I only have 1 hour so I decide to run instead of just walking. I run through the forest for about 30 minutes, and I feel it in my guts, I know I'm about to find something slightly annoying and unfortunately, I'm right.
In front of me, it's a track of blood, splatters of blood here and there, bloody handprints on the trees. The problem is the tracks are not going into the forest but out of it… which means the owner of that blood is near me.
I calmly look around just to make sure the owner of the blood isn't looking at me and turn around ready to leave the scene. I don't want to deal with more people. I take the first step back home when a hand covers my mouth. Someone is behind me keeping me in place.
"Don't scream, stay calm" a male voice says. Why does this people think saying that is going to work? Any sane person would scream. "Do you have a cellphone? I need help" he asks and I shake my head.
I don't move and decide to stay calm, a shirtless guy in the middle of the forest with a lot of injuries is a huge red flag but I decide to let it slide since he's being nice.
His hand slowly moves away from my mouth, and I look at him, he has quite a lot of injuries and he's bleeding profusely "you're dying" I say calmly, and he looks at me surprise. Shock all over his face.
He stays quiet for a couple seconds "…you're calm…" he says while gasping in pain "How can you be calm?" Why is he surprise? He was the one that asked me to stay calm.
"Should I freak out?" I ask curiously and he starts laughing.
"ajajajaja… ugh… jajaja… ouch…jajaja" what a weird dude, he keeps laughing even when it hurts "no, you shouldn't shout" he says while wiping some of the tears that came out during his laughing fit. I nod at his instructions.
"So, you're not going to ask what a guy with injuries and blood is doing here in the forest?" he asks and I shake my head. Is it alright for him to lose time when he's bleeding so much? "C'mon! you have to be at least curious about something" he adds. The look in his face shows me he's finding this situation amusing.
"Can I ask?" he nods at my question, and I smile faintly "What is a rogue doing so close to a pack's territory?"
"…"
The nice easy-going mood completely disappears and the air arounds us turns cold. His pupils start shaking and his hand practically flies to my neck, squeezing enough to keep me in place but still allow me to talk. Why do I get choke so often? Does this people have an S&M fetish?
He pulls me towards him and starts sniffing my neck, he slowly pushes me away, still holding my neck with his hand "You're human" he says surprise but is soon replaced by anger "How did you know!? Do you have warriors' station here!?" He starts looking around and I deadpan at him. He starts to shake me "Answer me!"
"You said I could ask" I say calmly once he stops shaking me. "Why did you say I could ask if you were going to get angry?" This is pointless, I only have around 15 minutes to go back home. Oh shit… I'm not going to make it back in time, I really hope this doesn't end badly.
"What the f..." he lets go of my neck and sighs "you know what? I give up, you don't have even pinch of self-preservation" he starts laughing again. I do have self-preservation instincts... I think?
"…aren't you too relax? You're losing a lot of blood" I share my concerns and he laughs.
"…jejeje… I heal fast…" I know he's lying; he just gave up.
"I see… well, will you answer my first question?" I ask curiously, I really want to know why he's here.
I suppose I should be scared but I'm not, someone like him can't be bad. In the trees, behind him and in the air, he's the person with the biggest amount of ghost following him I've ever seen. Most of the people with such a big cloud of death following them are bad but the ghosts following him are not here because of hate but because of love and respect. It's heartwarming to be around such a view.
I know that behind his easy-going demeanor is a lot of sad experiences, a lot of lost and heartbreaking goodbyes, that's why I can't help but feel relax around him, he's someone who has lived around death like me, in a different way but at the same time similar.
"To answer your first question, some stupid rogues have been killing mindlessly around here and I came to kill them" he says with gritted teeth.
"Kill them? Not help them?" I ask confused, I was told by the warrior last time that rogues were bad and dangerous.
"HA!" he mocks "Why would I help them? You must have only heard about us from the official packs, they always treat us like pests, but we're not rogues because we want to be!" slowly his tone of voice raises "some of us were born being rogues! some of us had to run from abuse in their packs! and just a small amount of us are ruthless killers! And because of them WE have to pay the price! besides there are official packs that are just as bad or worse than rogues!".
"Being a rogue only means you don't belong to an official pack! Why the hell do we have to be treated as monsters!?" I see, it appears the information I was given before was biased.
"What is an official pack?" I ask seriously, and he flinches.
"You have one hell of a way to break a passionate speech" he laughs and in between laughter he coughs blood, he doesn't have much time "An official pack is a pack approved by the werewolf king and council, but for that to happen you have to be an old official pack or to create a new one you have to suck up to him and most of us refuse to do that. It's a king's responsibility to fix the wrongdoings of the packs around him but he decides to ignore the injustice made to us, most of us just form rogue packs but many of those don't last long".
"And why did you come to kill the rogues? Did you know them?" I keep asking and he shakes his head.
"I did because it's my responsibility" he says solemnly. Responsibility? Why is it his responsibility? He didn't know them.
I recall the information I got during our conversation. Duty, rogue packs, responsibility, the ghosts around him. "Oh shit…" I understand now, I know why it is his responsibility.
"Hearing curse words from such a robotic voice is pretty funny! It doesn't match!" he laughs while coughing blood. It seems I don't have much time to lose. At some point of the conversation, we ended up sitting on the floor. I get up and dust off my pants.
"Do you wish to live?" I ask seriously.