The silence stretched, heavy. Then Alex chuckled, shaking his head.

  “You’re really gonna make us eat all this by ourselves? Come on. Just call them in before it burns.”

  Sylmara didn’t flinch, but the tension in her jaw gave her away. Her eyes narrowed, as if recalculating everything she thought she knew about them. The only movement was the subtle shift of her thumb against the trigger.

  "Don't worry, again, we mean you no harm. If we wanted to kill all five of you, you would be long dead." Alex said with a smirk.

  Adrian facepalmed. That was definitely not in the script, he thought. They were supposed to earn her trust. Or at least try to. Not this. Whatever this was. Based on her reaction, all five hunters they saw yesterday were there.

  Sylmara stiffened, shoulders coiling, the crossbow lifting a fraction.

  Just as she lifted the crossbow, two pistols slid free from beneath their cloaks, both barrels leveled at her. “Easy now,” Alex said with a crooked smile. “No need to do anything harsh.”

  Her gaze locked on the barrel, pupils narrowing. She went still, crossbow trembling in her grip.

  “Arti…facts,” she breathed, barely louder than the fire’s crackle.

  Adrian’s voice was tight. “Why the hell did you do that?”

  Alex leaned back with a careless shrug. “What? It would’ve taken forever otherwise.”

  "Sylmara, if you could kindly put the crossbow on the ground," said Alex.

  After a few moments, she nodded slowly, her eyes still wide, and put the crossbow on the ground.

  "Awesome," Alex said, with a proud look on his face.

  Adrian stepped forward, scooped the crossbow off the ground, and turned it in his hands. After a few seconds of fumbling with the mechanism, he gave up with a shrug. He aimed at the nearest tree and loosed the bolt. That works, he thought.

  He almost asked her what she meant by artifacts, but bit his tongue. Pressing her would give away more than it gained. Still, the word stuck in his head, multiplying the questions already piling up. Why call their guns artifacts? And how did she even know what they were?

  Adrian sat back down, resting the crossbow against the log. His tone was even, deliberate. “Alright. Now that that’s settled… you can call your friends.”

  Her gaze flicked to the treeline again, hesitation etched in the taut line of her jaw and the slight narrowing of her eyes.

  “Wow,” Alex said, voice flat. “The suspense is killing me."

  She glanced at them again, then back at the treeline. Slowly, deliberately, she lifted her hand, palm flat, fingers pointing upward.

  Time dragged, the silence stretching like a held breath. Then, faint footsteps echoed from the shadows, circling them. The treeline shifted. Faint shapes moved through the shadows, slow and cautious.

  Sylmara froze, eyes wide, her hand still raised. She glanced at the hunters, then back at them, uncertainty cracking her usually steady composure.

  “Drop your weapons,” she whispered, voice tight, almost trembling. The words barely carried through the crackle of the fire.

  The hunters hesitated, glancing between her and the two by the fire. None of them stepped forward.

  Adrian’s curiosity flared. Artifacts. If something so simple as a gun could inspire this kind of fear, he needed to know what she meant. Still, this wasn’t what he expected.

  He glanced at the hunters stepping from the shadows. His suspicion solidified. They were the same hunters they saw yesterday.

  Alex gestured toward the fire, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Come on, after you… leave the weapons behind, will you?”

  They glanced at Slymara, and she just nodded.

  Slowly, they left the weapons and took their seats. Sylmara noticed that there were five seats in total. Her jaw dropped.

  Fear clung to their eyes, the kind born of people who thought they were about to be executed. Adrian looked at them, noticing the deformities on three of the hunters, but didn't linger on them.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  One had an eye that wasn’t right. The pupil ran vertically, a sharp slit glinted like an animal’s. Another sat with his shoulders uneven, his frame bent slightly to one side. The third flexed his left hand absently, and Adrian caught the thin webbing stretched between the fingers. It looked claw-like.

  “Introductions are in order!” Alex exclaimed. He tapped his chest. “I’m Alex.” Then he gestured toward his friend. “And this is Adrian.”

  Adrian thought, He’s acting like there’s no tension at all, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

  A few tense moments passed before Sylmara finally gestured for everyone to join. The hunter without any deformities was Draveth; the one with the slit eye, Korveth; the hunched figure, Aelyth; and the one with claw-like hands, Maldrith.

  Draveth broke the silence first, his voice low but edged with defiance. “Are you… going to kill us?”

  Adrian blinked, genuinely confused. “Kill you? Why would we do that?”

  They exchanged uneasy glances, their eyes darting between him and Alex. Adrian’s frown deepened.

  Sylmara answered. “Because… of the deformities.”

  Alex tilted his head, perplexed. “The deformities? What about them?”

  The hunters just stared, tense and silent, fingers tapping, shifting, fidgeting subtly.

