"Does it hurt?" Ysabelle asked Eirisse, after seeing her quail several times from the pain.
They were sitting on the left side of Eirisse's bed and Ysabelle had already taken care of the wounds on her arms and legs. Ysabelle was facing her back, where most of the cuts were. They were not deep, but they sure burned from the ethyl alcohol Ysabelle was applying on her.
"A little," she mumbled, she had to withstand the pain for a while.
"Where did you get this mark from?" Ysabelle asked, while running her hand over it faintly, almost feather-like.
"After I crossed the portal, it appeared on me out of nowhere. I didn't know what it was until I looked at myself in the mirror," she answered truthfully, thinking back to pain she had when she got to the shore of the lake. She still did not know what it meant or where it had come from.
"Really? Just like that?" She questioned.
"Yeah, just like that, it was quite an unexpected welcome," she whispered, lost in thought. Everything seemed surreal to her.
"Do you like wolves?" Ysabelle asked out of nowhere. Eirisse turned her head, making Ysabelle stop from treating a cut to glance at her briefly before continuing. A smirk formed on her lips sadly.
"Is that a no?" she asked in a gloomy voice. Eirisse turned back around, and fixed her eyes on her hands, and suddenly remembered when Ysabelle told her that if she wanted she could change her form.
Is that why she is asking me this? Oh my God, who am I getting involved with here?! Are they actual werewolves? Are they dangerous? She started overthinking in just a brief second.
Eirisse shook her head, getting those thoughts out of her head. There's no way. She is just referring to normal wolves, she thought. But that is just what she wanted to believe, her question had a deeper meaning, of that she was sure, she just didn't want to accept it. She somehow knew what she meant, real wolves, werewolves; people who could transform into a mythical creature.
"Um, no is not that I don't like them," she paused, turning her head around once more and looking straight into her eyes, "I just have never seen one before in person. I guess they are fascinating." she admitted, hoping Ysabelle knew that she knew what she was asking. Her face gleamed with excitement, her eyes shined with such a spark, she did not know if she was excited, or what was it that made her like that, but it only lasted for a few seconds before her expression became normal again. She knew, they were on the same page.
"Interesting." She mumbled under her breath, but loud enough for Eirisse to hear. What she was thinking, Eirisse had no idea.
"Well, just a heads-up…This house is basically full of them, so," she paused, practically telling her literally what she was dealing with. Those words made Eirisse stop her turmoil of thoughts for a moment, "you better get used to them." Ysabelle finished like it was a normal thing to say. Did they have pets as wolves? Or was every single 'human' in the house a wolf?
"Umm, full of, wo-wolves?" she asked, stuttering in fear. She was joking, right?
"How come I did not see them, or hear them?" she asked, hoping she would explain further, in an explicit manner to be exact.
"They were in human form of course." Again, she answered as if this was normal. It was getting on Eirisse's nerves that she kept joking with her in such a lightly way. It was hard for her to believe those words. How can there be actual werewolves? But she had no idea that from the moment she crossed paths with Ysabelle, her mindset would change.
"Huh? You were not kidding?" she asked, panic in my voice when she saw Ysabelle's character composed and serious. She has a lot of explaining to do.
"Your wounds are ready, you can rest now. Tomorrow we'll check them again, okay?" She hurriedly stood up, avoiding the obvious confusion on her face. She is running away from spilling the beans.
"Good night, Rissie." She paused at the doorway, making emphasis on the nickname. She closed the door behind her quietly and left her alone.
Eirisse took a deep breath as she winced while pulling down her shirt. She stood up and pulled down the sheet of the bed and got in, glad she had some alone time to think things over. The bed felt cozy and ultrasoft that when her head hit the pillow; she immediately fell asleep, not giving her mind time to linger on werewolves and let alone her current situation.
Her eyelids were too heavy to stay awake, she was exhausted from everything that happened in a matter of hours. It was only then that she realized how tired she really was. Her last thought was that when she woke up the next day, she would be back home, and this would be just a strange dream, nothing else.
"Good morning, sunshine!" Ysabelle cheerfully exclaimed while opening the curtains to let in the bright sunlight.
"Ughh," Eirisse groaned, pulling the bedsheet tighter around her, and curling herself into a ball.
"C'mon, get up! We are going shopping!" She exclaimed while tugging on her bedsheet in a rough way. Eirisse pulled it tighter around her like it was a tug war. This was not a dream after all, she sighed in discontentment. She realized then that she would be living with werewolves. Great, she groaned inside in a sarcastic tone.
