7th July, 485 BNM

Early Afternoon

Indo-Burmese sub-continent

Megheleya Provincial Kingdom lands

Malabutu Valley, Vine depths

Temple overlook

The river running alongside the ruined stone buildings ahead and below them, as they looked on from downstream atop a small stone surfaced hill, sat in contrast to what supposedly lay within, and what lay around it.

Vines choked the rainforest around the temple, the vibrant green largely replaced by decayed greyish/green webs of the suffocating vines. In some places, what trees the vines had been choking had decayed and rotted away, leaving only an intricate hollow, weblike outline of what rainforest giant the vines had engulfed.

Around here, the jungle was absolutely silent, save for the running river noises.

They were hidden amidst some vine growths, peering out the distant temple's main entrance, half collapsed in itself. Shaking her head, Nahia remarked as Starswirl himself could clearly see it:

"Front way in isn't an option, and I don't think they'll let us in freely."

"Any other ways in?" Starswirl asked. Nahia paused in thought, before she looked at the sun overhead, confident of their time before sundown.

"The creatures come out at night mostly. Day is our ally. We'll search for a way in elsewhere."

The Grey Unicorn visibly worried, as he stared at the temple ahead. Nahia gave Starswirl an unsympathetic look, pointing out:

"We shall not be long if we're in there. Remember, it may not be good news of your friend we find. At least we shall know more of the Overlord."

As Nahia stood up to begin prowling off, not waiting for Starswirl, he asked the tigress outright: "Is there anything about this temple, the creatures, the Overlord, which either we don't know, or I haven't been told?"

Pausing, Nahia remarked with an unreadable tone, though if Starswirl were daring, he'd say she was slightly fearful:

"You and I know as much as each other about all of it."

Mid Afternoon

Malabutu Valley, Vine depths

Temple outskirts

After an hour's searching, in which time no creatures had been seen, demon or otherwise, Nahia found what they were looking for, though she had reservations about it.

A cavern, its mouth flanked by slightly collapsed temple remains. There were tales of at least one or two underground tunnels leading to the main temple, something that Chai said wasn't there when the Overlord came and took over the temple 53 years ago. What they were for was uncertain, though given the collapsed state of many temple entrances of old, it was easy to guess they were replacement passages.

Sniffing cautiously, Nahia growled back to Starswirl, as she was clearly growing agitated by where they were: "We must not be in here, anywhere near the temple, before nightfall comes. This place reeks of those foul creatures."

Starswirl gave a cautious sniff, as he remarked offhandedly with a hoof to his nose: "Something else too."

"Let's hope your friend isn't what's causing that smell." Nahia said, joking in a dark manner so as to dissuade her own fears. Here, her reputation she'd built up meant utterly nothing, and she hated that feeling as much as she hated what might be dwelling somewhere in the tunnels, hopefully asleep.

As the Tigress began to slowly walk in, Starswirl couldn't help but gaze with some wariness at her left forepaw, noting the ever so slight limp she had. If things did go wrong, he had doubts about her ability to run, and maybe fight, with one good forepaw.

As he followed Nahia down into the tunnel however, something else heckled his senses. He sensed Equine magic, just as he'd envisioned, but much more refined, as powerful Alicorn magic, despite never having met one, would likely feel.

But the Equine magic was somewhat mixed with a different magic. A more primal, old, sinister magic Starswirl did not recognize.

Late Afternoon

Temple tunnel

The tunnels proved bigger than expected, though it wasn't a labyrinth at least. The tunnels split, but they all converged, before they visibly began to climb upwards to what would be the temple's interior.

They had visibly chosen well, taking the central tunnel for it being the widest, and least enclosed looking, and also the lightest due to one or two narrow slivers of light coming from cracks in the dirt and vine ceiling above.

Even so, it was still hard to see what lay about the tunnel as they walked, though by the smells, it was a dumping ground for deceased animals.

Reaching the intersection where the tunnels before climbing to the temple interior, Nahia stopped beside Starswirl suddenly, as she sniffed something on the dark cavern floor.

Flaring his horn a blue light very slightly, Starswirl's heart dropped as he saw a familiar grey travelling cloak, visibly torn and with what looked like blood stains on it. Sniffing it herself, Nahia remarked bluntly:

"Smells like Unicorn. Must have been here for at least a day."

