Ulah sang while deep in sleep.

  It wasn’t a song Vernisha understood.

  But it was a song she had always heard him practicing in private. He practiced all kinds of songs, but that one, he always approached it differently. Like it was the most precious thing in the world. For the world to hear it, he had to perfect it.

  It was a song Natasha always whispered in private, or when she thought she was alone.

  Natasha’s eyes shot wide open. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  Vernisha didn’t think it was good enough to get that kind of reaction.

  Natasha asked, “Where did he hear that?”

  “From you. I heard it from you a long time ago.”

  Back in the village, when Natasha was returning with Marvin, Vernisha had been somewhat singing a trash version of it.

  “Oh. I see.”

  “Is it a bad song?”

  “It just isn’t one others should sing.”

  “Does it cast curses… or talk to demons?”

  “I am not some witch.” Natasha sighed. “Is he just saying whatever comes to his mind?”

  “I think he’s thinking of you. He always practiced it. I think he wanted to show it to you when he perfected it. Maybe to impress you.” Or make you show him more attention.

  Vernisha couldn’t understand Natasha’s reaction, but it was complicated.

  Natasha ended up looking at Ulah with exasperation, as if she couldn’t believe him. “I am surprised.”

  Vernisha understood that favoring a child was one thing, but finding out that the less favored child desperately sought more love from you must hit differently. But it didn’t seem like Natasha was too impacted by hearing that.

  Natasha gazed at Ulah.

  Vernisha stood up and told her, “I’m going to check on those adventurers, see how close they are to stopping that monster, and so on.”

  Natasha grabbed Vernisha’s left hand, the bandaged one, and said, “Be careful.”

  “I know.”

  Natasha nodded and then said, “I’m going to rest in that carriage then. It’s too noisy here.”

  “Stay safe.”

  “That’s for me to say.”

  Ulah stood in a field of wheat. The wind bent them left and right, making them brush against his skin.

  The strangest thing was that on top of the wheat were loaves of bread, as if it were a bread plant.

  He thought he could finally get something to eat.

  But every time he broke one of the wheat plants to get the bread and bite into it, it would burst into brown smoke.

  He had been trying to eat for over an hour. It was so painful. His stomach hurt so much. It felt like a rat was chewing its way around his stomach.

  It was sick. It was painful.

  It was—

  Ulah hunched forward and vomited brown and white paste onto the ground. His eyes watered, and he desperately tried to lick the tears away.

  But it did nothing to quench his thirst.

  He thought he was going to die, but he didn’t want to die.

  He wanted to play with Jake and Gola.

  He wanted to learn division. He wanted to become smart, smarter like Vernisha. He wanted—

  It hurt so much.

  He bit his lips and folded his trembling hands. Then he sang. He sang to distract himself from the hunger.

  It wasn’t perfect, but he sang it: “Balash wed filaen. Swe wjurden schweien, ske windan wyanen, jber iah wuide ihee Tr?ebeu gopie?en. Iah weyude iur Lad genuiken, daür, wve sa mah vuten hin.”

  It made him think of Mom. He wished he could hear her sing it more. He’d only heard it twice, but when she sang it, it sounded so beautiful.

  He had heard it maybe when he was eight, two years ago.

  She always had Vernisha with her on her lap, sitting or standing near her. Obviously, he wanted that too.

  So he left his blanket and wandered to her. She didn’t see him and was singing quietly while staring at the ceiling.

  It was like she was remembering good memories or tragic ones. Ones that made her completely immersed.

  When she did notice he was looking at her, she suddenly stopped singing, almost startled, and asked, “What do you want?”

  He had been shocked. But at that time, he had wanted to sit on her, hug her, be by her. But before he could say any of that, she seemed even more surprised at herself, like she had done something wrong.

  Mom apologized and smiled gently while moving to pick him up. “Sorry, I was having bad thoughts… You look like you’ve grown taller!”

  He liked the song even if he didn’t hear much of it. Even when she acted like she was singing something else when he asked about it. He wanted to learn it. He wanted to make her proud.

  He wondered what her reaction would be when he could sing it. He wondered how surprised she would be. How proud she would be.

  He swallowed the saliva in his mouth, but it only made him thirstier. The only thing he could do was try to sing that song to comfort himself.

  He would get better at it. He would. He would—

  “Hi.” He heard an unfamiliar voice behind him and turned toward it.

