***

  It all went so fast; we were just resting at an inn, just once, just for a night... now we got separated inside this prison.

  He always brushed off the topic; he kept saying that it's too dangerous, that we need to stay low and hide as much as possible.

  Ever since Theodor barely managed to fight off that flower thing, his health has been getting worse and worse.

  At first he appeared to just need some rest; his steps were a bit slower than usual, and he kept sleeping a bit longer each day.

  As the days passed, he got up quicker and quicker while his legs got shakier.

  With each place we visited, I begged him over and over that we find another doctor.

  Each day he found another excuse to postpone it.

  I know that Theodor hates lying, yet he lied with a smile on his face every single day.

  "Don't worry, we'll go find another doctor first thing in the morning."

  Then it happened; my fear of a daily lie turned into real despair and panic.

  My dad passed out in the middle of the day; he himself thought he only closed his eyes for a few seconds, but several minutes had passed by the time he woke up again.

  I called out to him over and over, but he just did not react whatsoever.

  When his eyes rolled up again, he was barely aware of what was going on... so I abused this opportunity.

  Putting on my hood and hiding behind him while making sure he leans against me for support, I made my way towards the village next to the forest we were camping in.

  When the sun was about to set, I passed the gates and brought him to the first inn I found, as close to the village's border as possible.

  It is a round house made out of layered stone with three floors.

  The outside of the house is painted in yellow, making it stand out from the other houses I saw so far, which did not appear to be painted at all.

  Next to its entrance door hangs a wooden sign with a crude burnt-in drawing of a bed.

  I adjust my hood once more, making sure that it properly covers my face, and go inside.

  The inside of this inn looks way more run-down than its outer facade.

  Round wooden tables with chipped edges, accompanied by a handful of dead-drunk people sleeping on them.

  Alcohol fills the whole inn in more than one way.

  The floor is sticky, the smell is piercing my nose, and I am even able to taste it a bit from the air alone.

  Keeping my head low, keeping my horns hidden, we walk over to the receptionist desk; the lady behind it spoke up before we even arrived fully there.

  "If you get a room this late, at least get drunk in here, for the love of Re'Vol."

  Her voice was a bit coarse, and her hands wrinkly; she must be this inn's owner.

  "I am sorry; my brother had a bit too much to drink."

  "A room with one bed, please."

  The lady sighs and taps on the desk with her finger a few times.

  "What a lad, gets dead drunk, and his sister has to make sure he does not lie in a ditch somewhere during this cold."

  She takes sighs and tells me that a room costs five Adal.

  I take a whole tablet of Adal out of a pouch on Theodor's right side and slide it on the table.

  "This is three Adal too much, young lady. Do you want change or service?"

  "Could you please bring us a bucket with water, some cloth and a bit of food?"

  She taps her hand twice against the table, stands up and puts a key on the table.

  "Get this big guy upstairs, room two on the left; I'll leave the stuff at the door in a bit."

  I am sore all over from stemming Theodor all the way upstairs, but at least he can rest on a bed for once now.

  ...

  I ended up paying eight Adal even though our funds are thin, but it can't be helped.

  One night, if he does not get significantly better by tomorrow morning, I will look for a doctor myself.

  I don't care if it's 'not safe'.

  His body is still moving, but he is barely there anymore, just slugging along...

  I hope it's exhaustion added to the cold weather; with how little money we have on hand, I am not even sure I could afford expensive medicine.

  If that's even what he needs, maybe proper rest will do the trick.

  Ever since that plant thing attacked us, the more he tries to rest, the more fatigued he gets.

  Whenever I changed his bandages... the blood on them... it's not normal anymore.

  It is a mix between bright red and blue, with some black spots in both of them.

  Someone knocks on the locked door twice.

  "Young lady, I brought the stuff you asked for; I'm going to leave it here just like you asked."

  "Thank you very much, miss."

  I wait a bit until her footsteps are gone, then I quickly grab everything she left at the door.

  A wooden bucket halfway filled with water, some old greyish cloth and some fruits.

