Sedraa had been closing herself off since she returned from the valley. She felt an uncontrollable resentment towards the black wolf. The pain of that day was not just physical. She thought she could save the members of her tribe with her sacrifice, but in the end she realised that it was all just a joke in the eyes of the black wolf. Not only did she go through that horrific day, she also caused hundreds of her tribe to be unnecessarily sacrificed. Although no one said a word of blame, Sedraa only felt guilt and remorse. She was disgusted with herself, trying to hole up in the cave and pretend that nothing happened. However fate seems to like seeing her suffer.
Sedraa had recently started feeling nauseous. At first she just had no appetite, but as the weeks passed, she found that she became more and more unable to stomach anything.
At first Sedraa's mother thought that this was the effect of the incident, but soon she realised there was a more frightening possibility. After relaying it to the chieftain, she went and asked the witch doctor.
The witch doctor came over to check Sedraa's condition,and gave the news they least wanted to hear.
"Sedraa is pregnant. It should be about two months along".
Sedraa was mortified. She looked down at her still flat stomach, but she knew that there was something slowly growing in it. Her eyes became misty and tears streamed down her face. Although she had never been pregnant before, she knew what females of her species needed when pregnant. They needed the bond of the father to help relax the child. Although some male wolves were much more standoffish about it. As long as they slept next to each other, then it would not pose much of a problem.
This put Sedraa in a dilemma. Knowing that she was pregnant meant that she understood what was needed for the child to be healthy. However, the father of the child is an indifferent killer who forced herself. Don't talk about if she even wants this child, how can she accept going back to the place that haunts her?
The witch doctor may have seen her worries, however her statement completely shattered Sedraa's only hope.
"Your body isn't strong enough to handle getting rid of the child. If you do so, you may find your own life at risk".
The three members of the chieftains family were silent after that. They knew how Sedraa would choose, but they all felt aggrieved. The chieftain felt especially ashamed, not only could he not protect his only child. He had to send her back into the devils den.
Sedraa tried to put it off for many days, hounding the witch doctor for any other way to get through this without going back there. Unfortunately the witch doctor maintained her original answer.
Sedraa felt that her life was hopeless. The tribe learned of Sedraa's problem and felt very complicated. There was pity and disgust. Pity the poor daughter of the chieftain who had suffered at the hands of the monster, but disgust that she was carrying the monsters child.
Under the complicated eyes of the tribe she could only leave with her head down, heading in the direction of the last place she ever wanted to step foot in again.
The mother and daughter had been living a quiet but vigorous life. Arzhen would go out to hunt everyday, sometimes when Lida wanted to try hunting, Arzhen would allow her to accompany her. When they were together Arzhen would take her to find more docile prey, just to dip her toes in first.
Lida was quite scared when hunting for the first few times. She had never killed anything before, so when her daughter let her try it out, she hesitated and almost let the prey escape. Fortunately her child was very patient with her, and didn't look down on her for her timidity. As time passed she got used to hunting the weaker prey that couldn't really fight back.
They had just returned from a successful hunt when Arzhen smelled something in the distance. Raising her head and staring towards the direction of the entrance to the valley, she squinted her eyes, not knowing what she was thinking.
Lida saw the change in her child, and because of the doting that Arzhen had for her, didn't hesitate to ask.
"What's wrong?"
"A visitor. One I didn't expect to come on her own volition" Arzhen said thoughtfully.
Lida could guess whom the guest the child was talking about was. Who else but the chieftains daughter. However her child didn't hurry to where the girl was, which made Lida's sensitive heart a little more at ease. She found herself becoming a little possessive of her child. However, she knew that she couldn't take up all of her child's mind. Lida didn't mind if she had a few more females to take care of her, she just hoped to be able to spend a little bit more time as a special existence for her daughter. With different thoughts flowing through the mother and daughter, they returned to the den.
Sedraa had been waiting outside the den. Knowing that the black wolf wasn't there, she didn't rush to enter. The shining sun couldn't remove the chill she had when looking at the entrance.
She seemed to have waited a long time before she smelled a familiar scent, but as it got closer she found that there were two scents approaching. Looking at the mature female wolf she knew who it was. She didn't expect to see Lida here. She was stuck in her own thoughts since she returned, and the matter of Lida leaving didn't cause too big a commotion, so Sedraa didn't know about this. Though the closer the two got, the more terrified she became. She could smell the black wolf's scent mingled amongst the mature wolf and knew how it came about. The same way that scent was stuck to her after that day.
Her eyes were wide in disbelief. How could the black wolf do those things with her own mother? She wanted to leave, afraid that because she knew about this the black wolf would silence her.
However Arzhen didn't even give her a glance and bypassed her to enter the den.