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Chapter 6 - Flowers in Hell

The sunset painted the forest in bloody hues as Liora sat fuming by the ashes of their fire. Her fingers dug into the dirt, each furrow marking another grievance against the devil sharing her body.

A rustling came from the bushes. The goblin-Kale emerged - all yellowed fangs and warty green skin - clutching a fistful of violets plucked clumsily by claws meant for rending flesh.

"Here," he grunted, extending the bouquet.

Liora smacked them away. "Are you mocking me?"

Kale watched the flowers scatter. Then, with deliberate slowness, he picked one up and ate it. "If you have bad day," he said through petals, "birds shit on head." He pointed upward where the empty sky mocked his proverb.

As Liora seethed, Kale turned to an ironwood tree. His goblin muscles strained against the unyielding bark, axe-blows ringing through twilight. By the time he'd carved a serviceable log, his borrowed body gleamed with sweat.

Meanwhile, Liora speared fish with vindictive precision. Ten silver bodies soon smoked over the fire, their skins crackling under salt and precious oil. She devoured them all without tasting, hunger outpacing spite. Fear always made her ravenous.

A splash drew her attention. Kale surfaced from the river, water sluicing off his naked goblin form.

"Where are your clothes?" she snapped.

Kale blinked. "Gorilla wear clothes?" He patted his distended belly. "Goblin gut hides everything. Though..." He eyed the darkening treeline. "Crocodile leather would help after sunset."

As Liora tossed him the hide, a six-foot monitor lizard exploded from the brush. Steel flashed - once, twice - before her sword talisman severed its head. No core. Kale fell upon the corpse, ripping chunks with blunt teeth.

"Disgusting rat," Liora muttered.

The goblin's jaw froze mid-chew. For a heartbeat, she saw something human in those yellow eyes - wounded pride, perhaps. Then he swallowed loudly and began digging a sleeping pit with violent thrusts of his claws.

Night brought owls. Liora's binding ropes snared one, but not before talismans burned through half her reserves. Worse came later - a venomous centipede that buried its fangs in her wrist. Paralysis crept up her arm like cold ink.

Kale's voice cut through the panic: *Cut it out. Now.*

"Get out of my body!" she screamed.

*Say that again and I shatter myself.* His presence vibrated with rare emotion. *Even devils keep promises.*

Steel bit flesh. Kale guided her shaking hand to excise poisoned muscle, his touch clinical yet oddly gentle. Blood pooled black in the moonlight.

"You'd cry too," he muttered, "if you saw this damage." His voice took on a distant quality. "I did cry. When I was young. Before... before the tears dried up."

Liora scoffed. "Your morning flowers were poison too."

Kale didn't argue. He crushed herbs into a poultice with unnecessary force. "The bugs won't come," he said finally. "I control them. Mostly." A beat. "Not the centipede."

As holy light knit her flesh, Liora realized the truth - no insects had troubled them until Kale withdrew his presence. The devil's most twisted kindness yet: protection so seamless she'd never noticed it.

The moon hung like a pale scar in the sky when the **awakened monkey** came.

It moved through the trees with unnatural silence, its elongated fingers brushing bark as it stalked toward their camp. Kale was already on his feet, goblin body coiled tight.

The fight was brutal.

The monkey's claws raked deep furrows across Kale's borrowed chest before he finally snapped its neck with a sickening *crack*. He didn't bother cooking it—just tore into the raw flesh, blood dripping down his chin, before tossing Liora the **pulsing core**.

*"Absorb it,"* he grunted.

She tried, but the pain was unbearable. Her arm—still crippled from the centipede's poison—throbbed with every attempt. Kale's presence slithered into her mind, guiding the energy through her veins, forcing it to settle where it was needed most.

Liora slept fitfully, her body a battleground of pain and power.

---

**Dawn brought a forest cat.**

Lean and hungry, it stalked toward their camp, eyes glinting with unnatural intelligence. Kale drove a spear through its ribs before it could pounce.

*"Another core,"* he said, tossing it to her. He tries to heal her.

*"I don't need your help,"* Liora snapped.

Kale didn't argue. He just turned and began hacking at a tree with dulled determination, his goblin muscles straining as he shaped the wood into a crude **boat**.

Liora watched, grudgingly impressed, before handing him another axe. It, too, dulled quickly—but by midday, a small, floating vessel sat at the water's edge.

---

**Then the goblin warband attacked.**

Seven of them, wiry and snarling, their wooden clubs studded with sharpened bone.

*"Get on the boat,"* Kale ordered, snatching the sword Liora offered.

The first goblin lunged—and lost its head in a single swing. The second fell just as quickly. But the remaining five came at him in a frenzy, their teeth bared.

*"Release the bats,"* Kale hissed into Liora's mind.

She didn't hesitate.

The air filled with shrieking wings as the bats descended, their sonic cries disorienting the attackers. Kale used the distraction to **crush one's chest with his bare hands**, digging out the core inside.

By the time the last goblin fled, three cores glistened in Kale's palm.

*"For the bats,"* he muttered, feeding them with goblin met to the surviving swarm. In this battle two bat die. Only 20 of them are alive.

---

**The water was no sanctuary.**

As they pushed the boat into the current, Liora's eyes scanned the dark depths. Something moved beneath the surface—something *big*.

Kale's borrowed goblin body tensed. *"Row faster."*

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