“ I have this, if it would help” Vernon says. They all turn to look what he had in his hand. It was small circular lab tube, it was travel size. “ it will put them to sleep in an instant, all they have to do is take a whiff” says Vernon. “ well, dying in your sleep, best way to go” Lara responds as she gets up, lyan stands next her holding her arm. Maya stays in her same place and watches from afar as truly, just a sniff sent the wolves into deep sleep. But as she stood there, she knew she didn’t want to just leave them like so she began digging and digging. As it seemed a surprise to everyone, Lyan didn’t hesitate to run to her sister and start digging right along side her, and Vernon began checking the wolves, making sure they’re actually dead and cleaning them up and before they knew it the wolves were peacefully laying in the ground with sticks on top of their graves as tombstones.
When it’s all finally said and done, they stand in front of the graves one last time, in complete silence. Maya then turns to Vernon, her face back to its usual clam look and says “ thanks”. Catching him off guard. “ i-uh…um, it’s alright”. Nothing but puzzled faces meet him after such an awkward response, to something so normal. “Lets patch you up, shall up” he says, trying to remedy the situation.
All is patched, lyan’s hand no longer tied with blood soaking cloth, Maya’s face is clean once again, all she’s left to do is rest. Now stands at last Lara. “ may I?” Vernon asks, referring to her wound. “You may, sir-doctor”. And so he does. L:“ ow!”. “Your wound is certainly way bigger then your sisters, what did you get on the wolves nerves as well?” Vernon asks in a joking manner. “Oh!, you don’t wanna start on this. I wonder who got us here?-”. “Alright-Alright, let’s not start on this” he says, sending them into a few seconds of silence. V:“And since I guess we’re kind equal now…you have my apologies for yelling”. “Huh, god you can’t even bring yourself to say sorry?!” She says in teasing tone. “It’s the same thing. Take it or leave it”. “ fine. But you know-” she no longer looks in his direction as they speak, rather turns her head to where she’s looking out on her sister’s and continues.
“ Maya said that we’re gonna need you and it’s gonna hit faster than I think”. A bit Taken back by what’s said he does not answer immediately. “…will did it?”. “Nope, not one bit. You couldn’t have been more useless, buddy…but it was nice seeing help with burial ‘n such. I don’t think I would’ve been able touch them- all dead, you know?”. “You just get used to it”. “Used to it?, you’ve buried before?”. “Yes, kids get attached to animals all the time and don’t take good care of them or they’d run off into woods and they’d wanna burry them at the end but I’ve never help with those, they always wanted my dad not me” his tone begins to turn more glum as he finishes his words.
“Then what did you bury- or who-ooooo-ah!” Lara asks in a joking manner, before the pain of the alcohol got to her. “ stay still” Vernon says, now with a slight smile on his face from her efforts to try and make him smile. “And no I didn’t burry any one, it was my pet raccoon”. “Your pet raccoon?”. “Yes”. “And what did he die of?”. Vernon’s face falls as he hears the question, hesitation on his face in place of a smile. His eyes began to wander the ground in search of what say. The sudden changes in his attitude, doesn’t go unnoticed noticed by Lara and before he could answer, she’d already drawn her own conclusion. “Did he die in a lap accident?” She says. “NO!” He answers in an instant. No longer unsure but defensive as it could be. “Alright” Lara responds softly.
Silence is the only thing to be heard between these two, as there was chit-chat no longer, only Lara’s eyes roaming around and Vernon’s on her wound. But it doesn’t remain that way much longer before, “about your sleeve I’m going to fix it”. “ you better” she says, her eyes still wandering. “ and-uh…about all this…the wolves I’m-I’m sorry” he whispers. “What did you say?” She turns her head and focus to him at full speed. “What was that?”. As an embarrassed look wears his face and as he finishes patching up her wound. “I’m not saying it again, take it or leave it” he says as he runs far from Lara. “Oh!, come here-” she yells as she goes after him. “ let’s go, let’s go” he says, pushing the sister forward. “No you don’t” Lara says jumping in between them. “You said you weren’t gonna start this!”. “Oh!, I am so gonna start this!, when you’re too embarrassed to say sorry!”. “What happened?”maya asks. “ Mr. goggles over here, just had an ‘attempt’ at saying sorry, which I wholeheartedly appreciate, thank you, and you’re forgiven for BEING WRONG!”. “ well technically. I wasn’t wrong-”. “You were wrong!!, there were wolves weren’t there?”. “Yes, but-”. As the realization of that they may spend the next year or two here if they go on like this. Maya and Lyan drag the quarreling couple by their ears out of the woods.
