After losing her mother, Asven's sorrowful condition didn't improve. He suddenly went into a high fever and stayed home. Neisha, Syaga and Ambrios try their best to take care of him and comfort him but it was to no avail.
Asven seems like he was trapped in his isolated world without his mother by his side. This was something unpredictable on their side when they knew he always prevailed for any hardship to come at him before, but now…
He looks lifeless.
It was until he didn't want to eat or drink that Syaga finally snapped at him.
"Enough! Asven, if you want to die then die all you want! I don't care anymore!" Syaga shouted at him before he went out of Asven's room and slammed the exit door on his way out.
He cared for Asven but Asven couldn't see him or them anymore. All he did was stare straight like nothing affected him. He didn't even flinch when Syaga slammed the door which made a small vibration in the house.
"Mother… Where are you…?" Asven whispered in a hoarse voice.
His whole body was very thin and malnourished. He still survived because Neisha had asked some medical assistant to put an IV bag on Asven. They also force-feed him when the time comes up as scheduled. For now, no one was there.
Asven turned his hollow eyes toward the open window with no glass. The night sky was covered with many twinkling stars.
"Home… I want to go home…" Absently, he said.
He slowly stood up but stumbled down because of his weakened legs and body. He crashed into a small cabinet that cut his right hand a little. Blood slowly comes out of it. He looked at the cut without expression of pain.
He doesn't seem to feel anything. Even walking to the exit door feels so light. The tube from the IV bag was detached from him when he exited his room. After getting out of the house, he looked to two paths, left and right.
The right was where he usually went to work and the left was somewhere else in the city. Asven walked slowly to the left path. He didn't know how long he had to walk and sometimes he fell down on the dirty street but he would get up after a moment.
Anyone who sees him stays away from him. They felt he was a creepy fellow due to his unkempt hair and his attires. He didn't even wear shoes when he got out of his house because he no longer cared. Soon, blisters covered the bottom of his foot with some trace of blood marking each step he took.
"I smell a doggy. Yuck!" A robust and tall man at a height of 1.85 metres said in disgust after sniffing the air.
"Oh, which way?" Another man asked.
He was small at a height of 1.57 metres and had a lean body.
"Why?"
"So, we can capture it?"
"Huh? What do you want a doggy for?"
"As usual. I killed the last one from the dog species. I want to have a replacement for it."
"Tsk! You're crazy as always, Vrix."
The robust man turned around in a direction.
"Hey, Kriel, where are you going?"
"To your new dog. Where else?"
"Great!" Vrix, the lean man, followed after.
They found Asven standing rigid in the middle of a block path. They were wondering why this person was standing there unmoving and moving closer.
"Oh, shit! This dog is useless to me." Vrix said after seeing Asven's hollow eyes without feeling.
"Yeah… And he really looks like shit too. Where did this guy come from?" Kriel frowns.
"He seems to have a puncture from something," Vrix says after taking Asven's right arm and showing Kriel.
He can touch Asven because the latter doesn't threaten him.
"Did he run from the hospital or a mental institution?"
Vrix shrugged. "He's useless to me. I want the kind of dog that would still cry out if I hit him. Let's leave."
He turned around but was surprised when his shirt was grabbed. He faced Asven again and saw only his hand that moved while the head and body were still standing in the same position. Kriel saw it too and chuckled.
"Seems like he wants to go home with you, Vrix." He told with a smirk on his lips.
"No way! Let go, kid!"
Asven was pushed harshly to the ground and stayed motionless there. Vrix let out a curse and left with Kriel on his toe. They no longer cared or looked back at Asven.
"Mother… Home…" Asven was still replaying the same words.
He subconsciously shuddered in cold and slowly moved to stand again. He watched the block path and turned around before wandering to another place. His feet took him to the forest outside the city. When he felt the forest, he turned himself into his wolf form.
"Home…? I'm home!"
His brain thought he was home since his home world does have thick forests surrounding the place he lived. He ran excitedly into the forest and went further from the city.
The next day…
"Is this truly the place you sense him?" Neisha asked Syaga who used his sixth sense to track Asven.
The latter felt so awful because the last time he saw Asven was after he yelled at him and left. He shouldn't have said that or left him by himself. When Neisha asked him to bring her to visit Asven this morning, she told him Asven was gone with a panicked expression after she looked everywhere inside the house.
His face went pale at the news and hurriedly tracked Asven using his sixth sense and sniffing around. He found Asven's tracks and was more horrified to see blood traces left by the latter blister foot. They reach the forest entrance and stop there because there was no longer a trace of it after Asven turned into his wolf. The blood trace also was no more.
