After escaping the lab I'm immediately met with the strong Forest smell. It seems it wasn't a public place at all. The police officers knew what they were doing. The breeze felt nice, it felt amazing to finally be out of the lab.
The pain that I've endured seems to get worse every time, I'm not sure why. Something in the mud caught my eye soon enough. It looks like paw prints, not from a dog but a wolf. It confirmed that the male voice speaking to me was indeed another one of my kind, someone who might have answers.
Moving on from the paw prints, I make my way to one of the tallest trees in the forest and make my way up to the top. Upon getting to the top I look up at the beautiful night sky, thoughts of everything that happened to be flooded through my mind.
I realize the pain my real dad must've gone through, being abused and mocked. He showed the world just how strong and capable he was of keeping the world safe, and this was the response.
"I wonder where you are now," I said quietly. I then gave off a half-animal call, no response ever came back. I don't know what I was expecting, nothing is going to be out here, I'm not even sure if there are any more half animals out there. Knowing how evil most humans are I wouldn't be surprised if we were so close to extinction.
My head shot up as I heard police sirens in the distance, the scientist's must have called back up to try and find me, that was my signal to start moving deeper into the forest so that I would have less chance of getting caught. There were about half of a dozen chasing me, some brave people.
Suddenly everything around me goes quiet, I know they were waiting for me. I quickly put my mask back on and jumped down.
The police force attempted to shoot me but I quickly reacted as a huge tail appeared from my backside and swept all of them off of their feet.
"Ouch, I think you'll need a band-aid for that one," I laughed to myself. I wasn't alone though, someone was here with me. Suddenly spikes are speared into all of the human's shoulders, ensuring that they would stay down.
I look closely into the darkness as I see a hint of orange fur, this must be okami. I don't know any other animal that would have that same orange fur.
"Okami? Is that what you are called by, why are you here? I could've handled them myself."
The animal from the darkness gives me a chuckle, at least he didn't take it too seriously.
"Some situations are not meant to be handled alone. Plus I haven't been able to get some action for a long time. To answer your question, yes. I am called Okami, or Hikari." He gives another chuckle, I wasn't sure why he was looking straight at me though.
"It's been so long Maya, I hardly recognized you. You look just like your Mother. Sadly time is short though, our conversation must come to an end. Listen, this world is decaying from its natural state, and it'll only get worse. I want you to remember that I am proud of you. I'll make sure that all of the questions you possibly have are answered as soon as it is safe."
he gave me a little half-animal cry, giving me one final goodbye.
I stayed there for a bit longer, before making my way back to the entrance of the woods. It's quite the walk, but I slowly start making my way to the house again, I could feel the blood leaking out of me from all of those experiments. I was tired and I felt awful.
After a while I found myself standing in front of the door, I always hated coming back here. I always put the people I love most into danger, and I didn't want it to continue.
I finally gathered enough courage as I knocked on the door, the door had been locked so there was no way of me getting in myself. A couple minutes later the door opens up, I feel my head being gently lifted and I am met with Lucas's face.
He had tears in his eyes, me being taken away must have hurt him a lot. He wraps his arms around me, bringing me into a comforting hug. Soon tears were coming out of my eyes as well, I hadn't realized how much I had missed him as well.
We split apart as he led me into the house, I didn't know where to begin, there was a lot that happened. Lucas was patient though and quietly waited until I was comfortable to speak.
"After I was taken, they put me into a cell. I was scared, they had put a mask on me and a collar that the chains had been connected to. They interrogated me and found out the truth. I played innocent and they took me away and strapped me up to a machine. I thought everything was over until this male voice helped me escape from there. I think it was my father who helped me escape."
Lucas was shocked, not only with what had happened to me, but also that I had finally met my father. I mentioned that I didn't get to see much of him. I remembered something though, My father talked about the world decaying.
"My father also mentioned the future that is to come for the world. With all that is happening, the world is decaying, and soon nothing will be left for anyone to survive."
Lucas brings me into a side hug, ensuring that everything is going to be okay and that we will find a way to work all of this out.
If I was going to work all of this out, something needed to be arranged. I can't stay in this house anymore, staying in one place for too long to ensure my death.
"There's one thing though, I can't stay here any longer. If I stay in one spot for too long I have a greater risk of dying."
Lucas thinks about it, it seems he isn't too sure about leaving home. Sadly for my sake, it is the only option we've got right now.
"You ready for one long adventure, Lucas?" I said to him as he gave me a big smile, before nodding. We settled on leaving early in the morning so we could have plenty of rest before we set out.