As the sun sets turning the world around them golden, they finally take their first steps out the woods, in what felt like an eternity. Making their way through the village, just as they came in. “You know what?, maybe I’m a bit wrong”. “Yes!” . “Thank you!”. Both Lyan and maya yell in relief, to the long-awaited end of this senseless quarrel. “ good on you for admitting it” Lara says as reaches her hand out for a handshake which Vernon defeatedly shakes.
A wretched and somewhat irritated voice calls from far. “You kid!, come here!”. It was the old woman. As she gets the attention of all of them, Vernon starts to rise his finger pointing at himself. “Don’t, for your sake” maya says as she gently puts his hand down. L:“She talking to all of this”. Lyan: “I think we should go, she looks like she’s about to yell at us, or maybe she’s constipated”. “If you don’t come here child!, I’ll come get you myself!”. And just with that she found the kids in front of her in instant.
“ Phew, what kinda of rotten meat were you rolling in?, you reek!” The old woman says. “Well, we ran through some trouble while looking for your ‘suspicious activities’ and this is the result of it. And by the way, what a vague and useless description.I mean how-ah!” A knuckle once again to the head. “You talk too much, kid. But trouble you say, * gasp*, did you encounter the humiliating drag of the light of the magic, I warned you about?!” The woman says, on the edge of her seat. “ well, if you mean by that poor, abused wolves, then yes I guess”. An answer like that shocks the woman yet annoys her, as it seemed nonsensical to her. sending her back, right on her seat. “Wolves?!, what are talking about child?, wolves don’t live here.” As these words leave the woman’s mouth. A gust of relief hits Vernon as finally someone said it. “That’s what I have been saying granny!-ah!” He’s cut off by granny as well but not via a knuckle to the head, but I slap across the face. “Ah!, what did I do?” He asks, in a bit of a weepy manner.
“Just seeing how many of you are here now, you multiply like crazy. Now what is he?, you’re brother, cousin, husband?”. “ the chauffeur” Lara says in a teasing manner and as Vernon turns to her with an angry frown on his face, she gives him the biggest proud smile. “Well, whatever he is. ‘weepy’ here is right the wolf sightings are no short of uncommon almost unheard of. But…these circumstances, could it be?” As the woman goes deep in thought, invoking the curiosity of everyone standing. “What?, what this it, granny?” Lara says.
“don’t rush me child!, ah!, well back in the olden days of limited power, there were those who would seek it out and would dedicate their whole lives to the finding the supernatural. Those people were called ‘magic hunters’. They had many different methods of reaching magic, but one of them perhaps the strongest most accurate, but the hardest and most difficult. Was using wolves but not just any wolves, blind wolves, far descendants of the powerful phoenix or as they’re known ‘keen-wolves’ or just ‘keen’. The legends tell that these wolves can smell magic from the other side of the world, and the more dense and hefty the power was, the more that these wolves sought after. But as the magic began to wither and doom fell upon every enchanting creature, they met a fate no different. But it’s said that remanence of magic still lie in their lineage.”
As the woman finishes, invested faces all round her but one. With a heavy skeptical look on his face, goes “mmmmm-yeah I doubt it”. The woman obviously irritated by his response “do you think I’m playin’ with you child!. ‘magic hunters’ are as real as the nights sky, goddamn it”. “Oh, ‘magic hunters’ are very real and very poor and illegal. I doubt that what happened in the woods was the work of some magic hunter”. “Don’t be fooled, child!. Magic hunters are but puppets for their master!”. The skeptical look doesn’t leave Vernon’s face, as he’s still unconvinced. “Can you give us a percentage?” .”omg..”. Lara begins teasing once more, breaking any illusion of seriousness this conversation had.
No longer was there any mind payed to the woman or her warnings, as they began to walk away and back to the carriage.
The woman ,easily irritated in her nature, does not utter word as she hears them go, and not a hint of anger on her face. They have scoffed and dismissed her words of warning, just like many before them. “But there may be something different about them”, the woman thought to herself. For their smell have told her more then they think, it brought back a past that was long forgotten. The woman expressions tightens as she hears the carriage move far along the horizon. Just to hear many hands waving farewell to her from a distance . “Goodbye, granny!” Calls out the youngest of them, in a cherry yet tired voice. Putting a slight smile on the woman’s face as she rises her arm and waves back. As she can no longer hear the carriage’s wheels, she lets out a sigh one filled with many worries. “Oh, but they did survive this didn’t they?” She thinks to herself and as she does, she turns to now face the forest and says “ but how long would you let that be the case, red-star?”…
:0
Comments (0)
See all