I was dreaming. Dreaming of a far-off land. There were houses and huts. People walking alongside animals. I saw a man with a huge green snake around his neck, a woman riding on the back of a bear, a little girl with a monkey, a middle-aged man with a hawk on his shoulder, a bald man with a mountain lion - there's too much for me to tell.
In my dream, I was walking. And as I did, I felt a presence beside me. A shadow of some sort. It was very small like a puppy. When I glanced down I saw the little brown wolf looking at me and barked. I blinked in confusion.
Why is the little wolf here in my dreams?
Suddenly I noticed that all the villagers stopped and turned in my direction. When they saw me, they started to make a clear pathway for me and made a bow.
What's happening here?
I looked at the little brown wolf, but he was already gone and was replaced by a huge red-eyed white wolf. He stood tall and majestic like an Alpha. He was so beautiful and mesmerizing that I almost forgot that he's a killer and almost attacked Dan.
Dan.
Suddenly realization hit me. How is Dan? Is he alive? This is no time for me to be dreaming! I have to wake up now and go check up on Dan and the others!
I closed my eyes and willed myself to wake. Come on, Rose. Wake up! Wake up!
I suddenly felt myself slowly shifting into reality when someone from my dream placed a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked back. The wolf beside me turned to the stranger too and bowed its head as if in respect. Curious of the wolf's behavior I looked up at the figure. In my dream, the image was a bit blurry but I could tell that it was a man. He was smiling at me. "Finally." He says.
Then he turned to the white wolf. "You take good care of her." He said and the wolf let out a howl that made me have goosebumps.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked.
He only smiled at me and then he was gone.
***
Someone was moving me and I could feel it. I felt myself being carried and suddenly felt my bruises.
"Hey easy there, vampire. You're hurting her."
"I'm doing the best I could so shut up. And keep an eye on that wolf."
"Yeah yeah."
I started moving my fingers in trying to push myself back to reality. When that was good I started moving my toes and felt really awake.
"Hey, I think she's waking up."
I slowly opened my eyes and saw Nate looking at me. "Morning." He greeted me. I smiled and tried getting up when I felt pain in my shoulder. I hissed. "Hey, careful. Your wounds may have healed but your bruises haven't." Said Nate as he carefully helped me sit up. As he did I noticed that he still had poop on his hair so I decided to look away.
I would not be the one to mention that to him.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You fainted."
"For how long?"
"Just a couple of hours."
I started to look around me and found out that we were in a different part of the forest now. I saw Prince Ace sitting on the log with his eyes closed in concentration while the twins were busy eyeing something that I could not see because they had their backs facing us.
"What are they doing?" I asked and pointed at the twins.
Nate glanced at the twins and sighed. "Hey, you idiots! Rose is awake."
As soon as Nate said it did the twins turned to look at us. Ren's hair was a mess and there were rips and cuts on his shirt. Dan, on the other hand, looked badly bruised and you could really tell because he was wearing nothing but a pair of trousers on.
When the twins saw me they both had wide grins on their faces. "Rose!" They both yelled and shifted so that they were fully facing me. As they did I now noticed what they were looking at.
It was the little wolf and he was cowering in fear especially when being faced by two alphas. The little wolf looked up and when it saw me it let out a happy bark and ran towards me.
"Hey!" Ren tried to catch the wolf but it was so fast and slippery that it even passed Nate as it jumped into my arms.
"Um..." I now looked at the little wolf who was rubbing its head on my stomach.
The twins marched towards us. "You get away from her right now or I swear I'll rip your fur!" Ren said.
"Yeah!" Dan agreed. "Not to mention that you wanted to kill me a while back! Tell me, is it nice to threaten someone as good looking as me!?" Immediately the little wolf shook its head in fear of the twins.
"Damn right it isn't!" Ren said and glared at the little wolf. "To hell do I trust you! How do I know you won't bite Rose when we're not around huh? You could be a spy!" He accused me.
The little wolf whimpered and again shook its head.
"Don't you go play innocent on me, mister! You're cute, but I am not buying cuteness around here." Said Dan.
"What is your motive?! Who sent you?" Added Ren.
"Give us one good reason why we should trust you!"
"And don't go all close to Rose!"
"Hey hey hey!" Nate said to the twins. "Don't you think you guys are getting too far? It's just a little wolf."
"Spirit." The twins corrected him.
"Yeah, but I don't think this spirit is going to harm us." Nate said in total defense of the wolf. I looked down and saw the little wolf looking at Nate and wagging its tail. It must have appreciated Nate for backing it up.
Nate then turned to us and bent down and patted the little wolf's head. "There, now that's a good boy." He said with all smiles and all, but the next second Nate's eyes turned dark and leaned in closer to the little wolf. "If you ever hurt Rose in any way or even harm a single strand of her hair I swear, spirit or not, I will gut you while you're still alive and make you watch all your insides spill and I will feed them to you and gut you over and over again. Are we clear?"
I felt the wolf tense up and gave a little nod at Nate. When Nate still continued to stare at him the wolf started to shake that I felt sorry for the wolf. "Hey cut that out already." I said and placed my hand over his face and pushed him. "It's just a little wolf." I said.
Suddenly, three pairs of eyes were on me.
"Really?"
"Oh, I guess that bloodthirsty white wolf was my imagination."
"Where did that white wolf come from then?"
Alright then. Point taken! "Oh come on! He's not that bad." I said and petted the little wolf to comfort it a little and to make it stop from shaking. "In fact, if it wasn't for him Dan and I would be in serious trouble."
The three seemed to take my point into consideration.