  I lock the door and close the window curtains next to the bed.

  I roll up my sleeves and move a chair next to the bed where I put down Theodor.

  He needs to stay warm; unlike me, the cold weather does affect him a lot.

  It's been a while since we slept at an inn; for now I will just pull the blanket over him.

  I can't change his bandages while he is sleeping anyway; he is much too heavy for me to hold upright.

  "Ouch!"

  In the blink of an eye, he was tightly squeezing down on my wrist while struggling to even force his eyes open.

  "Theodor, it's me, it's me."

  His grip loosens, and his right hand falls limp onto the bed.

  "Where are we?"

  "An inn at the village's border – I brought you here to get some rest."

  "I made sure to stay low."

  Fighting against his own body, he slowly stems his upper half with his elbows and leans towards me, with his eyes slightly open.

  "We need to leave, no-"

  The receptionist knocks twice on the door; she must have come up here because of the sound I made.

  "Young lady, is everything alright in there?"

  "Everything is fine; I just stubbed my toe earlier."

  "There really is no need to worry."

  She gently knocks twice on the door and tells me that if I want to talk a bit, I could meet her downstairs.

  Once the sound of creaking wood began to deafen, Theodor grabbed hold of my left hand and tugged me over.

  His eyes finally open, he looks straight at me while his hands are shaking.

  "Lutena, we need to leave now."

  I put my finger on his forehead and gently push his head back.

  "You need to rest."

  I am sore all over from stemming Theodor all the way upstairs, but at least he can rest on a bed for once now.

  ...

  I ended up paying eight Adal even though our funds are thin, but it can't be helped.

  One night, if he does not get significantly better by tomorrow morning, I will look for a doctor myself.

  I don't care if it's 'not safe'.

  His body is still moving, but he is barely there anymore, just slugging along...

  I hope it's exhaustion added to the cold weather; with how little money we have on hand, I am not even sure I could afford expensive medicine.

  If that's even what he needs, maybe proper rest will do the trick.

  Ever since that plant thing attacked us, the more he tries to rest, the more fatigued he gets.

  Whenever I changed his bandages... the blood on them... it's not normal anymore.

  It is a mix between bright red and blue, with some black spots in both of them.

  Someone knocks on the locked door twice.

  "Young lady, I brought the stuff you asked for; I'm going to leave it here just like you asked."

  "Thank you very much, miss."

  I wait a bit until her footsteps are gone, then I quickly grab everything she left at the door.

  A wooden bucket halfway filled with water, some old greyish cloth and some fruits.

  I lock the door and close the window curtains next to the bed.

  I roll up my sleeves and move a chair next to the bed where I put down Theodor.

  He needs to stay warm; unlike me, the cold weather does affect him a lot.

  It's been a while since we slept at an inn; for now I will just pull the blanket over him.

  I can't change his bandages while he is sleeping anyway; he is much too heavy for me to hold upright.

  "Ouch!"

  In the blink of an eye, he was tightly squeezing down on my wrist while struggling to even force his eyes open.

  "Theodor, it's me, it's me."

  His grip loosens, and his right hand falls limp onto the bed.

  "Where are we?"

  "An inn at the village's border – I brought you here to get some rest."

  "I made sure to stay low."

  Fighting against his own body, he slowly stems his upper half with his elbows and leans towards me, with his eyes slightly open.

  "We need to leave, no-"

  The receptionist knocks twice on the door; she must have come up here because of the sound I made.

  "Young lady, is everything alright in there?"

  "Everything is fine; I just stubbed my toe earlier."

  "There really is no need to worry."

  She gently knocks twice on the door and tells me that if I want to talk a bit, I could meet her downstairs.

  Once the sound of creaking wood began to deafen, Theodor grabbed hold of my left hand and tugged me over.

  His eyes finally open, he looks straight at me while his hands are shaking.

  "Lutena, we need to leave now."

  I put my finger on his forehead and gently push his head back.

  "You need to rest."

  His eyebrows sunken, his eyes locked onto mine.

  "We need to leave right now."

