My Wild Beast-Chapter 84: The Call of Tayun (7)

[ AN: Music Recommendation: Black Jaguar Primal Ambient by Infinity Realm ]

Yoa entered the darkness, letting it settle over his features, as a gust of air brushed against his face. His glowing eyes piercing through the gloom as his jaguar vision peeled back the shadows and brought his surroundings into sharp focus.

It wasn’t cold, nor hot. The air was still, so quiet that the sound of his own breath seemed louder than usual. His fingers relaxed slightly from their fists, instinctively brushing against the walls beside him, but they met no surface.

The large space was empty. Nothing stood before him. But that didn’t mean he was alone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and the presence of another being thrummed behind him. But when his head whipped back to look, there was nothing but darkness there.

Even the path he’d taken from where the guides stood had vanished.

His steps were slow and measured, unsure of what to expect. The guide’s words were cryptic, as usual, and offered little real direction. So, like always, he followed his gut. Since the second trial, Yoa had learned to trust it more than the belief that everything could be won by strength alone.

Yoa’s head whipped to the side at the sudden sound of movement, like a pebble rolling across the cavernous floor. He followed the sound, muscles tensing, preparing for anything to appear from the shadows. But when nothing but the roots of the tree and rock halted his steps, he scowled.

There was more to this. Yoa could feel it. Noko and Vulcan’s trials ended swiftly, so it must be a split second of choice or action that determined his fate.

The sound of claws scratching down the rock to his right, locked his jaw, and clenched his teeth at the sound.

A harsh scratching of claws against stone rang out to his right, stiffening his spine. The sound set his teeth on edge, and his jaw tightened instinctively, every muscle coiled with alert tension. It was meant to unnerve him, but it only irritated his ears.

A shadow whispered past him. Yoa turned sharply, but it was too late. It came again, from another angle... then another. He moved with instinct, ducking, pivoting, heart pounding as the air thickened with the unseen threat. He tried to keep track of it, but it was made impossible.

A guttural growl resounded around him.

He knew that sound.

The presence circled him, silent and deliberate, stalking him like he was its prey, until at last, it slowed. From the gloom, a form began to take shape. The outline of a jaguar, prowled towards him, its strides purposeful, growls rumbling around the cave, causing dust and stones to tremble and fall to the ground.

Yoa braced himself against this shadow jaguar, hands raising, legs parting. The jaguar lunged for him. His breath hitched. The jaguar passed through him like a ghost.

Cold trickled down his spine, and nausea pinched at his stomach as his body stumbled backward, his shoulders rounding from the impact of this shadow beast. His body whipped around, barely staying upright from the crippling cold and fear now surfacing his skin.

He couldn’t understand it.

His breath was yanked from his lungs and his vision darkened and flickered in and out of focus, his heart thumping harder and harder, breaths growing shallow as he watched through the pulsing darkness brimming at the edges of his sight as the jaguar jumped out of him and into a translucent, crystalised wall.

The jaguar paced along this wall, and Yoa found himself mirroring the beast, unable to stop his limbs from moving. Then the jaguar flickered out of existence, and the silence became unbearably loud.

And then a whisper came.

Not words—not exactly. It was a pressure in his mind, like a thought that didn’t belong to him. Something old and knowing, sifting through his memories like a hand brushing through leaves.

A flicker of light blinked in the dark. Then another. Then a hundred more. Each shimmer twisted together until they formed a reflection against this translucent wall.

Raokan? No. That wasn’t his father. It was him.

He was staring at himself. An older version of himself.

But not quite. This Yoa stood straighter, eyes colder, expression set in grim pride. His muscles seemed sharper beneath his skin, his posture more rigid, more powerful—but without warmth. It was Yoa, if he had shed compassion for power.

Yoa’s tongue felt thick and limbs locked in place. The longer this being stared at him, his eyes trailing down his body like he was nothing more than dirt, the more Yoa felt a burning need to break the silence. This creature’s gaze was unyielding and sharp, piercing straight through him, pinning him to the spot.

"Who are you?" Yoa asked, surprised to hear his voice steady and strong, though his lips never moved. He’d spoken to this man directly through his mind. This wasn’t a power of his, but Yoa also didn’t question it.

The other Yoa tilted his head. "I’m what you could be. If you weren’t afraid to be great."

Yoa took a step back. The illusion didn’t follow. It stood its ground, lips curled in faint disdain.

"You waste your time with feelings. With weakness. The family you cling to? The friends you protect? Dead weight."

"You’re not real," Yoa said.

