THE KEEPERS ( THE ORBS OF UTAH )

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Now I knew how tiring it was to be responsible for taking care of a life other than my own and by gods it was a hustle. That didn't necessarily mean I didn't enjoy Keonn's company, who was surprisingly starting to heal emotionally.

He was starting to talk more, to laugh more. And every time I saw him grinning at me my heart would soar with joy. We were finally getting our Keonn back and I couldn't be more glad.

He still went in the forest though and when he did I made sure I was by his side. He would stand amidst the meadow expectedly. For what he waited for, I had no idea. But I assumed it was that damned creature.

I never told Keonn that I knew what haunted him. He was better off not knowing. Seeing him eating and laughing was worth the secrecy.

I was doing  a far better job at looking out for him than what Domathian had been doing. And I made sure to rub it in his face every chance I got.

The hard part was convincing the gate keepers that I had actually seen the beast.

A beast sired from the darkness  that could come and go in the palace as it pleased was a huge slap across their faces, bearing in mind that they were the most powerful witches. Protective shields were their speciality.

So far tracing its location with a locator spell was damn near impossible. It was like it didn't exist which was terrifying.

Darklings always left behind traces of their essence but this one didn't. The chances of destroying it were close to impossible. One could imagine how frustrating it was.

It was on the eighth day that Domathian came up with the most ludicrous suggestion ever made.

" Maybe it is best we ask a dark witch for help. If anyone should know how to locate such a beast it should be a dark nokutatu."

" That is out of the question!" yelled Oriana in shock.

" How can you even suggest such a thing? Such darklings are never to set foot in this palace," added Arisydius equally as outraged as the rest of the gate keepers.

I quite agreed with them. Giving someone who could betray us full access in this palace could be our downfall. Never forgetting the fact that darklings had a thing for cursing people just for kicks and giggles.

Domathian had to be out of his mind. I don't even think he had thought things through before blurting his insane idea to us. He was definitely losing his mind.

" You know what, forget I said anything, " he stormed to the exit of the rotunda, his shoulders stiff with anger.

I stared back at gate keeper Oriana. She was still staring at Domathian's retreating figure, worry and shame apparent on her face. My eyes fell on each of the gate keepers' faces who all looked mildly guilty over something they didn't seem like they would share anytime soon.

That was just the problem with them. Their inability to open up to us. We were supposed to trust each other. They basically preached that to us religiously yet they didn't seem to practice it. Some leaders they were.

Eventually the gate keepers went out and left us to continue with our fruitless search. At least now we knew what the creature was.

It was called the skyrían. Unfortunately there wasn't enough information regarding it. But the image itself was truly repulsive.

It was an image of the skyrían in a bed chamber straddling its victim. Its victim ensnared by the tentacles from its back greedily. I didn't need some ancient book to spell it out to me all that I gathered about the image. It told us a lot about the creature. The skyrían was a class D sexual creature flowing the Uffilians which were class A, the flesh demons which were class B and the Succubae and Incubae which were class C. With the victim stark naked not much was left to the imagination.