Vol.1 Ch.15 - The hike

It’s been a few days here, and Anna was slowly but surely getting bored. Shekeeps spending her time here in the house, barely going outside. She claimsshe’s fine, but we’ve known each other for too long for me to write it off asnothing. I asked Ed if there’s any way to get her to feel better.“I know! Take her to the viewpoint I showed you a couple days ago. She’lldefinitely enjoy the view. As an added bonus, while you guys are hiking tothe top, you can ask her what’s on her mind.”As usual, Ed’s more reliable when it comes to accommodating people. I tookhis advice and headed to Anna’s room. She remained on edge as I explainedmy intentions, but opted to accept my invitation so as to not further worry Edand Mister Ridge. Now that we had grabbed all of our equipment, we offeredEd to join us, but he said he was busy helping Mister Ridge with herding theanimals. He mentioned something about strays in the area.With just the two of us heading out to the spot, I explained to her the roadmapas such:We’re gonna be making our way straight to the hilly region that overlookeduncle’s estate. There we’ll find a pathway that leads into the woods. This iswhere the fun begins, since there’s a ton of animals and a lot of shade.We’ll set up a picnic to take a break before finally trekking to theviewpoint.This is what Ed and I did when we went a couple days ago, and logicallyspeaking it seems like it’ll hold up even in a scenario with Anna. Although Ididn’t account for her whining after just a couple of minutes.“Luuuune, are we there yet?”“We haven’t even made it out of the field yet, dummy. There’s still about halfan hour left before we even make it to the forest.”“Half an hour?! I am NOT walking in the Sun for even a minute more, muchless half an hour!”As she started to turn around and head back, I hastily grabbed the hem of herdress and pulled her along. I have no idea what’s going on with her. I madesure to grab all the equipment and gave her as many things to make the outinga pleasant experience, but she still refuses to stop being difficult.“Lune! Let me go, now! What’s even the point of going to this far off place?”“Come on, there’s something really cool I wanna show you.”“What is it?” She seemed intrigued.“You’ll have to see for yourself when you get there! But trust me, it’ssomething I’ve personally never seen before going there.”I’m basically betting everything on the hope that she’ll like the view, becausethat’s literally the only thing that’s there. This sort of puts a timer on me, too,as I essentially have until we make it to the viewpoint to figure out why she’sbeing so distant. Walking to the forest wasn’t that tiring, and since I luckilythought to bring sunhats for us, it wasn’t that unbearable either. I noticed shewasn’t walking next to me, she was slugging behind, meaning I had to turnaround to check on her a lot.“You gonna keep up or what? I’m gonna leave you here if you don’t move it.”This light jab was met with silence, which in turn further worried me. Wehad made it to the forest without any progress on why she’s like this.***“Phew! At last, we made it, shade!” She sang with glee.I guess getting away from the Sun’s deadly rays was enough to lift her spirits,even if for a moment. Since the point of this outing is to alleviate whateverproblems she’s facing, my goal is for her to be as comfortable as possible.We decided to set up camp nearby and sat down to eat the snacks we packed.Honestly, I wasn’t really that hungry yet, so I excused myself under the falsepretense of bathroom time.Leaving with a water bottle (for faking the sound of my hose), my plan was tohide behind some nearby tree and see if I can find something out about whyshe’s being so distant. It seemed like a good idea, and she didn’t seem tosuspect a thing. In truth, she merely ate in silence like nothing was wrong.Occasionally she would look at the direction where I left, trying to check ifI’m coming back. Thank goodness I circled around her, I would’ve beenfound out three times by now. This peaceful yet lonely picnic continued untilsomething rustled in the bushes.“Eep!” She let out a terrified yelp.I have no idea what she saw due to me being hid behind a tree, but shesuddenly jumped up and started shakily packing all the stuff into the bag. Ifigured it was some animal, but this might be a good way to get her to talk.She started quietly crying out for me as she slowly backed away. Since shewas dead set on keeping direct eye contact with the beast in the bushes, shesuddenly slipped and fell to the ground. It sensed her tumble and quicklypounced.