Chapter 19 - The Anomaly

Tiberius couldn't say anything but followed them to the carriage, perplexed by Rael's strength and Jack's absurd reaction. Of course, it was not easy to calm the horse. Because it is far stronger than the average horse, you must be strong to handle it. Instead of brute force, Jack used illusion on the horse to hide the dragon and all of its destruction, gradually calming it down. Rael and Tiberius did nothing but wait while he was busy with the horse. Rael sat on a rock, looking at his shirt with a sad expression. "I hope we can clean this; this is my favorite," he said.

Tiberius stood a little further away from him. Rael's actions had left him not only confused but also terrified. "If he can kill a dragon in a few seconds...," thoughts consumed his mind. Rael was more dangerous to him than any of the monsters here at the moment.

“Can we?”

“Huh?” Rael's question startled Tiberius.

“I said, do you think we could clean the blood off this?”

“I—I don’t know.”

Rael tilted his head to the side, looking at Tiberius with a confused look on his face. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes, I am,” Tiberius said with a shaky voice. He did try to hide it as much as he could, but Rael had already felt that.

“Are you scared of me?” Rael asked, smirking, “Come on, you are not, are you?”

Tiberius remained silent and hoped the conversation would end soon.

“Come sit here,” he said, tapping on the rock next to him. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” After a brief moment of hesitation, Tiberius sat beside him to avoid angering him.

“I can understand your hesitation. This is not the first time I have seen this expression. Every kid you saw in the camp, including Jack himself, had looked at me with those eyes once. It will fade, trust me. Just give it a while.”

Rael's words felt genuine to Tiberius; it lifted the fear away from him a little. However, these words did not simply explain what has happened in the last few days. And now seeing what he is capable of, he couldn't stop but wonder, what did he want from him.

“You might have already sensed that. Everyone at the camp, from the oldest to the youngest, sees me as their dad. It takes a while to accept but they eventually do. I never wanted to replace their father, but if that is gonna help them even in the slightest, let it be.”

“How does kidnapping contribute to saving them?” Tiberius asked, gathering his courage, “You keep talking about saving them but all I see is kids taken away from their families and manipulated to hate them back.”

“That is what I—”

“It is ready,” said Jack, unintentionally interrupting their talk. “Sorry, were you talking?”

“No, we are done here. Let's find a safer spot riverside,” Rael said, not continuing the conversation. This did annoy Tiberius a bit. “Why would he not want to talk about this?” He thought, but then again, kept it to himself, waiting for a better moment to question it.

After this short conversation, Jack took them to a safer spot, near a river. Rael went ahead and washed himself, cleaning the blood all over him. Then tried to wash the shirt too, which did not work out. With nothing to clean it but water, he returned to the carriage and took another shirt from his luggage.

“Jack, take us closer to that mountain,” he ordered. “That’s closer to where we will go.”

“Then you could have told me about it in the first place,” Jack answered annoyedly, readying to fly.

“This place is too big to remember correctly, sorry,” he said as he sat inside the carriage. Of course, he knew where he wanted to go; he didn't make mistakes. He just didn't want Jack to get too close because it was something no one else should see.

They started getting closer to where he mentioned. Jack had started to murmur a song to pass the time, while others were waiting patiently.

The winged horse suddenly changed direction, out of Jack's control. He attempted to control it and get to their destination, but the horse was not listening and was decreasing its altitude. It had also started to neigh and kick the air randomly, losing its control.

“Rael,” he called, “Rael!”

“What is it? Can't you control a horse?” He joked, trying to irritate him with his words.

"It isn't that; something down there is scaring the horse. But it's not just that,” Jack said, then took a breath as if he was running out of it. “It is something that drains us.”

Hearing this, Rael looked down from the carriage with slight panic. He carefully examined everything on the ground.

Seeing his panic, Tiberius also looked down. “What is going on?” Asked but couldn't get any answer until a few seconds passed.

“Jack, Jack! Go back, let the horse lead us out of its zone,” he said, coming to the front, trying to help him manage it. “Didn't expect it to be here now.”

"Didn't expect what? What is going on?” Tiberius asked, with fear growing in him.

“It's Gyoz; somehow it has walked back here,” he replied, holding the reins to control the horse. Jack slowly crawled next to Tiberius, sitting next to him, breathing heavily.

“Hey, hey, calm down.” Tiberius tried to help him, opening the front of his shirt in case it was too tight.

“It is useless; don’t even try it,” said Jack, hardly making up a sentence. “As long as we are in its range, nothing will work.”

“Are we talking about the Gyoz? 7-eyed unstoppable monster?" He asked, remembering his talk with Rovshen.

“Yes, now let me land this horse peacefully.”

“Are you kidding me?” Tiberius screamed, “You brought us to him? You want us to get killed by that thing?!”

