[THIRD-PARTY POV]
"What do we do with King Eddy?" Grant asked his king, who just motioned him and Delbert to carry the lycan king off of the ground. He was heavy, but they were strong men anyway.
"Take him home, we'll tend to Ulrike and find Gideon. Put him in one of the guestrooms" King Cassius said. They didn't have time to deal with the lycan fainting, but they needed to know how Ulrike was doing, especially with the beatings he had gotten.
"Light it up!!" King Cassius announced and the warriors shone their lights and turned on even the emergency lighting system. In no minute, the whole area was filled with light. They could finally see clearly and find their friends.
"Where is Gideon?" Criselda asked when they reached Ulrike. Turns out Ulrike's body had regenerated a little too fast, even for him. He hadn't expected it, but then as he sat there while his friends asked him questions he wasn't even listening to, Ulrike thought about the beast.
In their fighting, or rather, in his ass being handed to him, the beast had cast a spell on Ulrike, one that would help his old friend heal faster. Of course, that was a trick he had learned from Ulrike. it was something the hound had taught him so he would have an easy time fitting in.
"Hey, snap out of it," Zelina said to Ulrike who seemed to come out of his trance. Surprised by the hound's actions, she added, "you were literally beaten to a pulp, you lost the stupid beast, and you are smiling about it? What the hell is wrong with you?"
The question could have been more surprising if they weren't used to the hound's antics by now. Word had it in the midlands, that Ulrike was the most carefree leader that ever led the hounds. He didn't give a shit about anything as long as no one tried to harm his people.
He was protective of them, more than a mother would her kids. He loved them and worried for them.
He had already explained to his people the repercussions of messing with children, Ulrike had made it clear to his people, that whoever was caught by the beast of the midlands, wasn't going to be welcome home, that is if the beast of the midlands left them alive.
Children were their future, and Ulrike had taught them that. He had told his people that he wouldn't defend them if the beast came for them for committing crimes against children. For those who survived the beast, Ulrike had sworn to make them face punishments worse than death.
Ulrike was a hound in every sense. He was cruelty in materialized human form, and didn't care about it. He was a terrible person, and he had spread fear across the midlands, and even the human worlds. He was the very reason the midlands had been scared of the southern forest.
However, that worked in his favor and that of his people. It only meant that no one in their right minds would want to try anything with the hounds.
Despite being such a cruel man, right now, he was smiling, something which was unexpected, especially from him, the man who had made it known that he wasn't in touch with his humanity.
"Relax, Navali. The beast is gone, he is not coming back, and even if he does, he knows there's a fight waiting for him, y'know. I had him too. I threw punches at him, I bashed his face too. Hell, I bet he will have to have a warm bath.
"But then that would need him to be a human. Wait, he is a human too, damn. Maybe he and I can be friends so that I can—" Ulrike said but his sentence was cut short because he was forced to sleep by a very angry vampire warrior who didn't give a shit about anything.
"Why the hell would you do that?!!" Cassius and Criselda asked Zelina who simply shrugged at them.
"What? Do you want to find Gideon or are you going to sit here and listen to him talk about shit when his body is trying to repair itself? Well, if you want to, you can be my guest. I'm off to look for that stubborn witch protege of yours.
"Feel free to join in," Zelina said as she wandered off into the night to look for Gideon, leaving king Cassius and the high priestess with their jaws on the forest floor. Cassius never thought he would be surprised anymore tonight, but the vampire warrior had just managed to do that.
He didn't know whether it was a good thing that Ulrike was quiet or it was pitiful that all it took to make him shut up was a woman with a tempter that could roast them both to hell. Whatever it was, king Cassius was sure he wasn't going to ask anything.
So he called ut his warriors to carry the hound back in, He had already transformed back to his human form and was easy to carry around. Sighing, he watched the woman walk away from where he and Criselda had been standing.
Nothing about Zelina was easy to understand, save for the fact that she could make even the worst of creatures cry, with the sarcasm that was always on her lips. She was a pretty woman with a unique mindset.
She was a believer of the use of common sense and she hated repeating things that wouldn't benefit anyone. Ulrike was clearly not thinking straight, so it was pointless trying to make him see sense.
Maybe with the sleep, she had forced him into, he would wake up feeling better. Besides, it wasn't like he would be unconscious for long anyway.
Zelina was a warrior who knew what she needed to do, when, and why. Maybe that was also the reason she had proven to them that she didn't have time to waste here.
She believed that warriors sent to war had to be brought back home. If they were dead, then their loved ones deserved to see the bodies and get closure. If they were alive and hurt, then they would get medical help.
She wasn't just going to sit by and wait for their people to live in fear and start more rumors about the beast kidnapping people too. Which was also why, even though Gideon had been annoying, she would find him, and bring him back to Criselda, the only family the man had.
"I'm coming with you," Criselda said, leaving king Cassius and Ulrike.