Azalea sat beside her mother with a bowl of water, and pieces of dry cloth to clean her body. Hama's state of health had deteriorated over the past months, that she could barely lift her body again. Trying various herbs she had learnt from her mother to cure symptoms like hers had been used, but her condition never seemed to get better, which broke Azalea's heart so much.
Within her, was a great immeasurable fear that grew by the day, as she watched her mother lose weight and remain on a spot all day. When she had told her mother any exciting news about their new hope of living through the next week, Hama only had a weak smile with so much forced effort on her face to encourage her daughter.Her body was so weak and empty, that she could feel it with every inch of her. During the past years, Hama had always prepared various types of wild herbs, to manage the sickness she had hidden for so long. The poison she had thought would have killed her a long time before now, had finally overpowered her at the later time and that, she was thankful for. Never could she forget the day her body system became poisoned, and all those who had been shot by the same laced arrow, either died on the spot or on the run. But due to her deep knowledge about medicine, she had managed to keep herself for more years, even if she had to endure the pain. Azalea who was oblivious to all this bothered all day, and continued to think of positive ways and method of new herbs to help Hama get better. "How come you never have a tailed end of hair," Giselle asked Azalea as they walked together in the market, drawing the attention of the two other girls. Giselle was a petite young girl, who had a short ginger coloured hair and cute chubby cheeks. Her hair was always cut short because of the hereditary hair growth system in her family. Their hairs never grew past their chins. The other two girls Maude and Sabina who were cousins, both had thick, black, long hairs and round bodies. Maude had a high nose bridge and thin lips, while Sabina was had a round nose and fuller lips."A tailed hair?" Azalea asked, without a full understanding of what Giselle had pointed out."See both Maude's and Sabina's hair, they are both penciled and of unequal length at the top, like an horse tail. While yours are always straight like you cut them regularly or something," she noted, and turned to face the two cousins who nodded in agreement to her observation."I do, cut it everytime," she answered truthfully, running her hand along the curled lines of her thick hair."What!!" The three exclaimed suddenly and simultaneously, which had her taken aback by their sudden outburst. It was a compulsive action that probably did not require the way they had overreacted."Is there any reason why you cut it? Don't you like to keep your hair? How often do you need to cut it everytime?" Were the questions they had asked almost at once hurriedly, because her hair still appeared longer than a standard length.Azalea watched the curious looks on her friends faces and wondered if she could them the truth, about how her hair grew super long and fast in just few days. How tired and stressed of it she was."I just meant to say trim, and not cut," she quickly corrected, making them even more confused.They wondered if there was really any young lady that had the luxury of time, to trim her hair every single day and time. But they believed her anyway, and the four friends continued their way into the market. They had met in the market and always dispersed there too in the evening. It was just more of a company friendship to Azalea, and she made sure to maintain that boundary, as her mother had always said all the time. "Well, you said you knew where we could get those medicinal herbs, right?" Azalea asked Maude, diverting their attention from the previous talk they just had."Yeah, but it's quite far. What do you want to use it for anyways? My aunt used it when she was bedridden after she fell sick.""I am trying to excel better in my skills, of putting all herbs of such together and making sure to see, if they can work better together without any adverse effect," she explained to them, not wanting to divulge too much information.She had never talked about her mother, family or where she lived before. And she was glad they had not made a big issue out if it."You are quite intelligent, Azalea. I think you are really good at things you do," Giselle said, and the cousins both nodded, in agreement with what she had said."I'm just curious to things. It is nothing much," she said and turned to look at the part they were to take, "Now you can lead the way, noble, lady Maude," she bowed, flipping the hem of her dress to the right with her left hand, and showing the direction of the way to them with right hand, which made them chuckle at her mimick. Azalea watched carefully the part they had followed through the city, the places she had not gone to before or that no one had told her about.The three friends chattered lightly with she following at the back, and taking note of every route closely. She was not paying attention what they were saying. They came across the brick bridge they were to walk on, and noticed that it was unusually higher than the others they had always seen. Maude suddenly stopped and gave a surprised scream, making the others wonder what had astonished her."Wow, see the palace over there," she said excitedly, with a marvelled expression on her face, "This is the second time this year, that I am