Fear is a very deadly feeling, it swallows whatever hope and fight you have in you, feels as though the possibility of the bad happening is far greater than the good. What is one without hope? When one fears it takes nothing but for one to draw courage from the strength within but that's the thing about fear it renders you powerless once you begin to listen to its sinister words and with it comes a feeling of helplessness, this is exactly how I feel.
I feel afraid for my life, for that of Dion's and Twist, I feel powerless and I feel helpless, I don't know what I would do if those beings return, I can't fight them and I don't think they can understand us.
So it would be a fruitless attempt to beg for mercy or try to reason with them.
A part of me thinks we won't get out of here alive and I don't blame that part of me because from the look of things if those creatures come back we are dead.
But a small part of me believes without a doubt that I will not die here today, I simply can not, I don't know why but I hope that I won't because I won't rest in peace till I see my family again.
The forest had remained silent ever since Arcotos left all that can be heard is the crackling the fire makes reminding us of just how we will die. What I don't understand but I'm grateful for is why would they light their fire, tie us up and then leave without anyone to watch us, after all, we are their meal.
Is it because they left us unconscious and they think we won't wake up or maybe because we're tied to this tree that they think we can't escape? Why didn't they just eat us immediately, why leave us here? I thought they are savages?
My thoughts are cut short the sounds of footsteps, it's hard to tell how many are approaching us no matter how hard I try to listen the tension that weighs heavily in the air is stopping me from truly listening.
It's as though time slows down as we hear it step out from the bushes, I think my heart stops as it rounds the tree only for us all to audibly release a heavy sigh through our lips.
"Oh, thank goodness it's just you Arcotos." We all get a moment of relief as Arcotos happily plants his tongue on my face, "I miss you too boy." His saliva doesn't irritate me because my mind can only think of ways he could help us escape, now that he is here I feel my hope grow but I must think of a solution.
"Is it possible for him to break us free?" I look at Twist and I watch the desperation in his eyes, I think he is more afraid of death than I am. "He is only a canis wolf Twist, his teeth are not sharp enough to cut us all loose quickly and I doubt he'd be smart enough to loosen the ropes."
As much as I'd hate to admit it Dion is right, Arcotos isn't smart enough to loosen us free, wait but he is smart enough to find us something sharp.
"Arcotos listen to me boy please find something sharp that can cut these ropes loose." He looks at me straight into my eyes, it feels as though he is trying to tell me something but before I could decipher it he takes off back into the bushes from where he came from, "Hurry boy we don't have much time." I whisper to myself even though I know he won't hear me.
Usually, moments like this requires prayers but I sure as hell won't do that, those so-called gods have made it very clear that we are on our own and whatever happens to us is our business, so I see no need to open my lips to pray.
We all wait in silence with heavy hearts wondering if we would end up dying here today by being eaten by those horrible looking beings, or would Arcotos find something? I listen to the wind rustle the tree leaves all around us, it raises the orange flames and that reminds me once more of what's at stake here.
I let my mind wander to Arcotos, I recall that he ran back into the direction he came so let me have a little more faith that he had seen something on his way here.
I feel tears prick my eyes so I shut my eyelids to try to keep them in, with everything I have in me I do my best to not let my mind create images of us being torn limbs to limbs while alive and being hung over the huge fire that had been made in front of us.
Maybe I should just forget this? Trying to stay alive is getting difficult, would I even be able to make it? I am so tired, thirsty and hungry but I am doing my best to not let it weigh my spirit down. Should I just let go of the possibility of my people being alive, can I? If I don't make it out of this place alive, what would happen to me when I die? Will they make our deaths quick?
Stop it!
I should hold on to the little hope I have left, Arcotos will find something, I know he will, I believe he will because I can't die now, at least I owe it to Felicity and my people who had lost their lives to find the people who attacked us.
This brings me back to the possibility that I am missing very important information that would help me understand all these.
Twist made some sense if I want to be honest with myself, is it possible that someone from amongst my people had aggravated or triggered the attack on our people from three different beings?
And if so, what on Mu could a wolfman possibly do to those beings to cause them to come together in unity to attack us, and with the way, they attacked us it is obvious they had intended to wipe us all out.
The more I think about it the more I realize it was never a power attack to take down the leaders and take over our lands or use our people as slaves because if it were a power attack they would have put their main efforts on destroying my family and all the leaders of each community and by now they should still be here keeping everyone as slaves.
Instead, they didn't even put much focus on the castle which is where the royal family leaves everyone knows that, so why did they focus on killing every one of us?
Most importantly who is behind this?
I need answers, the more I sit here thinking the more questions I have and to make it worse I have no idea on what the answers could be.
It has never been our way to involve black magic in anything we do, we chose to stick to using herbs to make medicines but never anything that could be considered as a potion.
It's just something no one wanted to have anything to do with and well also once more because of our lack of knowledge we don't know much about it.
This means one thing because I have no other option, I don't know where else I could find answers, I would have to meet this sorceress then, if she truly is a panthom then she should know where my family is and the rest of our people.
