"Witch, surrender my friend to me this minute!" I ordered sternly but what I only got was kai charging towards me. With my current added dexterity, speed, strength and perception resulting from the blood I took from Gia, even if on hunger and thirst for days I would be able to protect myself and figure how to deal with my brainwashed pack member. I dashed to the other side before kai could change course and follow after me I aimed for the master at work, I heard kai behind me swiftly and before I could get to the man standing just a few feet away from the sharpened edge of my spear he seemed to have move the whole forest instead of himself alone. I was suddenly running into kai again and the man had moved behind me, instead of turning around I leaped into the air jab the spare into the lower back of kai and back flipped using a tree, before I landed I made sure I took my wolf form. Now in wolf, I had better access to my new found strength and I could subdue kai and easily. As I landed I turned around to face kai whom was charging towards me again, he collided head on, using my fore limb I held on to his upper back and dragged him down with me. He clawed, bite through my limb but I didn't let go although I felt his strength against me, I wouldn't be able to keep him down much longer. I tried to contact him; normally as an Alpha I had a connection to my pack using mind link to talk to them but this go it felt like there was a barrier between us, the link was definitely broken
"Kai listen to me" I tried to talk while looking through his eyes but it was hopeless, he wasn't there.
"What if you're not my Alpha-?"
Did it really work? Did he sever the relationship between us? With my guard down and I'm barely holding him down, he pulled himself from my hold and the first thing he headed for was my ribs, he pushed in his limb under my rib and pulled, it broke immediately. I roared under him sending my forelimb to connect with his abdomen he flew back and I had the chance to get up. I faced him again seeing the murderous intent in his gaze he charged at me again, his mouth came wide and clasps to mine right hind limb piercing through it with his sharp teeth as I tried to maneuver out of the way. I also got a grip on his neck, just enough to make him feel pain and let my leg go but he didn't, it was though I wasn't even trying and he was subsequently digging deeper into my flesh. Out of nowhere I heard something shuffle towards us and I was also immediately sent into a flight going through two trees before I stopped. I lay on my side from the pain coming from my abdomen
Why am I not healing?
I changed back into my human form, the ruckus coming from them was instance that I had to stand and see what was going on. As I looked up I saw a man hurdle kai from me and toss him into the air sending him into flight. I stumbled forward, my leg still bleeding and I barely could move it, I picked a broken branch of tree with my left hand and shot it towards the man standing quietly and watching the fight. It seemed that he wasn't aware of me but as soon as that branch approached him it fit right into his fist. He looked towards me with the same gaze but this time one corner of his mouth crept up slowly before retracted his hand again. Kai immediately followed the motion, and tread towards the witch right before everything blacked out.
I felt something cold after a while against my abdomen before a sharp pain. My eyes pinched in until the pain subsided, and then I caught on a rancid smell, a fish smell. I opened my eyes to the environment again. I was in a sort of tree house and I was laid on a bundle of wooden bed and for some comfort a shawl was laid underneath me. As I look ahead his back was turned on me again, he was taller than I was, board shoulders and muscled frame. He wore a simple funnel shirt and an off-white khakis, right to face the bed was a large window which gave the view of the forest also providing ventilation to the small space. He was working at a table that was in front of him and aside from him was a drape dancing to the wind, a door was behind it. I took my surrounding in and the sat up with a groan, I realized that I was put in a pair of pants that where not my size but my upper part was left bare. Whoever this man was that saved me from possible death must be really brave to put himself in danger for others, moreover the more I looked at him the more he seemed familiar. He must have heard me move and addressed me with an even tone
"It's better to retreat from a fight that you cannot win, it's no cowardice" he warned
"Thank you" I sat finally putting my feet down on the floor, I glanced down at the rib that got pulled, there was a leaf placed over it and from the feel of it, it was almost all healed.
"How long have I been here?" I asked pulling at the leg of the khakis to unveil my right shin, there was no visible wounds but it felt strained and uncomfortable.
"Just a day" he answered again plainly making that continuous clinging sound
"Here" he said making me look up from examining my leg and met his face, I recognized him almost immediately. It was the same wolf that Gia saved a time back outside Kiba's territory; I was bathed in immediate confusion. His hand was still extended towards me with a small size clay bowl in it,
"I repaid the favor" he added before I finally took it out of his hand. It was smoked fish in it; he simply leaned against the table and started eating of his own bowl. Before I knew it I had finished my own portion and was in desperate need of more
"You should be on your way and stay out of these forest" he warned, before grabbing me a pair of dirt boots and a shirt.
