Light seeps through my eyelids blinding me for a very short moment, my first instinct is to block the light from entering into my eyes as they make me very uncomfortable but I am held in place by something that is restraining my hands.
I shut my eyes instead, what happened to me? My head feels heavy and drowsy, the urge to return to sleep creeps up on me and I give into that temptation without a second thought.
Dreamless sleep is what greets me as I welcome slumber with open arms but then it is cut short by voices and nothing I hear makes sense for a while but when it does, this is what I hear.
"Again I've told you, we don't know why they left us there."
"You lie!" I hear fist come in contact with flesh and a groan follows after.
"Let's try this again, shall we?" Silence.
"What are you doing in my forest?"
"Your forest? These lands belong to the Northern Wolfmen of Pohjola so it is you who is trespassing!" I hear footsteps.
"No please don't kill me! I don't even know them!"
"Do you take me a fool?"
"Hey, hey hey!" I hear multiple voices shout and somehow it triggers me to wake up fully, so my eyes slowly open and the sight that greets me shocks me to the point a gasp escape my lips.
A dagger held against Dion's throat by the most beautiful man I've ever seen, his beauty is ethereal, out of this world, beyond my imagination, he's every wolfwoman's wildest dreams, the king of the winter fairies is out of this world beautiful but he has a soft look to him but this male has an edge and rouged look that accompanies him.
His long black hair flies softly behind him due to the cold breeze coming in through the cave's entrance, some strands of black hair like that of coal falls around his well-defined face, which seems to have been carved by the heavenly gods, his skin glows as bronze lit with fire, black neatly cut hair surrounds his jaw and gorgeous lips the same colour as that of a golden rose.
My eyes move upwards to his straight nose which leads me to black eyes that seem like a bottomless pit which I gladly fall into and I sure as hell don't care about coming back out.
"Aadya! What did you do to her?! Stop it! Let her go!"
Laughter fill my ears, it feels like it is coming from within me and not from someone else but I know that is not my laugh, it's that of a male and suddenly as if something clicks in me I escape whatever trance I had fallen into.
As my sense returns to me I notice the predicament we are in.
Tied up on our knees with a very handsome but very dangerous being who is well-armed and in this cave with us.
His blades are still against Dion's neck and I do the first thing that comes to my mind on pure instinct, "Stop! I'll tell whatever it is you want to know."
He sends a notable sadistic smile my way, "Good girl." He pushes Dion's head away with a lot of force which causes Dion to fall forward and since his hands are tied his face comes in hard contact with the cave's floor covered in stones and pebbles.
I watch as Twist moves towards him by crawling on his knees to help him get back up on his knees, my eyes leave them and move to the very tall and well-built male who had in some way hypnotized me moments earlier.
Now that his attention is on me fear courses through my veins and goes straight to my heart causing it to beat at an erratic pace. What would he do to me now?
"Start talking, what are you doing on my soil?" I watch the scar run across his face from the right side of his forehead to the left side of his cheek over his right eye and nose, he must have been a warrior or a fighter for him to sustain such injury and survive it. If anything, it makes him look more dangerous but that doesn't make him less handsome.
"I said talk!" Before I could react a fist flies into my face causing me to lose my balance, my body makes a heavy impact on the hard floor and pain rivets through my body.
"Please stop! Just let us go, we don't want trouble! I keep telling you that this was our home! What else do you want from us?!" I hear Dion scream and I watch as he pulls against his restraints.
My vision blurs a bit as I try my best to get into a sitting position instead of being sprawled over the floor, "Please I'll talk, just don't hurt any of us, please." A sob escapes my lips as the weight of everything I have been through for these past few weeks come crashing down on me. I'm not even sure as to why I'm crying.
"Stop crying, you're irritating me." The voice of our captor floats into my ears and I do my best to reign in the tears so that maybe he would let us leave.
My head hangs low on my shoulders as I listen to his footsteps get closer to me, he squats in front of me, I try as hard as I possibly can to control my breathing so as not to anger him further.
