CHAPTER THREE: ESCAPE, WILD THOUGHTS

Lycanking?

The question rang in her head as she thought about his query. She has heard about the Lycans when she was little from her Papa who would often come to her nursery to teach her a little part of their history every night before she closed her eyes in slumber.

They were very powerful kind of wolves and were said to be immortals as averse to their kind. From what her Dad told her, they were not found among themselves the werewolves but seen to occupy territories far from theirs, and were seen as direct reincarnates of the goddess favorites. Humans once tried to exterminate them but had given up due to their large population.

Why would he be asking her about the Lycans?

The scrawny lad flickered two fingers on her face to bring back her awareness that seemed to have wandered "From your expression I reckon you might have something to share" he slurred, taking cognizance of her bewildered expression.

"Why do you think I have?" she shifted on the ground, her sizable behind starting to grief from the posture "I hardly know anything about them except what my Dad told..."She faltered, deciding not to talk about her Dad, her hooded eyes sizing him up, "Why are you people after him?" she quizzed instead.

He made a noncommittal sound down his throat "I'm not. ..But he is...He will give anything just to have him, for reasons unbeknownst to me" he sat down in front of her, neglecting her position as their captive, and the role he is supposed to be playing right then.

"Well, to be fair, I always wanted to meet one myself since I was a kid," she said, her voice an ounce low, her thoughts sailing down memory lane.

"I have too" he asserted, picking up a twig to swish mindlessly on the ground.

"Why are you with him, if you are...this kind?" she couldn't help but confront him.

His eyes twitched "H..he was my father's friend and..my father wanted him to teach me about hunting" he confided almost in despair "But it's not my thing even though I have no choice. .. there are perks to it though" he shrugged, his face lighting up a tad bit.

"What benefits?" she demanded, getting carried away from plotting how to make it out of there, with the presence of the scrawny chap in who she has suddenly developed an interest.

"I don't know, maybe because I get to meet creatures every day that used to be beyond my imagination and very intriguing too" he was snickering now, intrigued by the lass in his charge.

"Mmm, okay, how about this, you come with me, and in return, I will acquaint you with everything you need to know about___"

"Logan!" The resounding voice of the thick man from afore went off, whence he appeared into the makeshift prison, his eyes expanding at discovering his comrade was having a cozy moment with their captive instead of doing what he was assigned to.

He stood aghast, his arm akimbo, watching them for as long as his patience could absorb. Regaining back from his shock, he opened his mouth and shut it once more in lack of words.

"I...I...Milord!"The slight kid scurried off the ground, his face red from apprehension at his master's attitude.

"I am straining very hard, to infer what in fuck name, is going on here!" the man's right hand slipped out and withdrew in restraint, as his mouth clenched in ultimate rage which he was combatting to contain.

He needed her alive to answer all the questions he can get out of her, if not she would be meatloaf and hanging from his silver stake by now, he mused, albeit troubled about her resistance to the silver wood she was restrained to.

"I..I...I already asked her, Milord" the boy rushed out, gesturing from his master to the girl in obvious fright.

"Oh, so please do enlighten me on her riposte." Came the man's voice, throwing one foot ahead of the other, closer to the boy.

"She appears not to have any knowledge, Milord, if anything she seems of likewise fascination with the object in question"

The master bobbed his head, his right hand going to his mouth while his other crossed on his chest gauging the two, and deciding what to do with the pea-brained fella.

"She informed you that, and you believed her? Logan, I thought you are beginning to comprehend this job and all the obscenity that came with it when it comes to getting information out of a wily beast like this one?"

The young lad by now looked like he was going to piss on himself "Milord___"

"Foriru de Mia vizagxo, antaux ol Mi venigos Mian koleron sur vin, nun! Dratita bastardo!"

Translation:

(Get away from me, before I bring down my wrath on you, dratted bastard)

He hedged, causing the boy to shiver before he threw the girl one last pitiful look and darted out of the compact room.