"I don't like shopping." She simply answered, she somewhat lied, wanting to stay in bed and rest for a while longer. The only female friend who she used to go out shopping with was Emma. The rest of the friends she made were male, so you can say she adopted some of their dislikes, one was shopping.
Ysabelle groaned irritated and with one single pull, she rolled her out of her bedsheet roll. She was appreciably strong! With a painful thud, Eirisse landed on her back, wincing when her sore back complained. She opened her eyes slowly, the light hurting them. She automatically covered her face and gave Ysabelle a death stare when her sight recovered. Ysabelle ignored it completely and smiled triumphantly, her hands on her hips.
"Good." She smirked, "get changed." She motioned towards her washed clothes, neatly folded on the edge of the bed. Ysabelle crossed her arms and stood in a wide stance like a bodyguard would do.
"I'll wait for you downstairs, okay?" She decided, as she turned around and walked out the door, closing it behind her. "Don't take too long." She added loudly as she was getting farther away from the room.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I mumbled as she took the clothes and went to take a short shower. The cuts were slowly healing but they did not burn as much as yesterday. The shower was bearable which she was thankful for.
When she finished her shower, she curiously looked at her back in the mirror. The tattoo seemed normal, it was not inflamed anymore and it did not burn and it did not glow in the reddish flame either. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, she still could not get how it got there. Was it because of the portal when I crossed over? She shrugged and put on her black tank top and black shorts. She stared at her feet, forgetting she had no shoes. She facepalmed herself and walked out of the bathroom towards the hairdresser. She combed her straight wet hair and stared at her zombie-like complexion in the mirror. Her hands froze in mid-air, and the comb fell out of her hands and onto the floor with a loud thump sound.
She looked deadly pale! Not only that, regardless of how well she slept last night, dark circles adorned her indigo eyes. She looked away from the mirror after quickly combing her bangs over her left eye with her slender fingers. That would not cover up the sick look on her, but she had to try.
She hurriedly left the room and walked down the stairs. When she was at the last steps, she slowed down as she saw Ysabelle stand up from her sofa and look down at her bare feet. She took a few steps towards her, closing the distance; she sized her feet up before walking towards the door that was on the other side of the living room. She had been right; it was a closet. She walked in and a light bulb turned on. Yes, a light bulb. But the light was a light blue, not yellowish like a normal bulb would lighten up. Eirisse guessed they were not that old-fashioned. Why was the light in this place strange-looking?
The light went off and Ysabelle came out holding a pair of black leather ankle-length lace-up combat boots. She placed them on the floor as Eirisse looked at them noticing they were just her size as she got her feet in them. They must both have the same size.
"Shopping with me is fun, so don't worry. It'll help us get to know each other." She announced, noticing her voice was the only thing she could hear as she tied the laces of the boots. Eirisse stood up and looked around, nobody seemed to be in the house.
"Where is everybody?" she asked. Ysabelle shrugged, while nodding with her head towards the front door.
"The usual, boring duties." She walked out with Eirisse trailing behind her, that's when she noticed that the carriage from last night was in front of them with a white horse and a man in his mid-forties was opening the door, waiting for them to get in. He offered his hand to both of them in a courteous manner, which they took gladly. He wore black formal clothing, with a straight back and a mute mannerism. Only his cold eyes and expressionless face made her look away feeling intimidated.
Eirisse took a seat in front of Ysabelle, her back facing the front side of the carriage just as the horse started moving. She realized the charioteer was faster than lightning, she hadn't even finished sitting down when he was already moving the carriage.
"Thanks for lending me your boots." Eirisse thanked her, looking at her in the eyes. Ysabelle responded with a bright side smile.
"Keep them, I am half a number bigger than those so, they seem to fit you just right" she shrugged while crossing her arms and looking out the window. They were going out of the town, taking a dirt road to the right side of the entrance. The guard from last night was not there, but a younger man, guarding the gate and two more at the towers above. They were the same black ninja clothes as the one from last night.
"Where are we going?" Eirisse asked curiously as she looked out at the forest before them. She looked up, the sun's rays shining brightly through the giant trees.
"We are going to the next town, Keelia City. It's a few minutes away from here, so we are not going that far." She paused and looked at her with those light brown eyes of hers, "the fabrics of the clothes are more…" she paused in thought, looking for the right word, "…of my style, you know, of high quality. So, I'm taking you there." She announced in an excited tone.
