12 UNEDITED VERSION

The chirping sounds of birds signal the start of a new day.

Another day away from home and everything we ever loved.

Normally, by this time Felicity would be screaming at me to wake up and get ready for the day.

She would have pulled me out of my room to the bathing fountain outside in the rose garden.

I have never been one to listen to instructions ever. Maybe it's because I don't like being told what to do, I don't know I have just always liked to do my own thing. Do you know what I mean?

It is unheard of to hear a royal family member bathing in the general fountain for the commoners in any of the villages and I decided to be the first to do it for history's sake.

So the moment Felicity rushes back into the castle to get fresh clothes for me to change into while I use the rose petals to wash the stench of the previous day off my body.

I let my feet carry me to the nearest village, it was easy to find the bathing fountain they used because almost everyone went there to bathe, so I followed and not many recognized me in this part of the village because I rarely go there, to begin with.

It was a very unexpected experience for me because unlike ours theirs were just way too small whereas ours is extremely large, I believe thirty grown wolfmen can bath at once in ours but theirs could have fifteen grown wolfmen struggling for space.

Ours had white rose petals floating in the water which we used to scrub our armpits and private parts to get rid of the stench of our previous activities, theirs had no flower in the water nor plants growing nearby, the water wasn't clear like ours instead it had this brown murky colour, and I was beyond mortified as I watched children jump in and out of the fountain as their mothers tried to make them behave.

As much as what I saw is completely different from what I am used to I still dived into that fountain for commoners.

I don't know how long I ended up bathing with them but I had to step out at some point and tied my clothes back on, luckily no one recognized me if they had Felicity would have found me.

Going back to the castle wasn't on my mind at all, so I went to the market square in the village, some people sold corn, some sold flowers, fabrics, animals and just about everything we would need or want.

I decided to go to one of the apricot trees growing near the castle lands, I picked up some that had fallen already.

The cool autumn air flowed into my nose and then my lungs it brings along with it a sense of calm.

I sit in this hole and breathe in the air like I normally would take long deep breaths whenever I stepped outside in the morning, there is always something different about the morning air especially when the sun's light kisses the face of the lands after a dark night.

It has this sense of renewal that flows through your veins, you feel the difference, the change, it's hard to explain this sensation but I love it every single time.

However, here under the ground the coolness moving around us from the walls of the soil surrounding us doesn't let me fully partake of the fresh morning dew.

"Bon dia Aadya."

"Bon dia to you too Dion and bon dia Arcotos." My hands rub his head as I give him a little kiss on the nose which he proceeds to lick it off with his long pink tongue and that just makes me chuckle.

Bon dia is how we say good morning on some occasions, it is from the language of our forefathers before we became more refined and civilized.

Those times they hunted for food and lived in caves only, they hadn't discovered kia to build houses and make knives and other tools, they didn't know how to plant crops for food they only ate with whichever season it the fruits ripened.

A lot had changed since then, during the lesson one of the elders taught me that they didn't wear clothes back then, just imagine walking around naked every single day! No, thank you!

Suddenly, we hear footsteps running, and we know this because the surrounding walls shook and some sand particles fell to the ground.

A look passes between me and Dion we both simultaneously jump to our feet and with so much desperation we scream.

"Help! Help us, please! Help! Please we are down here!" We kept on repeating it, our heads faced upwards towards the entrance of the hole covered with leaves.

Unfortunately, the footsteps quickly fade away from the hole we're in, Dion looks dejectedly at me because what are the odds that someone would come this way again.

We haven't thought of how we would get out of here, but I know we will, I am sure it.

How do we get out of here? Do we climb our way out? I peer closer at the large tunnel-like structure above our heads.

I looked at Dion only to see him doing exactly what I was doing, he's thinking of a way out as his calculating eyes gauge the size of the hole.

It's obviously too wide to climb out of.

My thoughts are interrupted by a whiney whistle sound coming from behind me and I immediately know it's Arcotos.

"Shhh, Arcotos we're trying to think here." He doesn't stop and I try to ignore him.

So how do we get out of here? If someone were up there and could find a rope or something it would have been easier to get out but unfortunately, they didn't hear us.

My stomach makes a growling noise only now does the force of hunger hit me hard.

"You're hungry."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does, you're already slim and now you're turning skinny because of the lack of food." Does he think I'm skinny? I unconsciously begin to look at my arms, flat chest, my legs and I try to look at my back as well.

Honestly, I have lost a lot of weight and I already have a slim figure, I must look like a skeleton with skin and without flesh.

My eyes move back to his large frame, his black hair looks scattered with lots of knots and leaves with dirt in it, his chest has some scratch marks and bruises most likely from the fall.

His strong jaws are set in a hard line and his lips look dry and chapped from the lack of water, his eyes are closed which I thank Boreas for because now he can't see me drinking him in.

He looks like a mess.

Point of correction, a hot mess is what he is. A very hot mess.

I use this opportunity to look at him while his eyes are closed while I'm sure he's thinking.

Some voice at the back of my head slaps me and screams in my head.

He just called you skinny and you're here praising his looks, do you have no self-respect? The thought dampens my mood because he unknowingly pointed out my insecurity, girls my age begin to grow breasts and buttocks but mine are still as flat as a child four years of age.

It would have been better if I have a flat stomach but no I have a stomach that protrudes outwards especially when I eat but with the lack of food and little water I've been drinking from any water source we could find has drastically reduced the size of my protruding stomach.

Meanwhile, Selene already has two small round globes on her chest and her buttocks are perky, her stomach is flat and cute not protruding like mine.

She's quiet and very ladylike, she sometimes skipped lessons with me, but she doesn't always cause so much trouble.

Everyone likes Selene, even Dion talks to her more than he talks to me.