"No, no, he can't be. How could he be dead!?" Starswirl remarked, his shock giving way to suppressed anger, and fear. His voice echoed very slightly in the dark tunnel.

"These creatures had their fill. I guess they sometimes wait until they're back before killing. He wasn't so unique to them it seems." Nahia said, as she then noticed something up ahead in the tunnel. As the Tigress wandered forwards, while Starswirl magically picked up Siral's cloak, the blue light cast a few flecks of light into the tunnel ahead.

Nahia barely suppressed a roar of panic as she saw the stationary clawed giant nearly entirely blocking the tunnel. Dropping Siral's cloak, Starswirl shone more light.

One of the terrible creatures was right there, massive and hulking. But oddly, it was as rigid and still as a tree, its burning eyes shut, the mottled and rotting skin and fur as unmoving as the wood armor and spikes that grew out of its apelike shape.

A guardian of the tunnel, clearly, more a statue right now in daylight hours it seemed. It had blocked the tunnel in such a way as only letting anything smaller than a wild pig through the gaps between its flanking arms, legs and the tunnel edges.

Relaxing, barely, Nahia remarked: "Well, we're not getting through this way. We'll have to find a different way into the temple if you want to get in."

Looking at Nahia suddenly, then down at Siral's cloak, Starswirl asked aloud, voice croaking: "Why? Siral is likely dead."

Turning to Starswirl, Nahia paused, before she remarked in agreement: "Hmm, as if you expected anything. Though I thought so too, seeing as they'd never taken anyone alive before. You thought he was alive, I thought I could gain insight into the Overlord."

Prowling past him, Nahia remarked darkly: "We were both fools."

Keeping his blue light shining on the creature guarding the tunnel, Starswirl hung his head as he also took Siral's cloak over his own. Siral came of his own choice, and now he'd paid the price.

An unfair price.

Turning around though, as he kept his lit horn illuminated, both he and Nahia froze as they saw what they'd wandered past in the darkened tunnel on the way in.

A thick layer of muck, similar to guano pits found in bat caves, was the source of the horrible stench, particularly from the smaller tunnels they hadn't come through. But in the central tunnel, where the walls and floor were pocked by lots of holes big enough for them, or the creatures, to climb through.

But as the light shone across the hall, the shadows cast down into the holes revealed a larger chamber beneath this one.

Wary, Nahia and Starswirl ventured towards one hole, peering down to see a reflective mud surface, and a large formation of woodlike boulders sitting, clinging to the walls and floor of the lower chamber.

Shining his light down, Starswirl remarked with some horror as he and Nahia saw what lay on the further wall, wriggling in response to his light.

"Oh my gods…" Starswirl's whisper carried through the cave, as Nahia was frozen, her yellow eyes gazing down into the hole, large enough to fall through if not careful and into the lower chamber.

Plastered to the far wall of the chamber was a collection of poisonous green vines that were actively shifting slightly around one of their victims. A sloth bear visibly shifted under its restraints.

Around it, a crocodile, a deer, and a wild boar were still within their vines, clearly dead.

But the sloth bear was dead too, yet it was moving somehow with the vines.

A shifting behind them from their level was the only warning, a magical force shoved them both into the hole, screaming as they fell. Before Starswirl hit the mudlike layer coating the bottom of the lower chamber though, he heard a faint, hoarse scream coming from the tunnel which had been blocked.

Siral's voice, or some malicious taunt by these clearly unnatural creatures.

Feeding chamber

Scrambling in the horrific, disgusting muck that coated the bottom of the chamber, Starswirl lit up the room with his blue magic, turning upwards to see the large creature guarding the tunnel before had sneaked up behind them to kick them down. Its burning orange eyes vanished as it returned to its post, while Nahia nearby scrambled to get towards the part of the chamber with the active vines.

"Starswirl, the deeper tunnel! Get away!"

Whipping around, Starswirl saw something he hadn't seen before as he'd looked in. A crack in the rocks, dark despite Starswirl's best efforts to light it. But from it, evil like he'd never felt.

Not the brooding, calculating evil, but the hungry, primal evil that was as old as anything magic itself.

Scrambling back, Starswirl readied more of his magic, as the unseen menace seemed to stare back from the pitch black crack in the cave. As he scrambled out of the muck, Starswirl noticed the wooden boulders on the walls and in the muck were in fact, curled up demon creatures of smaller size, perhaps newer ones, their wooden armor protecting them as they slept.