Finally, Dan said, "Yeah. I guess you're right."
"So...." I said while looking down at the wolf. "What should we do with him?" I asked and pointed at the little wolf. It was looking right back at me with huge brown eyes. It's ears were down and it let out a small helpless sound that the image of it being a bloodthirsty wolf and it being a spirit seemed to disappear and be replaced by awe. I placed my palm on top of its head and it rubbed it's head on my palm.
Aww!
"Can we keep him?" I suddenly asked as I picked up the little wolf for a hug.
"NO!" They all screamed at me, making me flinch.
"What are you jerks screaming at me for!?" I screamed back. Sheesh! I asked them nicely and they screamed in my face.
"Rose, you can't. It's a spirit!"
"You don't know what that thing is gonna do to you."
"And the germs! Don't forget about the germs!"
"You guys sound like my parents. Calm down will you, guys?" I said. "And besides, he seems really harmless just look at him! And Nate, I don't see why horse germs don't bother you."
"It's a spirit!"
"So what? How do you know that spirits have germs?"
"I don't! That's the point."
"Our horses are here." Ace suddenly said from where he was sitting. He got up and dusted his pants. I noticed that just like the rest of the prince he was a mess. His coat was torn, his shirt sleeve was ripped, and overall he was stained in blood. A second later and our horses - Midnight, Garius, Wyren, Ryde, and Cloud - appeared from the trees behind him. "Let's go. We don't want to encounter more rogues."
"Finally!" Dan said and did a little stretch. "That power of yours is pretty handy, PRINCE Ace." Ace gave no comment about it as he, Dan, and Nate made their way to their horses.
"Rose." Ren stayed behind and walked beside me. "Let's go. Leave that spirit here."
"What?" I said and looked at the wolf hesitantly. "But I want to keep him! He did help us. And you guys may not know it yet but he already helped me a bunch of times. Plus, he keeps on following me everywhere so basically there is no point of not bringing him."
"Rose." He said.
"Ren." I countered and held his gaze.
"Let her have it." PRINCE Ace interjected. "Whatever attachment she has with that spirit might be essential when we tell the story to the queen." He said then turned back from his horse as he looked straight at me. "And more importantly, it might be a clue for us to know 'what' you really are. It seems like we made a mistake. The nymphs want Rose to meet with that spirit and not Fred. And we are going to bring it along to know why."
No wonder Fred and I were confused by the nymph's actions. It seems as if we misunderstood the nymph's main purpose.
"If that's true then it would explain why the nymphs are active again." Nate mumbled.
With the intensity of Ace's gaze on me all I could do was nod and say, "R-right." I mounted Cloud with the help of Ren and pretty soon we were all on the move with the little wolf resting at Cloud's back in front of me. I was petting the little wolf's fur when Nate slowed the pace of his horse to even with Cloud's.
"So," He started and eyed the wolf. "what are you going to call it?"
"Call who?"
"The wolf. What are you going to name him?" He asked again.
"Oh." I said in surprise and looked down on the little wolf in wonder. "A name huh. Um....I'm not really sure." I looked up at Nate. "Any ideas?"
"Hey don't look at me. I don't like wolves so you can't expect me to name one." Said Nate.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I have an idea!" Ren said coming to my other side. "How about Wolf of Doom?"
"Brother, that is wrong!" Said Dan who was now riding a few paces behind me. "How about The Wolf Killer?"
"Good choice, brother." Ren agreed. "But I think Rogue Killer would do him good."
"Or Evil Wolf."
"Evil? How about Demon Wolf?"
"Brother, you forgot that it is a spirit and not a demon. How about Ghost Wolf?"
"It may be a spirit, brother, but it is not dead. How about The Undead Wolf?"
"Hey hey hey! You two stop it right now." I said and gave Ren a look. "And Ren, I am not naming my wolf spirit undead like the zombie from the W*lk*ng Dead." Ren and Dan were about to make a comment about it when I quickly said, "And no. I am not naming my wolf The W*lk*ng Dead either, so if you guys got no cute or nice name to say then I suggest you guys zip it." Nate started to snicker at the twins but stopped when they glared at him.
"Bastard. You name that wolf Bastard. That would suit him." Ace said who was clearly in the lead because he's using his powers to navigate us out of the forest.
"I said a cute name. Bastard isn't cute."
"I don't see anything cute about that wolf." Nate muttered.
"Nate, zip it." I said. Now it was the twins’ turn to laugh at Nate.
"I agree with Prince Nathaniel. Nothing is cute about that wolf. May I remind you that it killed three rogues back there?"
"Yeah, not to mention that it has an intent to kill me!" Inserted Dan.
"But that was his beast mode. It's in a passive state right now." I explained.
"Beast mode? Really? You named his form?" Ren gave me a weird out look.
"Oh shut up. Like you don't name your saddle Roy."
"Hey! That was supposed to be a secret!"
"You name your saddle Roy? Pfft!"
"O shut up, Bloodsucker!"
"Alright! Back to the point. I need a name."
"Killery."
"Beastery."
"Fury."
"Guys? Do you really think that adding e-r-y to a name would make it cute?"
"I didn't add e-r-y to Fury." I glared at Nate.
"Custard. Name it Custard."
Everyone looked at Ace. Shocked that he managed to give a cute name that doesn't need to sound forced. "Custard." I repeated the name and actually liked the sound of it. "Hey, that is it!" I said and carried the little wolf to my lap. "His name is now Custard. How about it boy?" I asked if the little wolf expected it to bark or something like in movies, but it just fell asleep on my lap.
Well, so much for movie expectations.