"What?"
Elisa said as colour left her face and she stumbled backwards.
Mrs. Shizwell held Elisa's hand to assure her and smiled at the guests. Elisa managed to bring a small smile on her face so that the guests wouldn't think anything weird.
Soon after they left the mansion and as soon as they left, Elisa softly yanked her Mother's hand and confronted them.
"What were they saying? Is that true? Are they really Werewolves? What are they doing here? How did they cross the border? What in the heck are they doing here?! And what is this marriage sh*t?! Ahh...I'm going crazy!!"
Elisa exclaimed and held her hair in frustration after bombarding her parents with all the questions in her head. Her parents looked at each other before Mrs. Shizwell spoke,
"Elisa, baby, calm down first. We will talk about this peacefully-"
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN AFTER WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!" Elisa cut her off, making her go silent.
"You fixed my marriage without my consent, okay, I can somehow manage to handle that, but...the one who I'm arranged to is none other than...a werewolf. Even after all the things I went through! After overcoming my serious trauma which still never leaves me in my nightmares! After going through thousands of therapy sessions! Here I am, standing as I normal being and not a psycho depressed suicidal kid!!"
Elisa lashed out on them, taking out everything in her heart.
"Three years...it took me three years to finally regain my senses! And two more years to finally smile again...to finally let go of the past!! That too because of Genevieve...Slowly slowly I am now the person I am right now!! I never thought I would be able to laugh, I never thought I would be happy again, I always thought...that I didn't deserve to be happy..." Elisa said as her eyes filled with tears.
"No baby, you did nothing wrong. Nothing was your f-" Mr. Shizwell was saying but Elisa cut him off.
"A PERSON DIED BECAUSE OF ME!!!"
Elisa shouted, making both of them go silent.
"He died because of me...he died...because of...me...because of my mistake..." Elisa said with tears streaming down her eyes.
"We still don't know the whole truth. Stop blaming yourself!" Mr. Shizwell said, holding Elisa's shoulders as she looked at him and said,
"Why? Why did you do that? When you know the reason behind my trauma was them so why...did you do that?".
Mr. Shizwell just stayed silent while looking down. His grip around Elisa loosened as she let out a sad chuckle before saying,
"You have no answer, huh? Very well Mr. Shizwell, very well." Elisa said before dashing out of the house, leaving her concerned parents behind.
She kept running and running with non stop tears storming out of her eyes.
She didn't care how many people were watching her, she ignored every voice calling out her name, she ran even when her heart started to burn, she ran till she reached the comfort spot where her feet always led her to, the waterfall.
She was panting vigorously as the tears also didn't seem to stop anytime soon. She went near the overhang of the waterfall and sat beside it on the dry surface of a big rock while staring at the beautiful scenery of the city in beaming moonlight.
Tears still didn't stop falling down her eyes, she looked like a beauty, a mournful beauty. The fairy of despair, with crystal of sorrow descending down the jewel like emerald orbs.
Elisa let out a sad chuckle before speaking,
"Funny, isn't it? The place that brought me despair and pain, which was the foundation of my sorrow, where everything began is...where I find my comfort."
Elisa pulled up the right bottom hem of her pants and took off her ankle boots, revealing the scar on her right foot. She caressed it with her hand, a sad smile formed on her face.
"Only if I didn't go that day...Only if I didn't stay that day...Only if I ran back that day...Only if..."
Elisa said while caressing her scar with tears rolling down her eyes.
"Eight years have passed but...I still feel as if it was yesterday...I remember it clearly" she said looking towards the moon as the flashback hit her.
~<><><><><><>~
"LISA COME ON!!!! YOU'LL LOSE IF YOU KEEP RUNNING LIKE THAT!!" the eleven-year-old shouted.
"I KNOW BUT THIS IS MY BEST SPEED!" Elisa shouted back while running in a circle.
The other girl that was standing in the centre of the circle again spoke, "You absolutely can't win if you keep running like that. You know that, right?".
Elisa stopped and went towards the girl and stood in front her with crossed arms and spoke, "You are my friend. You should be cheering me on, not demotivating me. Stupid Olivia".
"I'm not stupid, okay?" Olivia fought back as Elisa showed out her tongue and ran from there while giggling.
Olivia also laughed and ran behind her. The girls were playing when Olivia got called by her father. She returned to her home, leaving a pouty Elisa behind.
"She always leaves when we start to have fun," Elisa said with a pout.
"Oh well, Now the only thing I can do is practice for my race next week" Elisa said and started to run on the boundary of the huge circle again.
"*huff* I think *huff* Olivia is *huff* right! I can not win with this speed *huff*" Elisa said while panting.
"If I keep running in circles it won't help that much, won't it? Should I just run till the falls and back. It is at a distance as well so it'll be good for practice." Elisa said to herself and started running towards a particular direction.
Soon she reached the waterfall which almost had no life around. It was quite peaceful and quiet for some reason which made Elisa stop and wonder for some time.
"Why is it so quiet today? There is no one around and the water flow is also really slow too" Elisa wondered, looking at the really low current of the stream.
She stood there for some time before shrugging it off and turning to go back but halted her steps when she heard a soft groan.
She turned around and looked around but found nothing, making her confused.
"Where did the sound come from?" Elisa asked herself while trying to find the source of the sound.
Soon after, another soft groan was heard by Elisa causing her to look in that direction.
"It's coming from across the stream..." Elisa said while jumping up and down to get a clear view of what's going on, on the other side.
Suddenly she stopped jumping and facepalmed herself.
"Gosh Lisa! You are mage! You can use magic to find out, stupid!" Elisa scolded herself.
"Ashie! Time to shine!" Elisa said while swinging her right glowing hand in the air. Soon a baby bird emitting flames appeared.
"Ash!! Hi! Long time no see" Elisa said to the baby phoenix, which was named Ash by Elisa.
Ash swirled around Elisa making her giggle.
"Okay okay, calm down birdy. I'm happy to see you as well and yeah, I'll try to call you often but you know it requires mana and since I still haven't fully cultivated yet, I can only call you once in a while, that too for only ten minutes" Elisa said with a pout.
Ash is Elisa's spirit animal. Spirit animals are just like pets but with special magical abilities. They grow together with their owners and also die together with them.
They can communicate with their masters through telepathy which can only be understood by their sole masters and no one else.
Ash asked Elisa why she called, to which she remembered the reason why she called her here.
"Oh yeah! Can you please go over the border and look if something is the issue? I feel like someone is hurt maybe, since I heard someone groaning in pain." Elisa said to Ash to which she nodded and went on the other side.
After a while Ash returned as Elisa got attentive.
"What happened?" Elisa asked as Ash communicated in her language through telepathy.
"What? There is a little boy badly injured?!" Elisa exclaimed as Ash nodded.
"Okay. My mana will run out soon so you should return now" Elisa told Ash as she nodded and disappeared.
"Okay then. Let's go and save the boy....but how should I cross this stream? Even though the flow isn't much, it's still too much for me." Elisa said to herself.
"Oh right! Master recently taught me how to hold myself up in the air. If I use that technique and jump over the stream I might make it." Elisa exclaimed and stepped back to jump.
She ran towards the stream and when she reached closer, she jumped and evolved her mana. As soon as she felt a gravity pull, she exerted her mana causing her to float and land safely on the other side. It was basically a huge jump since she can not float for a very long time.
"Aha! Thank you Master!" Elisa exclaimed and went inside the forest from where the voice came from.