Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) V.A. Lewis (feel good books to read .TXT) 📖

"Mommy!"

My mother knelt there, ignoring me, and continued watering the garden. I paused.

"Mom? Is everything alright?" I asked uncertainly.

I looked up at her back, worried. Why isn’’t she responding? I thought. I was confused, and afraid. Carefully, I took a step forward, and reached out to grab her hand.

"Mommy?" I asked again. "Is everything alright?"

The woman jerked up, and I backed away. The figure slowly turned her body to face me, and then—

I saw my mother looking down at me, smiling. She was fine. There was no hole in her chest, and she was unharmed. It was my mom, and she was as lovely as ever.

"Melas, dear, what’s wrong?" asked my mom, cocking her head. "You look afraid. Did something happen?"

I blinked at her, at first confused. Then I smiled, relieved.

"It’s nothing, mom. I just had a nightmare," I said, shaking my head.

But it was over now. My mom was here, and everything was alright. She spread her arms to her side in a loving, warm hug, waiting for me.

"Oh, Melas. It’s ok now. Everything will be ok. You are safe now. I promise."

I looked up at my mother as she reassured me. She was my sanctuary. My only source of happiness in this world I hated. As long as I was with her, I was happy. So I took a step forward to embrace her, to enter my safe haven, and be away from this wretched world. I reached out to hug my my mother—

Then her head exploded.

I sat up abruptly, waking up in a cold sweat. I grimaced as I upset my injured leg, and carefully lay back down as I brought a hand to my chest. My heart was pounding, and a lump was stuck in my throat. I didn’t scream, although I really felt like I wanted to right now.

I stopped myself from screaming, out of consideration for the others in the room. They probably wouldn’t have liked to hear me scream, because of their… second set of ears.

That’s right, they’re Beastkin, I thought, looking around. There were at least a dozen Beastkin in the cages that filled the storage room we were in. Each cage could barely fit a single person in it, but there were at least three of them in each cell.

In total, there were five cages sitting in the room, alongside dozens of small wooden crates that were stacked on top of each other. Unlike the cages, the crates looked to be transporting actual cargo, as they were no taller than me; and I was only average height for my age!

But I paid no attention to all that. I was only focused on one thing only: the Beastkin.

I remember being told about them by my mom… back when she was still alive. I felt a sinking feel in my chest as I thought about her again, but I forced myself to focus only on the Beastkin.

Beastkin were a species in this continent of what looked like if you took a regular Human and gave them a second set of animal features. There used to be twelve different races of Beastkin in total, but because of a variety of reasons, only half of them remain. These six races now survive and rule the country of Anibes situated in the eastern coast of the continent.

When I learned about them, I was told that they were animal-like; that they looked like a mix between a Human and an animal. I always assumed that meant they were animal-looking humanoids.

So when I thought of a Dog Beastkin, I just imagined a dog in a Human body; a person with fur covering them, and a snout protruding from their face. What I did not imagine, was a regular looking person with an extra set of ears, and a furry tail.

Like why? Why do you need two sets of ears?! What caused evolution to give you both dog ears, and Human ears?!

I sighed and facepalmed again. That was pretty much what I had been doing since I got here: thinking about the ridiculousness of their biology, and then swearing at the world. I bet this was that fake-god’s doing. I sighed out loud once again.

"Hey, you ok?"

My thoughts were interrupted by a gentle voice. I turned my head towards the source, and saw a young woman with an extra set of ears that were perking upwards, and a tail swaying from side to side.

Her hair was short, reaching only to her shoulders, and both her hair and fur were snow white in color with a pale skin to match. Her eyes were a luminescent green, with vertical slit-like pupils, and she had a small fold on her upper eyelid, covering the inner corner of her eyes.

She was the Cat Beastkin I met when I was first locked up in here, and also one of two cellmates I had. Her name was Rin, and she was looking at me with a face of concern and worry. "What’s wrong?" she asked.

I blinked, and just barely managed to stop myself from snapping at her. What’s wrong? Are you seriously asking me that? Everything’s wrong about this!

I only managed to keep my cool because I had gotten used to her over the last day of being locked up in here. I took a deep breath, and replied in a level tone.

"I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong. Thanks for asking."

"Oh good!" She clapped her hands together, and sat back in relief. "Nn, I thought you were hungry, you know! Because I am! They haven’t fed us all day!"

This time, I didn’t need to resist the urge of saying something rude, as the other occupant in the cell spoke up for me. "Of course she’s hungry, Rin. We all are. And she’s not fine either. Her