  Adrian leaned back slightly, incredulous. “Wait… did you actually think we’d hurt you because of how you look?”

  “Yeah,” they admitted, voices almost in unison, each word tinged with fear.

  Adrian leaned back, a small smirk tugging at his lips. “So… if you thought we’d kill you because of the deformities”—he gestured toward Sylmara and Draveth—“then what exactly were you worried about?”

  Draveth’s jaw tightened. “Because… we shielded them.”

  Alex and Adrian exchanged a glance, eyebrows raised.

  Alex threw back his head and laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, no.”

  Adrian leaned forward slightly. “Is that… why you got so tense when we mentioned a village?”

  Sylmara stiffened instantly, shoulders rising as if the word itself carried weight. Korveth’s eye flicked nervously to the trees; Maldrith’s claws-like hands flexed once, unsure if he should strike or relax; Aelyth shifted slightly but remained silent, all of them silently weighing the risk.

  Sylmara stiffened instantly, shoulders rising as if the word itself carried weight.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Alex said, a grin tugging at his lips. “We knew about the village, that’s why you’re here now.” He laughed, shaking his head.

  Adrian looked at him, "Stop idiot."

  “What do you mean?” one of the hunters asked, voice tight. Tension was visible in every movement—they shifted, glanced at each other, fingers twitching, ready to react.

  “Nothing much,” Alex said, shrugging casually, leaning back. “We just… noticed you might not be too friendly to travelers. So we baited you here. Figure we could get some info on how to get out of this damned forest… and maybe snag a bit of shelter for a few days.”

  The hunters exchanged uneasy glances. Draveth’s jaw tightened, fingers tapping against his knees. Sylmara’s eyes never left them, her hand resting lightly on her knee as if ready to spring, yet she allowed herself a small, hesitant exhale.

  Draveth finally broke the silence. “You… baited us?” His tone was incredulous, but there was a flicker of relief beneath the sharp edge of his words.

  Alex grinned. “Bingo. We needed a way to figure out how to navigate this forest, and, well… we didn’t exactly have a map or friendly neighbors to ask.”

  Korveth let out a low, almost animalistic hiss, but it wasn’t hostile. “And… you’re not going to kill us?”

  Adrian leaned back casually. “Not unless you give us a reason to. Your… conditions? We don’t care.” He gestured subtly toward their deformities.

  There was a collective intake of breath. Sylmara’s eyes widened slightly; even Maldrith blinked slowly.

  Aelyth’s voice broke the tentative silence, low and cautious. “You… you really don’t care?”

  "Why would I?" Adrian asked

  “Because we survived the Ghast,” Maldrith said, his voice low and steady.

  Alex blinked, brow furrowing. “The… Ghast?"

  They stared at him as if he had cracked a joke.

  “You… you don’t know what the Ghast is?” Maldrith asked, incredulity in his tone.

  Adrian shook his head. “No, we don’t.”

  The hunters exchanged tense glances, eyes narrowing in disbelief. Sylmara’s fingers tightened around her knee, but she didn’t move. Korveth’s slit eye flicked between Adrian and Alex, suspicious, almost daring them to laugh. Aelyth shifted slightly, head tilting, as if testing the weight of their words.

  “The… Ghast?” Korveth’s voice was low, edged with incredulity. “You… don’t know what that is?”

  Adrian shook his head. “Never heard of it.”

  For a moment, the hunters were silent, mouths tight, processing. Then Maldrith spoke, his voice calm but carrying the weight of experience. “You’re serious? You don’t know?

  “No,” answered Alex.

  Silence hung over the group, heavy and charged. Every face bore the same look—disbelief.

  “Where… where did you come from? How could you not know about the Ghast?” Sylmara asked, confusion and incredulity etched across her features.

  “Far enough,” Adrian replied calmly, "So what is this Ghast you are talking about?"

  Maldrith leaned back. “The Ghast… fuckin’ plague… it’s been around for centuries. Hits suddenly. No warning. No signs. Wipes out whole villages. Fevers, shakes, hallucinations… eats your body first, then your mind. Most… don’t make it.”

  Korveth’s slit eye flicked toward the trees as he added, voice low and harsh, “And if you do… if you survive… you’re never the same. Bones twist, muscles wither, eyes shift. Hands… fingers.”

  Adrian frowned, eyes scanning them. “So… that’s why some of you look like this?”

  Maldrith let out a bitter laugh, almost a growl. “Yeah. The Ghast leaves marks you can’t hide. Pain you can’t forget. And don’t even get me started on the nightmares…”

  A tense silence fell over the group.

  “So… why did you think we’d want to kill you?” Alex asked, still clearly baffled.

  Maldrith’s bitter laugh cut through the silence. “The lucky ones die. The rest… the rest are hunted. Everyone wants them dead.”