Twist said she gives out answers for a price, I am somewhat glad it's not money because I don't have anything and I don't know where to get some, I could check our treasury but I am not sure anything would be there, I mean everything is in ruins and what's the possibility of attacking a kingdom without taking away their treasures?
Besides we can't risk it and return into the castle, we're already in danger and getting out alive is still very unpredictable but I truly hope we will.
This panthom better know it all because I have no other option here, this is the only hope I have of ever seeing my family again. And this quest that she would send me on in exchange of these answers that I seek I hope it won't get me killed.
Maybe Twist is right? Should I also seek power from her? But what kind of power? Is it unlimited strength? Do I even get to pick the type of power? I don't even know what I want with power all I know is that I want to know where my family is, why we were attacked and who attacked us.
Then maybe it had been a misunderstanding or not. Until then, but for now, the most important thing is finding my family.
Rustles from the bush bring me out of my thoughts and I do hope that it's Arcotos, the tension I had once somehow been free of when I was lost in my thoughts is back and the urge to cry out to anyone out there that could help us is very tempting but I resist it.
No one would be at this part of the forest, wherever here is I doubt any being that could help us would be nearby anyway after all shouldn't this be a Korowai camp or land?
My eyes widen at the realization, even if Oliver gets there on time how will they find us without getting caught too?
Whatever had been coming through the bushes comes out and to my utmost joy it's Arcotos, I begin to cry tears of joy, "Oh thank you thank you, you've saved us." Twists also cry gratefully.
In Arcotos' mouth, he carries what looks to be a rusted knife but it looks sharp enough to cut through this rope. I knew he could do it, I've never been so proud of my canis and from the look in my eyes, I am sure he too knows how happy I am with him.
"Shhh, they might hear us." Dion tries to hush Twist at which he counters, "They don't understand our language if they could hear us they would think we are crying for mercy or something."
"Let's not waste more time, Arcotos place the knife in my hands."
"Hey hey hey why you? I can easily cut myself loose, do you know how?" I ignore Twist and shift closer to him so there would be an opening between me and Dion for him to drop the rusted knife in my tied hands.
The moment I have a strong grip on the handle, "Dion give me your hand." He looks shocked for a moment then silently moves to his side farther from me to give me enough room to cut the rope without hurting him.
With shaky hands, I do my best to push the knife into the rope to slice through but it's not cutting through as fast as I would have liked, "You can do this Aadya, just breathe, we will get out of here alive, I promise you that on my life."
Words from Dion's lips shock me. After everything I've said to him, treated him like dirt yet here he is being kind to me, is it possible that he cares for me?
Stop it Aadya! What is wrong with you? You have stopped cutting the rope, they could be back any second and you're putting yours and their lives at risk by thinking of a wolfman who had somewhat betray you.
I silently do my best to cut the rope while avoiding to meet Dion's eyes with mine, it breaks free, Dion wordlessly take the knife from me and begin to cut mine, while he does I think about the voice I had heard in my head. Does everyone have voices in their heads that talks as if it's a different person completely? It's like having multiple people living in your head.
Maybe I should keep this to myself, I'm sure it is normal. Everyone has thoughts that yell at them. Right?
The rope comes undone and fall off my wrists, my fingers wrap around them, it feels sore and it's going to leave a heavy bruise for a couple of days and the light coming from the fire helps me to see just how red it is and I think I see little blood seeping out.
How come I didn't feel this?
"Alright, where do we go now?" I look up from where I'm still seated to see that Dion had helped Twist and they are both on their feet.
I move to get up and I see a hand appear before me with the intent to help me rise to my feet, my eyes travel upward to see it belongs to Dion. I look at it for a while and I don't have much time to decide so I just take his hand and with ease he lifts me off the forest floor.
"Come on let's go we don't have much time." I begin to run towards the bush I'm sure Arcotos came through when suddenly an arrow flies right past me with a quick kiss to my cheek that leaves a bleeding wound.
I don't feel anything but I know I will when I try to treat it, so it doesn't get infected. I knew escaping wouldn't be easy but I didn't think an arrow would nearly kill me.
"Oh my goodness Aadya." I push Dion's hands away because we don't have time for that, we all squat and quickly move to get behind the large tree.
How do we get out of here alive? Someone is watching us and we don't know which way to go, we might run straight into them, we can't see them.
That's it! I got an idea! We may not be able to see them or hear them but Arcotos can, he managed to come here twice without being spotted. Even though they don't eat animals it wouldn't have been that easy for an animal to bypass them except it could smell them before they could hear it.
"Arcotos you can smell those creatures," I know he understands me, he always has, "Lead us away from them, as far away as possible." He doesn't waste a second to take off running into the bush.
We don't waste time either, we all run into the bush trying to not lose sight of his white fur in this dark forest.
As we run covered in dirt and wounds while our feet thump the forest ground the sky rumbles, a storm coming and we better hurry.