Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Where's Catherine?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Didn't we left her?”

“Yes, but... didn't she say she'll tag along?”

“She only said she wanted to see my wolf again, she never say she'll be a third wheel on our date for this day.”

“D-Date?”

“Yes. Date. We're now dating, right?”

“Uhm, yes, but—”

“Then date it is!” he exclaimed and punched in the air as a triumph smile appeared on his face.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

He grinned.

He took ahold of my hand and dragged me with him towards the huge rock. We sat there side by side with his hand couldn't stop but clinging on to me.

“Why did you brought me here?” I asked.

“I want to show you this river.”

“The River of Eternal Life?” I frowned. “Why does it have a name? I mean, does it have some value on your pack... or whatnot?”

“You probably haven't heard it,” he started. “Well, in this race, we have one Goddess that we worship.”

“The Moon Goddess, right?”

“Yep. Her name is Selena.”

I nodded my head and poured all my attention to what he was about to say.

“Thousands of years ago, Selena was living among with us. She loves dearly every race, specifically the werewolves as they are one of those races who treasures forest and wildlife the most. The dragons were very envious of the blessings the goddess has bestow upon us, so they began a war. It started with them blowing fire on us. It caused a wildfire which affected thousands of lives. The Moon Goddess was outrage after seeing many lives has been injured and dead. So, with her overflowing power, she used it to capture the dragons. She punished them severely that until now they were suffering from the consequences of their actions.”

“Where are they now?”

“The elders said they were buried somewhere in the Forest of Life.”

“You have mentioned that before, but I did not quite understand what you meant by it.”

”The Forest of Life. When the war was declared done, an illness suddenly attacked every beings. It was said that the illness originally came from a poisonous tree that was being burned amidst of the war. Its smoke made a huge catastrophe. If we were humans, we would've been dead by its deadly poison, but instead, people suffered from illness. The Moon Goddess felt pity towards her people, so she healed everyone in that forest and buried in to the deepest part of this land were the dragons. Since then, people called the forest, Forest of Life because they've been given a second chance to live in that forest. Those illness, or what they called ‘bad spirits’, were buried together with the dragons. They are there to conceal dragons to erupt and cause chaos,” he explained. “And the River of Eternal Life, it was—before— a normal river blessed by the goddess herself that whoever would drink its water would heal from any sickness. Though, the person must have a clean intention and clean conscience to be able to get its power.”

I nodded my head attentively. I didn't know that werewolves has these some history behind. It's intriguing.

“What happened to the Selena, then?”

“Because she used a lot of her powers to heal the forest and the people, she has to go back to the moon and promised to watch her people. One of the reasons why she never associate herself with us again was because she doesn't want people to feel overwhelmed with her presence. Just like what happened before. Dragons felt extreme jealousy towards us that lead them to cause havoc.”

“I see...” I muttered. “But how about the Forest of Life? Since the River of Eternal Life has some magics or whatever you call it, does it mean, so as the said forest?”

He nodded. “Yes. On the Forest of Life, held millions of unique herbs and stones. Witches often go there to do their research and healers go there to find some herbs to cure some incurable diseases. It was also said that the forest holds promises.”

“Hold promises?”

“Yep. The forest treasures promises a lot that people who swore through their name, had to fulfill its promise, other bad spirits will enter his soul and burn it.”

My lips parted. Dumbfounded, I looked at him, wide eyes. “B-But d-didn't you swore under their—”

“I did.” He smiled gently. “And I'm not letting the bad spirits to burn my soul. Thus, I'll make sure to fulfill my promise to you, Katia.”

“Reui...”

“Don't you trust me?”

I thought of it for a moment before I nodded. “Y-Yes...”

“Not really. I could sense the hesitation, but it's fine. I have to build that trust up, anyway.”

“Why did you ask?”

“Well, you see, when the class starts, I won't be able to be with you. I need to look over my pack. Though, I will be visiting you from time to time. Don't worry.”

“I do not worry about it,” I murmured, but he obviously heard it.

He pouted and began sulking again.

“Hey.” I poked his cheek. He was frowning deeply and giving me a silent treatment. “Hey, why are you frowning?”

He glared at me and turned his back. My lips parted in disbelief.

“Hey! Don't sulk on me!”

“I'm not sulking.”

“Reui!” I hissed. I tried to stop the smile from breaking from my lips. He was damn amusing. 

“No.”

I tried to find another way to coax him. Fine. If he wanted to play games with me, I'll gladly play back.

“Reui, come on...” I said in a sweet voice. His back stiffened. I internally smirked. Huh. I'm sure he wouldn't last that long to get back to his senses. “Why don't we bath together? I'm sure it would be fun—” I wasn't able to finish my words when he suddenly pounced into me. He then, jumped on the river with me along. I let out a loud, shrilling scream as the cold water soaked me. Surfacing from the water, I glared at his grinning face.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Ah, much better. The Katia I know is not a sweet person. I love the fierce you.”