I would love to be like her but I know I can never be her, I really want to grow my wolfwomaly parts already.

Grandmother said soon I would grow them, I'm just a late bloomer. I think she said when I turn eighteen years of age I would have grown them, that's three years from now, a lot can happen to my body before then.

Then it hits me.

"Dion?"

"Yes?"

"How many days has it been since we left..." I didn't have the heart to complete that statement.

We left a lot of things and people behind, we left home, our lands, our family, our friends and everything that makes us the Northern Wolfmen of Pohjola, I'm not even sure if we are still in Louhi. I don't know where we are!

He visibly swallows his saliva and I feel bad for bringing back the pain of his loss with my unfinished question.

He recovers quickly and tries to toughen up to look less shaken up, but unknown to him his grief and sadness is so obvious and I can almost taste it on my tongue.

"It's been three days, today should be the fourth." Four days?

"You carried me while I was unconscious? That means I was asleep for a whole day and I awoke the night after the attack, why didn't you say something?" My mind keeps on racing as I thought out loud.

"I didn't see the need to because we've both been through a lot, I didn't want to stress you."

"You don't get it, Dion! Yesterday was my birthday and I had no idea!"

His eyes widen as what I say registers in his mind, his arms that were once folded falls from the folded position they were in on his chest.

"I am so sorry Aadya, please forgive me. I wasn't thinking at all." Tears well up in my eyes as I crumble to the dirty ground.

I missed my fifteen years of age birthday! And all he can say is sorry?! No! Sorry is not good enough! I don't say anything as he continues to plead with me.

My mind keeps racing as I think of the traditional events and doings I have missed out on. It is believed amongst our people that on the day a wolfchild turns fifteen years of age it signifies and marks their passing into wolfmanhood or wolfwomanhood.

So many things are done to celebrate this time in our lives, we gather with our family and friends and have a lot of fun, in my case as a royal the entire kingdom is supposed to come to witness my passage into wolfwomanhood.

We should have gathered on the meadow which should have been decorated with different plants and decorations made of kia.

Wolfmen and wolfwomen should have all said loud prayers to the night sky for Boreas and Khione to hear and bless me their soon-to-be ruler.

Some should have danced to the erratic beating of drums in celebration of me, some should have bestowed gifts to me and wished me well.

My family should have been with me to give me the blood of the ageing ritual always done for every royal household member.

The blood of a Lepus white hare, a rangifer reindeer and an ovis mountain goat would have been placed in a cup made from kia, warm and ready for me to drink.

It is very significant and it is said to give you the speed of a Lepus white hare, the strength of a rangifer reindeer and the stability of the ovis mountain goat.

Without it, I would be known as a weak leader.

Only the heirs and heiresses to the throne do this on their fifteen years of age day, I was told that my dead father did his but my uncle didn't because he was not the heir to the throne and is only standing in the gap for me because I was too young to rule, I still am too young to rule.

This causes me great distress.

I didn't receive a single prayer of blessing, nothing!

Dion falls to his knees as he continues to beg me while my headrests in my hands as I cry.

It's my fault we're in here in the first place, if I was paying attention to where I was going we wouldn't have fallen in here.

What am I saying?!

If it weren't for those bastards who attacked our home, my kingdom, we would not be here in the first place!

No one would have died! Felicity would have been alive screaming at me to behave, Dion's father would have been with him alive and well, my family would have been with me, everyone in the kingdom would have been living their regular lives!

Anger bubbles from within and I let the thoughts of killing each one of them for causing such horrible thing to happen to me, it is a bad omen to miss such a day, to miss out on all the blessings and rituals.

They will pay for it!

Suddenly, something big falls down the hole, we move away quickly and Arcotos begins to bark loudly as we see a Rangifer reindeer fall to the ground in a heap and it cries out loud supposedly injured, my assumptions are proven right as he tries to stand to get away from us it falls right back down and I see blood flowing out of a wound.

A smile begins to spread across my face as I realize two things.

"Why are you smiling like that? It looks unsettling." Dion's dark brows crunch together as he tries to figure me out.

"Don't you get it?" My hands clutch his arms and shake it from excitement.

"Get what?" He looks at me with more confusion on his face and I can't help but wonder if he's smart at all because the answer is staring them right in the face shaking in fear and bleeding as Arcotos keeps barking at it and tries to go closer.

"The animal is injured by an arrow which means a hunter was trying to shoot it down and would be heading this way, with the way Arcotos is barking and the Rangifer is crying out loud the hunter would be carefully looking for it, and he or she would find us and get us out of here and I could also drink the blood from the Rangifer as the blood is still warm from its body heat!" Once I finished explaining my theory to him in one breath he begins to laugh, hugs me, lifts me and spin us around.

"Thank Boreas! I thought we would die here for sure!" He stops suddenly as he realizes what he said and carefully drops me.

"You thought we wouldn't make it?"

He sighs heavily as he nods his head and looks down in what one would call shame.

"It's alright, maybe the hunter would let me drink some of its blood?"

He shrugs in response to my question that should have been a statement.

Something from the opening of the hole catches our attention, a rope dangles in the air into the cave, this could only mean one thing!

Somebody is trying to get down here to get their food!

We quietly wait so that our voices don't scare them away, Arcotos is already making a lot of noise and I don't stop him because I'm sure besides getting the Rangifer for the food they would also want the canis for their own because they make good hunters but I will let them know that he already belongs to me.

We hear the person begin to climb down with the rope, so we shift closer to the walls, so they don't see us.

However, what or who we saw is just not what we were expecting.

They land on their feet and I see it's two females, I am not sure if they are wolfwomen though, they both turn around and one of them audibly gasps.

"Dion? Is that you?!"

Wait, she knows Dion, how?!