  With my finger still on his forehead, I push his head onto the bed with a bit more force than before.

  "There is no 'we' if this goes on for much longer."

  I lift my finger from his forehead and put it close to his face, pointing directly at him.

  "Look at you, you can barely stay awake, your body gets more sluggish and worse every day, and your mind is sometimes anywhere but here."

  "You probably have no idea how we even got here, that you walked with my support and-"

  He cuts me off mid-sentence.

  "I get it, I get it."

  "Just one night, though, just one, and that's it; we go first thing in the morning."

  "Takes your family on the verge of tears, throwing a fit to get you to rest, you dense idiot."

  He sighs and properly lets himself fall back onto the bed.

  "Sorry for worrying you so much."

  I cross my arms and turn my face away.

  "You know that's not what I want to hear."

  Theodor let's out a heartfelt although soft chuckle.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Alright, alright."

  "Thank you, Lutena."

  "Aaand?"

  "We will go look for a doctor once I have had some rest."

  "I am still very mad at you, Theodor."

  "Lutena, you do realise that I can see you smirking even though your face is turned away, right?"

  I do, but I am still mad at him.

  Theodor fell asleep directly after.

  Today, I will keep watch; today, I'll stay awake so you can rest.

  I wish he'd lean on me more too; we are each other's only family after all...

  He always says, 'You carry too much!'

  All I am carrying is our provision bag, while he carries the burden and all these wounds.

  While travelling, we've come across some really weird and disgusting things too.

  But nothing compares to that flower-man that attacked us two months ago.

  A local shop owner at a village we were passing through told us we should stay, that there is a monster hiding inside the red forest.

  We were reluctant at first, but we could not afford to stay inside the village.

  Our funds are always thin, and where there is a monster, there will be hunters or soldiers gathering at the local village or town; both are a danger to us.

  We are wanted criminals, after all; we can't help it.

  So we settled for the night at a place with a good view, a nice empty area inside the Red Forest.

  Next to us was nothing but bushes and red bark trees with only a handful of red leaves that are the size of a fully grown adult.

  Once night broke, we felt a certain uneasiness, and we never managed to relax.

  The forest was too quiet, like it was lifeless.

  Neither while looking for a place to sleep nor at nightfall was there a sound made from within the forest.

  It was just us and the crackling sound of our campfire.

  Our uneasiness turns into panic once the flower monster's howls echoed within the red barks.

  Howling that turned into a deafening screech, its voice cutting the ground, the trees and the air.

  Just like a wolf mimicking the frenzied anger of an owl.

  A sound that carved out comfort and left behind fear.

  The echo soon came to a halt, then it reappeared, first from the right, then behind us.

  We look around, trying to catch the source of it.

  With each echo, we walk one step closer to each other; before long, Theodor was holding my hand tightly.

  I can feel the panic, the hastened pulse, through his sweaty hands.

  "Bin-obs Je-kon"

  It spoke, its voice husky and slurred, with stops between words.

  Words were followed by the cracking sound of twigs and the creaking of earth being torn, dragged along by something hard like metal.

  Theodor pushes me behind him, his right hand frozen stiff from tension still on his face, covering his right eye.

  He raises his voice while his eyes stay sharply focused across our fireplace, the area where the talking was coming from.

  "Stay close."

  Theodor takes a deep breath and tenses up; his left hand starts to crackle with blue static.

  Forming a fist, he slams it against his right chest repeatedly.

  Breathing heavily, my brother puts his hands up, both close to the chest, anticipating whatever is slowly coming out beneath the shadows.

  It stopped moving once it was close enough to our fireplace to be fully illuminated.

  At the sight of this thing everything seemed to stand still.

  A grotesque monster in appearance and sound, something that crawled out from beyond the worst nightmares.

  I want to cry, scream, do anything, but it all feels stuck in my throat.

  In front of us stands a humanoid flower.

  It vaguely resembles a grown man and a flower, but at the same time, truly neither of them.

  It's a light green, covered with blooming plants all over.