"We should never have come!" Nahia roared, as she then turned to see exactly what the vines were doing to the sloth bear.

The vines had been slowly eating the bear from the inside, some ends of them protruding out from the bear's skin and eating into other parts. While 3 other animals waited for this fate, Nahia saw the vines extended from the 'feeding wall' to the stationary demon creatures. Whatever this was, it fed the 'baby' demon creatures by the vines.

All around the feeding wall were skeletons, some intact, others shattered. As she looked, Nahia suddenly found her world stopped by what she saw in one bone pile above all others.

As Nahia went quiet, Starswirl sensed it coming out of the crack in the earth. The unseen demons, like a fluttering heat blast, distorted the air where they went. Like spots in his vision, whenever Starswirl blinked, he saw vicious demonic eyes, like a swarm of locusts, staring back at him and Nahia hungrily.

Looking around, Starswirl realized what had been happening here, to his ever growing horror.

The Overlord had found ancient demons, and with his Alicorn magic, had contained some in bodies of monkeys from a tribe he deceived and befriended, which with his own Alicorn magic, morphed them into the creatures that had attacked him and Siral.

And now here, in this breeding ground for more of those creatures, he found that the Overlord had full on translocated a Demon source to the temple for his own use, giving them form via the creatures they'd likely inhabit once developed enough by the vine infused growth.

In time, what myths arose from here would give a new shape to these demons' already fearful reputation in this region of the world.

The Rakshasa had taken physical form now.

Sensing the malicious force approaching them, Starswirl surged his blue magic, sending a shockwave out to drive the hidden demons back into their hole in the caverns. While invincible in their spirit form, they were more easily dealt with than in physical form.

The blue lit up the cave as the demons were driven back, for now.

"Nahia, the tunnels, we must go!" Starswirl loudly reamarked.

But Nahia didn't hear this, as she had carefully walked over to a corner of the cave strewn with bones. Casting a look over to her direction, Starswirl saw her standing over what looked like a few small skeletons. 3 Tiger cub skeletons.

"Nahia..."

Standing over the trio of tiger cub skeletons, one of them much less intact than the others, Nahia's world had imploded, and Starswirl's remarks fell on deaf ears as he pleaded with the clearly grief stricken tigress, herself not moving at all:

"Nahia, Nahia, look at me. Listen to me! We have to leave, NOW. Those demons are going to come back for us, and maybe ones with bodies too!"

As if on cue, some scrambling from a few holes up above them signaled some demon creature footsteps approaching, while Starswirl hopelessly tried to get Nahia to move from her shocked mourning of her 3 long dead cubs, a shaking paw reaching towards one of the cub skulls:

"Nahia, they've been dead a while! We have to go!"

A horrific, hissing shriek came from above, as a new type of bodied Rakshasa came falling down to land in the muck, ready to take them on. Clearly, not every King Cobra had escaped or just been killed.

Rearing up, as a larger number of orange eyes from larger monkey shaped Rakshasa peered from the cavern above, the large, 30-foot King Cobra Rakshasa bared its fangs as its orange eyes blazed at them, the wood protruding from its scales to resemble spines on a crocodile's back.

As the Cobra struck, Starswirl fired a burst of blue magic, hurling it back against the wall as he also formed a bubble shield around himself and Nahia, while he bellowed to her:

"NAHIA!"

This last bellow from Starswirl snapped the Tigress out of it, snatching her paw from reaching out to her nearly 10 year dead cubs' skeletons, as she turned in a panic to see the Cobra Rakshasa strike Starswirl's barrier yet again, while from above, a set of small monkey Rakshasa scrambled through the holes.

As the invisible demons clawed at the shield, while the Cobra Rakshasa struck again, the blue forcefield began to give under the pressure. Turning to Nahia, Starswirl didn't wait for her to be ready, as he focused on the first place that came to mind.

Focusing his horn, Starswirl's shield fell as Nahia vanished in a blue flash by Starswirl's teleportation spell. As he raised the shield again, a few of the spirit demons had got through, while the creatures banged away helplessly.

As he readied to teleport himself, Starswirl suddenly was wracked with nightmares, thousands of burning eyes in his mind, cackling voices hungry for his body and soul.

Shock engulfed him, and the shield fell once again as Starswirl collapsed in shock at the demons plaguing his mind.

