Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

One Hundred and Forty

It took less than a week for Muir to fly to Flame City. He didn't stop to sleep for more than a couple hours at a time, needing to know what threats remained for the female who deserved a peaceful life more than anyone.

The first sign of the city was a sparkling of light, like sun glinting off the waves of an oasis, but as he got closer, the sand became covered in a white frost and then soon solidified into thick ice covering even the dunes. The reflection of his flying form distorted, shrinking and warping with every rise and fall of the ephemeral glass. Then the bodies appeared. Beasts fleeing with expressions of terror and beasts with looks of glee as though they'd just found a trove of emeralds scattered the outskirts of the city. Each one frozen completely solid in what was their final steps. Whether by weather or creature, Some of the bodies had already been shattered to pieces. Beast sized piles of ice chunks with things that glimmered red and white, bone and blood littered the sands. 

The gruesome scene held even more the piles and the petrified the closer he go to the city center. Nothing moved. Only the tinkling sound of the desert wind moving ice to softly bounce against ice could be heard. From the sky, it wasn't easy determining who was who and so he descended in the center of the cities upper level, the beat of his large wings causing some of the frozen to tip and fall, crashing into bits.

Scouring each level as best he could through the few remaining openings left into the city's belly, it took him three days to find the Ape king. The ape stood just outside a thick half open slab of a door on the lowest floor. Muir inched around the once great Ape King to see an expression of surprise and horror etched on his frozen features. He looked into the eyes that were still black with the weight of a soul and smirked. 

Not usually one for words, seeing a beast as powerful as this be reduced to nothing more than furniture inspired something in Muir. 

"I hadn't dared to hope that it would be this easy." Muir said as he circled the ape king. "You know, I met the female you'd kept hidden by your side for a decade. You used up all your good fortune with that. Having the female you loved for all of that time, never having to share or even worry about others glancing her way. It was more than any male could dream." Muir's smirking face turned stoic once again, "But it was a stupid choice. You kept her in a gilded cage just like the mers had, but how could a male as smart as you not know that any caught beast would be desperate to escape? You thought you could buy your way to a contented heart but that was the act of small minded fool. And she, never knowing anything more that those four walls wouldn't have been able to tell you what she wanted or needed. You can't call what you felt for her love. Like a magpie, you simply coveting the shiny and rare thing thinking you could own it. No. That isn't love. If you had truly loved, you would've done everything you could to expand her world instead of shrinking it. So she could tell you her hopes and dreams, her desires and her needs. Had you done so, you would've been able to see her face brighten like the sun and her eyes twinkle with stars. You would've known so much more about her heart. You would've known her." 

Muir circled the ape one more time, tapping the wide forehead with a talon-like nail. He felt his expression twist to one of bitterness, "We beasts are such simple-minded creatures. If even the apes can't overcome their base desires with logic, then we are all doomed. We will continue making the same mistakes without realizing we can never keep our females happy if we continue to keep them trapped and ignorant of the world around them. It takes someone like Bailey to come along and show us how stupid we've been. And even then, it was too late... For you. And for me." Muir finished, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. 

Muir then placed his hand on the ape's head, bending to look him straight in those eyes that may or may not see him. "This is the only thing I can do for her now. I will remove the threat that you pose to her safety so she can live as she pleases. And you can let your soul rest knowing that Qin will live happily right along with her. Rest in peace, Wilbert." And with that, Muir pushed the apes head until the entire body was careening to the floor and splintering into a million tiny pieces. 

Muir did not stop there. As he made his way to the surface, only scattered bits of frozen flesh were left in his wake. Then he changed to his beast and left the dead city, flying as swiftly as he could with a lightness in his chest to the one who now held his heart.

***

Short chap. I will be finishing this fanfic over the next few days. I have put it off for too long. I knew it was coming but didn't want it to end. But this feels right. Hang in there with me.

P.S. forgive me for tooting my own horn again but my book Ghostpherein now has an audiobook available through amazon/audible! I wrote it before I wrote this fanfic and I feel that the fanfic has very much helped improve my writing skills since then. With my new skills I will be working on book #2 and I hope you give it a read and let me know if it's any good. >< Thank you!