  The torso is covered in the same green, but beneath it are gaps where twigs could be seen beneath.

  Its arms almost touching the ground, a green gradient that stopped halfway to brown.

  They were connected inwards of the elbow an additional time, forming a triangle that went flat when the arm was stretched out.

  Hands with detail up to the fingers, which then went sharp, overall looking more like thorns than fingertips.

  Around his shoulders is a cape out of roses and thorns, covering mostly his right side.

  They appear to be part of its body, going from the neck all the way to the lower end of his back.

  The edges of it were full of wilted roses; instead of their strong red colour, they were a pale brown.

  Pointing at us, it spoke again.

  "Fi-l Je-kon, bin-obs je-kon."

  Its head was made out of twigs forming a lower half.

  A mouth and teeth, all in brown, while the top of its head is a pitch-black plant with hanging spiky leaves.

  His words seem to cause my brother pain; at every single word, he flinches and holds his head in pain.

  The true horror, however, is that this thing was breathing.

  It had a pulse; it was not moving like a doll but like a breathing newman.

  Its chest is going up and down, its mouth is mouthing, and its body is slightly shaking.

  The monster leaped with its thorny fingers stretched towards us, but it didn't attack us.

  It sprang onto our campfire, clasping it with its hands, grabbing the flame itself like it was a solid object.

  Its fingers piercing the flame, it screams 'Fil' over and over.

  The fireplace is now empty; not even smoke remains. The wood just went cold, like it never even burnt.

  Leaving us with just the dim light of a clear night under the full moon.

  Theodor slowly takes steps backwards, making sure that I am right behind him.

  Its movement becomes more and more hasty, its hands shaking, and it mutters and screams quick repetitive bursts.

  "Je-kon Fil, Menik Fil, Me-nik Fi-l, Binobs Jekol Fil Menik."

  Each word ended with the sound of gasping for air.

  Fidgeting around with its hands, the fire in its fingers does not appear to visibly harm it.

  With trembling hands, its mouth splits wide open, eating the flame along its hands in one go.

  The flame quickly flickers out within its torso, while it continues to eat away at the stump of its right hand.

  Each bite sounds like bones being crushed; the more it eats, the more it bleeds. It wasn't long before its entire mouth was covered in blood.

  "Aaah, va-t-t, mog-olob fi-l"

  Slowly pulling out his hand out of his mouth, it's unhurt; there was no wound on there whatsoever.

  We were so focused on it eating away at itself that we did not notice that its left hand, which was gone just a moment ago, was entirely unhurt.

  It sat down, seemingly ignoring us.

  Shaking to my bones, I could not hold back; my Blue-Heart beat – it beat just once.

  The pain of my heartbeat makes me fall to the ground, Theodor leaning down to pull me back up with his left hand.

  His eyes were still sharp on the flowery monster.

  Its head slightly tilted while looking towards us, it started walking slowly.

  With his right hand raised, it points at us.

  "Alm-ut"

  "Al-mut"

  "Almu-t"

  It kept saying the same words three times with different pauses within it.

  With each word it spoke, Theodor visibly started to clench up more and more.

  Between us is now a distance of around six steps.

  It reaches for its head, plucking out one of the spiky petals of the black flower on its head, crushing it in its right hand.

  The liquid of the petal drips and flows towards the ground.

  Violet, like its blood, flows down and hardens in an uneven manner, leaving in his grip a crude sword out of its own blood.

  Theodor speaks up.

  "Lutena, this thing is straight out of a nightmare."

  "If things go south, let it all out and get out of here."

  The creature's blade appeared to be crude and blunt, but its tip slid across the floor, splitting the earth like it was nothing.

  What followed was a quick moment that deeply burnt itself into my eyes.

  Its upper body is twisting around while its body creaks, preparing to swing while we are still out of reach.

  Before I could even blink, Theodor ducked and yanked me towards the ground.

  The sound of metal hitting metal pierces my ears, while the monster groans in pain.

  Its blade broken apart, only the hilt remains, shattered into many pieces.

  The trees around us, which were within the angle of its swing, started to shake like a strong gust of wind had just passed through them.

