Lin Yu's hands were covered in blood.
This wasn't like writing a scene where a character got injured. There were no backspace keys here, no way to tone down the visceral reality of warm blood seeping between his fingers while Kaelen's breathing grew shallower.
"Okay, brain, I know you're panicking," Lin Yu muttered, pressing harder against the wound. "But you wrote this guy. You know exactly what kind of injury would take down a wolf general. Think!"
The knowledge that had flooded into him moments before crystallized. Silver poisoning. The blade had been coated in silver—the one substance that could weaken beastmen. It wasn't a fatal dose, but combined with blood loss...
"Moonpetal," Lin Yu breathed. "I need moonpetal and—what was it?—clearwater moss?"
He'd written an entire subplot about rare healing herbs in Volume 2. At the time, he'd been proud of his worldbuilding. Now he wanted to punch his past self for not including a convenient herb garden next to every major scene.
The footsteps were getting closer. Lin Yu could hear voices:
"Search the clearing!"
"The breeding male's scent is strong here!"
"Careful—there's blood. Might be a predator nearby."
Lin Yu looked around frantically. The clearing was small, surrounded by dense undergrowth. Moonlight caught on something glinting near the tree line—a patch of silvery-white flowers with translucent petals that seemed to glow.
No fucking way.
But there it was. Moonpetal, growing exactly where he needed it, because apparently the universe was just as much of a hack writer as he was.
He lunged for the flowers, grabbing a handful and ignoring the way their stems left sticky residue on his palms. Beside them, growing on a rotting log, was a patch of moss that glowed faintly blue.
"Thank you, convenient video game logic," Lin Yu hissed, snatching the moss.
Behind him, Kaelen made a low, pained sound.
Lin Yu scrambled back, crushing the moonpetal between his palms the way the knowledge in his head told him to. The petals released a sharp, medicinal scent. He mixed them with the moss, creating a paste that looked absolutely disgusting.
The voices were almost at the clearing's edge now.
"Please work, please work, please work," Lin Yu chanted, slapping the paste directly onto Kaelen's wound.
The effect was immediate. The paste hissed on contact with the silver poisoning, neutralizing it. Kaelen's breathing evened out slightly, and some color returned to his pale face.
But he was still unconscious, still bleeding, and still a seven-foot-tall wolf beastman that Lin Yu had zero chance of moving.
"I see movement!" a voice shouted.
Out of time.
Lin Yu did the only thing his panic-addled brain could think of: he threw himself over Kaelen's body, using his smaller frame to hide as much of the wolf general as possible, and grabbed a fallen branch.
Three guards burst into the clearing—a wolf, a fox, and a bear, all carrying torches and weapons.
"You!" The wolf guard—not Slate, thank god, but someone equally intimidating—pointed at Lin Yu. "Step away from that body!"
Lin Yu clutched the branch like it was a legendary sword instead of a piece of rotting wood. "Stay back! I'm warning you! I know kung fu!"
The fox guard's ears twitched. "Is that... is that General Kaelen?"
All three guards froze.
"The Exiled General?" The bear guard's voice dropped to a whisper. "What's he doing here?"
"Dying, probably," the wolf guard said. "There's silver in that wound. We should finish him off—the bounty on his head is—"
"You'll do no such thing!" Lin Yu surprised himself with the vehemence in his voice.
The three guards turned their attention back to him, seeming to remember why they'd been chasing him in the first place.
"Little male," the fox guard said slowly, nostrils flaring. "That scent... you're the breeding male from the auction?"
"I'm nobody's male!" Lin Yu brandished his stick. "And this man is under my protection!"
The absurdity of the statement hung in the air. A skinny twenty-year-old threatening three armed beastmen with a branch while protecting a wanted criminal.
The wolf guard laughed. "Your protection? Sweetling, you're merchandise. You don't get to protect anyone. You get to come back to the auction house, get cleaned up, and fetch your owner a fortune."
"I'd rather eat my own kidneys."
"That can be arranged," the guard growled, taking a step forward.
Lin Yu's grip tightened on the branch. His mind raced through every fight scene he'd ever written. Unfortunately, most of them involved his protagonist having magical powers or convenient backup. Lin Yu had neither.
What he did have was spite and a working knowledge of his own plot devices.
"One more step," Lin Yu said with far more confidence than he felt, "and I'll scream."
The guards exchanged confused glances.
"So?" the bear guard said.
"So," Lin Yu continued, "in case you haven't noticed, we're in the Whispering Forest. You know what lives here? Shadow panthers. Dire wolves. And—oh yes—Moonlight Serpents that are attracted to loud noises and the scent of blood."
He'd made up the Moonlight Serpents in Chapter 23. Massive, aggressive, and most importantly, equal-opportunity killers that attacked beastmen and humans alike.
The guards' confident expressions faltered.
"You're bluffing," the wolf guard said, but his ears had flattened nervously.
"Am I?" Lin Yu gestured at Kaelen's still-bleeding wound. "Because there's plenty of blood here. And I'm about to provide the noise."
