Everyone siting at the talking was talking. Jan was putting more food on the table. Sigurd was preoccupied with the chicken soup. Yrsa and Kai were flirting under the table. Nissa was talking to Karlen who was a good listener.
"Did you practice?"
Yrsa looks at the three youngsters eager to know what they were doing half day.
"I practiced with both. You are not going to believe me what happened."
Nissa narrate what happened using her body. All of them were shocked when she explained how Sigurd won against her.
"He won !?"
"It was odd but is the truth. It was like he was another person."
"That's not possible. He never raised his hand against anyone."
Yrsa and Kai distrust Nissa who was just joking probably.
"It is true. He won."
Karlen is looking at Yrsa.
"I will be the judge of that."
Sigurd sighs.
"I want to join the camp."
Yrsa laughs. is concern how the conversation will end. Nissa seems to stop her foolish act and is putting on the chair waiting for the game to start.
"How do you bet is going to win?"
Nissa is whispering to Karlen.
"Sigurd."
He whispers back."
"Me too."
Sigurd frowns and you can see he is a much calmer then usually.
'I need to win this.'
"Do you think a throw can protect you against a Wolf's claw? Are you confident?"
"I just want to train."
"In this camp will be strange people. Not to mention that I can't watch over you, neither Nissa. You will need to train with Wolves and Masters ten times stronger than."
"If I stay in my room nothing will ever change. This body will get thinner and thinner. I need to risk to change."
"Risk? Do you think you have a chance to risk? You are the second in line to become the leader. These days lots of rumors are about assassins trying to kill Didrik, your grandpa. Remember this: you are safe for now because you are a human. The moment they will find that you are a wolf, who do you think is easier to kill, your grandpa or you?"
"You are saying that me as a human seem not harmful to them?"
"No, dummy. A leader is supposed to be a Wolf or a Master."
"Sill, if I don't transform, I am free. I am not a wolf so they should not try to kill me."
"Don't you get it? There are plenty of people trying to kidnap the grandson of Didrik. You are bond to be a pray. Getting strong is not the solution. There will be always someone stronger than you."
"What is your solution than?"
"If you are not alone, they can't win against me or your father of other people that are guarding you."
"Do you want to give me a bodyguard now? A re you serious? Is that your idea? I am not a girl! Why is Nissa not having a bodyguard? She is a girl!"
"It is because she is a girl. She doesn't matter."
Sigurd is trying to keep his calm. He looks at Nissa and she doesn't seem affected.
"I will go to the camp."
"DID I TALK ALONE?"
"NO! I will go to the camp to observe. I will be under your eyes. Nissa promised to train me separately. What do you think?"
Yrsa thinks for a moment and she looks at Kai who nods. Nissa is nodding too.
"I will train him."
Yrsa looks at the rebel with a grave look
"If you rise a sword and start to fight in the camp and someone reports to me or I see you, you promise to agree with my idea."
"Deal."
Nissa and Karlen are not sure who won.
"Sigurd won."
"I think both came to an agreement. Or more of a deadly compromise."
"Yea, yea…"
Karlen and Sigurd are whispering at each other. Poor think the bet's prize is for none of them.
"Let's get both of us the prize."
"Agree."
They high five and both go upstairs.
"What are they doing?"
Sigurd is looking at Nissa and Karlen. Nissa is jumping and her eyes have a mischievous look while Karlen's face is radiant and a sly smile is visible as he turns his head to Nissa.
"You may not remember but if Nissa and Karlen are together something will happen. They are like this just when they have the same end goal."
"I hope they will not include me in their plan."
Sigurd is tired.
"Jan, the food was delicious."
Jan is smiling hearing the boy complimenting his food.
"Wait here a moment. "Jan vanishes and returns just as fast with glazed apples on a plate.
"Wow! These are mine?"
"Eat them. These were your favorites."
"Don't pamper him! Didn't you see his tamper? Its because of you!"