"Again, I ask you, what are you doing on my soil?" I clear the saliva in my mouth by swallowing it down my throat then my lips open up to speak the truth because that's all I can think of right now. My mind is a mess but something probes me to tell him the truth.
"My name is Aadya and I'm from the house of the Nothern Wolfmen of Pohjola of Louhi and some time ago about five years to be exact this used to be my home that was until some beings attacked us. I and Dion over there," I use my head to nod towards Dion's direction as a gesture to show which of the two is him, "We had escaped together but got into some trouble but then we were saved by his leader," This time I make a gesture towards Twist then continue, "As we were with them something happened and I had slipped into a coma, I had been asleep for five years so I never really had the chance to find my family, that's why I had come here in hopes I'd find them or something that could lead me to them."
"I swear, we had no idea this land belongs to you now, I just want my family that's all, I just want my family." I couldn't help myself as I broke down into tears once more, the sobs rocked through my body and echoed in the cave around us, wrapping everyone in the pain of my loss. I miss them so much.
Next thing I know, the ropes that are tied around my wrists are being cut loose with a knife.
Shock and confusion are evident on my face you wouldn't have to look for it to find it, he sees this too but chooses to not say anything and he goes to do the same to Dion and Twist, they as well are as confused as me.
I didn't expect getting our freedom back that easily or quickly with the truth, I had thought I would have to beg and weep for mercy.
"Alright get up."
We do as we're told but stand exactly where we had been sitting and kneeling seconds ago, except Arcotos he runs to me and begins to check my well being by circling me and loudly sniffing me, I pat his head to help relax him, "I'm ok Arcotos."
No one else makes a sound so I take that as our queue to leave before he changes his mind, while we may have the numbers advantage he is more skilled and visibly stronger than us all combined and his weapons look sharp enough to easily cut through flesh plus we are very weak, thirsty and hungry, so we are in no condition to fight.
"Thank you for letting us go, we'd be on our way now."
"You're going to look for her aren't you?" I look to Dion and Twist for help but they only shrug their shoulders in confusion.
"Uhm who?" I have someone I suspect he is referring to in mind but how could he possibly know that maybe he had heard us talking about it?
"The panthom of Mu of course, if I had known you were the one she had sent me here to wait for I wouldn't have given you such ill-treatment."
I watch this really big dangerous male of which I still can't figure what he is, what bothers me is I have no idea what is going on here, "I am so confused, what do you mean by what you just said?"
"Yes, what do you mean by you had been sent to wait for us?" Dion says as he walks to stand by my side with legs apart and arms folded in a protective stance. I ignore his action and continue to address the large handsome male in front of us.
As we all silently wait for his explanation he releases a deep sigh like he is really tired and places his hands on his waist as he looks upward with his eyes closed, still we say nothing and wait for his response.
"I needed her help three years ago, she had said I am deemed worthy of this quest and she continued in her own words, go to the deserted land of Pohjola it will belong to you for the meantime till you find one called Aadya, she seeks my help so bring her to me then I shall give you that which you ask of."
"I had waited ever since, at some point I thought you would never come but here you are, so let's go I need what I need."
"Wait!" My call stops him in his tracks, as he had already started for the entrance of the cave, he turns to look at me.
"At least won't you let me digest this information? I had not known of her existence until a few hours ago so how can she know that I would be looking for her since three years ago? I wasn't even awake for Boreas' sake."
"Look, I don't know anything else all I know is that she is expecting you and I need to get you to her alive so that I can get what I had asked of her, the sooner we leave the better, it would take us ten days, more or less to get to her so I advice we start moving."
So many things run through my mind and all that I could say is, "But how?"
"She is the panthom of Mu after all." I look to where Twist stands staring at the floor like he too is deep in thoughts.
As hard as I try to really understand the information I had been given I come short, so I choose to breathe and walk out of this cave knowing that nothing in my life makes sense anymore.