The cavern plunged into darkness, save for the burning eyes of the bodied Rakshasa King Cobra and Monkeys. As the Cobra struck out in the dark, a horrific yell rang out as one of its long fangs punctured something fleshy.

Right then though, before it could even react, what it had bitten lit up in a fierce blue light, and the Rakshasa Cobra screeched as its knife sized fang was ripped from its mouth as the Unicorn teleported from the cave.

The cave fell silent, save for the echoing voices from within the cavern's Rakshasa demon hole, and the creatures crawling/slithering up out of the growing chamber.

That bite had snapped Starswirl from the demons plaguing his mind by the pain, and let him focus for what microseconds he needed.

Meanwhile

Late Afternoon

Temple Ruins, Central Chamber

The sunlight streaming from the roof inlets overhead into the stone chamber seemed mocking of the events unfolding in the main chamber, and what had just occurred below in the Rakshasa tunnels.

Gasping for his breath, Siral keeled forwards in his vine restraints from the upright table, sweat and stinging pain all over his black furred Unicorn body.

He could have sworn he heard the faintest of cries in Starswirl's voices, barely discernible, as Geldrath unleashed the last round of torturous, test spells on him.

The sand brown furred, orange eyed Alicorn nodded at the results, remarking: "Excellent. Now, I…"

Geldrath trailed off as he sensed something, and unknown to Siral, he was being contacted by the hordes of Rakshasa, bodied or spirit, in the temple tunnels. As he brooded internally, Siral's exhausted vision cast around to the chamber's surroundings.

The 2 apelike creatures, Rakshasa give bodies with Geldrath's magical skill as he'd later find out, stood stoic in their mottled, rotted skin and wooden armor plates and spikes, orange eyes seemingly as stoic as well as they guarded the chamber. And Siral swore he'd seen a few other, larger than normal creature shapes, such as a King Cobra, a few smaller monkeys, and even a few vultures at one point.

But he was so tired, he wasn't sure he'd manage his flimsy escape method, and he'd tired himself out hiding his plan by distracting any mind probes Geldrath made with information he'd not look for, fooling the Alicorn into thinking anything of worth had been acquired already.

Coming out of his trance, Geldrath gave a small smile as he remarked to Siral:

"Starswirl has given up on you. He presumes you dead, to the same fate that nearly befell him and the crippled Tigress that he is escorted by."

Siral was quiet, as he knew full well Geldrath was most likely not lying. Why lie when he held all the cards?

"And by the Rakshasa spirits that plagued his mind for a moment, I know I'd be wasting my time imprisoning him now. The only thing he knew of worth to me that you did not was the prophecy line he omitted from you. That he escaped is of little concern."

Geldrath made to turn, as he once again readied to leave for a rest, to gather himself before using the medallion of Ghung Chian he'd taken from Siral to drain Siral's life and magic entirely for his use. The Alicorn threw back these last words to Siral as he turned a corner of the hallway ahead, hoofs trotting on the moss covered stone:

"I told you he'd leave you for dead, and my creatures merely helped by telling him know in advance what will become of your remains when I return."

As the Alicorn left the temple room, Siral felt the pain and stinging all over his body. He had no reflective mirror, water or magic at use, he had no idea what his body looked like in its entirety.

Craning his restrained head down, he saw raw red burn marks, shallow cuts that Geldrath had healed after they were made initially deeper by attacking spells. His fur was bald in places, and blood vessels showed where his body had been wracked with pain from internal spells and curses.

Looking up, Siral saw his horn was still intact. He had one hope, that Geldrath would have to undo the magic restricting vines around him as he was drained by the medallion.

His friend's loyalty meant nothing right now, just escape. And for once, Siral would overcome something Starswirl could not.

Late Afternoon/Dusk

Jungle river shores, upstream from temple.

Scrambling up the rocks, Nahia didn't care about anything right now except for getting as far from the temple as possible. She didn't know exactly how, but she guessed Starswirl used magic to suddenly flash her to the cave tunnel mouth.

Without a second's thought, as she'd seen the sun getting lower and lower, she'd ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

As she gripped one rock, she suddenly felt her bad left forepaw give out, as she went tumbling into the shallow muddy banks of the river.

Panting hard, she heard the sounds of rainforest wildlife nearby, meaning she'd ran all the way to where the vine labyrinth that choked the rainforest around the temple were not in total control here. The edge of the Overlord's full on dominion.