  In waves, they fall inwards towards us, every visible tree from my right side up to behind the monster in front of us.

  The sound of a forest falling down fills the area as the monster bears its own pain.

  Its right hand was split apart and is growing back together.

  It lifted its right hand towards its head again, likely to pull out another one of its leaves.

  However, Theodor tackles the flowery monster.

  Like he is now, he is way faster than this thing, but one solid hit and we'd be goner.

  While the beast topples over, he gets behind it and grabs onto its neck.

  They come crashing down; the thorns of its rosy cloak bury into him.

  It wails and drags both of them along the ground, its long arms being held down by Theodor's feet.

  He put them between the triangles on its arms, pushing down on them to halt most of their mobility.

  Holding down its neck with his left elbow, he collects static in his right hand.

  Tensing up his hand, he ploughs into the open area of its head, beneath the area of the black plant, burrowing it beneath its roots.

  The sound of static fills the air; it crackles and sizzles. Theodor tries to pull out the plan on its head with all his might.

  His teeth clenched, blue mist steaming out of them, while he groans and pulls back with his entire upper body.

  The monster's left arm breaks as it squeals, Theodor losing his tight grip on its left arm.

  With its broken limp arm, it reaches for Theodor's chest, managing to reach all the way up to his right chest.

  It claws away at it, barely reaching it with its thorny fingers, but it carves off a bit of flesh in its panic.

  It manages to lift its legs and shake Theodor off the hold on his right arm, instantly using it to dig into his right chest.

  At the same time, he tears out the plant.

  With its thorny fingers carved inside Theodor's chest, it lets out a final squeal.

  "A-a-a-h, b-blud."

  The plant starts to wilt inside Theodor's hand; it starts to ash away within seconds of wilting.

  He slides off the creature's body and lies flat on the ground; between every word, there is a long pause to breathe.

  "Lutena, fire, please."

  It takes a few moments for my legs to stop shaking before I manage to make my way towards our travelling bag.

  My brother, not leaving the monster's corpse out of sight, waits for the fire to fully burn.

  He then drags its corpse onto the fire, not easing up until it's fully burnt.

  While his eyes are fixed on the monster he just killed, mine are fixed on his injuries.

  Luckily neither the thorns nor the carved-off area dug that deep; it's going to leave some scars, but the bleeding stopped quickly.

  What's more concerning is the blue mist that he was steaming out earlier.

  This means that along his blue heart there must still be cracks which have not fully healed.

  Once the sun was up, a lot of people could be heard walking towards us.

  We assumed it must have been the villagers, and then... and then...

  ...

  Huh?!

  My eyes sprang open in shock; dozing off, my head was rocking back and forth, my thoughts getting slower and slower.

  My throat is sore, and my lower mouth is slightly open.

  Eyes heavy.

  Just a moment.

  ...

  NO!

  My eyes slowly fight their way back open, my body shaking but moving ever so slightly; it's fighting against itself.

  I am exhausted, but not this exhausted.

  Something is wrong.

  Need to stay awake.

  Limbs getting heavier, eyes twitching.

  Biting down on the left side of my lip, I am putting in quite the force, but the pain is almost entirely numbed.

  The pain coming through is just enough to not immediately doze off again.

  Reaching out my right hand towards Theodor, trying to call out to him.

  "-ad"

  People are talking outside the room; I can't make out what they are saying. My head is too fuzzy.

  ...

  Blinking just once, I find myself lying sideways on top of Theodor.

  Using my elbow, I steady myself while my body is trembling.

  "Wake up."

  "Da-d."

  Falling onto him again, my legs giving out, no strength left whatsoever.

  ...

  My eyes slightly opened up once more when I heard my dad, but the memory of that is foggy.

  The only thing I remember clearly was that the air had a sweet smell to it.

  The next time my eyes opened, I found myself inside a cage.

  While my head is still pulsating and my eyes adjust to the dim light, a person is calling out to me with vigour.

  "Finally up, are we, one-seven-seven?"