  The field of wheat that had been behind him was gone, replaced by dry ground. Sitting on it, looking at him, was a black cat.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  The cat had blue eyes and clean black fur. Its fur was so clean. It probably had a servant to always tend to it. There were no scratches or bruises from hunting or escaping from predators.

  Ulah wondered if it was the one that…? No, that sounded silly. What was he thinking? A cat? Really?

  He wondered if he could eat it. He wanted to eat it.

  It smiled. “No, you can’t eat me.”

  Ulah blinked in surprise. “But I didn’t… Did I say that out loud?”

  It replied, “No. Did you?”

  “You’re weird…”

  “I think you’re weirder.”

  “What do you want?”

  “What do you think I want?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to know too.” Ulah backed away and started to flee.

  He’d only heard of legendary monsters being able to talk, which meant it must be one.

  “I want to know. Do you want to live?”

  Ulah stopped running almost immediately and turned to the cat.

  He thought it might be a trick question.

  The cat asked the same question again.

  Ulah answered, “Yes. I just want something to eat and drink. I feel like I’m starving. I am starving.”

  “I wish I could soothe your hunger, but I can’t.”

  “Are you a monster?” Ulah asked.

  “Do I look like a monster?”

  “No, but you can talk. So you must be one.”

  “Perhaps I’m just a ‘moon cat.’ You know, that’s a popular Julioes folklore.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know that.”

  “Yes, yes. So, no need to fear me.”

  “I don’t know. What do you want?”

  “I’m curious about a lot of things in the world, especially the people of it.”

  “What does that even mean? You’re curious about me?”

  “Yes.”

  “…Am I dying?” Ulah asked.

  “Are you dying?” the cat replied.

  “I don’t know. I’m asking you.”

  “I also don’t know. That’s why I asked you.”

  Ulah did not think he liked the cat.

  It continued, “If you were to live, what do you plan to do with your life? Why should you live? What grand purpose does your life have?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “What don’t you understand?”

  “The questions. I want to live because I want to live.”

  “Well, what do you plan to do if you live?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Then do know. So, what do you plan to do in the future?”

  Ulah responded, “I don’t think I want to answer your questions. You’re creepy. So go away. Go!”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  Ulah rushed forward and kicked, but his leg passed through it like a stone through smoke.

  The cat continued, “Does that song have something to do with your purpose?”

  “I’m not answering your questions!” He kept trying to kick it, hoping for some kind of luck.

  It was terrifying. The hunger returned, worse than before.

  It hurt.

  Ulah dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach in agony. The pain was so intense he began to sob uncontrollably.

  He wanted Dad to comfort him, to tell him everything would be okay. But he wasn’t there. Ulah did not understand why he was not there.

  Whenever he needed him, Dad always came running to him, like how Mom always ran to Vernisha.

  Like how Mom always comforted her, treated her like she was a star, the most precious thing. Ulah wanted Dad to come to him like that now, because Mom would not.

  She would not do it the same way.

  The cat stared at him, and Ulah asked, “Am I going to die?”

  “You could. Or something worse could happen to you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Becoming a threat to your family.”

  “Why would I hurt my family?”

  “Because you’re hungry and thirsty. And perhaps because this is the fault of your sister.”

  “No. I wouldn’t, and stop lying. It isn’t her fault.”

  “But she gave you that bread. She isn’t sick, but you are.”

  “It must have been an accident.”

  “And what if it wasn’t?”

  “It was. Vernisha loves me. Why would she ever hurt me?”

  The cat blinked at him a couple of times, then said, “I see.”

  The Village Chief listened to the chattering and worrying of everyone around him. Many were mute, staring into nothing, unable to process what they had seen and heard that day.

  He knew he should be planning with them on how they would recover, but he did not think anyone was ready to move on, not while they were still processing their trauma.

  Even he did not want to do anything but dig a hole and hide in it, never to reveal himself to the world again.

  He had seen things he would trade his only child to forget.

  Before the monster attacked, he and his assistants had been discussing how they would allocate ten percent of the village’s budget to acquire better materials to reinforce the walls and protect them from bandits.

  The idea of a monster attack had been foreign to them. In his fifty-six years of living there, this had been his first encounter with one.

  Most of them had only known the dangers of monsters through stories. Nothing more.

  Three hours ago, at 6:30 in the morning, it had begun.

  There had been a sudden, strange voice, barely human, calling out, “Hana… where… are you…?”

  It had sounded like when twin-tailed cats tried mimicking the chirping of birds to lure them, or the echoing of burnnight flowers, which repeated whatever they heard.

