1.15: The hike

Anna was getting bored. She keeps spending her time here in the house, barely going outside. She claims she’s fine, but we’ve known each other for too long for me to write it off as nothing. 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’ll definitely enjoy the view. As an added bonus, while you guys are hiking to the top, you can ask her what’s on her mind.”

As usual, Ed’s more reliable when it comes to accommodating people. I took his advice and headed to Anna’s room. She remained on edge as I explained my intentions, but opted to accept my invitation so as to not further worry Ed and uncle. Now that we had grabbed all of our equipment, we offered Ed to join us, but he said he was busy helping uncle with herding the animals. He mentioned something about strays in the area.

With just the two of us heading out to the spot, I explained to her the roadmap as such:

We’re gonna be making our way straight to the hilly region that overlooked uncle’s estate. There we’ll find a pathway that leads into the woods. This is where 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 the viewpoint.

This is what Ed and I did when we went a couple days ago, and logically speaking it seems like it’ll hold up even in a scenario with Anna. Although I didn’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 half an 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, much less half an hour!”

As she started to turn around and head back, I hastily grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled her along. I have no idea what’s going on with her. I made sure to grab all the equipment and gave her as many things to make the outing a 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’s something I’ve personally never seen before going there.”

I’m basically betting everything on the hope that she’ll like the view, because that’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’s being so distant.

Walking to the forest wasn’t that tiring, and since I luckily thought to bring sunhats for us it wasn’t unbearable either. I noticed she wasn’t walking next to me, she was slugging behind, meaning I had to turn around 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. We had made it to the forest without any progress on why she’s like this.

***

“Phew! At last, we made it, shade!” she said with glee.

I guess getting away from the Sun’s deadly rays was enough to lift her spirits, even if it was for a moment. Since the point of this outing is to alleviate whatever problems 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 false pretense of bathroom time.

Leaving with a water bottle (for faking the sound of my hose), my plan was to hide behind some nearby tree and see if I can find something out about why she’s being so distant. It seemed like a good idea, and she didn’t seem to suspect 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 if I’m coming back. Thank goodness I circled around her, I would’ve been found out three times by now. This peaceful yet lonely picnic continued until something rustled in the bushes.

“!!!”

I have no idea what she saw due to me being hid behind a tree, but she suddenly jumped up and started shakily packing all the stuff into the bag. I figured 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 she was dead set on keeping direct eye contact with the beast in the bushes, she suddenly slipped and fell to the ground. It sensed her tumble and quickly pounced.

“Shit!” I suddenly realized.

It was a wild wolf. With sharpened fangs and nimble footwork it was at least fifty times more frightening than the snair back in Whitehood. It’s stench was strong, and I almost saw some foam from it’s mouth. Before I realized it I had simply thought what am I doing behind a tree? and quickly jumped in between them.

“Lune! W-w-wolf!” she yelped.

I tore off a branch from the tree and slashed it around to hopefully scare it away, but it had little to no effect. No matter what, I thought, I had to protect her. 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 it’s own face with a rock I hid in my other hand. Knocking it back, I thought of turning around and running, but I had a feeling it’ll tear my back apart if I turn my gaze away, so I chose to stand my ground. Lunging at me once more, it slashed with all it’s might, giving me a not-so-clean cut on the arm.

Screaming in agony, I looked to where Anna was standing and saw her petrified in fear. That split second of turning away lead to me taking another slash, this time to my other arm. I was bleeding all over, and at this point was praying to any God to help.

Fuck off, I thought to the wolf. I’ll make it out and beat your carcass to the ground, just you wait! Running on pure adrenaline I jumped head first with pure killing intent. The situation was all but helpless, but I’ll be damned if this beast takes one more breath than me. It opened it’s mouth for another chomp, but was surprised with my senseless actions. I had flung my fist directly into it’s throat, chugging through the pain as I screamed with pure rage.

In that moment, I saw nothing but red. Wrath that seemed unparalleled to anything I’ve witnessed up to this point welled up and overpowered the wolf. Since I had my one arm almost shoulder deep in it’s mouth, it vastly immobilized it, as well as made the chomping much less powerful. Still, the teeth were sharp, there was no denying it. I don’t know what my goal was, but I felt kindle in the depths of it’s guts. The burning sensation engulfed both it’s intestines and my arm. No matter how much I felt the heat, I didn’t at all think to pull my arm out.

For just a split second, the beast looked at me with eyes of regret. It had tried to jump away, but the kindle burned all it’s 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 it’s head in with a large boulder a dozen times. After the ninth bash I turned to Anna with the expression 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 had not sustained any injuries, I yelled out my gratitude to Auros, the God of Fighting, and promptly fell unconscious from the blood loss.

***

Waking up, I saw two things: the night sky, and Anna’s sleeping face. She probably woke up before me and delivered first aid judging from the bandages around my arms. She took the liberty of nestling my head on her lap, which is nothing short of a kind gest from her. Looking at the wolf’s carcass, I sensed an incredible feeling of euphoria. It’s something I have trouble putting into words, but just seeing my loud enemy lying on the ground without so much as a whimper made me smile endlessly.

Soon after I awoke, so too did Anna. The moment she saw my wide awake eyes she started crying her heart out. We didn’t move a muscle for a solid minute, and I decided that asking her about her mood can wait, so I refrained from it for now.

After she calmed down, she helped me up and we scrapped the idea of reaching the viewpoint, seeing as it was already nearing the end of the day and I wasn’t in any shape to hike up any more. Before we headed back, though, I asked her to take me to the wolf. She declined at first, but seeing as I was being pushy over the matter, I was allowed to look for a bit.

As it turns out, the kindle in it’s guts wasn’t a hallucination, it’s stomach had a noticeable burn mark on it, right where my hand was. I didn’t know what to make of this. Nothing flammable was in my fist, and I doubt there would be a reason (or way) for the wolf to light it’s own intestines aflame.

When we made it back home, I was treated immediately and even a week later my arms still had trouble moving without a sharp pain following it. Today’s fight might’ve been a victory, but I don’t really feel like a winner at all. The source of that fire is something I hope to uncover one day, though…