“Shit!” I suddenly realized.It was a wild Stray Wolf. With sharpened fangs and nimble footwork it wasat least fifty times more frightening than the Snair back in Whitehood. Itsstench was strong, and I almost saw some foam from its mouth. Before Irealized it, I had simply thought What am I doing behind a tree? and quicklyjumped in between them.“Lune! W-w-wolf!” She yelped.“I know! Don’t worry, just back off for now!”I tore off a branch from the tree and slashed it around to hopefully scare itaway, but it had little to no effect. No matter what, I thought, I had to protecther. Not really caring for my own safety, I leapt at the fanged beast.GRAAAAAAAAAWRR!!!Tearing away the stick in a moment, I was this close to losing face (literally).I seized the moment and smashed its own face with a rock I hid in my otherhand. Knocking it back, I thought of turning around and running, but I had afeeling it’ll tear my back apart if I turn my gaze away, so I chose to stand myground. Lunging at me once more, it slashed with all its might, giving me anot-so-clean cut on the arm.Screaming in agony, I looked to where Anna was standing and saw herpetrified with fear. That split second of turning away lead to me takinganother slash, this time to my other arm. I was bleeding all over, and at thispoint was praying to any God to help.Fuck off, I thought to the Stray Wolf. I’ll make it out and beat your carcassto the ground, just you wait! Running on pure adrenaline I jumped head firstwith pure killing intent. The situation was all but helpless, but I’ll be damnedif this beast takes one more breath than me. It opened its mouth for anotherchomp, but was surprised with my senseless actions. I had flung my fistdirectly into its throat, chugging through the pain as I screamed with purerage.In that moment, I saw nothing but red. Wrath that seemed unparalleled toanything I’ve witnessed up to this point welled up and overpowered the StrayWolf. Since I had my one arm almost shoulder deep in its mouth, it vastlyimmobilized it, as well as made the chomping much less powerful. Still, theteeth were sharp, there was no denying it. I don’t know what my goal was,but I felt kindle in the depths of its guts. The burning sensation engulfed bothits intestines and my arm. No matter how much I felt the heat, I didn’t at allthink to pull my arm out.For just a split second, the beast looked at me with eyes of regret. It had triedto jump away, but the kindle burned all its guts out and kept it from doing so.After a few more desperate attempts to flee, it finally dropped to the ground.You ain’t dying that easily, bitch! I thought as I bashed its head in with alarge boulder a dozen times. After the ninth bash I turned to Anna with theexpression of victory, only to see her passed out near the spot she stood.Pointless was this rage I had suddenly unveiled.This thought echoed in my mind as I went to check on her. Noticing she hadnot sustained any injuries, I yelled out my gratitude to Auros, the God ofFighting, and promptly fell unconscious from the blood loss.***Waking up, I saw two things: the night sky, and Anna’s sleeping face. Sheprobably woke up before me and delivered first aid judging from thebandages around my arms. She took the liberty of nestling my head on herlap, which is nothing short of a kind gest from her. Looking at the StrayWolf’s carcass, I sensed an incredible feeling of euphoria. It’s something Ihave trouble putting into words, but just seeing my loud enemy lying on theground without so much as a whimper made me smile endlessly.Soon after I awoke, so too did Anna. The moment she saw my wide awakeeyes she started crying her heart out. We didn’t move a muscle for a solidminute, and I decided that asking her about her mood can wait, so I refrainedfrom it for now.After she calmed down, she helped me up and we scrapped the idea ofreaching the viewpoint, seeing as it was already nearing the end of the dayand I wasn’t in any shape to hike up any more. Before we headed back,though, I asked her to take me to the beast’s body. She declined at first, butseeing as I was being pushy over the matter, I was allowed to look, just for abit.As it turns out, the kindle in its guts wasn’t a hallucination, its stomach had anoticeable burn mark on it, right where my hand was. I didn’t know what tomake of this. Nothing flammable was in my fist, and I doubt there would be areason (or way) for the wolf to light its own intestines aflame. When wemade it back home, I was treated immediately and even a week later my armsstill had trouble moving without a sharp pain following it. This fight might’vebeen a victory, but I don’t really feel like a winner at all. The source of thatfire is something I hope to uncover one day, though…