seeing it.""I think it is the first for me this year," Sabina cut in, straining her neck to see the palace walls at a better angle, while Giselle struggled than the others because of her short height, which made her huff frustratedly. The palace wasn't some building they could see well from that distance, but they could just catch a glimpse of the upper part and the beautiful gate."Do you see the large golden wolves there?" Maude pointed, showing them the two beautifully sculpted wolves with raised forelimbs like they were about to fight, just at the apex of the palace, "They signify victory and triumphance.""It is so beautiful," Sabina remarked."Well, there is a deep story to it," Maude said, as she turned to them smiling. She spontaneously covered her mouth with her palm, with her eyes wide open, knowing she had hinted her friends on the tale she should never tell."What is the story about?" Sabina and Giselle had asked almost immediately after one another, curious about what their friend was about to talk about. But she looked like she not going to say anything after."What does covering your mouth means? Are you implying that you won't tell us anymore?" Giselle asked irritably, still angry at her inability to see the golden sculptures they had talked about earlier. And now, her friend was acting up about not saying, what she had wanted to say."I don't think I should really talk about it," Maude answered nervously, "I heard it by chance from my father's mother. People should not been heard, or seen talking about it.""Then we would leave this place and act like we were talking normally," Giselle stressed the sentences, already frustrated about Maude's sudden timidness. Azalea just remained calm with so many curiosity in her mind, she sure was the person that wanted to hear about the tale most, amongst the three of them.But she tried to comport herself and curbed the urge to show her eagerness. She really hoped Maude would complete everything she wanted to tell them because, it was either that day or never again.Maude who succumbed to her friends inquisitiveness, looked left and right before turning to her them, "Let's go pick the herbs, while I narrate then. But promise you would never tell a soul," she told them and hasten her steps forward, while they followed her accordingly since she was the one that knew the route initially."We promise!"They had gotten the place they could get the herbs, as the Giselle and Sabina quickly found a spot to seat, forgetting the main purpose they had come for."Do you know that this kingdom was once for werewolves, witches and elves?""What do you mean witches. In the seventeen of my living, never have I once heard of witches living around, or having existed in this city," Giselle countered, turning to Sabina whose facial expression showed that she was also in support with what Giselle had said.It wasn't something they could believe so easily.Only Azalea, maintained a straight face, as she picked the herbs as much as she listened to every words they spoke."That was why I said it is a deep tale. Now listen.""Werewolves, witches and elves lived together peacefully in this kingdom seven hundred years ago. In a kingdom of three different kinds of mystical being, there needed to be order of ruling. So, they all came to an agreement that in a sequential order, each person of its own kind would rule for a certain number of years. They had started with the witches who ruled for two hundred years, and the city was in peace and harmony. Then the elves took over after the witches reign and ruled too for another two hundred years, until it was finally the turn for the werewolves to rule. Fahagoth was the first ruler for the wolves and he decided to do it the werewolves way, and made everyone live in the packs for absolute safety. No one objected at all as far as his intentions were good, and his method of ruling worked really well. Everyone was happy and even went as far as marrying other beings aside from their own, even if it was only few parents that saw that practice as okay. His son, Ald
"Did she die?" Sabina asked pitifully, tears already dropping slowly from her eyes. Giselle was already wailing uncontrollably and could not even alter a word. "No one knows because she escaped despite been wounded severely, and ended the long fight that had wiped all the witches out. But she made sure to hang the king's head before leaving. The elves left the werewolves to continue the reign, and since then it has become peaceful. But I tell you, those who know the legend are probably still living in fear. No one wants to die the same way their fore fathers did, just because of the wolves," Maude finally ended. "I really loved the woman's courage," Giselle said softly, wiping the unending tears from her eyes. "Do you think there were vampires too?" Sabina asked with so much delight in her face. She had heard it from a friend, that liked to talk about mystical beings."Vampires? What are those?" Giselle asked cluelessly, as she wiped her face with the hem of her dress."They are