"You mean he really went into the Mystical Forest? No! This can't be!" Neisha yells in anguish.
Syaga looked astonished and grim. "I'm sorry, Second Lady. I should have stayed yesterday with him." He grips his fist hard.
He blamed himself for not guarding Asven yesterday. He should have stayed because Ambrios was busy making dinner for the customers. He and Ambrios took turns to watch over Asven all this time. They never want to leave Asven alone because of his poor conditions. His failure to watch may have caused Asven to leave the house and reach the forest.
Neisha went silent and stared at the forest for a long time. She didn't feel Syaga was to blame for all of this happening.
"Maybe, this is goodbye from him…?" She thought quietly in sadness.
She heard before that changeling species would find their resting place by going to the forest when their time was up. She could have never thought it was real. She already knew Asven was from the werewolf species which was still a changeling species.
Slowly, tears drop from her eyes. "We can never find him anymore…"
"Second Lady…" Syaga whispered.
"Sniff! Let's go back… There's nothing we can do anymore. I just hope he can rest in peace now."
Neisha wiped her tears away and turned back to the city. Syaga grit his teeth. He looked at the forest before he followed her. He doesn't know how to explain to Ambrios about Asven. All he could do was ask for forgiveness.
Two years later, the Mystical Forest entrance…
"God! Finally, I'm out! How crazy am I for getting myself lost inside the forest for almost two years?!" A man in ragged clothes complains with a sigh of relief.
"Syvia City… I'm back. I wonder how everyone's doing…?" His deep brown eyes looked at the city from afar.
He turns himself into a small white pup and runs toward the city. First, he went back to his old rented home. He was surprised not to see anyone rent it and let out a sigh of relief. The house was unlocked and no one seems to have entered it before. Dust covers the furniture inside the house. He sneezes the moment he pushes the door open.
Asven, after losing himself because of his mother's death, finally regains his sanity after he almost died falling from a high mount and also got bitten by a wild animal that thought he was dead at that time. He finally realised where he was once he looked around. It scared him to the bone.
With a new spirit, he slowly cured himself using his knowledge of the forest. Since he and his mother used to search for food and medicinal leaves when they entered the forest before, it was easy for Asven to survive there.
The medicinal leaf was to speed up their wounds when they got cut or scratched from the forest surroundings or the city. As an Omega, their body was not that strong and had a slow recovery. They need medicinal leaves to help them.
Unfortunately, Asven got lost because when he was absentminded he had moved deeper into the forest where he didn't know which direction to get back to Syvia City where he met Neisha, Syaga and Ambrios. As a wolf, he can survive the forest but he still does everything he can to find a way out of there.
After almost two years, he finally found the trace of where he could go back to the city. Now, he was back and hoped his friends still recognised him. After checking around the house, Asven went out again and ran in the pup form toward the red district. But, he stops abruptly when his nose smells the sweet scent that makes his entire body go cold in horror.
"It can't be… No way…"
He slowly steps back into the dark alley when he almost arrives at the brothel house he worked at before. He can see the house but some people lingering outside while chatting happily makes him very scared to move forward anymore.
This was the second time in his entire life that he would smell this sweet scent again. It comes from the same tribe that killed his father before.
"Witch! Why? Why are they here?! I, I must escape!"
So, Asven ran away. He no longer desired to be there because he was scared that the witches might smell him. He was glad that he had covered his body with leaves that make a body scent unrecognised before he went back to the city. It was to ensure his safety in the forest but now it's going to save his life from being found.
The witches that he had seen from afar in front of the brothel house looked over the dark alley and only saw a small animal running away.
"Seems like there's still a rat around here." One of the witches frowned.
She had long red hair that was covered by a hat on top. Her figure was slim and wore a beautiful red dress that made the being around whistle at her and another witch beside her with the same sexy attire.
"Maybe it is a rat." Another witch said.
She wears all black with a mask below her eyes. Her eyes were light silver and had a silver tear mark beside her left eye. Her short hair was the colour of mixed blue and white. She had no expression until her gaze saw the white animal that she didn't know whether it was a rat, cat or dog. Within her mask, she smiled but his friend couldn't see it.
"Anya, let's go drink. I'm thirsty already." The first witch said.
"Shouldn't we say hi to Karla and Neisha first, Reiln? We haven't been here for years already." Anya rolled her eyes at her friend and entered the brothel.
"Hey, wait for me!" Reiln follows her inside.