Yrsa is joking with Yan while he is smiling at Sigurd not giving her attention.
"Thank you!"
Sigurd is taking the plate and goes up stairs. When he opens his door the first think he does is to chomp on a glazed apple.
"That's so sweet!"
He is satisfied. He sits on the edge of the bed and eats the second apple.
Sigurd is enjoying the third apple on the balcony. After he finishes eating, he squats and inspects the vines on the wall. He is inspecting them and finds out that they had roots in the wooden wall. Maybe he will get used to them. He sighs.
He enters the room and without having what to do he decides to look in the closet.
He squats and takes his shirt. The smell on it is different from his.
'I swear I smelled this smell today somewhere…..."
'Or maybe I am mistaken.'
He smells again the shirt and finds the smell pleasant. It smells fresh mixed with flower scent.
'What flower is it?'
He thoughts about it and realizes that he has zero knowledge about flowers. When was the last time he smelled a flower? Maybe when his father was buying flowers for his mother? In every yard of this village, he saw multiple large flower beds. The air is smelling like flowers.
He tries to fold the shirt but fails. He thinks of a solution. If he cannot fold it, he will take it on him. The scarf is on the ground as he changes shirts. He smells it again.
'I will not wash this shirt ever.'
He goes down and talks with Yrsa about where to was the clothes. Yrsa is giving him a wooden bucket and tells him to put it in his room. He will toss in the dirty clothes. After clarifying this issue Sigurd is going upstairs and does what Yrsa instructed him. He tosses his pant that are on him and opens the closet again. He decides to toss the scarf too but renounces at that idea because he doesn't have another one.
Just with his shirt a scarf on him he ties on multiple pants and find that some of them were having a thinner material. He will use these types of pants as nightclothes. He closes the closet but what was inside it no one wants to see. A total mess. This will not be a bother in the future for Sigurd.
He jumps in the bad and takes a book that was sitting in the tiny shelf next his bed.
'The Beginning of a New Kingdom'
It was the same book the Ancestors had shown him.
Sigurd flips through the book and seems disinterested.
The page with number forty catches his attention.
'Mating and bonding'
In his previous life he slept with few girls but he always tried to keep it short. Long term was not for his live style. It was proved. After all, he died at the command of his 'this will be my long-term girlfriend'.
If he reads it, it will help him snag some chicks later. He is positive he can sleep with them without being a Wolf or whatever.
His goal is still to have fun.
He flips the page and starts to read. Page after page is studied with diligence.
It seems that the bonding was ideal.
The Wolf not only is releasing pheromones but is weak in heat. A Master could kill or mate with him without the consent of the Wolf. To Sigurd this was the definition of what happened that night. But he didn't have any scent. Maybe what happened to him wasn't really what was written in the book.
The heat was only if he would have been a Wolf. It's written that before transformation you don't have pheromones to trigger the heat. It means he was safe. So just the Master who asleep with him was in heat?
Another think makes him intrigue: Why can not the Wolf see the mark of the bonding?
What if he was marked? About this situation the book is silent. There were no cases of a human being marked.
He is bored. It is not like he will bond with someone. The book made him feel secure since he wasn't a Wolf yet and the possibility of him being marked was out of the question.
He closes the book and puts in on the shelf. The yawn and the fatigue remind him that it is time to cover himself with the blanket more and relax in the warmth he feels under that fur blanket.
The lamp on the shelf is lighting in the darkness.
He just fell asleep when the door is open and two people are in the room. Sigurd is in dream land.
The two unidentified people come in and out carrying something.
"Do you think he will wake up?"
"No way. He is exhausted. Look"
One person is touching Sigurd's nose and forehead and pulls his hair.
"He is dead."
They whisper looking at Sigurd.
"Let's sleep too."
They stretched the fur blankets and buried their bodies in them.
After one of the two is asleep the other one goes near Sigurd's bed. He leans next to Sigurd and pulls the blanket on him. He blows the lamp.
