Lord of The Karmic Armada
Chapter 76: Caged Beasts

Chapter 76: Caged Beasts

"What are you chuckling to yourself for?", a sweet and innocent voice rang out a few meters away from Valtar. He instantly went into alert mode as he looked in that direction. An unbelievably enchanting female was sitting on a branch of the tree. Her face radiated immense cuteness and innocence.

She was wearing a dress mixed with white and green, her ears were pointy similar to that of the elves. Her big eyes were sparkling like stars in the pale moonlight and her pupils were green. But there was an additional detail that Valtar did not see beforehand. There were green butterfly like wings that made her look so much more captivating that it was hard for Valtar to avert his eyes for a moment, but he was still alert nonetheless.

Her soft and tight dress accentuated her curves spectacularly. Her breasts were big but not too big, after imprinting every detail of her fairy-like figure in his mind, he asked in a serious voice, "How are you here Thailyn?"

It was the innocent and shy Fae who first greeted Valtar after he first reached the borders of the Fae folks. Valtar’s gaze was quite serious at this moment, which would determine his next set of actions. Thailyn was sitting a few meters from the balcony of the wooden house on a certain branch because it was quite concerning for Valtar to not be able to sense her until now. He did not know how long she was there or when she appeared.

Noticing his apprehension she smiled sweetly to reassure him, "The Queen dropped me here."

Valtar arched his eyebrows and asked, "And why?"

Thailyn seemed to pout angrily which only made her look even more cute. She said in a angry tone, "Can’t I come?"

Seeing Valtar still wary of her she said, "I mean no harm, and you know the queen said if you win halfway......."

She became too embarrassed to say the rest and could not look Valtar in the eyes. Hearing that he clicked his tongue and understood what was going on and said to her while clearing his throat, "I’m cooking some meat, why don’t you join in?"

Finding a way out of her predicament she did not hesitate and started flapping her butterfly wings, Valtar looked at that with wide eyes, her wings looked nothing less than heavenly. With every flap of her wings she floated higher and her wings were spreading specks of white dust that somehow glowed in the moonlight.

Seeing his intense gaze at her wings Thailyn smiled sweetly and she felt happy. All of her sisters each had their unique perks, while her wings were indeed unique among her sisters but no one ever looked at them with such appreciation ever in her life.

She softly landed on the balcony besides Valtar and her specks of stardust spread everywhere some even landed on Valtar’s head. She took a few steps toward the Sitting Valtar who was still looking at her with desire. She reached out towards his hair and removed the the few specs that landed on him.

Valtar did not stop her and kept looking at her. For a moment he let himself wander in her beauty. She smelled even nicer from such a close distance. He could not help but swallow hard, it was hard to control himself when such a devastating beauty was so close to him. He was doing his best not to let his little dragon rise to the heavens.

Thailyn did not look him in the eyes, she was afraid he might pounce at her the moment their eyes meet. But she felt incredibly happy inside for some reason. It was the first time someone was looking at her with such fervent desire, it was a new experience for her and she liked being gazed like that very much.

Even so, she became too shy in the awkward atmosphere and said in a panicked voice to change the subject,

"Oh the meat is burning!!"

Valtar immediately averted his gaze and looked at the meats which were being barbecued, he hurriedly rotated them. Well, they weren’t really burning but would’ve burned if it was left like that any longer. He understood she became too shy considering how intensely he was looking at her and was thankful.

He did not want to behave like a beast, considering he already behaved like that once which did not end well. He told her to sit down beside her which she did and they remained silent and it became awkward again, none of them knew what to say.

With some hesitation Thailyn choose to break the silence and brought out something from the pockets of her dress and handed it towards Valtar, he was confused and asked what it was?

"we call it spice, if you add it to the beasts meat while cooking, it enhances the flavor of it greatly." said Thailyn.

Valtar hesitated, he did not know if there was any poison or hallucinogenic substance in it, sensing his hesitation Thailyn sighed and stated, "Just add it to the meat, I’ll eat it first to prove that there’s nothing wrong in it."

Even though that itself wouldn’t prove much, he choose to sprinkle the spice on the grilling meat. After 10 more minutes of grilling the meat, they both agreed that it was done and served the meat in 2 large leaves of the tree. Then they both started eating their meal in the presence of the pale moonlight and the gentle cool breeze of the wind. It was truly a peaceful moment, even though they had to try and kill each other later on. They enjoyed that false piece.

"Don’t you hate us?", Thailyn asked Valtar.

For a moment Valtar was surprised by the unexpected question then he thought for a moment and said honestly, "Hate is a pretty strong word, to be honest I don’t think I do."

He added in a flat tone, "To be honest I still don’t understand your queen, her purpose, or anything about her or this strange forest, like why are you Fae and the dark elves trapped? Why are there such strange rules, I guess everyone is simply doing what they need to do for their benefit or survival. That’s all."

Thailyn said to him while looking at the sky, "You’re quite realistic."

Valtar kept chewing the meat inside of his mouth and did not answer. Thailyn asked something to him again, "Why don’t you tell me something about yourself?"

He chuckled hearing that and said, "I would love to but unfortunately I don’t remember anything. I lost all my memories after entering the forest."

Thailyn nodded in understanding, "Oh, yes I forgot about that, that happens to a lot of humans after they enter the forest. But a lot of them regain their memories slowly later on."

Valtar turned to the Fae with a questioning look, "What do you mean a lot of them? then some retain their memories and some regain their memories later on?"

She hesitated at his question for a moment and said, "Old Zhao did not lose his memories, but the one who came before him lost his memories but regained them slowly as that person aged."

"There were many incongruities over the years, something that was supposed to happen did not happen, and something that was not supposed to happen ended up happening. For example, the queen was once able to send a few lesser fae to the area of the dark elves."

"That was the first time something like that ever happened. It could not be done later on. Then our queen gave something to the dark elves that let them breach the area of the eastern tribe. As if the forest itself and all the rules in it are the whims of someone or something, and no, it’s not our queen who is in control of it that I know for sure."

Her voice was extremely low, and serious at end of her statement, even Valtar had an extremely apprehensive expression on his face hearing that. His thoughts could not help but wander towards that terrifying existence called the forest titan.

He involuntarily shivered just thinking about that mighty being. He sighed internally and chose to change the topic, "Well, I still don’t seem to be able to remember anything, tell me more about yourself?"

Thailyn looked at him and slightly came closer to him and said in a teasing voice,

"Oh you wanna know more about me? But it’s not that interesting though. It’s quite boring in fact."

She neared him and sat right on his left side while leaning her body on his. There was a trace of disappointment in Valtar’s eyes but he quickly hid it. Thailyn did not seem to notice anything and simply kept speaking.

"Our lives can be summarized in a few lines at best. We were born from the tree, the queen took care of us and taught us everything. We learned everything of past knowledge, the information about the forest and its residents, its rules and everything else. Then we were taught to fight. At one point the desire to escape overcame all of us."

"As we tried with all of our power to try and escape, to break the barrier. We became depressed unable to escape. To cope with that depression, we played mind games with the residents of the forest. We fought each other. Bet on with various things."

"We did everything that we could do to not our minds wander into hopelessness, we kept ourselves busy in every way possible to run away from the fact that at the end of the day were nothing but caged beasts."

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