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Not loud enough to wake me fully until I feel hot, humid breath blowing against my face. This sensation forces life back into my eyes to examine the source. We’re no longer in the tree house, and my face is pressed against patches of moss and soil.
A black, wet nose nudges my cheek, and I jerk away, choking on a gasp.
The RottWeilen is back, heftier than a lion. Glossy black fur with russet-brown accents on his chest and paws. He watches me patiently, with large cinnamon eyes and an enormous jaw. I remember when he let me touch him. Caress the mane around his neck and shoulders.
“You might be the heaviest sleeper I’ve ever met.” A familiar tone. “I could have been some psychopath carrying you into the night to dump your body off a cliff.” I twist around to see him standing behind me, a devilish smirk.
“Dessin?”
His mouth stretches into a grin, revealing those straight, very white teeth. “You should have run while you had the chance,” he says.
A pulse of excitement runs through me. I push my hands off the dirt to stand up, shuffling over to him. He looks down at me like I’m an animal that might attack at any moment. My hands slip under his arms, and I wrap around his torso, hugging him tightly.
Silence, like a child’s comfort blanket, wraps around us. My eyes fall closed.
“Was he really that boring?” Dessin asks. I release a laugh against his chest and roll my eyes.
“Not at all.” I nuzzle into his chest. “I just missed you.” He exhales and holds me closer.
“And did he tell you every little secret about us that you’ve been dying to know?”
I huff into his shirt. “Not really. And I’m really getting tired of not knowing anything.” I take a moment to finally acknowledge my surroundings as they have changed. It’s still dark out, but I can tell it’s early morning. We are in a different section of the forest. The trees drape over us so heavily that even if it were midday, the space around us would remain drastically shadowed and cool. The Evergreen Dark Wood has areas that can make you feel utterly blind at night, areas that are the homes of predators not yet identified. The Evergreen Dark Wood is the source of many scary bedtime stories. I dart my eyes around, remembering the RottWeilen standing behind me, and look back at Dessin.
“Why did we leave the tree house?”
“DaiSzek alerted me that we had company on their way to pay us an unfriendly visit. I packed you up and moved us to a location they wouldn’t dare visit.” I look back at DaiSzek, who blinks twice to confirm the story.
“You packed me up,” I repeat.
“Okay, I scooped you up.”
I rearrange myself to face DaiSzek, who sits in front of me, waiting. “Hello there,” I say. I reach my hand out toward him, carefully, like I’m about to touch a hot stove. He leans into me, pressing the side of his face against my palm, closing his bright cinnamon eyes. My other hand reaches up to his chest, my fingers disappear into his sleek black fur.
“You know… RottWeilens are one of the reasons why the seven forests are so highly feared?” Dessin is leaning against a skyscraping Hyperion tree that rules this forest like an ancient king that never dies.
I raise my eyebrows at him.
“About sixty years ago or so, this country was vacant until our people settled here. They ventured through thousands of acres of forest, primarily through the Red Oaks. The pack of RottWeilen wouldn’t let them through.”
I look back at DaiSzek, who seems mesmerized by his words.
Dessin’s eyes flick down at the calm titan beside me. A memory of a smile decidedly hiding on his face. “Not sure why.”
My eyes flick between him and the great beast. “Then how did the settlers end up here?”
“They slaughtered them with chemical warfare. Only a few survived.” He thinks on it for a moment. “That species is quite superior. Their understanding and ability to cognitively think is close to that of a ten-year-old. And on top of that, they’re stronger than a bear or lion and faster than a mountain cat. But above all else, their loyalty is unmatched. No living creature on this planet is as loyal to family as a RottWeilen.”
Loyal to family. “But why is he so tame around you and me?”
A dark shadow casts over his eyes, and he opens his mouth, forming a word that has decomposed before it can pass over his plush lips. He furrows his brow, waiting for me. Like I would have that answer, and he wants me to beat him to it. I blink at him, tilting my head.
“Kane found him just after he was born. His small pack was one of the last hunted down over a decade ago. His mother dug a hole for him to hide in until his pack was killed off.”
I gasp. “Why would they do that?”
“The men of this country feared they’d multiply and eventually invade the city. When we found DaiSzek, he got used to Kane and me, and we became the only family he knew.”
“But why me? Why does he trust me?”
