"Damned kid! I said get up!" A woman dressed in a maid's outfit yelled, pulling hard on the hair of Olivia. Her name was Edna, and she had been tasked with the duty of preparing Olivia to see the commander.
But ever since she woke up, Olivia was so overwhelmed by the fact that she couldn't see, that she found herself the edge of a wall and squatted next to it, covering her ears with her palms.
'So loud! Everything is so loud!' Olivia panicked, soaked in sweat and tears, with her sense of sight gone, her body immediately adjusted, placing a load of strength on her remaining senses.
Most especially her hearing, she could hear three times better than she formerly used to, which was a greater feat than all the maids under the division.
"Don't make me say it again. Or else I'll peel your skin off!" Edna raised her voice and pulled harder on Olivia's hair, trying to her the frightened child to move.
The other maids in the chamber room looked away, either indifferent towards the situation, or unable to watch such a bruised child face anymore torment.
"Please…don't say anything…I'm begging you…" Olivia whispered softly, forcing back the urge to bang her head against the wall, hoping it would place an end to the misery she was feeling.
"Ha?!" Edna took offense to her words, "Who the hell do you think you are to give me orders?!" She released her hair and raised her hand, aiming to strike Olivia's face.
"That's enough!" The loud and commanding voice of the head maid, Freina, was enough to calm the situation in an instant. Edna, and the other maids scurried over to Freina and lowered their heads to her.
"Welcome back, head maid." They chorused, not wanting to get on the woman's bad side for not showing respect.
But Freina ignored their greeting, and instead marched over to the whimpering child. In one swift movement, she picked her by the elbow and hauled her over her shoulders.
"Who is this? What are you doing?" Olivia panicked over suddenly getting lifted up, she tried to resist, but when she removed her palms from her ears, the noise surrounding her intensified.
Hence, she had no choice but to leave them on the sides of her face and comply.
'So light.' Freina noted to herself, as she carried Olivia out of the main servant's quarters.
On her way out, she passed a sharp glare at Edna, as though sending her a final warning not to repeat the same stunt she had just pulled.
"Have a meal ready by the time I'm back, or else…it's to the well with you." Freina threatened with her eyes sharply pointed at Edna.
A cold shiver cascaded Edna's spine at the mere thought of being thrown into the well. She instinvely shrank back and nodded in complete submission.
"Yes, head maid." She responded with her head bowed. They may all have been maids, but none of them came close to the head maid, Freina.
The daughter of the pack's former Gamma, Gamma Cain, who had died protecting his family from an attack. In the course of the attack, Freina lost all of her family and became an orphan at age nine. However, despite all those challenges, she worked tooth and nail into the castle, and became the head maid of the third division.
On their way to the servant's bathhouse, Freina tried to gather her thoughts and understand the commander's agenda towards this child.
'She's frail, and light, I am aware she's a werewolf and not a Lycan like the rest of us, but still, I get the feeling she's weaker than most of the other werewolves. And now she's blind, a defect I was almost certain would be enough to have the commander send her away. But yet he still insists on seeing her.' Freina contemplated her thoughts many times while bathing Olivia, unable to see the link between their commander and a werewolf slave.
After the bath, Olivia was given a plate of food, but the child did not even attempt to take her hands off her ears, talk less of picking up her spoon.
Freina tried to hand feed her, but Olivia refused to pry her lips open, refusing to eat what the enemy gave her. And after several futile attempts, Freina gave up and decided to take the child to the commander and see what his verdict would be.
At the door to the commander's office, Freina noticed there were more people waiting outside than the usual number of guards. She identified three of them as part of the first division warriors, men under the command of Abel's father, Sirus.
'This isn't good.' Before they could sense her presence, Freina hugged Olivia to her chest and retreated in the opposite direction, in the calmest fashion.
'For Commander Sirus' men to be here, they must be asking about this outsider. If they catch wind of her, then the commander will get in trouble.' Freina thought while approaching the closest garden she could reach.
It was farthest from the main castle and barely tended to by the helps. For as long as anyone could remember, that garden was forbidden for anyone to go into, no matter their rank.
But, to protect the third commander, Freina bravely kicked open the old gate, surrounded by thorns and weeds, and dashed into the eerie garden, which had become a resting ground for crows.
"Stay right here and don't make a sound." Freina said to Olivia, setting her by a large wishing well, with flowers and vines growing all around it. "I'll be back soon." She promised and then ran towards the main gate.
Olivia's shoulders stood up when her skin came in contact with the bed of flowers pricking at her skin. She tried to get up on her feet, but her legs were too weak to pull her up.
She was hungry, and had started to regret not eating when Freina tried to feed her.
For about two hours, Olivia stayed still, concentrating on her breathing, trying to get used to the sounds. The garden's eerie serenity helped to calm her down, and the crowd which were noisy at the entrance, dared not to come close to the well.
But why? What was so special about this well? She couldn't see it, but her back was pressed against the stony surface, and it's shape reminded her of the well back at her parent's cabin.
Water gathered at Olivia's eyes, as she recalled the memory of her mother's corpse. The sweet image of her caring mother was promptly replaced with the memory of a corpse with it's jaw broken, and missing a tongue.
"It's quiet." Olivia noted all of a sudden, as she slowly took her palms off her ears, a cold breeze sudden tickled her ear lobe, causing her to lose balance and fall.
"O-Ouch." She moaned weakly, getting up on her elbows.
Once again, Olivia tried to get up, but her feet just wouldn't listen. "Even if I do get up, I can't see a thing, I'll just trip over and fall." She thought aloud, while using her palms to find something to use to navigate better.
Like a stick perhaps.
But she couldn't feel anything besides flowers, weeds and a few thorns that pricked her fingers, causing her to wince. "Just a bit more…" she stretched further, biting on her lip at the pain coming from her bruised wrist.
Her sense of touch had also been heightened, though not as much as her hearing. But still to a reasonable degree, which was why Olivia was able to distinguish between the weeds around her, and the person's hand she had just touched!
Olivia's jaw lowered in a tremble, her heart skipped a beat, at the realization that she had just touched somebody's hand.
Olivia gasped and covered her mouth, she retricted her other hand and held it to her chest, trying to calm her heartbeat.
However, the sound of her heartbeat was swiftly drowned out by the distinct sound of someone breathing softly. No, they were just snoring quietly.
Overwhelmed by fear she read the situation to herself. 'S-Someone is sleeping at the other side of this well.' Olivia pointed out, certain that she wasn't alone in this garden.