Chapter 7: A Fight Between a Human Chimera and a Wolf

----Gayara POV----

Waiting is the most boring thing in life. They say the wait is worth it but I still think it's boring. [ Maybe if I am waiting for my girl, it won't be that boring anymore.]

I remember her saying, "I wanted to give Athena what she wanted to have but couldn't. I'm going to give her a present!"

"I doubt she wanted a present but giving her such a beautiful painting would bloat her ego too much though." I informed her

"You should give her one too, she'll cheer up that way." Venus encouraged, moving around on my lap.

"Alright, stop moving around. I'll write her a poem on the back of the painting." [I have to make sure, Athena will accept Venus's gift or my girl will be sad.]

As such, I took the paintbrush, carefully drawing letters line by line.

*The Poem

A cold wind under the warm sunshine.

What role did you play in this event?

Sometimes it is safer to be dead than alive,

Written on light.

There is no one who is born concluded.

Directions in life have long past perished,

Like the millenia.

For we are also humans.

Nothing is decided at the beginning.

Love like violence.

Is there even a bit of a difference?

You don't want to gain from favor,

But from the need begged in earnest.

Not polluted by worldly definitions,

Nor bewitched by the brilliance of gods.

It's a false game until you wake up.

Disgrace is such a word,

Too preoccupied by the opinions of others.

Never say what you truly see,

For this is how we act.

The planet keeps on rotating,

Even without what is labeled as us.

Nothing is too strange in this vast world,

For the splendor of life,

Is a deadly beauty.

"I don't get what you're trying to convey, Gayara. How can it be safer when you're already dead? Is that perhaps a metaphor or something?" She slipped from my lap, holding the painting up high to study the poem.

"That poem is for her. It's about Athena but I don't have the kind of privilege to share it to you. Perhaps, only she can understand." I told her, getting up from the chair before leading Venus to the dining room.

Now we're just here doing our own thing: Athena waving her finger in circles, ice wolves as small as a cup appearing from thin air while Venus is still busy eating as I have been done earlier than her. Taking advantage of this activity, I took the painting from our room to the dining table, covered in white cloth.

"Here you go." I shoved the painting to Athena who I think is ridiculous. I mean, [what's so great about the sound coming from the straw when the contents are about to be gone?]

I remember her describing the sound to be horrific and somewhat stubborn but that's just absurd to be honest, I still don't get it.

I saw Venus complain to me with her eyes, probably insisting on giving the surprise herself but I didn't want to take any chances.

[After all, if I give it myself, Athena will have to accept whether she likes it or not.]

"The painting is Venus's work and at the back of it is a poem I wrote. Make sure to treasure it." I continued as she removed the white cloth.

I heard Venus gulp, her heart rate increasing. [Humph! What's she so nervous about? Athena? but for what!?]

"This....this is me? I... I don't know what to say!".Athena stammered, obviously flattered by the beauty it represented: perhaps, if at all possible, she is able to recognize the emotions imbued within the painting.

But then, I watched as a kaleidoscope of expressions played on the features of her face, in a fashion way too fast for it to ever be normal. [Where did she even get the stimulus to induce all those emotions in the span of a single minute?]

First, she felt flattered and then her emotions flooded from proud, conceit, gratitude, confusion, doubt, conviction, hatred, murderous, calm, desperate, pain, guilt, blame before convulsing into a crying mess. [I really don't understand her.]

"Oh my!" Venus said in shock, rather taken up by Athena. Now my mood is ruined. I'm pissed-off by the obvious concern laced in her voice as she looked sympathetically over Athena, as though she could read all the thoughts running in her complicated mind.

"Let's go fight, Athena!" I demanded as she beamed at me like she had been expecting me to challenge her. [Why is she that excited about this than I do? She keeps hugging my girl's attention all to herself to the point that I want to kill her!]

Venus gave me a look of disappointment and reproach at my proposition. Now, I'm even more mad, given that this is my and Athena's way of venting the complicated emotions off of our shoulders: [how can a normal human like her understand? Even though the killing intent is real, at most, one of us will be half dead. Besides, that's the reason why Diaford exists, to do his duty in keeping us alive.]