Trying to stand up, Nahia gasped as her forepaw burned in agony. What was once a dull ache all the time was now a scorching pain. She had clearly damaged it during her mad dash out of the temple's vicinity, made worse by her slip down the slope just now into the muddy river shallow she now wallowed in.

Laying on her side, Nahia breathed through her pain, though she already could see in some distant trees some jungle denizens watching her. Their eyes, usually fearful of her, as she wanted, no, needed it, were not fearful. There was surprise, but most shaming of all, there was mockery.

A few monkeys pointed at her from across the river in their tree, and even a few birds overhead circled over her prone form. She did nothing except lay there. The terrifying huntress of the jungle was a far cry from what everyone thought she was, and by the looks of it, always had been.

Nahia knew the birds and monkeys would spread word of her misery, her grief, her currently pathetic state in her opinion. Her reputation had been permanently ruined.

Her body failed her with her forepaw, her spirit failed her when seeing her first cubs' remains, and her façade of over a decade was gone now. And with her current condition, she'd not survive to make it back to her current cubs and mate.

The Huntress of Malabutu wallowed in her grief, and her pain, uncaring as the night, the time when the Rakshasa roamed the jungles most, would come out and inevitably find her, a wounded animal in body, pride and spirit.

Sunset

Jungle river, Vine jungle outskirts

Staggering through the vine forests, delirious and in pain, Starswirl forced another healing spell into his foreleg yet again. The single Rakshasa Cobra fang, the size of a pen knife, was still inside his leg, and he considered it miraculous that he'd teleported right as it was likely going to pump him full of much more venom than he received.

Healing spells, and basic antivenom and poison spells, kept him conscious and going. But he'd need time, and a safe place, to fully heal himself. Neither of which was a luxury in this jungle, less so at night.

The sun was getting low, but Starswirl had to find Nahia first.

Following a magically illuminated set of tiger footprints, Starswirl heard sounds of rainforest bugs in the distance, and he knew he was leaving the depths of the utterly vine dominated temple vicinity.

Coming upon the river, he saw a slide mark, and as he quickly snapped his gaze right, he caught a glimpse of a still breathing, but unmoving Tigress.

Rushing over, Starswirl checked her over, and saw she was in a state of shock, and had a sprained paw by the look of it, combined with her usual internal injuries.

Wracking his mind, the Wizard spared a look back towards the faint stone outline of the temple far downriver a mile away, barely visible over the darkening treeline.

Hardening his heart, Starswirl quietly murmured on the dusk wind that picked up:

"I'm sorry Siral."

Turning his attention down, the Grey Unicorn knew he could save Nahia, now that he had her. And he knew exactly where to head, now that he knew parts of the jungle that were safe.

Hoof on Nahia, Starswirl began a long path of teleportation upriver with her in tow, though she barely comprehended it as a series of flashing dreams.

Early Nightfall

Malabutu Valley

Chai's territory, hidden bat cave

Among Chai's large swathes of territory, despite the vines choking some areas around the river systems her main cave flanked, there were many safe, smaller caves to use that weren't in use by her King Cobra entourage. Starswirl had spotted them as Nahia took them to Chai in the first place.

Now, as her eyes fluttered open, Nahia saw orange and yellow flickering light in the centre of the stone cave floor before her. The smoke wafting up into the cave's ceiling to trail out a small crack in the cave roof and out high up in the rocky hills they were in now.

Sat opposite her, Nahia blearily saw Starswirl running a blue light from his magical horn over his forearm, a slightly bloody, thumb claw sized snake fang laying on the cave floor nearby, though the blood had dried slightly already.

Seeing she was awake, Starswirl warned her gently: "Careful, your paw was badly hurt. I stopped the spraining, but I didn't want to do too much in case I overstepped."

Blinking, Nahia was not responsive for a few moments, as she asked: "You saved me."

"I didn't want to lose a second friend in the same day." Starswirl said darkly, his grey furred face turning from Nahia for a moment. Feeling the stinging of some tears in her eyes, the Tigress looked down morosely, adding: "I've been nothing but rude to you, threatening to kill you, eat you, or just not caring about your friend. And I didn't even wait for you when you first got me out of that cave."