“Shut the fuck up,” Rael raised his voice. “No one is going to die, so just stand still and let me control this thing!”

Tiberius wanted to reply but couldn't find a way to do so. He did as Rael said and waited till he landed the carriage.

It took him a few challenging minutes to control the horse and find a spot away from Gyoz and safe from others. But even before landing, Jack had started to breathe easier and get himself together.

“Are you okay now?” Rael asked.

“Yeah, thanks.” Jack replied, taking deep breaths.

“Thanks? You are gonna thank him for putting you in danger and then saving you? Is that how you ‘save’ everyone? By putting them in danger first?” Tiberius raged, then left the carriage. “I am going back to the capital. I don't care what you want from me, but I am not going to help you with your ‘hero’ game.”

“Are you sure you don't wanna listen?” Said Rael, getting out of the carriage and patting the horse’s head.

“I am. I hope I never see you again.”

“Okay,” he said, then called, “Jack, we are going to be back in two hours or so; if something dangerous comes up, take the horse and stay off the ground until I come back, okay?” He ordered, which Jack nodded to.

“I said I am no—”

That was the last line Tiberius said before Rael closed the distance in an instant and knocked him out.

…

“Mmmm…” He began to wake up slowly, rubbing his eyes and not recalling what had happened to him at first. Slowly lifting his body from the ground and looking around, he saw Rael coming towards him, holding a few things.

“Oh, you’re awake already? You humans are really durable, huh?” He said jokingly, then handed over a round object, something similar to fruit. “Here, eat this. It is one of the rare things you can eat here.”

“Where am I?” Tiberius asked and only now realized that Rael had taken him somewhere else again. “Did you kidnap me again? What is wrong with you?”

“If I were you, I would not scream. Gyoz does not like loud noises,” Rael said, then took a bite from his fruit.

“Gyoz?” His eyes widened. “You brought me closer to him? Are you psycho?" He said, then checked his surroundings a bit. “Is it close?”

“Oh, not just close, it is right behind you,” he replied with a smile, pointing toward it.

Tiberius turned back slowly, but as soon as he spotted a big body of it, he got up and made an effort to save himself by running as quickly as he could in the other direction. Well, he wanted to do that, but Rael stopped him by holding his arm.

"Relax, this place is safer than any other," he said.

“Safer? That thing is Gyoz, the reason Tanshy is called devil’s land, and you are telling me it is safe?”

Rael did not say anything and just nodded.

“I don't care what you want from me but I am not staying near a monster who would kill me for a meal,” he said, yanking his arm out of Rael’s hand to run.

Rael did not force him to stay; he did the opposite. "You can see no more than a blind guy," he said, releasing his arm while maintaining his smile.

Tiberius only wanted to get away and rest for a while; he had no intention of listening to him or even caring about him anymore. Back-to-back dangerous situations had worn him out. However, Rael’s words unconsciously hit him: “No more than a blind guy?” He halted. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you care about what others tell you and take it into account. Which is fantastic, but you are missing the crucial step where you must see things from your perspective.”

Tiberius couldn’t understand the meaning behind his words. It is true that seeing truth with your own eyes is completely different than someone else telling it to you, but this is a completely different scenario; they are next to the most dangerous creature known in this world.

“It does not make sense,” he said, disagreeing with him without too much thinking.

“Then why didn’t it affect you? Why did you not feel anything while Jack and the horse were losing their strength? While they were having a hard time and barely breathing, you had more than enough strength to run, let alone scream at me?”

Tiberius still couldn’t make things up and understand what he meant. Seeing this, Rael picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it to the Gyoz. With loud footsteps, it turned around. Its seven eyes all across its front body were like a nightmare becoming real. Each of them had an endless void, screaming in their own voice. As it walked toward them, swinging its giant arms and shaking the ground with absurdly big feet, Tiberius tried to run, but Rael held him again, not letting him be gone.

Seeing that Rael won’t let him flee, he stood there, closing his eyes and accepting whatever was coming to him. His breathing became heavier, and he squeezed his eyes even while they were closed. Its presence and loud footsteps were getting closer, and the moment it reached him, Tiberius could sense the monster bending towards him.

It did, but nothing happened. Nothing else. Still in fear, he slowly opened his eyes and the view in front of him made him forget how to breathe. He couldn’t and just stood there, waiting for it to do something.

“Don’t be scared that much; it won’t do anything to you,” said Rael and took another bite from the fruit. “You are safe.”

After his words, Gyoz’s eyes started to look in different directions, and as they did, it turned its back and went to the place it was before.

Suddenly Tiberius took a deep breath. “What was that? How didn’t it attack us?” he asked as he breathed heavily again.

“Because we are an anomaly.”