PART ONE
"Hold still so I can kill you!"
The snarl ripped through the air an instant before claws slashed toward Amaya's face.
She ducked, barely, feeling the heat of the strike skim past her cheek.
"What the hell—?!" she gasped, stumbling back across the dirt.
The beastman attacking her didn't give her time to breathe.
He lunged again, fangs bared, muscles rippling under his fur-spotted skin.
"You don't belong in our lands, outsider!"
"I don't even know where I am!" Amaya snapped, swinging a broken branch at him. The makeshift weapon cracked against his shoulder—doing little more than annoy him.
His lip curled.
"You carry forbidden power. I can smell it. And for that…"
He raised his clawed hand.
"…your life ends here."
Amaya's heart slammed against her ribs.
"Power? I don't have anything—!"
But her words were drowned out by a deafening chime inside her skull.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
[FATAL THREAT DETECTED]
The beastman froze, eyes widening—not at the voice she heard, but at the radiant glow igniting in her chest.
"What—what are you?" he whispered hoarsely.
Then his thoughts slammed into her mind, crisp and sharp—
"Her core… it's awakening?! Impossible!"
Amaya gasped, staggering.
"I…I can hear you."
The beastman's eyes filled with terror.
"That ability—Beast Whisper? No human should have—!"
He pounced.
Amaya threw her arms over her face—
And a cold, lethal voice cut through the clearing like a blade.
"Step away from her. Now."
The attacker skidded to a halt, trembling.
From the shadows, a tall figure emerged—massive, elegant, deadly.
A White Tiger Beastman.
Snow-white tail flicking, muscles tensed, icy blue eyes glowing with authority that made the forest itself go silent.
The brown beastman faltered.
"L-Lord Kael… she—she's dangerous!"
Kael didn't look at him.
His gaze was locked on Amaya—like he was seeing straight through her skin, her bones, and into the raging light in her chest.
His voice was cold enough to freeze blood.
"Touch her, and I'll rip your spine out."
The beastman flinched.
But Amaya wasn't looking at him anymore.
She was hearing Kael's thoughts—steady, sharp, frighteningly calm.
"So it's true… She holds a Mystic Core."
"If that power erupts, she'll die."
"I have to take her before anyone else senses it."
Amaya swallowed, her voice barely a whisper.
"You… can help me?"
Kael stepped forward, towering over her.
"No," he said, eyes narrowing.
"I can keep you alive."
His next thought wrapped around her like a cold chain:
"And once she's in my hands… the Beastworld will never let her go."
---
PART TWO
The moment his thought drifted through Amaya's mind, her knees weakened. Not just from fear—but from the overwhelming flood of emotions crashing into her all at once. Confusion. Pain. Terror. And beneath it all, something deeper, ancient, pulsing like a heartbeat under her skin.
Her chest burned with a strange golden light.
Kael's gaze sharpened, and she could swear the air around him trembled.
The brown beastman, still kneeling from the shock of Kael's arrival, tried to inch backward.
"L-Lord Kael, she—she's unnatural! We must destroy her before her core fully—"
Kael vanished.
Not walked. Not lunged.
Vanished.
He reappeared behind the beastman with a crack of displaced air.
His clawed hand wrapped around the attacker's throat, lifting him clean off the ground.
"You dare make decisions in my territory?" Kael growled, voice low and vibrating with primal threat.
The brown beastman kicked uselessly, gasping.
"S-she's dangerous—I was protecting the tribe!"
"You were acting without orders," Kael snapped.
"And attacking a core-bearer without authorization."
Amaya felt his thoughts again—this time razor sharp, lethal.
"A Mystic Core bearer is the rarest existence in the Beastworld."
"Only the Primordials ever possessed such power…"
"…so how does she have one?"
Amaya hugged her arms to herself, trembling.
She didn't understand anything they were talking about.
"What's… a core-bearer?" she whispered, barely audible.
Both beastmen froze.
Kael released the attacker, letting him collapse to the ground coughing violently.
Then he slowly turned his head toward her.
"You don't know?" he asked, icy eyes narrowing.
Amaya shook her head.
"I woke up here. Ten minutes ago I was— I don't even know where I was! Everything is blank!"
Kael's thoughts flickered—fast, sharp, impossible to read fully.
"A memory wipe?"
"Or… a system seal?"
"This complicates everything."
He stepped closer, and Amaya instinctively backed up—only to hit the trunk of a massive silver-gray tree.
Kael halted just a breath away, his presence overwhelming.
"You shouldn't be able to use Beast Whisper without training," he said quietly.
"You shouldn't have a core at all. And yet your scent… your aura…"
His eyes swept over her slowly, analytically.
"…is that of a primordial."
"A… what?"
Before he could answer, the brown beastman staggered upright again, rage replacing fear.
"She's a threat! If you won't kill her, then I—!"
He lunged at Amaya once more.
Kael didn't move—he simply flicked his clawed hand toward the attacker.
A blast of shimmering white energy exploded from his palm.
The brown beastman crashed into a boulder so hard the earth cracked beneath him.
He didn't get up.
Amaya gasped, staring at Kael with widening eyes.
"What are you?"
His gaze met hers—cool, unreadable.
"I," he said, "am the White Tiger Lord of the Frostfang Territory. But that is irrelevant."
He stepped even closer.
"What matters now… is you."
Amaya opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the air around her pulsed again.
Her chest tightened.
Not with fear—
but with pain.
A burning, searing, growing pressure deep inside her ribs.
"Ah—!" She clutched her chest, sinking to her knees.
Kael's eyes widened.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[MYSTIC CORE DESTABILIZING]
[HOST IN CRITICAL CONDITION]
Amaya screamed as white-hot light burst from her skin.
