Veil Of The Wild

Chapter 6 – The Burden of Sin

Aiden trailed behind Tenwa across the dark archway, his head still spinning with the story of the cursed town. Elena trailed alongside him, her brow knit in concentration. The ruins in front of them stretched on, shattered stone and remains of bygone times hushing their stories into the evening air.

As they went further into the ruins, Aiden asked Tenwa, "I have to know something. You said they all turned into other beasts here. But why? Why not the same creature?"

Tenwa's cat-like eyes sparkled with moonlit sliver light. "Because transformation was never random. They turned into beings according to what they were like, their strength. and what they had sinned."

Aiden scrunched his brows. "What do you mean?"

Tenwa breathed, his claws slipping down an old column covered with moss. "Before the curse, I wasn't as you would see me now. I was Haztara, a fighter of immense competence. I fought battles, defended my kind. Strength was pride, was weapons. And when the curse landed, then I became what did best my being—a leopard, fast and fierce, always driven by the predator's nature within."

Elena's breath caught. "So… all these people."

"Yes," Tenwa affirmed. "They were changed based on what they were. The wise ones turned into owls. The cunning ones turned into foxes. The greedy… into scavengers."

Aiden's eyes went back to the horrific creatures that attacked them in the jungle. "Then what about those monsters that ambushed us? The ones that resembled vultures?"

A flash of fury crossed Tenwa's eyes. "They were once men who lived on corruption, feeding on the weak, stealing from others. The curse did not merely transform their bodies—it magnified their vices. Just as they once survived on others' pain, they now exist as scavengers, unable to create, only to destroy."

Aiden's fists balled up. "That means… those who were genuinely evil underwent the worst transformations."

Tenwa nodded. "Precisely. The punishment was not only in their new shape, but in their very nature."

Elena's voice was little more than a whisper. "But if the curse was intended to punish the evil, why did it touch all of them? Surely, not all were guilty?"

Tenwa's eyes clouded over. "Because it is a sin to permit sin to prosper. The villagers who did not intervene to stem the cruelty, who laughed with the oppressors or turned away from the suffering of others—those, also, were judged."

There was a heavy silence after.

Aiden took in the surroundings, the ruin, the apparitions of once-thriving civilization, and the weight of Tenwa's words settled deeply in his chest. "Which means no one was ever truly innocent."

Tenwa nodded in seriousness. "A village collapses not because of the evil-doers alone. It collapses when the righteous sit in silence."

Aiden breathed, the magnitude of it all weighing on his mind. "Then the only way to break the curse… is to make amends for the past."

Tenwa stood silent for a long time, then nodded and moved away, beckoning him deeper into the ruins. "Come. If you really want to know… there is more you need to see."

With resolve burning in their chests, Aiden and Elena pursued him further into the accursed village, hoping that the revelations they found might alter everything they thought about justice… and redemption.