"As for you, I will let you think of everything you stand to lose by withholding that information from me...Come forenoon and I don't get it," he let his eyes skim to hers, relaying the rest of his threat to her.

Emilia maintained eye contact with him, not the least moved by his threat. It's not like he would see her by the time he wakes anyway.

He grinned, impressed by her feistiness even in the face of peril "I know your type...You leave in the Lycan territory and yet you say you know nothing about him..." he walked to the entrance "I will see you come dawn" With that he was gone like the teasing wind, leaving her alone as always, only this time crowded with so many questions.

An hour later when the entire surrounding was dead to life, she had willed her firepower and burnt the rope used in tying her, before making her way out of the shaggy prison, not caring to decipher where they had brought her. Though she knew it might be a camp or something, just like the last time.

Staggering through the forest in abject fatigue_ a symptom of her power usage, she altered her sharp eyes to discern her environment, her mind still rummaging through the question the guy asked earlier, not to mention the thick slight man saying she lived in a Lycan territory.

This forest has been all she had known since the day she was made to leave her home without her choice. She recalls the day she had fallen down on the moldy soil after so many days of running just like her mom asked her to, her face covered in grime, her body clammy, and her stomach growling for sustenance.

The only thing that kept ringing in her eyes was "Never leave the forest come what may" she had wanted to so many times, but she couldn't because she didn't want to disobey that one bidden from her mother. For eight solid years, she had been on this one path, wanting nothing but survival every day.

So many nights she had lain awake wondering what she is, and why she was different. Who has two wolves in them, with each a direct opposite of the other?

Each time she allowed her thought to assail down that very day she had killed her father, It brought tears and remorse mixed into one, causing her to grief and wish that day never happened in her life, and she never had to live with this very grave guilt all her life of being the one to destroy the family she had. Firstly because of her stubbornness, and then her...she couldn't even say what it is, as a result of not knowing what demon lives in her.

She believed she was cursed and had lived so many days walking the forest, and eating half of the leaf whether anyone could heal her, yet as she grew older, she could feel herself becoming more of whatever it is she is. It was there inside of her.

"Emy!"

She jumped at hearing the voice of one of her banes in life, Rabid. She had named her that because that was exactly what she was. "I am famished right now and if you don't mind, can you walk faster to the West, I perci___"

"I'm not killing an innocent rabbit Rabid, be patient will I get home, and...we will eat"

"Stop saying that! I need to be assuaged!"

"You are always assuaged Rabid, you have just not agreed to be sated" Emilia rolled her eyes and prepared herself to transform into her more peaceful wolf.

"What are you doing?" Bit out her dark wolf, fast getting aggravated.

"Doing what I'm doing, bud___"

"Emy! Oh, what have I missed?" asked her much preferred Aria, who was very simple and accepting as Emilia wished.

"I am about to transform" Emilia whipped half excitedly, thankful to Aria for delivering her from her bloodhound, Rabid.

"Okay, off then "

She nodded, and in a flashing moment, her black and white colored wolf was dashing through the forest expeditely, having missed her tiny yet, adequate hut.

This was her regular life__wake up in the morning, leaving the hut to hunt for food, and go to the river to bathe, after which she would go in search of her miracle plant. In the midst of her search, she would converse with either of her wolves, mostly Rabid who often found ways to suppress Aria who need to fight to make it out, then she would come back home in despair of nothing new.

Reaching the hut in no long time, she made sure there wasn't any lurking unwanted visitor before she made her way into the ramshackle miscellany of leaves and bamboo sticks, transforming back to her human form.

She looked around the interior with her senses active. Satisfied that there were no oddities, she quickly chugged down the remaining meat she had hunted the other day, and let her worn_out body be enfolded in the warmth of one of the fluffy quilts she had managed to steal alongside other things from a nearby village, without their notice.

Darkness soon lured her into an abysmal slumber, filled with nightmares and demons, each fighting for dominance.

If only she knew what fate awaited her when she woke up.