CHAPTER 108: CHAPTER-108

Deep in the heart of the cave, Veer lay in perfect stillness on a stone slab, the air around him quiet and thick. Shadows clung to the walls like loyal servants, unmoving, undisturbed.

Until a sharp screech tore through the silence.

Wings beat in panic as the same vulture from the forest burst into the cave, feathers disheveled, eyes wide.

Veer’s eyes snapped open in an instant—amber light bleeding into them like molten sun. There was no grogginess. No confusion. Just a sudden, chilling awareness.

Everyone here knew one thing.

Veer did not tolerate being woken up.

But this time... he smiled.

Slowly. Wide. Too wide.

His lips parted as he rose to his feet, voice soft and almost tender.

"Ah... cousin."

He lifted one hand like greeting an old friend, or maybe a stray dog that had finally come home.

"My dear, dear, dear cousin..."

His arms opened like a lover’s embrace—welcoming, dangerous.

As he walked forward, his form shifted. Feathers folded in, bones cracked and twisted, and skin replaced plumage. Within seconds, he stood fully human—tall, calm, far too composed for someone who had just been jolted from sleep.

His cousin stood there, now also in human form—messy-haired, light brown eyes darting with unease. He wore a plain t-shirt and fabric-cut pants. Simple. Handmade. Functional. He looked like someone who had just run for his life... and maybe still felt like running.

He swallowed, hard.

Then his words spilled out in a rush, trembling at the edges.

"Bro... where have you seen me? That—that woman you told me to follow? She’s crazy! She kicked me! She shot a tree! She—she—"

Veer’s smile widened.

His cousin’s panic didn’t faze him—in fact, he looked delighted.

"She noticed you?" he asked, softly, like it was the sweetest music he’d heard all day. "She reacted to you?"

He chuckled, slow and velvety.

"Oh... she’s waking up faster than I thought. My girl always was sharp."

The cousin paled, confused. "Y-Your—?"

Veer’s gaze darkened, but his voice never rose. If anything, it got quieter—gentler—like he was confessing something sacred.

"She doesn’t know it yet," he said, stepping closer, almost in a whisper. "But she’s mine. Every piece of her. From the moment she stepped into the sea. From the moment my eyes meet her’s she had been mine".

Veer stepped forward with the same unsettling calm, brushing nonexistent dust off his shoulder as if shaking off the last traces of sleep. His golden-glow eyes settled on his cousin with eerie fondness—too warm for comfort.

Then, with a tilt of his head, he clasped his cousin’s shoulder gently, almost like he was comforting a child who had come running after a nightmare.

"So?" he asked, voice smooth, almost teasing. "Anyway... what did she do?"

He leaned in slightly, smile sharpening.

"Did my sweetheart find you?"

A pause.

"What was her reaction, hmm?" he purred. "Did she... do anything to you?"

The cousin’s face paled instantly. Even the shadows around him seemed to pull back a little, like they didn’t want to be involved.

"Bro," he whispered, voice shaky, "she’s crazy. I’m not joking—she really attacked me."

He held out his trembling hand for emphasis. "I survived by... by this much."

He pinched the air, struggling to measure it.

"One... one nail. No—not even a nail. A corner of a nail. If it hit a little more this side, or that side—" he motioned violently left and right, "—I’d be gone, bro. Like actually gone."

Veer raised a brow, amused, like someone listening to a particularly dramatic bedtime story. His smile grew a fraction, intrigued.

"Ah... so she used that black thing again, hmm?" he asked softly, forming the shape of a gun with his fingers and tapping it lightly against his temple in thought.

But the cousin quickly shook his head, nearly stumbling backward with how fast he did it.

"No, bro! Not that. This was... something else."

He moved his hands in the air, struggling to describe it.

"It was long—like... thick, kind of curved at the edge. Wood, I think? It looked green. She held it, and when she fired it—bam!—it went through the tree bark like it was dead leaf."

His voice broke at the end, eyes wide, almost disbelieving even now.

"I heard it hit the wood, and I saw it punch through a hole in that thick tree. Do you get it?! A tree!"

He was shivering now, talking faster and faster, like reliving the memory physically hurt.

Veer simply watched.

Silent. Patient. Curious.

And then—he laughed.

Soft at first, then a little louder. Not mocking. Not cruel.

Just... delighted.

Veer chuckled—low, amused, and entirely too pleased.

"Ha ha ha... as expected of my sweetheart."

His smile lingered as his gaze drifted toward the mouth of the cave, amber eyes narrowing slightly like he could already see her from where he stood. Like some invisible thread had tugged at him, calling him out into the world again.

He took a single step forward.

That was all it took for his cousin to panic.

In a blur, the younger man moved to block Veer’s path, arms outstretched with pure desperation on his face.

"Bro, please—you can’t go right now!" he blurted out, voice cracking from a mix of fear and genuine concern. "You know what Uncle said!"

He glanced over his shoulder nervously, as if expecting the old man’s shadow to suddenly appear and strike them both down.

"And anyway... it’s daytime," he added quickly, words tumbling over each other. "You know how it is. We vultures—during daylight—we can’t see properly. Our senses get dull. We’re slower. We’re weaker. Who knows what kind of people are lurking out there, waiting for someone like you to—"

He didn’t get to finish.

Because Veer turned his eyes on him.

The warmth vanished from his expression. Just like that.

His smile was still there—but it was no longer soft. No longer amused.

It was cold.

And sharp.

Like ice stretched over a cracking surface.

"Listen," Veer said, his voice quiet but undeniably colder. "First of all..."

He stepped closer.

"I am not some weakling who just—dies."

The cousin’s mouth opened slightly, but nothing came out.