"Real enough," the mirror-beast answered, eyes gleaming. "Real enough to kill you if you try to deny me."

The darkness around them began to pulse, and suddenly the mirror image stepped forward—slowly, confidently. In his hand appeared a weapon: a curved blade shaped like a jaguar’s claw, made of obsidian.

Yoa took a defensive stance. His heart was thudding, but not from fear. This trial wasn’t about strength. It was about choice.

"You know... That eagle shifter... He is powerful. He could be the next guardian..." False Yoa’s voice had darkened, turning cruel. "You’re no match for him..."

Yoa’s jaw clenched in response. The sound of the obsidian blade scraped against the wall, sparks flicking off it as false Yoa dragged it beside him, dark eyes locked on him. "You could kill him," he said simply.

Yoa frowned. "I will not kill him," he ground out.

"Why not?" The whisper caressed his ear, echoing from behind him like the false Yoa was there.

"It would be easy. Kill and then become the guardian..." That voice dripped with sweet seduction. "Kill the last Marked One. Claim your spot." freewēbnoveℓ.com

"Kill."

"Kill him."

"No," Yoa snarled, glaring at his surroundings.

False Yoa appeared right before him after he refused his words.

"You think being the Guardian means protecting everyone," the false Yoa said, circling now, changing tactics. "But sometimes it means letting go. Sometimes it means sacrifice. Can you do that? Or will you fail, like the others?"

Yoa didn’t answer. Instead, he watched his double, noticed the lack of warmth in his movements, the precision that bordered on cruelty. This version of him had power, yes—but no connection.

The beast lunged. Yoa moved.

They clashed. Not in the traditional sense—there was no sound, no force to their movements. It was like watching thoughts fight: his hope against his fear, his empathy against his instinct to survive at all costs. Every strike the false Yoa landed stung in his mind more than his flesh. Every block Yoa made required deeper resolve.

Then the voice returned.

"Fight, and you become him. Deny, and you fall. Accept, and you pass."

Yoa hesitated.

The mirror Yoa slashed at him again, the obsidian blade grazing his shoulder. But Yoa didn’t strike back. He stepped away, lowered his arms.

"I see you," he said softly. "You are part of me. But not all of me."

The mirror image snarled, blade raised again—but wavered.

"I won’t kill you," Yoa whispered. "I will carry you."

The blade dropped. The figure began to dissolve, like ash on the wind. Piece by piece, it drifted upward and vanished.

Darkness swallowed everything once more. Yoa fell to his knees, gasping. Not from exertion, but from the weight of it—the revelation. His path forward wasn’t about destroying what scared him inside. It was about understanding it.

The darkness began to warm. Light bled into the edges. A breeze stirred the air.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Yoa’s eyes blinked open. Gone was the tunnel and Zahul. Sunlight blinded him and he squinted, shading his eyes with his hand as he tried to make sense of what just happened.

He was lying in the crook of a tree branch, the sun filtering through thick leaves above him. Birds chirped. Water gurgled in the distance.

"He’s awake!" Aiyana’s voice rang. She sounded more like a girl than he’d ever heard her before. It shocked him into stillness.

"Finally!" Atia leaned over, upside-down, grinning. "You look like you got dragged through the jungle backwards."

Yoa groaned, sitting up slowly. His limbs ached, but not from any real injury. "How did I get here...?"

"You tell us! One minute I was winning-"

"Ah no! I was in the lead, thank you very much!" Aiyana smacked Atia on the chest, glaring at him.

Atia rolled his eyes and nudged her shoulder. "Damned Savage Princess." He stroked his chest where a red handprint was from Aiyana’s ’attack. "Anyway... You’re the one acting all smug like you’d been here all day waiting for us."

Aiyana tilted her head, catching sight of Yoa’s confused state. "Are you alright?" Aiyana asked, her brows knit in concern.

He looked at them both, heart full. This wasn’t the worst sight to wake up to after that trial.

"I think I passed," he said simply.

The two exchanged glances, curiosity and relief flickering between them.

Atia chuckled. "Well, whatever it was, you almost woke the jungle up from all that snoring!"

Yoa smiled faintly, glancing to the sky. Within every fibre of his being, he could tell he’d passed the trial, and that mirror beast revealed the darkest parts of him, what he could be, how he could think if he let his emotions control him-

"Snap out of it brother, you’ve been sleeping here far too long." Atia flicked Yoa’s ear and snapped him out of his thoughts.

Yoa smirked and leapt up to join his friends with the sense of awareness coiling around him that would never fade.

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