Azalea's heart beat slowly in fear of anxiety, as she watched her mother lift her body from the bed by herself in quite a while. She looked so pale and skinny that something in Azalea's psyche, kept clamoring that her mother might not survive her sickness, even when she had tried to wade the terrible thoughts off. Hama had asked that she lifted her body herself this time, without anyone's help or assistance. And as the saddening and painful thoughts engulfed Azalea's mind, tears began to drop from her trembling eye lids, to the heavy aching of her heart that felt like it would rip out. She loved her mother so much, that she believed her should live more years than any time in recent memory. "My daughter," Hama's weak voice called to Azalea as she smiled at her. Azalea wished she would save the great energy she had used to smile, to the ones she would use to live longer. She rose up from where she knelt and took a sit beside her mother, in her heart were thoughts of leaning on her m
Ayden was shocked about the tunnel he was staring at, right inside the garden he had always been at for so long. Who on earth dug that there?'What if it was a trick by someone to get him implicated again?' his mind questioned suspiciously, but staring right at the tunnel that could lead to somewhere was so tempting. He wanted to close the lid back, arrange it smoothly and turn to leave like he had seen nothing. Nevertheless, he jumped right into the tunnel to see just where, he could land his feet safely on. As he walked down down the narrow and dark tunnel which got darker, he began to regret why he had taken the risky trip into where he had never been to before. His entirety was quaking in great fear with each step he took, as he continued to walk down the dark lane until he reached the end of the tunnel. Already scared that he could be trapped in, probably forever. He saw another opening at the end of the narrow tunnel, which he could see through the rays of light from the
Ayden who was so startled that he had seen someone, just right after he turned to the part that leads next after the tunnel had stopped on his tracks. The person was squatting with his or her back faced to his own direction, dressed in a combination of weird clothing. It made it difficult to differentiate which gender was wearing the cloth. He wondered in his mind what the person could be doing there at that particular time, and had not taken his time to observe when his slightly shaken voice demanded, "Who are you?!" But he ended up getting a blow across the face while he had let his guards down, for his sudden fear of getting caught. Ayden sat down on a sturdy rock he had found around, as he nursed the pain the sneaky person he did not seen had caused him. But he had been hit by someone for the first time in his life, without a reasonable reason to give for such actions. What a life it sure was. The day was going smoothly and perfectly planned, he was not going to let a spo
Under the thick covers was Ayden collapsed like a prawn, and shuddering badly like his bones were going to contort anytime soon.He continued to sniffle consistently, as he flinched delicately on the bed he was laying on. He truly loathed what was happening in his body system, and how things were escalating just because he sneaked out. 'Was he paying for the price of his noncompliance and hardheadedness? Was the cold going to kill him?' were the thoughts that kept reoccurring in his head. He wondered if no one would come even if he does not eventually go for dinner, and allow him to die, cold and desolate under the covers. The downpour had not halted still and blew fiercely against the shut window, making the situation seem like Ayden would not get better any soon. He thought his ears were doing the tricks when he heard a thump on the entryway. It was almost impossible for someone to come to his room after that time, because he had said he hated seeing anyone come to intrude his
The ambience at the palace had gone back to normal, no one was grinning than their normal self. The princesses were being their usual pretty show off, Elliott being an all choice to the many young ladies of high class who had not gotten a mate, and that would desperately like to get married to the Alpha prince. Who would not like to form an alliance with the wealthy royal family? While Zachary was going around in his usual self, with his many pretty friends that he always spent most of his time with. Many of the friends he was always about with, never knew his true identity. And it would probably be like that, until they ever got to attend an event at the palace and see him. He had wondered many times, how the shocked expressions on their faces would be. He had thought of it many times that if he ever got a mate, he would never let her live in the palace with the royal family. He often had thoughts of the pet names they would call each other, and the number of children she woul
In the palace's huge meeting room was the king, his officials and the elders, sitting around a huge table which had stacks of written books on them. The situation at hand was pretty serious that it had everyone, in their serious mindedness thinking about the solution to tackle with. It was a matter about the rouges that had been disturbing the peace, of both wolves and elves in the village consistently. "Are those rouges not wolves that lost their identity, and have either been kicked out of their pack or left on their own free will?" One of the official, Lucia asked. She was an half wolf and half elf, but she had more of the elf blood running through her veins. "Yes, they are. And they are being a huge nuisance to the people right now," Xavier, an omega answered her. "Then we can just stop this problem by making sure no wolf is kicked out of the park right?" She said again cluelessly. Lucia had just joined the team after her father died, and knew not too much about the sovereign