Here's another. Tomorrow (well today now) there should be some more. Idk how many more so I won't promise more than one. But until then enjoy this chapter~

[/hr]

Owen had already been walking for some time. The location of his temple was near the edges of the mountain range on the outskirts of the continent. Although he didn’t have a set destination, he felt if he was to find something it was be further in the mountains. Why did he feel this way? Well the moment he left the village he felt a pull in his heart. He was one to never let his heart pump faster for any reason. It was always calm and pumped a steady rate. Naturally it would beat faster upon exercise or when feeling other emotions. But nonetheless Owen did his best to always keep it steady. Even if the rate at which it pumped came out to be faster or slower the numbers of beats would turn out to be steady in a elongated time.

The only problem he was met with, was that the clouds seemed to form the moment he walked out of the village. It was such a beautiful day and now suddenly dark rain clouds fluttered over from the distance and became a blanket over the sky. It didn’t take long for the rain to start to turn into a drizzle. But the worst part was it didn’t stop at a drizzle. At first, Owen ignored it, he even let the droplets run down his eyelashes without batting an eye nor did he try to wipe it off. Because it he was blind didn’t mean he couldn’t feel the cold water invading his eyelids. When the water seeped through the cracks, it gave a soothing feeling.

But other than that one place being soothed, the remainder of his body was soaked and starting to become cold. He had long ago put on his mantle, but that was only able to achieve so much. Thus as soon as he could without speeding his pace up even a little bit, he walked to find some cover from the rain.

When Owen finally found something, he walked by the shrubs that gently caressed his hands. Although under normal circumstances anyone passing by would fail to realize what was wrong with this shrub. Owen was no normal person. If it wasn’t raining anyone could tell what was once the plant. But only Owen could feel the difference between the rainwater and the different liquid that was dripping from these leaves. As he felt it he immediately brought his right hand that felt the unknown liquid to his nose. With a sniff he immediately became vigilant.

‘Blood. It’s also fresh. Even to the point that the rainwater had yet to dilute it entirely. The beast must be somewhere close.’

Owen immediately perked out his ears. And brought it left hand over to his ear. He then flicked the bell allow it to ring constantly. Although the rain was a deterrent to most people who couldn’t tell the difference between droplets from afar or near. Owen was able to know where droplets didn’t and did land. And although adding the slight ring of a bell would be overtaken by the rain it didn’t hurt to have it help as well. In fact he was lucky because when he rung the bell, he immediately turned around to face the direction of a cave.

It was a dark cave with the entrance width of a few meters. However the problem wasn’t the cave itself but what was inside of the cave. If the creature didn’t step out he would never know he was being watched. But with the slight ring of the bell he could tell that two eyes were patiently watching him. The predator was simply watching its prey looking to have fun before its meal. Noticing that Owen found out about its presence, it no longer hid and started to walk out. The droplets alone crashing on the beast that walked out caused Owen to frown. He was sure, that this beast was huge. The beast that walked out had giant paws and long limbs. Its brown spikey fur was soaked but one could still see the sharpness of every hair. It was like a porcupine yet was larger than a bear. It didn’t have the issue of short limbs and naturally would be fast. Owen could tell from the heavy steps of the beast that it was no easy predator to face.

It was clearly the evolved beast that Iohanne had warned him about and this made Owen frown a little. He couldn’t believe that after a short day a beast had already managed to evolve like this. Did a bear eat a porcupine? This could be the only result. But naturally this wasn’t the main issue. The issue for Owen was surviving. Although one must usually slowly retreat, Owen didn’t think that applied to evolved beasts. They were obviously absorbing the world’s essence through the bodies of other animals. If they didn’t at least get some intelligence it would be a waste right? Thus the only other solution was to run before it got any closer.

Woosh!

The moment Owen sped through the forest attempting to run, the spiked bear also chased. It was incredibly fast in a straight stretch and to make matters worse it was incredibly hard for Owen to rush through the forest while blind. It was not problem while walking, but trying to organize the sounds while running was incredibly taxing on his mind. The worst was he couldn’t run in a straight stretch because if he did the spike bear would immediately catch up. But even with all these problem Owen ran. The branches of trees swung at his face causing his skin to split. But he didn’t even take a moment to touch the wound. The mud was filling his boot, but he didn’t care.

He could only run. But unfortunately for Owen. He was still in the mountains and because of this, when running his destination naturally led to a cliff. Now Owen was stuck in a position of facing the beast or falling off the cliff. The cliff sounded like the worst option to him, but facing off against a evolved beast sounded almost as terrifying. But even still, through all of this Owen was calm and could only mutter a few words under the rainfall.

“If today is the day I die. So be it. However, I will at least not go as a coward. Come! You might eat me, but I will make sure at least one of my bones get stuck in your throat!”