, Binge," another voice reached my ears between the silent crowd. The owner of the tentacles, a man about my height, walked closer to me. Gills grew from the sidesof his face, beneath his third pair of eyes, and over his cheekbones. They flared up as he moved.

"Who are you, lykan man?" questioned Binge, as his mouth closed on both sides.

"If you..." I struggled to speak, "If you would just let me..."

"The man asked you a question," urged a lamia sliding closed to him.

"I don't mean any trouble. I only..." I struggled to breathe as the man's tentacles tightened against my skin. "I only seek help."

"You two again?!" a high-pitched voice echoed from up the stairs. "I thought I told you to take your business outside! You always make a wreck of my poor place! And who has to pay for everything? Me! Who fixes everything? Me! I told your older brother to keep you in check! But what does he do? Does he listen? No! No! No! Must I really do everything around here myself?"

A tiny foxglove pixie, all muffled up in a tight orange puff, flew across the crowd, and landed on a table next to Binge.

"I SAID TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS OUTSIDE!" she yelled stomping her foot on the wooden surface, making tiny particles of golden dust depart from her wings.

"But, ma'am..." cried Binge, frowning, and I felt his brother's tentacles loosening their grip.

"For the love of the Gods!" exclaimed an aeterian man, two heads taller than me. "Listen to woman when she tells you!"

Binge's face changed color as he exchanged glances with his brother. And after frowning, he obediently replied positively to the pixie.

"Music!" she loudly demanded, flying off onto the bar.

Binge fixed his glare back on me, like a lion ready to devour it's prey, and the other aeterian man, and his brother came closer.

"You got three minutes," said he. "Three I tell you."

And they dragged me outside.

Ten minutes later I still found myself tied to a tree next to the tavern.

"The inquisitor sent you! Admit it!" insisted Binge, for the eleventh time since he tied me to the tree, and I denied. "Admit it, or I will eat you right here, right now! I said, admit it!"

"I am telling you; I don't know what you are saying!"

"Yes, you do!" he continued. "How else would you know our father?" He crossed his arms, and his gills flared up and down as he spoke. "Wasn't what he did in Hallowmore enough?" 

His eyes widened as he quickly covered his mouth. His brother, slapped a tentacle over his head and tangled it around his neck.

"Are you an idiot?" yelled his brother, tightening his tentacles. "You just can't help yourself, can you!?" he argued with Binge. "I told you not to blab! You always blab!"

My body stiffened at the information he revealed. I wasn't sure I heard correctly.

"You are the sons of Gamza?"

"Prisscil," said Binge, as he opened his mouth wide, extending  it towards me, revealing two rows of teeth on each of side. "I can take care of him, right now. It will take weeks until they figure out he is gone!"

Green fluid dripped down from his buccal cavity, and I felt my baby hairs stand up.

"You are the sons of Gamza... I was-"

"And now, I'm really going to have to eat him," declared Binge, pulling on his brother's tentacle, trying to reach me. "I basically have no choice! He knows who he are!" Binge fussed under his brother's grip, attempting to reach me. "Now LET ME GO!"

"Can you shut up for two seconds?" the third on them said.

The other man, who followed them outside, and who stood at a distance until then, had his eyes burned out. His deep green scales now grew thickly over the scars on his face. He didn't utter a word until then, but suddenly, he got up, and with a quick movement of his hand, launched a knife towards us.

The sharp object, pierced between the two brothers, grazing my cheek, and stabbed into the trunk of the tree against which I was tied to.

"Holly Mother of the sky!" shouted Binge, "Vision, I thought I said no knives! NO KNIVES!"

"Show me his wrist" urged Vision, as he walked towards me. "His wrist, now!" he insisted.

They pulled my hand from the tight constriction they had me under, and lifted the sleeves of my top garment, which revealed the bandage I covered the bite wounds left behind by the Dark King. Vision grabbed my wrist tightly in his hand and traced his fingers over the bite marks.

"Lucian..." he mumbled. "Lucian sent you here?"