Araia’s P.O.V
What is he talking about?
How come they don’t know the word Human?
“Are you serious?!” I was so shocked that I couldn't contain my voice.
Elder Baster nodded his head.
“I’m telling the truth.”
My jaw dropped, I couldn’t bring myself to ask him anymore.
I tried to organize my thoughts. Is this for real?
My eyes roam the place, it's hard to believe that I'm not on Earth anymore, but from what I saw…
The wolves, attacking humans, those monsters like people, this place…
No…This can’t be happening!
I collapsed on my seat, my eyes widened in fear.
"What am I gonna do?"
I don't want to be here…
"Bea…Joseph…" My tears started to fall.
How I wish that this is all just a dream…
"Shh…I'll help you, I'll help you find a way to go back to your home…" Elder tapped my back.
I reach for his arms and hug him.
"Elder…" I cried in his arms.
I don't know how I could get back on Earth, or if I can even go back there…
I don't even know where I am! How did I even get here in the first place?!
"Mom…"
Elder keeps on caressing my back, but instead of calming down, because of the warmth that his hug is giving me, my heart seems to be touched by it. I couldn't stop my tears from falling.
My tears fell down even more.
“I want to… home…”
I don’t want to be here, I want to go back to my friends, even though mon and I aren’t that close, I still want to see her, to be with her!
I held Elder’s hands.
“Elder, please, help me get back to my family…”
If I need to plead with someone just to get back home then I will gladly do it! I am just desperate to come home…
I want to go home…
**
“ARE YOU AWAKE NOW?”
I open my eyes, I search for who’s talking.
“Elder…”
I sat down.
I’m on my bed… It looks like I’ve fallen asleep while crying… Did he carry me?
“Thank you Elder, I’m sorry about earlier…”
I am so ashamed that I cried in his arms.
Elder came to me.
“It’s okay, but I think we need to talk about how you will go back to your home.”
My eyes landed on him.
“Yes elder, I’m listening.”
He nodded.
“So…”
Elder told me that since it isn’t certain yet the exact location of where I came from, he will consult a friend of his that can help us to find the truth. He told me that he has a friend that is knowledgeable about sorcery, we’re not sure if that can help me but he will still try it.
“When can we meet your friend, elder?”
We need to meet that friend as soon as possible so I can go home.
“He’s not here, it’ll take weeks to get to his home.”
“...”
Then, we still need to wait for a week…
“It’s okay elder, when will we depart?”
“I’ll tell you about that after I finish my job here.”
Elder stands up.
“Since there’s a commotion not long ago, everyone’s still in shock and there’s areas that’s surely damaged, we still need to fix those for now.”
“Okay elder.”
That’s right.
Elder told me that he still needs to fix things outside so we’ll talk about it some other time.
When he’s finally out of the room, I lay myself on the bed again.
“I still need to wait…”
Ha…
Alright, I don’t have to be like this anymore as Elder Baster will help me. Although I still need to wait for a week- no, because of the attack of those monsters, I think it will take a week to organize and fix things in this village so it’s possible that we’ll get to leave this place the week after next week.
I don’t have to be impatient as there’s already a way to get back home.
“Let’s just hope that Elder’s friend knows how to transport me back to Earth…”
Please…
I wonder what my friends on Earth are thinking right now, are they searching me?
How about my mom?
“I bet she doesn’t even know that I’m missing…”
But if she ever finds out, will she care?
I’m just a desperate daughter, now, I don’t want her attention, but later, I still want her to care for me, even just asking if I’m alright or asking where I went and how’s my day…
I guess that's how a child is to their parents…
Even how many times a parent has already abandoned them, their child will still ask for their attention.
“I thought, it’s the same for the parents?”
But how come my mother isn’t like that?
She’s acting as if she’s not my real mother…
Ha…
I want to go back…
“Raia?”
A knock on the door snapped me back to reality.
“Yes?”
“Can I come in?”
It’s Freya’s voice.
I sat on the bed and fixed my face.
“Yes.”
Freya peek through the door.
“Are you alright?”
I nodded. She looked concerned.
