“Yes.”

“Fine. What’s the deal?”

“Say my name again like how you did before, and I will give you your answer.”

“That’s it? You just want me to say your name?”

“Yes, but like how you did before.”

He didn’t want it to sound firm or clipped, or have any tangle of anger or annoyance it. He wanted it to be gentle.

He wanted to be gifted with the same feeling he’d been given before.

“Why, though?”

“Because I do not think you’ll want to say it again afterwards.”

She began to nibble on her lip, catching his attention as he watched one of her front teeth bite at it. Look at how much they yield. He didn’t have lips, didn’t know what they felt like to have them, and he could no longer remember if he’d ever had a set pressed against him.

“Orpheus.” She said it even quieter than before, even gentler, mingled with an emotion he didn’t understand.

Shyness? Sheepishness? Perhaps even coy, like his name was a sensitive secret not to be shared.

His eyes closed once more, his head tilting back until his snout was pointing to the sky as an even greater thrill shuddered within his body. It was so pleasing it even made the inhuman parts of him ruffle and puff beneath his constricting clothing.

He allowed the moment to take him, to allow the feeling that had stolen him to remain. He even paused his steps so nothing disturbed it as it settled into his entire being.

That may have been worth years of torment to hear.

Schluk. Something sharp lanced through his right shoulder, embedding into it before it came out the other side. He didn’t step back at the force of it, but his arms clenched.

His sight opened, his vision red as pain stabbed through his core. He could see the shaft of an arrow sticking out from his chest with three fletching feathers, brown and dull in colour.

A course of a burning inferno flickered beneath the surface of his body. Hot, smouldering. It felt as though it turned into a hand that caressed the goo of his brain and wrapped around his mind to create a dull ache inside it. His vision grew redder, brightening until it was near blinding.

“Too tight!” Reia gasped when he clutched her in his irritated growing state, enough to stir his mind into loosening his hold, but not enough to calm him.

His jaw clinked and clacked when he separated it, his head twisting and twitching as a deep growl began to emit from the back of his throat.

“Put the woman down, Duskwalker!”

Humans. He could smell two, but not a shred of fear from them. Demonslayers.

Some humans had suppressed their fear to such a degree the smell of it was unable to be tracked by Demons, allowing them to remain mostly hidden as they traversed the world. These people often became Demonslayers; members of a guild of humans that hunted the creatures with tenacity and an unbending will.

In his more recent decades of trying to find a companion, they had begun targeting him. They thought Orpheus was evil, that he was nothing more than a monster like the Demons they hunted.

He bent over to lay Reia in the snow. Not because they told him to, but because Orpheus began to change his shape in rage; hungry and vengeful. His clothing morphed with him, seeping into his skin like his body was eating the

material. His cloak remained since it wasn’t pressing firmly against him.

The further he morphed into a different shape, the more it felt as though that numbing hand began to squeeze his brain and rendered his thoughts disturbed.

Forgetting completely about the human woman as though her presence no longer existed past his wrath, he launched for one of the two men who emerged from behind the trees holding bows and arrows. With claws bared and mouth open, ready with his sharp fangs, the intent to destroy and maim those that hard dared harm him gripped him firmly.

Mindless, like he was nothing but a bloodthirsty animal, Orpheus attacked.

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Reia flinched when an arrow shot through her vision right in front of her, accompanied by a disgusting schlucking noise as it embedded itself into Orpheus.

Her eyes widened at the shaft quivering right in front of her eyes. That almost hit me!

Then she gasped, the tightness around her stealing her shock as the Duskwalker tightened his hold on her to the point she felt like her body was being mashed.

She tried desperately to suck in a breath through her collapsing lungs.

“Too tight!” she managed to strangle out with the last of her breath.

His hold softened before he placed her on the ground.

Parts of her were torn in what she felt. Sympathy cut through her as he started to shake around her. She understood that he must be in great pain. A moment before, she’d felt a sliver of tenderness at his reaction to her saying his name a second time.

She didn’t know him at all, but she’d almost thought it looked... euphoric with the way his orbs darkened to black and his head was tilted back. She hadn’t known what his reaction meant, but she’d felt for whatever emotion it was.

If he were human, would she have been able to decipher it? Was it a sign of contentment, sadness, loneliness, or something else entirely?

Whatever it was, she felt she could relate to it, understand it.

He’d been kind enough to her so far. He’d been considerate holding her, allowing her to sleep calmly instead of making her trip after him like a cruel master.

So, when the arrow embedded into his shoulder, Reia almost reached up to touch at his chest around it. She was about to ask him if he was okay, but then a gut-tightening sound began to come from him. It was a growlish snarl, and she instinctually knew that was dangerous.

Oh... My... God! Her eyes widened in horror when he started to change. His bony head remained the same all throughout, but his clothing seeped into his body like a goo sinking into mud.

After he placed her down, his claws extended as short fur, much like the kind from an antelope, grew over his forearms. Then it became thicker and longer, like wolf fur, over the top of his biceps and shoulders.

His legs took on a new shape, dog-like, but she could see a long, deer-like tail swaying between his legs, pushed down by the black cloak he wore. Fish-like fins hung from the back of his elbows and the heels of his dog-shaped legs. Rib bones protruded outside his chest like the cage was resting over the top of flesh rather than beneath it. They also covered the knuckles of hands and feet.

And with his eyes glowing such a blood red colour, Reia realised nightmares were real, and it had just been cradling her!

The arrow continued to jut from his shoulder, and her mouth fell open. Humans? Her heart soared at being rescued.

He leapt for one of the Demonslayers, his human hands and wolven legs working in unison to ensure he was fast.

More arrows loosed, but he dodged around them and continued to sprint forward. The humans drew their swords as they prepared themselves for the attack.