The crippling fear of losing my family due to my own weakness made me realize how important it was to have the strength necessary to protect my loved ones. Oddly enough, it fueled my determination to walk on the 'path to power', as my father called it.
As for the rest of the day, I kept trying to read the "Phenomenology of Spells" but the book only depressed me further since I couldn't understand two lines of it in a row.
The complexity of language used in it made it so that a normal 12-year-old girl like me couldn't understand half the words and sentences.
Bored and overwhelmed with information I couldn't make sense of, I picked up "Mein Werewolf Princess" and read it for the rest of the day.
The story was long and boring, but it was still bearable. The book was written from the perspective of a werewolf princess who was trying to gain the recognition of her tribe but the lack of body hair made everyone despise her. One day, she finds a handsome toad who later turns out to be the Emperor of one of the human kingdoms and escapes the clutches of the werewolves with him.
Although the book was supposed to be a romantic novella, it really seemed like comedy to me. Perhaps if I hadn't been so depressed in the last few days, I would have let out a laugh. When I closed the book, I marveled at the guts of the author who managed to write stuff like that without puking his guts out.
When the night came, I had dinner with the family again, where we ate mutton stew and rice in a pleasant atmosphere.
My family avoided speaking of things that would trigger my trauma and behaved like how we used to do a month or so ago. I didn't miss Chloe's curious eyes of course, but I could only neglect them for the time being.
The next day was almost the same, although I threw up my lunch once. I didn't know if it was because my body was still reeling from the shock or because of reading that da**ed werewolf princess book. It was still better than everything I had been going through the last two weeks.
I sat on my bed and saw Chloe sleeping beside me as the words I would speak to the Mayor the next day kept circling in my head.
I also remembered Aunt Nefaly's dangerous stare and panicked when I realized that I would be facing her again tomorrow.
I didn't know if I had it in me to look at Sister Hin in a state of extended sleep, that could've been avoided if I had just been more careful, while her mother stood beside us.
The scenarios kept jumbling in my head and I was only able to close my eyes when the first arched rays of sun came filtered through the curtains of my room.
I was shaken awake by Chloe and the first words that I heard were, "Sis, sis, papa is calling you, the Mayor is about to arrive."
I took a second to process her words clearly and suddenly sprung from my bed when I did.
Quickly washing my face and gurgling twice, I fixed my clothes and hurriedly left with Chloe following my tail.
My father stood at the entrance with a flustered expression. As soon as he saw me, he nodded and told me to follow him as he hurriedly left for Sister Hin's house.
Chloe wanted to follow us but mother stopped her and called her back inside, as she left my side with a dissatisfied face.
My father didn't pause when we reached Sister Hin's house but I did. The nervousness and fear that I felt time and time again had begun to work its wonders again.
I looked around and saw various fearsome men with buff bodies and spears looking back at me strangely.
I recognized one of them. He was the one that scolded me and Sister Hin when we tried to climb the walls of the Mayor's courtyard back then.
He stood out from his group by his dominant figure alone. The scary individuals were avoiding him, but also surrounding him in the middle. His prominent status was quite obvious from that.
Considering his status as the guard of the Mayor's courtyard, he was probably the head guard. Strangely, it was the awkwardness of those guards staring at me that made me follow my father inside the house.
Their house had a sliding door installed, which was wide open at that time. My father stood at the door, hearing the conversation of the people inside.
It was the first time I had seen him bowing his back subconsciously. He was humbled, and it seemed completely natural as well.
I gulped and tiptoed behind him to look at the scene inside. A thick mattress was placed on the ground, on which my best friend, my sworn sister was resting with the same peaceful smile on her face as I had seen before she fainted. It was somehow equally delicate and heartbreaking to my eyes.
Aunt Nefaly and Uncle Manto were also bowing like my father but Uncle was consoling her while she was crying at the same time.
In front of them stood a tall man, with neat and proper white hair and beard. Catching a side-glance of the man, who was presumably the mythical Mayor, I was stupefied.
Only when I took another closer look did I realize that he wasn't the Uncle Albert that we were only too familiar with, but the resemblance was still uncanny.