Sigurd is moving given to the fact his blanket pulled. The cold air is getting under the blanket and Sigurd shivers. The man next to him is covering Sigurd with Aura and Sigurd stretches from the worm feeling. He gets closer to the man and puts his leg on top of the man's legs while hugging him. The man puts Sigurd's head on his arm and hugs him back. He strokes Sigurd face and gives him a kiss on the forehead. He stops using the Aura. Sigurd is burying his head in the man's chest more. They fall asleep. A sweet scent is in the room.
The other person who was sleeping on the floor is waking up from the sickening scent.
"Would you look at them? What am I doing with them?"
The person looks closer and a pair of ears are popping from under the blanket.
"Wolf…"
The person walks away and blows the lamp that she lit few minutes ago.
'There are two scents mixed' The person is thinking and finds it hard to fall asleep. The anxiety and fear are making it hard to decide what to do next.
The silence in the night masks and hides truths that will not be uncovered.
Sigurd is fantasizing a forest. He is lead by a flower scent. His steps and finds himself in moving sends. He screams and no one is around to help him. The scent is getting ticker and makes him dizzy as he drowns in the sand. The fear and the comfortable feeling are making him flinch and hug the other person harder. He sees darkness and than he feels under him grass and flowers and the scent is with him. He stands up and is happy at the view. The fear is forgotten just peace was present. He lies down and falls asleep.
The man is kissing his forehead and pats him. Sigurd is not in tension and relaxes in his arms as he strokes his back.
The moon in covered by clouds. If only the morning will not come.
Sigurd the first to be awake. With his eyes half closed he yawns and steps out of the bed. He trips and falls right on the the blankets that were laid next his bed. His forehead hits Karlen's forehead while his lips are on Karlen's lips. Sigurd is not yet aware neither Karlen who links his lips and strokes Sigurd's jaw.
Sigurd is lead by Karlen's tongue as he little by little begins to realize what is happening.
"What are you guys doing in the morning?"
Nissa is rubbing her eyes.
Sigurd is slapping Karlen. He blushes.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? WE ARE NOT DOING NOTHING IT! YOU JERK!!!
He slaps and hits Karlen who disappears under the blanket.
Nissa is looking absent at Sigurd and sighs. She comes down with her feet on earth and jumps on Sigurd.
"Don't hit him too much. Play with me too!"
"GET YOUR HAND OFF ME! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE! EXPLAIN!"
Nissa is holding him down and Karlen sits up.
"WHY ARE YOU NAKED?!"
"I am not."
Karlen shows him the pants.
"WHY DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE NOT?!HOW DARE YOU BE SO CALM !?COME HER TO KICK YOU ONE MORE TIME!"
"Calm down!"
Nissa is sitting on him holding his hands at the back.
"I WILL EXPLAIN!"
Karlen rises her voice making Sigurd flinch.
"We bet on you."
Sigurd is dark.
"Who wins will sleep with you."
Sigurd is getting even darker and Nissa struggles to keep him still. He escapes and jumps on Karlen ready to punch him. Nissa is enjoying the scene and waits to see Karlen getting him. He cheated sleeping with Karlen in the bed.
Karlen catches his fist and makes pines Sigurd down. Sigurd is hitting with his legs Karlen's back but no reply. His hands are pushed down by Karlen's.
"YOU JERK! IF I ESCAPE YOU, ARE DEATH! YOU HEAR ME! LET GO!"
"I promise to not bet on you again."
"YOU PROMISE!?YOU NEVER KEEP YOUR PROMISES! YOU SHOULD SAY SORRY AND BEG ME TO FORGIVE YOU!"
"I beg you to forgive me."
Sigurd looks glum as if he remembered something.
"Get out! I don't want to see you."
Karlen sighs and let go of him. Nissa is trying to gets close to Sigurd.
"You too. Get out!"
"I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU IT WAS MY IDEA! Why are you so sensitive? It was not Karlen's fault. Don't be so harsh on him?"