About ten or fifteen minutes passed by and they were still on the road in the middle of a forest, they both seemed lost in their own thoughts. To her left side of the road was a small and what looked like a side-ways kind of ravine. It looked far down and wow, did it look painful to fall from here.
She looked away not wanting to keep imagining the long, painful fall.
"We are almost there, see?" Ysabelle took her out of her random thoughts as she pointed to a gate not far from there; maybe three miles away.
"So, tell me about your family." Ysabelle suddenly asked. Her gaze on Eirisse, giving her full attention, curiosity was obvious in her eyes. Her question took her off-guard, making her blink a few times while processing her question.
"Um, well," Eirisse did not know where to start or from who, trying to find the right words to start explaining became difficult.
"I was adopted." she answered after a while. Ysabelle looked caught off-guard by her blunt answer. Eirisse looked away from her and out the window instead, remembering my family, my friends.
"I only have one brother, Alexander. His parents welcomed me with open arms when I was left at their doorstep." she added, remembering a birthday party with them. They told her that when she was at their footstep, she must have been born that exact day; and they never reminded her that she was adopted, they always showed her their affection, not caring that she didn't look like them, or if she had different talents from them.
Ysabelle's stare seemed sympathetic, but it quickly disappeared, not wanting Eirisse to misunderstand her as showing pity. No one wanted pity in those type of situations.
"Where would you like me to drop you off, ma'am?" The driver asked out of nowhere, interrupting her thoughts. "You know the shop, Ronan," Ysabelle answered.
Eirisse noticed that we were already inside the new town. It seemed somehow brighter than the one where Ysabelle lived. Here people seemed to be walking on the streets in a more cheerful way. Maybe because it was daytime and not nighttime. The people seemed warm and welcoming, everyone in their own business. Their attire was normal, although denim was not in their repertoire, their clothes were literally out of her other world.
She was observing every detail of the town's architecture, noticing it was similar to the previous town. The carriage stopped and the wooden door opened, revealing the driver with his hand extended towards them once more. Ysabelle took it and stepped outside followed by her.
The different scents and aromas coming from everywhere hit her nose like honey. Eirisse closed her eyes and breathed in the just-out-of-the-oven bread coming from the bakery. It smelled so sweet making her mouth water and her stomach grumble. Then, she smelled the scent of fresh, wet roses, daisies, and other flowers; their scents tingled her nose while smiling. She enjoyed the freshness of a new place.
It was not noisy like in the city back in her world, but the people were everywhere buying and talking with neighbors, giving her this feeling of when she went with her mother to the market.
"Eirisse!" Ysabelle called, making her snap out to her senses, she opened my eyes and looked at her.
"C'mon, this way!" She cried, she was already a few yards away from Eirisse, making her jog towards her. They walked side by side as they turned a corner and came face to face with a bunch of clothing stores. They had their little wooden signs outside the stores with crystal windows that let you view some of the styles they sold.
They passed a few stores before walking in a huge store that screamed luxury. Ysabelle immediately went and started checking out the clothes. Eirisse didn't argue much when Ysabelle offered to buy her some, after all, Eirisse had no money there to pay.
The day went well, they bought groceries and soon they were on their way back to the carriage. That was until Eirisse leaned against a wall, her head was spinning like crazy. She closed her eyes but it was worse. Ysabelle was walking before her, she was talking to Eirisse about her 'wonderful' mate when she noticed Eirisse wasn't following.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her hands holding her back, helping her walk. Eirisse nodded slowly giving her a fake reassuring smile. Eirisse pushed her away lightly, trying to assure her she was fine, but as she was about to take a step on her own, her legs wobbled. Just in time did Ysabelle catch her before she fell to the ground.
"Come on, I'll give you some herb tea when we get home," Ysabelle spoke gently. The driver placed the bags at the front of the carriage with him as she helped her inside. They sat at the same side of the carriage as they did before. Eirisse closed her eyes and took deep breaths through her nostrils, trying to make the dizziness go away.
A headache was appearing now, making her feel nauseated with the bumpy road as they exited the town. Ysabelle rubbed her knee trying to comfort her, but It was no use.
"We'll get there in no time." She affirmed. Her eyes were getting heavy, it was getting hard to open them with every second that passed by.
"Hey, are you okay? Are you-?" Ysabelle's voice became faded and far away. Her mind could not think straight, until all she saw was darkness.