LILY AND HER BEST FRIEND

"Move it! I said move it!" my instructor, Jude, commanded beating my back with a stick. 

I groaned inwardly in pain from the wipe but continued to move. We were carrying bags of packed sand from a location to a given distance chosen by the instructor. 

Yes, that is what I experience every morning as part of my punishment and curse from my father from six in the early hours of the morning to past twelve noon. It was torture and hell but I kept on begging my weak body to hold on as my eighteenth birthday approached faster. 

I was made to undergo hard training that older werewolves that are part of the warriors undergo. For them, they are being trained to be stronger but for me, it is like a punishment to me. 

I stumbled on a stone as I was moving and fell on my face while the bag of sand fell too and tore letting the sand spill. 

"Hey you! What are you doing? You think you are here for a joke?" The instructor approached me. He lifted his stick to hit me again…

"I can't continue...I need to rest," I demanded weekly. It was the fifth round I was going and I haven't had a rest. I have been made to work at the pace of men more able bodied than me as if that's not enough, I can't even be allowed to carry the ones my age should carry. 

"Rest?" He scoffed angrily at me. 

"I was warned severely by your father to never allow you rest! Now get up and do your work?" He ordered beating me again.

A tear dropped from my eye as I managed to.force myself up and summound strength and courage to continue my work. 

"Move it! Move it now!" The instructor continued to yell while I joined the others. 

At the sixth round, I was already feeling my bones and muscles cracking, I couldn't feel my.legs anymore but I dare not pause nor try to take a rest. I still continued but with a reduced pace grateful to heavens for taking the instructor away from my presence for a while. 

I had no idea where he went but I was glad, at least I could take a short rest while doing the work. 

"Hey you! What are you doing? Hurry up and join the others for the next training session!" He barked at me. 

I hurried up a bit but my eyes were becoming dizzy. I had only eaten once the whole of the previous day and had nothing too today but that is not what the instructor cares to know. 

To my father he is punishing me for my sins, but to me, I am getting stronger even though it's happening above the pace and the way I would have wanted. My father hates me and it breaks my heart each time I remember it. My father cursed me without hearing my own side of the story. Whatever he was told that brought him to the scene that made him cursed his daughter and condemn her to a life of pain and slavery was what I couldn't say. 

I tried so hard to explain to him but he wouldn't listen. He didn't trust me even when I was his daughter and condemned me. 

I get bruised everyday while training, running errands for my father's wife, but none ever hurt me the way my father's hatred does. 

By the time we were done with the day's training, I was sore with pain and my whole body ached to a point of no stopping. When I fell, my knees were bruised and blood gushed from it. 

I wasn't feeling the pain of the bruise at all as the pain I felt in my heart was painful enough for me to not feel any physical pain anymore. 

"Here, take this," I turned to see a bottle of water being handed to me by Marcus. 

"Oh dear girlfriend, you look so horrible," Helen, my best friend, said , making a sad face. 

I forced a smile, "Silly you, I am alright."

"You always say that but you look so terrible, asssh, sometimes, I just wish we can shift shape so I can kick your daddy's butt!" 

"Helen!" I scolded her, "He is still my father, you know that right?" 

Helen made a silly face and scoffed. 

Marcus had a smile tucked by the side of his lips. "You girls stop now alright. lily, are you done with your training for today?"

I nodded a yes and gulped down the water he gave me. 

"Oh my! Were you that thirsty?" Marcus said who was shocked with the way I gulped down a bottle of water at a go. 

I heaved out a sigh of relief and belched out loud. 

"Disgusting! Irk! Let's get out of here," Helen said with a disgusted look and shifted away from me. 

"You irk me right now, Lily," Marcus complained too and started to head out. 

I laughed at my silly act, "Hey! You guys wait up!" I yelled and ran after them to match their pace. 

"Oh, Lily I'm so happy for you, soon you will be eighteen and become free, aren't you excited?" Helen asked as we walked home. 

I sighed tiredly. Of course I am happy I would be eighteen in a couple of days and would be free too but I was even more excited that I would meet my mate but I didn't want to show my excitement so I kept it hidden. 

"Of course, I am happy… I mean I am excited, yeah," 

"What about you, has a mate been chosen for you?" I asked, facing Helen. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you but guess what?" Helen said excitedly. 

"Spill it girl, I'm not good at guessing, you know that," I complained, making a serious face. 

"Okay, okay. Calm down now. Take a deep breath, take another deep breath…"

"Helen! Tell me now!" I yelled, tired of her pranks. 

"Hey, I'm still her girl." Marcus said behind us. 

"Of course we know mister, now spill it Helen,"

"Well, a mate has been chosen for me…"

"Oh really? I'm so happy for you girl. Tell me, is he handsome, is he tall? Is he…" I ranted on and on excited for Helen. 

Helen's face turned sad and dejected. 

"What's wrong? Did I say something bad?" I was worried that I might have asked a wrong question putting Helen in a sad mood. 

"I don't like him, he is so fat and makes an irky sound with his nose!" Helen said and started crying. 

"Oh dear Helen, that was errrm, a little bit harsh… But he is still your soulmate and the moon goddess has chosen him for you. What can you do?" I tried to console her but she wouldn't stop crying. 

"Gosh! Girls whine a lot. Catch you guys later. I guess I should give you girls enough space to whine all you want. Bye!" Marcus waved us bye and left, leaving me with Helen that wasn't ready to stop whining about her mate whom she considers fat. 

"It's okay… Soon you will fall for him, don't you think?" I tried to cajole her into finding a way to like her mate. 

"Never! I will find another mate!" She said and stomped away. 

"Find another mate?" I asked myself out loud. How can she do that? We are werewolves and each one of us has our soulmate that the moon goddess chooses for us and that is only one except in some special or rare cases when some people are lucky to have been born and have two mates. I shrugged as I thought about it, she could actually have two mates. Lucky her then, since some people like me are yet to even have one for ourselves and there she is rejecting the one she already has.