"Of course, it was his fault! He should have stopped you and your stupid ideas! Anyways, why do you keep his side?"
"Do you really want to know? Sorry, but you are too dense."
"Shut up! And never to this again."
Nissa is getting out of the room. Karlen is folding the blankets silent and carries to their rooms.
Being in his thoughts Karlen starts to fold Sigurd's blanket too.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT BLANKET!"
Sigurd snatches the blanket and stretches it on the bed. Karlen is leaving the room and goes in his.
Sigurd is feeling a little guilty for screaming at them like that but who put them to do it? And why not to be harsh on Karlen? He is no saint from his perspective. No one really knows what that guy is thinking.
And Nissa …... She needs to stop being so childish. It will be hard to avoid Nissa since the camp will start soon and he will have to train with her.
His mood drops and he buries his face in the blanket. The scent is comforting him.
'If I stay to think, why was I so pissed off?'
The day was boring. Nissa was no were to be seen. Karlen was probably in his room. Sigurd left his room just to eat.
He found out from Jan that Yrsa and Kai left early in the morning to go to the Circle, in the capital. Jan told him that they will come back in two days.
It was so boring.
. . . . .
Nissa is staying in the cold pool. She is leaning on the edge and she seems in her thoughts.
'Fuck …. I don't know how to deal with him.'
Her wolf ears are twitching. Something was coming. She turned to the source of the steps. A wolf with black fur is siting in front of her.
She smiles. The wolf is expressionless.
"What are you doing here?"
The wolf is coming closer touches her nose with his.
"Do you think I wouldn't know it is you?"
The wolf transformed into a man with short brown hair. His eyes were green like emerald and his build was big enough to see his muscles through the shirt that was tight on him.
"Did you come to amuse me?"
"Who comes to amuse you, dumb-ass? We came for the camp but there was no one to greet us."
"Where you scared? Don't lie, Waylin. Or maybe you should lie to make me feel a little better."
"Of course, I was just a little worried. Who did you fight with?"
Waylin gets in the pool with her.
"I probably did a mistake."
"You always do mistakes so why so depressed?"
"I am not depressed. I was just thinking."
"You never think."
"Seriously?"
Nissa is getting closer to him and her eyes are on his chest.
"How about making me forget what I am thinking since you suggest is better to not think about it?"
Nissa's seductive eyes are always her way of asking him.
Waylin sighs.
"What do you want?"
"Comfort me a little…... can't you?"
Her genuinely sad tone and her eyes that changed into one's of a puppy are his weakness. She knows that.
"Do what you want."
She jumps on him and buries her face in his chest while felling his back muscles.
"You know Sigurd told me to get out of the room this morning. It's not like I slept with him in the bed, I had my blankets on the ground. It was just a little bet…."
She continued to mumble rubbing her face on Waylen's chest.
"Of course, he was mad. You not only bet on him but also broke into his room at midnight."
"He wouldn't have agreed to let us sleep in his room."
"You shouldn't have bet on that in the first place."
"I just wanted to push Karlen a little into Sigurd … you know what I am saying …."
"The long-haired pretty face that glared at me at the party?"
"He glared at you?"
"Anyways, don't push people around. Your intentions might have been good but your way of doing thinks is always crazy. How many times did I told you this?"
"Multiple times…."
"When are you going to learn and stop clinging to me? I think you are better knowing."
"I don't want to change. My ways might be crazy but people need these situations to change and understand each other."
"Are you going to be fine if people hate you?"
"As long as you don't hate me, I am fine."
Nissa looks into Waylin's eyes and laughs. He throws her in the water. She was always like this. If she wasn't this crazy, they wouldn't have gotten so close.
Back then if Nissa would have stopped talking and playing with him, he would have eventually gotten mad and a danger for other people.
He was attached to her for sure but he wasn't so sure about her. What truly matters is that he was her support. If she is smiling, he is fine too.