He mentally gulped, calming down a bit. Looking at her right now, she's beautiful, her blood-red eyes, blending with her dark soft, messy hair. Skin soft but what made her more alluring was the dried-up blood covering some parts of her body.
He gulped, but... at the same she also looks scary. "Name" he suddenly blurts out, Rieka tilting her head. "Aviur" he points to himself, then to his friend right beside him. "Lily" he gently states.
Silence was her answer, it seems she still doesn't understand. Then he points to her, "Name?" he asks gently. Rieka breathed. She tilts her head, Aviur repeating the same action. This action went on for minutes.
When she was young, she couldn't remember her parent's names nor faces, but she did remember two things. Their scent, and her name. Name.
Her eyes flickered. "Ri..." she states, her mouth still not used to utter human language. The duo stared at her blankly. She's talking!
"Rie... Rie..ka..." she finally said it. "Rie...ka" she muttered. "Rieka. Her name's Rieka" Aviur claimed, staring at her.
"C-can she say other words?" Lily pushed him away, interested in a talking wolf. "Lily. Lily" she excitedly pointed to herself. Rieka tilted her head.
"Rieka" she repeated. "Maybe that's all she can say" Aviur grunts, repositioning himself from the weird position Lily gave him.
"Calm down, it's natural she doesn't know any other words besides her name" Aviur rubs the back of his head. "Right. Rieka" he called out, Rieka responding to her name, looking at him.
He gestured a sign language she couldn't understand. What is he doing? "Neck..lace... pendant..." he uttered. She couldn't understand. What is he saying??
"It's no use" he sighs. "Your meat feed- I mean trading plan was no use" Lily fake coughs, Aviur glaring at her. "Anyway, Rieka. Pen..dant.. neck...lace..." he repeated.
"It's not gonna work idiot" Lily playfully smacks his head, Rieka flinching. "Ah.. sorry for scaring you" Lily apologizes. Rieka sniffed their scents, crawling towards the sitting Lily.
Sniffing, Lily stiffened. She's not gonna give her a surprise bite right?? Instinctively, Rieka turned around, seeing her wolf dad standing behind one of the trees.
She happily went towards him, rubbing her head on his warm, fluffy dark fur. Like her blood-red eyes, her wolf dad growled at the duo, his red eyes glaring at them.
"Not the knife, you idiot" Aviur whispered. Sighing, Lily listened. Like a protective human father would, the wolf wrapped its tail around her, glaring nonstop at the duo.
Silence was in between the trio, Rieka happily nuzzling in her dad's fluffy fur, ignoring the situation.
Licking her cheek, Rieka got the message and nodded. The duo then left, leaving the amazed and the amused.
"That scared me..." he breathes a sigh of relief. Not so soon, they heard a howl. It was Rieka's. "So does that mean she won't attack us next time?" Aviur asks. "Maybe" Lily answers.
"Since we didn't get to give these meats, let's just have it as our lunch" Lily states, picking up his bag. "Sounds good" he chuckles, standing up.
"Rieka. What a unique name, don't you think so?" Lily giggles, him smiling. "It is pretty" he mutters under his breath.
* THE NEXT DAY *
"She should be here..." Aviur mumbles. Going past bushes and trees, he looked around. It's so... peaceful. Is this what it's like to live in a forest? And with wolves even, now that's once in a lifetime.
"Howl!!!" he abruptly turned around to see no Rieka in sight. It was around 10 in the morning, the sun covered by clouds.
'Wait, if I follow her I might get my pendant back' he suddenly thought. In his dark cloak, he put up his hoodie, hovering above his head.
"Now then shall we-" he immediately fell back, his butt making contact with the warm ground. His hoodie falling as his face was revealed. "What the" he was startled when Rieka's face came to his sight.
"Awoo..." she coos, Aviur finally coming to his senses and sitting down, sighing a breath of relief. "Rieka... stop scaring me like that..." he sighs. He looked at her, her mouth dripping with blood, trailing down her clothes and hands. She must have had breakfast.
"Rie...ka..." she repeated. Looking around, she noticed Lily isn't with him. "Ah, Lily is at her home" he smiled. She tilted her head, she couldn't understand a thing he just said.
"Ah no, it's nothing" he smiles. "Are sure there's a girl here??" a man's voice was heard, Rieka grabbing him leading him up the tree.
"Ok ok, I'll go" he smiles, Rieka climbing the tree, sitting on one of its sturdy branches, Aviur following her steps.
"She has to be here somewhere..." one of the two men looked around. "What's so important with this girl anyway??" the other asked. "The king asked me to find her, he says he knows her and wants her back, but man think about the price" another licked his lips, his greediness showing up.
'Grandfather?' Aviur shut his lips, trailing the two men. But it wasn't the case for Rieka, as she immediately attacked the duo. "That must be the one!!" the man shouted, taking out his sword.
"Now!!" the other yelled, sword about to slash her, Aviur stepped in, his hoodie covering his face. "Tsk! There's another one!!" he grunts. "Why did the king ask you to hunt her?" Aviur glared, successfully stealing the sword away from his opponent.
"Tch" attempting to escape, Aviur thought otherwise, tackling the man down the ground. "I- I don't know much! Please, I just know he wants her because he knows her. He also said that he wants her name" the man pleaded.
'Name?' he thought. Raising his sword, he slashed his foe, killing him. It would be a problem if the man goes to the king to report what happened today.
He sighed. "Rieka, you can kill hi-" he stopped, blinking. Rieka's covered in fresh blood, again. He sighs, she's like a kid who needs to be taken care of or else she'll go jumping and playing in the mud again.
He took out his blue hanky with a crown and sword embroidered on it. Getting closer, he was about to wipe the blood off when she took a step back, glaring at him.
"Ah... sorry..." he apologized, taking back his hanky. He put his sword back to its sheath. "I'll have to take care of these huh..." he sighs.
"Sorry Rieka, I'll have to go. bye bye" he waved his hand, Rieka tilting her hand. The duo suddenly heard a growl. An angry one.
They turned around to see a growling wolf. Rieka barked, happily running towards her wolf dad. "Ah... it's angry..." Aviur nervously waving as he fast-walked his way through.
Rieka felt a nudge on her neck. She looked up to see an angry wolf dad. She whimpered, what did she do wrong this time??
Minutes later, she felt a lick on her cheek, as he grabs her through her animal pelt clothes dirtied with blood. She'll have a nice bath at the river later.
She heard her dad growl in anger again. Seriously, why is he mad??