I threw caution to the wind as Athena and I disappeared from the dining table, passing through the forest in a speed no normal human can ever catch up to. Upon arriving at the lake cleared by Athena the day before, I transformed into my wolf form, releasing a battle cry that startled the whole forest.

[I won't be surprised if the animals I'm raring fled to the other mountains in fear of me.]

"So, who is it this time, Gayara? You only come to me for a fight when you want to kill someone. Who is that lucky person to have caught your attention? Honestly, I'm envious."

Athena's words were dripping with venom and obvious envy. [What is she so jealous about?] I thought while dodging the incoming barrage of ice arrows.

Before she knew it, I appeared behind her. I swatted her with my paws, causing her to crash on a fallen pine tree and then I growled at her. She spat blood, coughing as she stood up like nothing happened.

I spoke with her through the link, "isn't it obvious? How dare you even ask me!"

Athena conjured another barrage of ice arrows only to be batted by a tree I swung with my mouth. They broke to pieces and fell to the ground.

"Do you finally want to kill me? I can't believe it! You've finally taken notice of my pathetic existence! Now I'm curious, why do you want to kill me?" Athena was ecstatic but then, she looked at me with hurt when the realization hit her.

As if to respond to her emotions, the whole lake and its sorrounding area froze like hell until cold vapor can be seen floating from them. Jagged ice grew like tree feeding on the sun. [I knew Athena is powerful but I didn't expect her to be this powerful!]

Biting the ice blocking my path into pieces, I answered, "my girl has been concerned about you that she even got mad at me for a reason I don't quite understand, much less identify. Why is she more concerned about you than she does me!?"

My emotions are going haywire again that a strike from my paw was powerful enough to cause a chain reaction. Cracks began to form from where I stood, and it continued to the point that all ice structure collapsed into rubbles.

A reaction I didn't expect from Athena almost rendered me to see reason as she laughed histerically, holding her nonexistent stomach.

"Hahahaha! She cared for me? If she knew that I leaked her information to a group of mad scientists whom she had been successful at foiling every single plan they had, would she still be concerned about me?"

Athena answered with doubt written all over her face. But that is none of my concern. My blood boiled with rage, "you did what!? So that little assassination attempt during my engagement was your doing?"

I rushed to her with a speed I didn't know I was capable of and is intending to cut her with my claw. [What she had done is stepping over the boundary!]

The thought of the ensuing dangers strangling Venus's peaceful life made me loose all reason. Athena encased her body in red ice spikes containing the essence of her blood like a porcupine in an attempt to defend herself. She was aware that the inhibitions preventing me from truly killing her had gone.

"It's all your fault!" she accused me, looking at me with hatred that she never had given to me before. Then she put a thick wall of ice between us before confessing to me, "I only ever wished to be your friend but I have never received any sort of confirmation from you. Since you never took special care of anyone, I was alright with it because you always come to me for a fight. But when I learned about that pathetic little weakling who is engaged to you, I realized that you were capable of love so I began to question myself, 'what is it about her that I lack?' Then I realized, her life is blessed by the gods: she was given the ability to prophesize without becoming some kind of freak like me, her family and friends treat her with love and the last, most important thing is that you are obsessed with her."

I stopped lashing out at her after hearing that I was the reason why Venus was exposed to danger. Instead I kept cutting at every pine tree I could reach, "I don't need friends. All I want are loyal followers. If you really want friends, there are plenty of friendless people out there."

I finally exhausted all the murderous energy and anger so I faced the ice wall, sitting so that I could converse with Athena properly.

"Friendship doesn't work that way, Gayara. You can't just find a random person, walk up to them and say, 'let's be friends, mate!' At least you have to have that affinity towards them or else it's not sincere at all!"

I can hear Athena's frustrated voice behind the ice wall, probably leaning her back on it. "I-is...that..so?" I asked confused by the revelation.

"You know, I have always envied those people that you wanted to kill. You come to me because you know that I'm not that weak to receive the burnt of your anger. At least you cared for them in a way. How about me?" Athena sounded almost desperate.

"I can't believe you!" I said disbelievingly.