"Wait, I need to know where that witch took my friend"
"It's better you leave here while you can, this is no place for you" he seemed uninterested to talk to me although Gia saved him from poisoning to death, his unwelcoming approach was pushing away the gratitude I had towards him. He pushed wide the blind by the door frame and then suddenly stopped
"Where is the lady that accompanied you before?"
"What do you need from her?"
"She is no ordinary. The time I saw her, I felt the godly aura around her and that's the same coming from that man in a robe you are willing to take chance with"
"You mean he's a deity?" I couldn't believe Gia wasn't the only living deity of this era and this new mysterious deity is nothing but trouble. He's got a dangerous ambiance and he's got kai. He rummaged back into the space and on a hook that he gifted me one of his shirt he pull the one of him off and was trying to put another when I noticed the scarring on his body, I felt the wolf scent on his ; very strong but again our bodies doesn't hold that much scarring. It fades with little of time.
"Certainly" he answered back after putting the shirt on
I pondered for a moment before I asked another question
"Who are you?"
"A man that just saved you" he answered glancing at me
"You need to put does on and get you on the way before dark falls."
"Your body holds scars and you have a wolf scent,"
He answered protectively lashing at me threateningly "I'm a Surpent wolf" his eye color brightened to a yellow for a second before it attained it's normal hazel color also regaining his control
"Surpent wolf?"
"You need to leave!" he added ignoring my question
"You fought to save me and now sending me off out there when I hardly healed. Your protection is of no count when I leave still injured" I didn't want to leave not because I can't but there was a mystery to this man that I needed to unveil especial that he's mentioned a whole race of the werewolves no one had heard of moreover I in dire need of help to face what's coming.
"I need your help" I admitted taking a limp towards him
"I have helped you enough, if it were anyone out there I would have done the same for them" his words grumbled out of him as I could see he's gaze cold as it is but deep inside I could see he's hiding away from something, something that knew of his weakness.
"You can rest for one more day and you'll be on your way"
"Agreed, I need your help for her sake. She's in danger and you know more of it than I do"
"I will not engage myself with her likes!" I saw the hatred for her in his eyes but mostly anger; I forgot everyone else thinks she is a daughter to a dangerous evil lord. No one is willing to spare a thought to know the terrified spawn behind that identity. In anger he left me in the tree, I sat back down in the bed sighing heavily at the outcome. If I could not get him to agree to help Gia then I will be leaving for her before he gets to her.
It's been a while that he had left me in that space, I laid back in the bed afternoon had sunk in and the breeze was warm and scent full with flowers. After a while of lying around, I decided to have a walk around the room. Since my leg still stung at the pain making it hard to walk without having to limp, I didn't want to go outside. I rounded the bed and head to the wide opened window, this forest seemed to have indefinite scheme, and this part of the forest was denser than the one I camped in for three days although they have the same calm nature. I stared out yet thinking about kai again, what he's going through. The kai I met wasn't just under the influence of magic but he' broken beyond recognition. As I was about to retreat from the window the sleeve on my shirt was caught by a splint of wood making it tear, as I tried to loosen the fabric around it I saw something hanging from the hook of his clothing. It was peculiar as it wasn't just a piece of cloth but a pendent, out of curiosity I reached and grabbed it off the hook. As I held it in my fist, I quickly recognized the symbol on it, a swirl. A swirl with two V's, one inverted and the other upright through each other and this was not the first time I have seen it, it was around my mother's neck under her garment all the time so it would hide the symbol and not the string holding it around her neck. I remembered clearly the first time I saw it, she was rocking me in her arms although I was six by then, I pulled it on the strap keeping it around her neck and she literarily jerked as I did. I peered at it for just a second before she took it out of my hand and thrust it back under her garment. She rested my head back against her chest and stroked through my hair
"Was the necklace from father?" I asked timidly still playing with the string around her neck. She continued humming for a while before she answered
"Some gifts are meant to be hidden my son"
Due to detection of that memory I didn't hear the house owner came back in but just the force pulling at my hand, I met with his unpleasant gaze before he snatched the pendent out of my hand and quickly had it around his neck and hide it away from sight just like my mother used to
"That pendent, how did you have it?" I interrogated
He was so unpleased with me going through his stuff that he threw down the sack he had with it across the room and closed the distance between us
"You are to stay the night and not look through my belongings"
"My mother had the exact pendent with her,"
His eyes bulged out before he stumbled back a little in shock losing his composure for a moment he rushed to ask
"Where is she?"
"She's killed"