He opened his mouth.
"Wait!" The fox guard held up a hand. "Just—wait. Let's think about this."
"There's nothing to think about," the wolf guard snarled. "We have our orders. Bring back the breeding male. The General is irrelevant."
"The General is worth fifty thousand gold pieces," the bear guard said slowly. "Dead or alive."
The three guards looked at each other. Lin Yu could practically see the gears turning in their heads.
"We split the bounty three ways," the fox guard said. "Turn in the breeding male, collect our bonus for that, and claim the bounty on Kaelen."
"And what about the Moonlight Serpents?" the bear guard asked nervously.
"He's bluffing," the wolf guard repeated, though he didn't sound certain anymore. "Even if they're real, they don't come this close to the auction house."
Actually, Lin Yu had never specified where they hunted. Another victim of his lazy worldbuilding.
The wolf guard took another step forward. "Put down the stick, little male. Come quietly, and we won't hurt you."
"I wouldn't do that," a new voice said from the darkness.
Everyone froze.
A figure emerged from the shadows at the edge of the clearing, moving with such fluid grace .
fluid grace that Lin Yu's breath caught. Tall and lithe, with features so sharp they could cut glass, the newcomer had hair like liquid fire—red and gold that seemed to glow in the moonlight. Most striking were the eyes: amber with vertical pupils, like a cat's.
No, not a cat.
A phoenix.
"Who the fuck are you?" the wolf guard demanded.
The newcomer smiled, and it was not a kind expression. "I am Ember, Third Prince of the Phoenix Clan. And you are trespassing on territory under my protection."
Lin Yu's blood turned to ice.
Ember. The Phoenix Prince. Secondary antagonist who wasn't supposed to appear until Chapter 52. The character Lin Yu had created to be beautiful, dangerous, and completely unpredictable.
"This is neutral territory," the fox guard protested. "The treaty—"
"The treaty," Ember interrupted smoothly, "states that the Whispering Forest is neutral ground where no hunting or violence may occur without permission from the bordering clans." His smile widened. "I am a bordering clan. And I don't recall giving you permission."
The three guards exchanged nervous glances. A Phoenix Clan prince outranked auction house guards by several social tiers.
"The breeding male is stolen property," the wolf guard tried. "We're simply recovering—"
"I see no property here," Ember said, his gaze sliding to Lin Yu with unnerving intensity. "I see a free male, protecting an injured man. Quite heroic, actually."
Lin Yu did not feel heroic. He felt like he was about to throw up.
"With respect, Your Highness," the bear guard said carefully, "the Spring Auction has invested significant resources in acquiring—"
"Then perhaps the Spring Auction should invest in better cage locks," Ember said pleasantly. "Now, I'm going to give you all a choice. Leave now, and I'll forget I saw you threatening a male under my protection. Stay, and I'll be forced to file a formal complaint with your employers about attempted kidnapping on phoenix territory."
"But this isn't phoenix territory!" the wolf guard sputtered.
Ember's eyes flashed with threating gaze .
"Would you like to debate territorial boundaries with me? I assure you, it would be a very short discussion."
The three guards huddled together, whispering furiously. Finally, the fox guard turned back to Ember and bowed. "Forgive us, Your Highness. We... may have been mistaken about the territorial lines."
"How fortunate that you realized your mistake," Ember said.
The guards retreated, throwing nervous glances over their shoulders. The wolf guard shot Lin Yu one last look that promised this wasn't over, but they disappeared into the forest.
Lin Yu stood frozen, still holding his ridiculous stick, very aware that he'd just traded one dangerous situation for another.
Ember turned his full attention to Lin Yu, and those cat-like eyes seemed to see straight through him. "Well now. That was quite entertaining."
"Thank you for the help," Lin Yu said carefully. "But I should probably—"
"You should probably stay right where you are," Ember interrupted, walking closer. "Because I have so many questions. Starting with: how does a breeding male—and you are one, I can smell it—know about Moonlight Serpents? That information is restricted to high-ranking clan members."
Fuck.
Lin Yu had forgotten that detail. He'd written the Moonlight Serpents as a secret the clans kept to maintain control of the forest.
"I... overheard some guards talking?" Lin Yu tried.
"Interesting." Ember circled him slowly, like a predator assessing prey. "And how does a breeding male know field medicine well enough to treat silver poisoning? That's not exactly common knowledge."
"Lucky guess?"
"Very lucky." Ember stopped in front of him, reaching out to tilt Lin Yu's chin up with one warm finger. Lin Yu's heart hammered. "And most interesting of all: why would a valuable breeding male risk his own freedom to save the Exiled Wolf General? A wanted criminal with a death sentence?"
"I..." Lin Yu's mind went blank. "I don't like seeing people die?"
"How refreshingly naive." Ember's thumb brushed across Lin Yu's cheek, and Lin Yu fought the urge to flinch. "What's your name, little hero?"
"Lin Yu."