"There is nothing of such kind."
Ruqui right away dismissed her words. Ramirez chuckled.
"It is not up to you, cattle boy, to cook up a rumor.
It is the obligation of the village folks."
Ruqui did not say anything and remained silent. Ramirez stepped more closer such that they were face to face, only an arm's length gap between their bodies.
"Why did you call me?"
She questioned. Cynthira had asked her to meet her brother in the cattle rearing field and although hesitant at first, she chose to go ahead and meet up, sneaking away from being with the girls.
"I saw you last night peeking through the window..."
And the moment Ruqui mentioned about last night, she had suspected that he would bring that up or could be he call her to confirm only about that...it was clear at the moment.
"I was closing the window."
"You are lying."
Ruqui caught her right away as her tongue slipped. She looked away from his scrutinizing gaze all over her face.
"You have no proof to state me of lying about it."
"You heard Ralph conversing with that stranger, didn't you?"
Ruqui insisted. He was not letting it go. Ramirez seemed uncomfortable. She should have known that he had seen her last night and would be wanting answers from her mouth.
"If you could not hear it all, what made you think that I could listen to them being a yard away?"
Ramirez tried to make him see that there was no way she could have heard it all and it got Ruqui to smirk at her. She gave him a clueless look. Why was he smirking at her?
"And you said you were only closing the window..."
She was caught in a lie right away. Then and there. Her face became red and she could not match her eyes with his.
"I do not understand the need for lying about it to me."
Ruqui shook his head in dismissal. She would not come clean to him and it was useless to even think that she would give him some clues about it.
"And me neither. The need for you to know about these things.
What are you going to do about it?
Rearing cattle...that is what you will do your whole life Ruqui...a cattle boy!"
Ramirez spat, being defensive over herself. He remained tongue-tied. It also made him question himself why he wanted to know about it?
Maybe because he was fed up of this plane life and craved for some adventure?
Or that the fact that stranger was a wolf and also knew his father...the dream, it was more like a childhood memory that he had last night...could things be connected to his past?
He knew who he was...he was aware of his lineage. He was not a human. Neither was a vampire. He knew what his parents were.
And he knew that he was of the age to transform if he did the ritual, in one full moon and everybody would come to know who he really was.
To say, even though he had become fed up with this plane, mundane life, with no purpose, he was not yet ready to let go of it. And to become a social pariah once again...he was not ready for that.
What could be worse than being a social pariah was to be sentenced to death by the Queen...no werewolves were allowed in the land of Saunders anymore.
This made him think about how a werewolf could enter the land without being caught and his relation to Ralph...
Now that he knew that werewolf was someone who knew his parents, could he also know where his mother would be?
She had not left him in the wetlands but that it was a mistake. But then why did she not return back to take him away?
Did she not realize that she had left him back there?
And it had been eighteen years since then...so many unanswered questions. That sometimes, it made him wonder where she was? If she was even alive? Or was long dead?
The Mountains of Soul...
That was where she had told him they would be going to if father would not return that night.
Many times, it made him think if he should too leave to go and find her there...could it be that she was waiting for him?
But he had also heard the stories about the Mountains of Soul...a gateway of no return from the Mooribund Lands.
He was not sure if he still was ready to leave everything behind in search of his mother...if that made him a bad son, he did not know how to dwell more on that.
He had always been a disappointment to his father. He knew about that. It was only because of his mother that he went soft on him.
Ever since coming to know the human way of life, raised by Serene, she was so sweet and had almost the same amount of warmth he could feel from her, that he felt from his mother...it made him conclude that mothers of all the species were the same.
He was not ready to leave the village or Serena and Cynthira, just yet...the only two persons he liked and was fond of.
"Exactly, I thought the same that knowing about such a thing held no value to you.
Do not try to contact me in any way, anymore...not even through your sister."
Ramirez stated, before turning around to leave. He saw her figure disappearing down the valley.
And as the sun was too slowly fading away, he could tell that it would be dark in no time and he did not want to make Ralph disappoint either. So he thought to leave with the cattle sooner.
As he made his way downward through the valley, he felt like as if something was lingering around him...he could not see only feel.
Back through the village pathway, he felt the stares of his fellow village boys all upon him...he had no clue as to why they were even looking at him like that...nobody seemed to care to bet even an eyelash in his way before today.
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