Page 5 of Heart of the Cursed
Chapter 2
“What’s taking him so long?” Taredd demanded.
Arun sighed. “I don’t know.”
Him and Taredd had been crouched down behind a bush for nearly an hour as they waited for Dain to return. As the minutes ticked by, they were both slowly beginning to lose their patience.
Dain was scouting ahead. He was meant to be gathering information on a group of Humans they had been tracking, but it shouldn’t have taken him so long. There wasn’t much information they needed, so he should have been there and back within a couple of minutes, not nearly an hour.
The only reason Arun could think of as to why it was taking him longer, was if Dain had run into trouble. But then, what trouble could a small group of Humans cause a well-trained warrior? Not to mention, Dain was also a Shapeshifter. So, he was more than capable of dealing with them, even on his own.
Admittedly, the group was giving them the run-around, more than any Humans had done before them. Normally, they would have caught and killed the group days ago and moved on to the next group already. But this one seemed to stay one step ahead of them.
It had taken nearly three weeks, but they had finally caught up with them. Now, he and Taredd waited patiently for Dain to give the word and they would move in for the kill.
They didn’t want to give away the element of surprise, which was why they had sent Dain in first. He could shift into any living creature, great or small. It was a handy trick to have, especially at times like now, when they needed to remain hidden.
“He should be back by now,” Taredd said impatiently.
Arun didn’t bother to reply. There was no rushing Dain. He would take as long as he needed.
A moment later, a squirrel ran down a tree. As soon as it was on the ground, it shifted into Dain.
“About time,” Taredd said.
Dain rolled his eyes. “I’d like to see you do what I just did. Squirrels are fast, but they’ve still only have little legs.”
Unfortunately, Arun’s kind didn’t possess the ability to shape shift. The Fae were able to do a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them. Taredd couldn’t either. There was a species of Demon that could shape shift, but only into a type of hell hound. However, it wasn’t Taredd’s species of Demon.
“Fine,” Taredd said. “What did you find out?”
“They’re just up ahead,” Dain confirmed. “From the looks of it, they’ve set up camp for the night.”
Taredd frowned. “Out in the open?” When Dain nodded, he added; “that’s not like them.”
For some reason, the Humans didn’t like to travel after dark. He knew they couldn’t see as well as all the other species, but they should still be able to see enough to find their way. Especially when the moon was full, like it was that night.
Plus, travelling at night was a hell of a lot less risky than setting up camp out in the open. Arun wasn’t complaining. It made their job a lot easier.
Arun didn’t know where the Humans disappeared to at night. Over the years, they had learnt how to hide their tracks. Occasionally they would slip up, but it was happening less and less nowadays. Partly due to them getting better at hiding, but mostly because there were so few of them left.
More often than not, their tracks were either blown or washed away by mother nature.
“How do you want to do this?” Dain asked.
“Same as usual,” Taredd said. “We’ll come at them from three sides.”
“How many Humans were there?” Arun asked Dain.
“There’s only five of them,” Dain said. “So, it shouldn’t take us long to deal with them.”
Arun wished they didn’t have to deal with the Humans at all. He wished the Human could live in peace, just like everyone else. But if Arun and his friends didn’t do it, someone else would, and they wouldn’t be as kind. Which was why he was doing it in the first place.
At least with him, Taredd and Dain, it would be a quick and clean kill. Most of the other beings out hunting the Humans, weren’t so quick and painless. Instead, they opted to torture the Humans before killing them. That’s if they didn’t sell them off to slavers.
“Are there any children amongst them?” Arun asked.
He hated killing the children even more than the adults, but he wouldn’t leave them to an even worse fate. Without an adult to look out for them, most would die within a week. Especially the younger ones.
