CHAPTER 244: CHAPTER-244

but when he looked at her empty eyes again, the words died. He knew pressing her now would only push her further away.

Once the bandage was tied, Kaya pulled her hand back with a sharp motion, as if his touch burned. Without a word, she rose and walked into her room, her figure disappearing behind the door.

Veer sat still for a moment, staring at the door she closed behind her. His chest ached with a heavy mix of worry and frustration, but he didn’t follow.

.

.

.

Just a few kilometers away

Rustle rustle rustle

"Huff hufff....ugh...huff"

Deep inside the jungle, a man with black hair and sharp eyes bolted through the undergrowth, his breath ragged, his gaze flicking backward in desperation. Something was chasing him. Something fast.

Behind him, a shifting shadow surged forward, relentless and silent except for the crunch of leaves underfoot. The man’s pulse thundered in his ears. In the next heartbeat, he squeezed his eyes shut—his body twisted, bones reshaping—until a deer burst forward in his place, hooves pounding the earth. He leapt over roots and darted between trees, his antlers nearly grazing the branches. The forest blurred around him, but still... the shadow followed.

The pursuer didn’t shift, didn’t falter. He ran in human form, his strides unnaturally swift, closing the distance with every breath.

The deer burst from the treeline into the moonlit clearing, thinking he had escaped—

—but a hand seized his neck mid-leap, dragging him down with terrifying force. The air split with the sound of bone and flesh meeting earth.

The shadow finally revealed itself. Eyes glowing an unnatural blue, fangs bared in a cruel grin—it was Cutie. His grip tightened, and with a feral hunger, he sank his teeth into the beastman’s neck.

"Ahhhhh"

The deer convulsed once, his desperate cry echoing in the night, before the sound was swallowed by the forest.

Cutie slowly lifted his gaze, and his eyes settled on the distant Vulture Mountain—the land of the vulture tribe. He didn’t blink, didn’t speak; he just stared, as if the jagged peak itself held an answer only he could read.

...

"KAYA"

The loud shout of Veer echoed across the entire tribe, sharp enough to startle the birds perched on the nearby trees. Kaya, who had just gone to take a bath, stepped out with damp hair clinging to her shoulders, irritation already etched on her face as she rubbed it dry with a cloth.

"What the..." her voice trailed off, eyebrows knitting together.

Veer stood in the middle of the hall, his hand clamped tightly around a trembling sparrow. His golden-brown eyes burned with fury as he swung his glare toward Kaya.

"What the hell is this?" he spat, thrusting the fragile bird toward her like it was evidence of a crime.

Kaya blinked, momentarily thrown off. The poor sparrow struggled in his grip, its tiny chest heaving as though it could hardly breathe. Its beady eyes, glistening with tears, darted to her—pleading silently, save me.

She gritted her teeth, exhaling hard through her nose. So this was the reason for that earth-shaking shout? For a moment, she had thought some calamity had struck, maybe even a bomb had gone off in the tribe. But no—just this.

"It’s... a sparrow," she said flatly, her voice laced with disbelief.

Veer gave a short, mocking laugh, the kind that scraped under her skin. "Sweetheart," he drawled, tilting his head, "you think my eyes are for decoration? I can also see it’s a sparrow. What I’m asking is—" he leaned forward, his grip tightening cruelly on the bird’s wings— "what the hell is this bastard doing in your room?"

Kaya looked at the sparrow, then at Veer, and answered in a flat, almost bored tone.

"Sleeping."

Veer’s eyes bulged, his whole body jerking back like she had just dropped a thunderbolt on his head.

"WHAT THE HELL? AN UNKNOWN MAN—SLEEPING IN YOUR BED?!" His voice rattled through the cave.

Kaya pointed lazily at the tiny, trembling creature in his grip.

"It’s a bird."

That was the last straw. Veer’s face twisted in fury, his voice cracking as he roared,

"IT’S NOT A BIRD—IT’S A BEASTMAN! AND I’M ASKING YOU WHAT THE HELL THIS BASTARD IS DOING IN MY HOUSE—ON YOUR BED?!"

Kaya simply rolled her eyes, clearly done with the theatrics.

"Then why don’t you ask him yourself?" she said, and with that, she turned on her heel and started walking back toward her room, cloth still trailing through her wet hair.

The sparrow’s face turned pale, his little beak opening and closing in panic. His voice cracked as he choked out,

"CHRIPP! CHRIPPPPPP"

(How can you leave me alone?! Are you CRAZY, human?!)

Kaya, unfazed, picked at her ear as if his frantic cries were nothing more than background noise.

"Not my problem," she muttered, and without sparing him another glance, she strolled back into her room. Her leg still ached from earlier when she’d kicked him—if anything, he should take responsibility for that. He had barged into her life uninvited; now he could face the consequences of a good old-fashioned "man-to-man" talk.

The door clicked shut behind her.

Silence.

The sparrow, trembling from feather to claw, slowly turned his head. His tiny body froze stiff when his eyes met Veer’s. Amber eyes glared down at him with a weight so dark, so unyielding, that the little bird felt like his soul had been skewered. Veer’s hand clenched tighter around him, and the sparrow squeaked, his wings twitching uselessly against the iron grip.

Veer leaned in, his jaw set, voice low and sharp like a blade.

"So..." his fingers flexed once, the sparrow squealing at the pressure, "let’s talk."

The little sparrow was drenched in sweat from head to toe, its chest rising and falling weakly as it managed only a faint, broken chirp.

That soft sound lingered in the silence—

the last thing Kaya heard before her eyes fluttered shut, pulling her back into sleep.