"I'd question your will to survive if you had waited." Starswirl added, not at all joking after what they'd been trapped in. Nahia blinked a few times, staring into the hypnotic flames of the campfire lighting up the cave before her:

"I'm so sorry your friend is gone. Those, things, didn't even give the decency to kill him before they took him down there. At least my.."

Nahia couldn't even finish, as she sank her head down into the stone, while Starswirl simply looked away, and let her exercise her grief.

"My cubs, they killed them, fed them to those spawn of theirs. I couldn't save them, I was too weak…"

Face dropping a bit, Starswirl sympathized with Nahia. Had he been stronger, Siral may not have been captured in the first place. Murmuring in a low tone, Starswirl remarked in a show of honesty on his part of what he'd been told:

"I didn't want Siral on my journeys at first. I wanted him to live his life, not just following me. He was curious, and he wanted to go. I had to go on these travels, he chose to. And I never told him just how much that's come to mean to me, or why I at first didn't like that he'd come along."

Nahia shuffled slightly, wiping a few tears from her eyes with her good forepaw as she lamented: "I took that girl calf from the village, I tipped those paranoid villagers into sacrificing you and he to this horrible valley. I am so sorry I have caused you so much grief."

As she lamented, Nahia remarked bitterly: "But it won't be like before ever again. The jungle's seen me afraid of those creatures, an utter wreck. They won't take me seriously ever again. Now my family may be at risk when someone once afraid of me decides on repayment."

Starswirl knew this was what Chai had told him about, and he asked as sensitively as possible while admitting: "Chai told me about your whole, reputation. I just thought you should know."

Nahia blinked, but figured Chai let Starswirl know because he was trustworthy at the time to keep his mouth shut. There was no need for that now though.

"If this place had never been as vicious as it is with the Overlord, like when my mother was a cub, and if those damned Bull hunters hadn't tried to take my cubs for fur, I'd be strong enough where I didn't need a fragile facade."

"So that's why you spread lies and exaggerations." Starswirl saw it as truth now, as it had come from Nahia's mouth itself.

"I don't want to be hurt like those Bulls did to me, like the creatures did to my cubs. I had to, I was too weak, I had to have something to make me strong, to survive."

As Starswirl saw Nahia finally slump down with her face in the stone, quietly sobbing, he felt the faint rush, not as fast as with the past 3 times, of the Exemplar being demonstrating what was the most powerful form of their trait.

Honesty was at its most powerful when overcoming extreme grief. Starswirl understood this well. After all, he had things he'd not told Siral about the Prophecy, about those closest to his heart being potential threats.

He had been wrong, as Siral was now gone.

For now, he and Nahia rested from their wounds and grief in the cave Starswirl had found them in, the cursed Temple not far enough away for both of them.

But the events of that night were far from over, as the Overlord prepared to boost his power with the captured Unicorn he'd been using as a test subject, with an artefact the Unicorn had acquired in his travels, and with Alicorn magic.

Within the temple's confines, as Geldrath readied to drain Siral of everything he was in life for his own use, Siral himself braced for his upcoming ordeal.

Whatever happened, Siral and Geldrath would ensure the other didn't survive. The Alicorn wanted Siral's power and life force to strengthen his further. Siral on the other hand, wanted to see the Alicorn, this example of too many future threats the Prophecy had been warning against, dead and tortured in the process, as payback for being used as a test subject for his spells. He'd examine his body's scars later, as he didn't even see what he looked like now.

By tomorrow morning, Siral knew he or Geldrath would be dead, and if he was the one alive, he didn't care if he was scarred for life.

Siral wanted everything Geldrath had built for himself destroyed, simple as that. Nothing else mattered to the Black Unicorn wizard.

Author's Notes:

Grief is best overcome with honesty, even if it's painful in the short term. These exemplars are so named for powerful examples they set, not necessarily things that can be done on any given day of the week.

Rakshasa: Hindu demon like creatures. In this story, the pure Rakshasa are the bodiless spirits escaping from the pit Geldrath opened up when he first took power, as he found a Rakshasa hive and used them to take over first thing.

The Bodied Rakshasa can vary in shape too, and new bodies are grown by that vine tube feeding chamber, which Nahia's old cubs, once dead, were taken to, and the poor Sloth bear corpse in there at the time being sucked dry at that moment.

While Honesty's example has been set, the drama of this Arc is not over at all. This arc is a gamechanger for a good reason.