The Beast and His Tamer

Chapter 23: Rock Talk

"Hmm," Sebastian put a hand to his chin. "Now there just has to be something it leads to. A small cave, a lake, a hole in the ground, something."

He was walking by the bush where their first clue had been found. Sebastian wasn't ashamed to admit that he would have never found such a small tooth in a bush. It wasn't a canine tooth that Odin had found, but one of those cute tiny ones that were in between the canines. That was why he was curious as to how both men could tell that it was Gulliver's.

It really was a mystery to be solved through. Sebastian was tempted to play some music to see if he would come to him, but he doubted it. He hadn't been too far from this area when he had first ventured to this strange forest, and nothing had come from this direction then. That tooth was from a while ago as well. Which meant that it was going to be even more difficult figuring out just which direction he had gone.

This really was an adventure. Sebastian was also astonished at just how much land this pack had owned. This trip had been still within territory lines, yet it took a good few hours to get to. Sebastian could hear the ocean if he listened close enough. He absolutely loved the sound of the ocean waves, although he wasn't fond of defeating some of those monsters. That just wasn't his specialty.

"Oh, this forest just loves to play tricks on me," he plopped down to the ground. "Here I was just trying to find some excuse to not be laying down with someone I really shouldn't be, and now I don't even have a clue what I'm doing."

It was nice sleeping with Rhett and Everett curled up to him. It was actually the best sleep he had gotten on the forest ground in a long time. But it felt too good. His heart was too warm curled up in those blankets. He loved singing children to sleep, because that's how his uncle would always sing him to sleep. Everett was fun to play with, and he was happy that he had gotten the little boy out of the house, even for a little bit.

It just wasn't fair, is what it is. Because sleeping like that made him start to think of the future, and Sebastian couldn't think about the future. Not when he had a whole mystery in the present to take care of. And he couldn't even do that right.

"Oh, what am I going to do with myself?" he laid down on the soft dirt, covering his face. "I'm turning into a complete mess."

His emotions with Rhett were getting more complicated the longer he stayed with him. The way he held him just made him feel important. As if at least one person cared for him, and that one person was enough. Sebastian didn't know what to do with such a strong emotion. It was those strong emotions that he usually ran from or shoved to he back of his mind and forgot about. Those temptations that he never fed into were back and were stronger than ever. Because now they had personified into an actual being.

And they say that every day life can be complicated.

Sebastian started pacing back and forth as he thought, not remembering transitioning from laying down to standing up. His body merely moved as his mind sped through like a lightning bolt of thoughts. That was what had happened when he first woke up. He didn't know how he did it, but he somehow wiggled his way out of Rhett's hold, letting him just hold little Everett instead.

This just couldn't conclude to anything good if he fed into this emotion. Because then he would have to tell his parents, and they would be angry. Probably angrier than when his cousin left them all to be with a beast. It was a taboo for tamers to be with beasts, for they had used their magic on them, and most of the time the emotion was fake because of it. It led to quite a lot of issues in the past.

But was this fake? Sebastian didn't know. He had never felt it so strong before. And then even if it was real for him, it might not be real to Rhett. He didn't want to hurt him. That wasn't Sebastian's plan at all. That was why he had stayed so long with him and truly wanted to get to the bottom of this. Perhaps he just thought that he felt something for Sebastian because he was able to make him feel better and he was helping him find his brother.