16 The Hazel-Eyed Stranger

Running was one of the few things I was confident at, but I still lost to the Lycan-kind. So I resorted to being proud of my agility and reflexes. What else could I do? It's not like the Lycans would adjust for me, would they? But yet again, the skills I were so proud of, just weren't enough.

My mind drifts to yesterday's events.

I had successfully shaken off the wolves on my heels, or so I'd thought. They had found their way up the mountain just as I have. Stumbling down a few times from the steep slopes of the mountainside, I garnered a few scratches and bruises. The wounds at my shoulder and leg that had reopened, did nothing to quell my anxiety.

In the distance, I had seen a cliff. With a wild idea coming to mind, I tried to make it look like I fell off the cliff. Fortunately, I did not have to risk my life hiding by clinging on a few jagged rocks under the cliff. There was small entrance to a large cave right below the cliff. I tried hiding in a cave, but the Lycan-kind seemed to have figured me out somehow, and had transformed back their humanoid forms to follow me.

The cave was dark and though I tried to be as quiet as possible, the crunching of the pebbles on my foot, and the smell of blood from my sweat as well as the new and reopened wounds, had made my location quite vulnerable. The deeper I went into the cave, the more I felt trapped in it; suffocated even.

The Lycan-kind was closing in on me when I heard the faintest sound of rushing water.

I searched my memories for any water location I had found near the cliff, but I could not recall any. All I could recall was the stream of water falling from the side of the mountain, that I see every morning during my childhood. Leaning tiredly against a jagged wall of the cave, I had decided to take the risk of approaching that sound. I had thought that perhaps there would be an opening to where the water went out; yet I was wrong.

I had run left and right, through openings large enough for five to six men to stand side by side, and small enough that I had to crawl as it barely fit me. A part of me had worried I'd get stuck by those passageways, but it seems the more pressing danger was not the cave itself but those that had entered it after me.

The last medium-sized passageway I had crawled through gave way to a deafening sound of gushing water. It echoed over the cold stone and the stalagmites up above it. I tried grasping for the nearest rock to steady me, but the sharp jagged edges of an pyramidal rock had sliced the lower part of palm instead.

A few Howls echoed alongside the sound of gushing water.

I felt a trickle of my blood drop to the stone floor, and for some reason, a few markings carved on the ground, around the semi-circular chasm of water shone blue.

The blue light illuminated the whole places briefly before it disappeared. For a moment there, I saw the water in the chasm that seemed to clash with one another as if two to three currents had met in the middle and thus they swirled menacingly like a vortex. It felt that if I were to fall in it, I'd never resurface again.

Replacing that blue light was the swaying light from torches.

It didn't take long for the hunter pack to find my location. Cornered by a few human Lycans and wolves, with a chasm of rushing swirling water behind me, I had made my choice. There was deadly silence in my heart, tuning everything out. Perhaps it was because of my choice.

Rather than dying by some human-kind's hands, I'd rather take it myself. But… I can't waste the life Tukare saved…

At that time, I had felt great remorse, as retreated backwards to the chasm. I felt the wind whistle by my ear as I leaned back to fall. I let the pull of the Earth take me to my death.

In my mind, I had asked nobody in particular: Am I to die like this? All I wanted was merely freedom. Am I to taste it only in death?

Bitterly, I thought as the current of the water pushed me deeper and deeper into a darkness, that for the first time, frightened me; a darkness that meant death.

If only these eyes were blind forever… maybe, then… I'd have my… freedom...

The current played with me like a ragged doll, tossing me, swirling me around, hitting me on a few random protruding stones. I felt my consciousness escaping me as I drowned, my eyesight turning black at the lack of oxygen in my lungs.

At what seemed like the last parts of my life, I had regretted choosing death myself;

I want to live. I want to live more… longer… freer…

"Not this", a boyish voice nearing puberty called out softly to himself, breaking my reverie.

What are the chances of me surviving?

I wearily smirk to myself momentarily, thinking of how I should cherish my second chance in life more.

I watch the boy running to and fro. I sat at his makeshift bed. He didn't look that much older than me. I sit on the bed as he darts from the table me to the couple of chests in one corner of the cave. He was busy rummaging through some of his clothes, wooden swords, and a few other random stuff.

I don't think I've seen so many wooden swords in my life.

"Ah, I found it!" He pulls out a thick fluffy-looking lump of black fur. A miniscule flinch escapes me as he rushes to the bedside in a second. Just when I thought he hadn't noticed, he apologizes. It was a bit unexpected that he did. Just how sharp is his eye? He looked at me an apologetic look as he unfurls the black fur before handing it to me.

Unsurely, I take his offer. The thick fur was astonishingly light yet fluffy. It was weaved in sort of blanket but was too short to be one. I place it just above my head like a hood, covering my nape and shoulders to block out the cold. The fur had good quality. If I stood, it would probably reach up to the back of my knees. It seemed to regulate heat and cold very well, making me no longer feel cold.

I am unsure of whether Arashella, Ivana or any of the other Wraiths are fine but I do hope that they are. I have only been protected for so long. I do not appreciate another person dying in my stead. My teeth clench at the thought.

"Are you still cold?" The other boy observes me as he sits down on the floor. He rests his head on his arms that were placed on the bed's edges. He didn't act older than me despite being half head taller. Instead, he acted younger.

Like a kid... How cute…

Just when I thought I had drowned to my death, I opened my eyes to see two brown eyes staring at me. At that time, I had dazedly stared at his eyes, duplicating his emotions. It felt that he did not mean harm and in my exhaustion, I had left myself in his care. But now that I am awake, there simply is too many things I do not know yet; where I am, who I'm looking at, would the Lycan-kind follow me here, and whether his people meant me any harm. If they do, then, how do I escape from a place and terrain I'm unfamiliar with? Everything feels like a disadvantage.