Drake POV
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Her voice cut through the fog in my head. I didn't realize I was staring at the dead body for too long, frozen like a statue.
"I'm fine," I said quickly, forcing myself to look away.
She looked at me for a moment as if studying me. Then she nodded. "Alright, then let's keep moving. The man must have come from a nearby village before the lycan attacked him."
With that, she started walking again. While I followed behind her, I couldn't get my mind off what happened back there.
It was as if I had this urge, but I wasn't sure what it was, and what was weird is that, at that moment, I could hear whispers brushing against my ears. And when I tried to listen harder to catch the words, that's when Eva shouted my name—and just like that, the whispers were gone and I immediately snapped back to my senses.
I don't know what that feeling was, but it sure felt like I was going insane.
We continued walking through the forest and by early afternoon, we managed to reach the edge of the small forest. From the top of the hill where we stood, we could see a small village spread across a small valley.
We could see small houses with smoke coming from their chimneys and people walking along the dusty roads carrying out their day.
"Just as I thought," Eva said while crossing her arms, meaning her prediction of there being a village nearby was right.
But that didn't fascinate me. What was fascinating to me was that I knew this place. The same square, the old houses, just like I remembered.
This place is the Sleys-Village, and how the fuck did the lycan trail lead us here... lead me back here. This place was the village Lisa lived in before we ran away together.
And now, somehow I am back here again looking at the past.
"Drake?"
Eva's voice pulled me back from my thoughts.
"What are you doing standing? Let's go!" She said as she started descending down the hill.
After we got down from the hill, we walked into the village. People stopped whatever they were doing, including the children who were playing, and they all started staring at us, noticing the way we were dressed differently.
Which means they could instantly tell we were not from here, which was normal because people in this village were made up of exiled prisoners from far away kingdoms, and some of them are even runaway slaves, giving them the clear reason why they don't usually trust outsiders.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Eva said, stopping an old woman who was passing with a pile of firewood on her head.
"Has there been any trouble here recently?" She asked the old woman due to how everyone here acted normal.
The woman's face darkened upon her question. "Who are you people?" she asked.
"We are hunters and we have been following the trails of a rogue lycan and it led us here."
"Umm," the old woman said while placing a hand on her chin. "Well in that case something went wrong recently." She said whispering to Eva in a way that gave the impression that this old woman must be one of the biggest gossipers in this village.
"Tell me what happened," Eva said, trying to push her for more answers.
"The chief's son," she said while still whispering. "He was killed yesterday on the farm. Torn apart. With claw marks that resemble that of a wild animal. Rumor says a lycan did it. And even worse, his wife has gone missing. Vanished. "No one knows where she is."
With that, Eva tapped the old woman's shoulder. "Thank you, ma'am, for that information."
"No problem, you children have a nice day," the old woman said as she walked away.
Then Eva turned to me. "We need to talk to the chief of this village."
The chief's house was the biggest in the village. Unlike the other houses, this one had two floors and glass windows. A guard met us at the door but he later let us in when Eva also told him we were lycan hunters.
When we met the chief, he turned out to be a tired old man with sad eyes. He was so old that he needed crutches to be able to walk around. He confirmed the rumors about his son's death and even the missing of his daughter-in-law/his son's wife.
I stood beside them, trying my best to stay steady as my body suddenly felt weak. The room would sway slightly every time I blinked, giving the impression that I was feeling dizzy.
"What the hell is going on with me?" I whispered to myself while staring at my palms.
When Eva and the chief finally finished their discussion, he took us to where we found more trails leading east.
"Be careful," he said. "That way leads to Zealand—one of the most fierce kingdoms in the world. I just hope you find the beast before you get there."
Hearing that, I was shocked. I know Zealand is just miles away from the Sleys-Village but I had completely forgotten. "Huh, just great, this day couldn't get any worse," I thought to myself, still feeling dizzy for no reason.
Before we left, the kind chief insisted on giving us two of his good horses to use for the journey. "If you find the beast," He said. "Make it pay for what it did."
"We will," Eva promised as we both hopped on top of the horses.
We rode east, following the tracks, each step taking us closer to Zealand—the kingdom where I was born as the first male witch in history, the same very place where my mother was killed minutes after I was born. I just hope we find the rogue lycan before we reach there, just like the old chief said.
"Hey," Eva said from her horse beside me. "You okay?"
"Why do you ask?" I replied to her with another question.
"I don't know, you just look paler than usual. Come to think of it, you look like someone who hasn't fucking eaten for days all of a sudden.
"Are you sure you are okay?"