The forest floor trembled. Leaves rose into the air. The trees vibrated as if sensing her energy.
Kael cursed under his breath.
"Damn it. She's going to rupture."
He dropped to one knee beside her, one clawed hand gripping her shoulder to steady her.
Amaya's thoughts spiraled.
"It hurts—Kael—it burns—I can't—!"
"You have to breathe," Kael ordered sharply.
"Your core is unstable. If it overloads, you'll level half this forest."
"Why is this happening to me?!"
"Because you were never meant to awaken alone."
His hand tightened on her shoulder—firm but not painful.
His next thought thundered inside her skull:
"If she dies, this entire region will feel it."
"She's too important to lose."
"I must bring her back to the tribe."
Then, to her surprise, something softer:
"…why does her scent pull at me?"
The burning in Amaya's chest peaked—her vision blurred with white.
"I can't—stop it!"
"You don't have to," Kael murmured, leaning closer.
"I will stabilize you."
He pressed his palm to her sternum.
Amaya screamed—
not in pain exactly…
but in shock.
A surge of cold, calming energy flooded into her.
Kael's energy.
White tiger essence—icy, ancient, powerful.
It wrapped around her core like silver threads, binding the wild energy clawing at her insides.
Her breathing slowly steadied.
The light dimmed.
Kael didn't release her, even after the glow faded completely.
He searched her face with unreadable eyes.
"Better?" he asked softly.
Amaya's voice trembled.
"…yes."
He stood, lifting her easily with one arm as if she weighed nothing.
She gasped.
"H-hey— put me down!"
"No," he said simply.
"You're too unstable to walk."
"I am NOT unstable—!"
Her knees wobbled the moment he lowered her an inch.
Kael raised one brow.
"Do you wish to argue further?"
Amaya glared weakly, cheeks flushing.
"…no."
He carried her effortlessly.
The brown beastman groaned from where he lay crumpled against the rock.
Kael paused, glancing at him.
Then his thoughts slipped through Amaya's mind again—
"He attacked without permission. He'll be punished when we return."
"Don't…" Amaya whispered. "Don't kill him."
Kael gave her a long, unreadable look.
"Your mercy is wasted," he said quietly.
"But noted."
He didn't kill him.
But the look he gave the attacker promised consequences.
---
PART THREE
As Kael carried her deeper into the forest, Amaya clutched his fur-lined collar for balance.
"You really don't remember anything?" he asked.
"No. I don't remember how I got here, or who I'm supposed to be."
Her voice cracked.
"I don't even know what a Mystic Core is!"
Kael's jaw tightened.
"A Mystic Core is a source of power older than the tribes, older than the Beastworld itself. It should be impossible for a human to possess."
"Then… what does that make me?"
He didn't answer.
His thoughts did.
"A miracle."
"A danger."
"Something the other tribes will hunt the moment they smell her."
Amaya swallowed.
"I heard that."
Kael stiffened.
Then:
"…stop doing that."
"I'm not doing it on purpose!"
He sighed—an elegant but clearly irritated sound.
"Then control it. A beastman's thoughts are not meant for human ears."
"I can't control what I just got!"
Kael stopped walking, staring at her with a cold, terrifying intensity.
"Listen carefully," he murmured.
"Beast Whisper is a forbidden gift. If another tribe discovers you hear their thoughts, you will be slaughtered."
Amaya's blood ran cold.
"So this whole world wants me dead?"
He held her gaze.
"No," he said slowly.
"Not the whole world."
Then, almost reluctantly:
"But they will want to claim you. Use you. Cage you."
"Because of this… core?"
"Because of everything."
She shivered.
Kael shifted her weight in his arms, holding her more securely.
"Fear later. Right now, your priority is surviving."
"And you're helping me because…?"
A long pause.
A longer thought.
"Because your existence changes everything."
"But is that good or bad?"
Kael turned his eyes forward.
"I don't know," he said.
"But I intend to find out."
---
The Ambush
Branches rustled ahead.
Kael halted instantly, muscles coiled.
His thoughts sliced into her mind:
"Three… no, four beasts approaching."
"Not from my tribe."
"Are they dangerous?" Amaya whispered.
"If they sense your core? Yes."
The forest split open as four wolf beastmen stepped out, snarling.
Kael shifted Amaya against his chest with one arm and raised the other—claws gleaming like silver knives.
"Move," he commanded.
The wolves snarled instead.
"You carry a human?" one growled.
"That is forbidden in Frostfang territory."
Kael's power surged.
"She is under my protection," he said coldly.
"Leave. Now."
Amaya felt his muscles tense as the wolves prepared to fight.
"Kael—"
"Close your eyes."
"But—!"
"Now."
The moment she did, light flashed.
Roars erupted.
Bodies crashed into trees.
Claws shredded bark.
Wind howled from the force of Kael's blows.
When Amaya opened her eyes, all four wolves lay unconscious on the ground.
Kael didn't look winded.
Not even a little.
His thoughts were icy steel.
"No one will touch her."
He glanced at her.
"You see now why you must stay with me."
Amaya didn't argue.
For the first time, she understood:
She wasn't just in danger.
She was the danger.
Or rather… the thing inside her was.
---
The Final Stretch
As the forest grew darker, Kael spoke again—quiet but firm.
"A Mystic Core doesn't awaken on its own," he told her.
"Something triggered it. Something powerful."
Amaya shivered.
"Kael… am I going to explode again?"
He paused, then said:
"If I don't stabilize you soon… yes."
She grabbed his tunic tightly.
Kael met her eyes—serious, unwavering.
"But I won't let that happen."
His last thought reached her like a vow:
"Your fate is mine now."
"And I protect what is mine."
---
End of Chapter One
To be continued...