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15.

-HER-

I stayed still with my eyes closed. The heat of the desert started to lift slowly before the sand beneath me started to move. A crackling sound is all I heard before I was being sucked into the void. The pressure that I felt around me threatened to squeeze the life out of me.

I gasped for breath as the feeling of falling took over me. The wind rushed past my ears as gravity hugged me like an old friend. My ears were ringing and my stomach churned, making me feel nausea. As the pressure increased, I squeezed my eyes painfully. Pain danced on my forehead and goosebumps surfaced on my skin.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore; I landed on a soft and cold surface. The crunching sound as I sunk deeper into the soft and cold surface confirmed my thoughts. It was snow. I slowly opened my eyes. Black dots floated in my vision while my ears were still ringing. My lungs denied accommodating air into them. I was gasping, choking and shivering at the same time.

The world was spinning around me and the blue sky seemed to part to let all the colors that existed in the universe descend down on me. I closed my eyes again and concentrated on my breathing. Slowly, nausea went away and my body started to absorb the coldness around me. I did not know how long I laid there with my eyes closed. It felt like forever but I wasn’t complaining.

It was the sound of various voices and the hooves of horses made me snap my eyes open. I slowly sat up, unsure about my surroundings. I was in the forest. Several naked trees surrounded me but what caught my eyes were people.

There was a road just at the edge of the forest and it was filled with people dressed in nice clothes. Where am I? I asked myself abruptly. Did I get myself somewhere else? I looked around to find that red pouch in which the blunt dagger and the wooden box was.

I stood up abruptly, only to fall back on the snow. I hadn’t gained the balance on my body yet. After trying and falling for a couple more time, I was able to stand up. When I started to walk towards the road, the realization dawned upon me that I couldn’t go like this. Especially with my red hair. It drove people away from me. It made them more aware and suspicious of me.

Even though I did not have much energy left in my body, I decided to transform. Transforming into another human was one of those capabilities that my mother had genetically passed onto me along with her looks and a ruined reputation. Though, I didn’t do this often because it was tiring and very hard. Just thinking about transforming made my body hurt.

I closed my eyes before imagining myself as a clay. I imagined the clay molding into a teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes. Soon, it started. My bones broke to rearrange themselves and my skin stretched and shrunk at certain parts of my body to mold me into someone I was definitely not.

When I was done, I found myself on snow again. I stripped from my dress before taking the red pouch and heading towards the road. The chilling winds of this cold land made me shiver and my teeth chatter. Not a thread of cloth was there on my body to warm me up. The snow crunched under my feet as I headed towards the road.

A golden carriage decorated with stones and other precious things was just passing by. The carriage looked so beautiful and attractive that it was hard for me to believe that it could belong to a mortal. The carriage was surrounded by many male subjects. They looked breathtakingly beautiful and the manner in which they moved and the aura that oozed off them, I knew instantly that they were devotees of a goddess, who was most probably in the carriage.

They hummed a very low and enchanting tune as they marched. I caught their eyes as soon as I stepped out of the woods. Judging by the look that climbed on their faces, I guess they didn’t encounter naked boys on their way of destination very often. They stopped hesitantly before the one who was leading the group and carriage asked me, “Who is thee?”

“Me is a beggar,” I spoke back in their language. My answer had the enquirer cocking an eyebrow at me. Just when he was about to ask me another question, a very feminine and melodies voice spoke, which I doubted belonged to any of the devotees, “What is the halt for?”

The voice spoke from inside the carriage. The leader of the devotees gave me a pointed look before answering back, “Oh goddess, a beggar hast presented him to thy men. What shalt thy men do?” A moment of silence followed his words before the door of the carriage opened and stepped out of it a beautiful goddess. I instantly knew who she was… Inanna.

I froze when her red eyes fell on me while a smile climbed on her lips. There was recognition in her eyes. It made me regret showing up like this. I slowly started to back away as she stepped closer to me.

“What is thee called?” She asked gently. Her eyes were set on me the whole time. She never looked away. I had the feeling that I had been caught. I clutched the red pouch in my hands behind my back.

“Sykas,” I uttered before gulping silently. Her eyes radiated interest in me and it scared me. I was already freezing in the cold and my heart was racing in my chest. I was tired from the transformation. What would I do if something were to go wrong? Heck, I did not even have a plan. I had decided to go headfirst into this without thinking much.

“Oh goddess, bless me with some clothes and food,” I pleaded to her, bowing my head. I felt her cold hand on my shoulder before she spoke, “Come with me,” My heart stuttered in my chest before I chose to follow her. She told her men to arrange clothes for me before I was being helped into the carriage.

With clothes on my body and the goddess seated right across me in the carriage, the expedition resumed. I had securely hidden the red pouch in the clothes, making sure that no one saw it.

“I have provided you with clothes. We are heading to Zaeris for Calanthe Ceremony, you’ll find more than just food there,” The goddess took me by surprise as she spoke in the mortal’s language. I sat there dumbstruck for some moments before I lightly nodded at her.

The rest of the ride she did not say anything to me. Only the hum of the men outside the carriage occupied the silence between us. Though, she would glance at me once in a while before looking out of the window and pretending that I am not there at all.

Meanwhile, my mind was racing. Why did she help me? She told me about Zaeris as if she already knew that I was going there. I did not dare look at her for the fear of being caught. Something told me that she knew about me and my intentions. Wait, what if she was going to hand me over to the wolves?

My head snapped towards her to find her smiling at me. I sunk lower in my seat as a dreadful feeling took over me. I wanted to run away from there, run away from the goddess in front of me. The look that decorated her face told me that she knew what I was thinking and it was scaring me more.

“We’re in Zaeris,” She told me gently before the carriage door was being opened from outside, “You may go now, Sykas,”

I did not delay to climb out of the carriage. I turned to look at her once. She was still smiling at me when the carriage door was being shut before it drove away from me. I stood there in shock before I finally recovered from it. I looked around to find that I am in what seemed to be a normal village. The place was covered with snow and people swarmed on the roads.

This place oddly reminded me of the busy markets of Alexandria. With my transformed body, I could easily mix with the crowd. I wondered if my red hair would trigger the same chaos like that in the mortal land?

I decided to roam the place and look around first. The place was busy and the shops and houses were decorated. I soon remembered that it was the Calanthe ceremony. It was special for the wolves because they celebrated their mates and expressed gratitude to the pairer for their mates. It was an auspicious occasion for them.

I soon found my way towards the royal palace where people crowded to look at the royal family. They seem to be the main attraction of the ceremony. I stood in the crowd as the Queen of Wolves appeared on the high steps of the palace. The crowd roared for her while she waved at them happily. She was accompanied by other royal members, most of them were women.

Suddenly, a loud howl cut through the crowd’s cheers before a herd of men appeared from the woods next to the palace. It was led by Arles, the king of the wolves. The crowd went wild and the cheers became louder around me. At this point, I was struggling to get a look at the royal family.

The heard of men must belong to the court and royalty because all of them started to climb the steps to the palace balcony where the Queen stood. I had to push some people away from my way to get a better look at the royal family.

Arles and Nefret stood tall amongst the other members of the court and royalty. They were easily distinguishable even from far away.

Beside them, a lone figure stood. Tall, muscular and powerful. He stood beside the king and queen with a blank face. He did not seem to share the same happiness and excitement for the ceremony as others. There was something about him that made my breath hitch and my heart race. Realization soon dawned upon me that he is the wolf prince.

Ares.

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