  That monster had clearly had no understanding of those words. It had simply been something it had heard and tried its best to mimic.

  When he had heard it, along with the three men in his office, they had all frozen, confused. But staying frozen had meant nothing.

  The first victim had been Daren’s daughter. His eldest son had told him what happened. The family had been planting red cabbages in the garden.

  Daren’s hands had been deep in the dirt, setting the seeds. That had been when half of his daughter’s body had suddenly been ripped apart by the fangs of a red shark-like creature with the feline legs of a tiger. Six legs.

  Blood had spurted everywhere. The screams of his eldest son and wife had been drowned out by the sounds of his daughter’s flesh and bones being torn apart and devoured.

  Daren had tried to make his family run, desperately attempting to retrieve the mangled remains of his daughter.

  Then Daren had become the target. The monster’s claws had ripped his legs from their joints. He had screamed in pain, and the monster had cruelly mimicked that sound with a chilling laugh.

  It had not just been eating them. It had seemed to be enjoying their suffering, but not enough to keep them alive for long.

  It had ripped open his stomach, exposing his guts to his wife, who had not been able to tear her eyes away from his mangled body.

  Once Daren had stopped making sounds, fire had shot from the creature’s mouth, turning his body to ash.

  His wife had been split in two vertically by its aquatic tail. Her sides had fallen to the ground with a sickening thud. Her bodily waste had followed, painting the earth brown and yellow.

  The monster had not cared. Her left side had been devoured first, and then the right had followed.

  The only thing left behind had been half of her jaw.

  The daughter had not even been eaten.

  By then, chaos had already erupted. People had run, trying to escape. The Village Chief had been no different. He had tried to grab the only green lizard in the village and flee alone.

  The monster had screamed loudly, and that had been it.

  It had moved like a blur.

  In an instant, a man’s face had been pulverized, his shattered eyes scattering in every direction. In the next moment, a beam of fire had reduced another to ash.

  It had been a torrent of blood, flesh, brain matter, and broken bones.

  Even the lizard had not been able to withstand it, throwing him off. And for some reason, the monster had ripped off Jackson’s genitalia.

  He had been confused, but then he had remembered that monsters were also capable of reproducing with anything. When pressed for time, female monsters would use different methods to harvest reproductive organs.

  He had thought that it was a terrible way to die. He had nearly started to cry. At least the pain would knock him unconscious, and he would die from blood loss. He would take that over being violated by a monster.

  He had done nothing. He had wanted to run. He had only thought that he wanted to live.

  He had wondered how he was going to survive it.

  He had not wanted to die.

  Those had been his only thoughts.

  And then, giant armored figures had fallen from the sky.

  They had been like heroes. Legends.

  He had seen them summon monsters that seemed connected to them on a supernatural level. Without a word from them, their monsters had attacked, defended the village, and acted as a third hand to them.

  They had overwhelmed the wild monster in no time.

  These memories weighed on him.

  He folded his hands together and muttered, “May the stars bless me.”

  He hoped the future would be kind to them. He hoped the request he was about to make would be agreed to. He hoped they would not think he was trying to trick them.

  He exhaled, feeling like he had just given a speech explaining why fathers and mothers should be happy to gift their children to wealthy men and women for money.

  He took a deep breath, licking his lips, tasting his white beard. It tasted like blood.

  Then he walked over to the man. By his side were the little girl and the Julioes woman.

  It seemed they knew her before.

  The man noticed him and clicked his tongue.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  The Julioes woman said something in her native tongue. By the tone, the Village Chief felt like it was a threat.

  He stood before them. They were huge.

  He told himself to calm down.

  He forced a professional smile. “I want to say I appreciate your hard work and sacrifice first. If it weren’t for you all, we’d all be dead.”

  The man replied, “Sure, but we get paid for it.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Cut the bullshit and get to the point,” the woman snapped.

  The Village Chief felt like he was in hell. Nothing was scarier than talking to a pissed-off adventurer.

  He swallowed. “I’m sorry. I request permission for us to get to our houses—” He noticed the anger in the man’s eyes and hurriedly finished before he could respond. “—so that we can gather food ingredients to make something to eat.”

  He knew he had spoken too fast.

  The man’s anger seemed to dissipate. “Oh. Yeah, I guess.”

  He had agreed.

  The Village Chief’s heart slowed, and he slumped to his knees in relief. “Thank you… sir.”