Then I continued, "Do you really want to lower yourself to their level? And here I thought we were equal...." I was lost in thought when a thought came over me, "don't tell me you have a thing for being looked down on!"

Before an even outrageous idea came to mind, the ice disappeared into thin air. Athena with a red face glared at me, "I don't have that kind of fetish!" she defended at the top of her lungs.

She turned her back to me, "Don't worry, I'll fix my own mess. Besides, Cosmos handles their target information tightly. I'll apologize to Venus at a later date."

Athena was about to return to the villa when she noticed that I wasn't budging from my position. "Why aren't you coming?"

I ignored her question, lying down and closing my eyes. She came to me, staring observantly with her red eyes and then grinned teasingly, "Oooh, throwing a tantrum I see. Are you... afraid of going back and getting scolded?"

I peeked at her and saw her stifling a laugh. [Ugh! I regret putting up with her!] I growled at her threateningly to get her to go.

She raised her hands in mock surrender, "okay! okay, grumpy little puppy. I'll go now. Humph! if you weren't unclear to begin with, none of these would have happened."

As I saw her blur into speed, I noticed how dirty and disheveled Athena is. There were even bruises that are hard to heal because my claw secretes a substance preventing her from doing so. [Venus will get mad at me for sure and that's times 2. I'll just pass my night here until she calms down. I'm afraid I might do something impulsive if she insists on staying angry to me.]

----Venus POV----

I heard a wolf howl from the mountain and I knew immediately that it was Gayara. I'm worried that they might actually overdo it so I called for the maid. "Shal, can you accompany me to stop those two from fighting?" I begged, trying to get some kind of reaction from her.

Contrary to my expectations, she slightly bowed and shaked her head in denial, "I would advice for the young miss to stay away from the fight for it can be very dangerous."

"But I-"

"Please rest your worries, young miss. This is how young master and miss Athena interact. Actually, it's a good sign."

Since even the maid is this composed, [perhaps I really am overreacting. I was too quick to judge Gayara even though we weren't that together for longer than they were.]

"So it is," I reluctantly concluded. "You may go now, Shal. Thank you for taking your time to answer me."

[Honestly, I was too focused on my own angle that I forgot to consider how they perceive or do things. Maybe, their brains have different mechanisms than I do?]

It was over half an hour when I spotted miss Athena who looked too battered, cuts drawn on her pale skin. Her hair was tangled but her mood has drastically improved. Most importantly, she doesn't have any murderous intentions toward me anymore which was a relief. [What made her change her mind so suddenly?]

*System notification: The host, Athena Faris has deemed it unnecessary to kill you. At present, Athena Faris is guilty about you. However, Athena Faris regards the host as a weak and hemophobic burden to Gayara Veldora.

[Why is it so hard to gain her approval?]

Miss Athena walked to the dining room, carefully carrying the painting with her hands, admiring it for a bit before turning to face me. "Thank you for the painting, you're skills in painting are superior to most but your skills in combat are still a bit much to be desired."

"You're welcome and I do agree about my incapability towards fighting in general." I admitted, a little happy for her compliment while secretly celebrating at the back of my head for the little progress I have made.

"However, if you have the time, you may contact me through Shal. I am willing to train you so that you can protect yourself from those who wish you harm." Athena may not be looking at me but the system window didn't detect any lies from her statement either.

[Is that her way of making it up to me?]

It was then that I realized, "miss Athena, why is Gayara not with you? Is he hurt anywhere?"

I heard miss Athena snicker. I don't know if it was for me or for Gayara but I know that she likes Gayara more than she does me. She told me, "Gayara probably won't be back until tomorrow. They may appear strong but emotionally, they are just a cute little puppy."

[She keeps calling Gayara puppy. I don't even know how to react anymore.]

Miss Athena covered the painting with the white cloth again before heading for the door. She stopped midway saying, "Gayara is more than alright, they are just throwing a tantrum because of jealousy."

Miss Athena was gone before I could ask her to clarify. "Gayara is jealous, about what? Is he planning on sleeping in the forest tonight? No! I have to get him."

I rushed for the door but remembered, [I need to bring his clothes or I might kick him again!]