I ask them to come in.
“I’m alright, thank you for asking.”
She gave me a flower crown made of red flowers and yellow ones that I don’t know the name of.
“Wow, thank you…”
She puts it on me.
I am touched by her kindness, I wish I had a sister like her.
She hugged me then lay on the bed, using my lap as a pillow.
“I thought, something bad happened to you… Elder carry you when you pass out.”
Her voice changed, it became the voice of a 10 year old.
She’s really funny.
“I’m sorry to make you worry, Freya, but I’m okay now.”
I caress her hair, the assorted colored hair pins are still there in her head.
“You’re not going to pass out again?” She looked at me like asking me to promise her.
“Yes.”
How could I resist those bright eyes?
“Yey!”
We both giggled.
She, then, played with the skin on my lap.
She’s so precious, I want to tell her about myself but I promise the elder that I wouldn't. I want to tell her badly, I don’t want to keep something from her but she’s still a child. She might have a slip of the tongue, even though it’s not on purpose, that can still put my life in danger.
I’ll tell her some other time…
I kept on caressing her hair. We stayed like that for a couple of minutes when Shoyo asked for our presence at the table.
I was shocked to know that it’s already morning, I slept that long?!
But then I helped them arrange the plates on the table.
“Are you alright now?” Mui asked me.
“Yes.”
They all asked me how my condition was, they thought that I collapsed because of the sudden uproar yesterday.
Thankfully, Elder said it like that as I don’t know what to tell them if ever they asked me what did the Elder and I talked about that causes me to collapse.
I hadn't thought of it before going out here.
While eating breakfast, I couldn’t stop thinking that this is what it feels like to have someone eat with you.
I have never experienced this before. All I’ve experienced is eating alone at our dining table.
I want to stay here just a little bit just to experience this kind of feeling everyday but I know that I can’t. I don’t belong here, I’m not a werewolf.
After breakfast, the twins wanted to play with me but I had to reject them because Elder asked for my time.
He asked me to help him clean the underground.
“Where should I put these, elder?”
I showed him the mini sharp logs on my hand.
“You can put those there.”
He pointed to the corner of this room.
I placed the logs there and went back on cleaning.
This place is spacious underground, and it’s really underground, you can’t enter this place if you’re from outside because the door is pretty tough as well as the roof. Attacks won’t reach this place if ever one occurs.
Although it’s dark because there’s no ventilation, you can still see each other because of the torch.
How will they get out of here if something bad happens and the main door is blocked?
“Actually, I called you because I need to discuss something with you.”
Elder suddenly said.
Oh, is that so…
“What do you want to tell me?”
Although we’re still cleaning, the elder kept on explaining everything that I need to know while I’m staying here.
“I understand Elder, then, is it better if I don’t go outside?”
Since it’s dangerous if someone finds out the truth, Elder limits my time going out.
“You can go out if you want but I suggest that you will just go where we can save you anytime. If it’s possible, you should stay away from other wolves.”
“I understand.”
“It’ll be better if you stay low for now, before we go to my friend and ask for his help.”
“Yes elder.”
I don’t want to cause any trouble for their family, I’m lucky enough to meet them. If I met someone with bad intentions, I don’t know what would happen to me now, so I will do my best to stay away from danger so that they won’t be in danger too.
Also, I’m lucky enough that Elder Baster knows someone who knows sorcery, so my chance of getting back to Earth isn’t impossible now.
We continued cleaning the underground but we paused because it’s already lunch time.
I feel like we just ate and now we’re eating again.
Freya’s family is happy, I’ve noticed that there’s no rice here, all we've been eating since I came here are either vegetables or some bread, and there’s no electricity here, like I'm living before humanity… Kidding.
Another thing, there’s no vehicle here, they’re riding the ones that can transform into wolf form if they’re traveling, and if they don’t have someone who can transform, they will just walk even if their destination is far.
Elder Baster told me everything that I need to learn while we’re cleaning, thanks to that, I’ve known other things about this world.
There’s a lot of things that I grew up with that can’t be seen in this place, so I know that it’ll be hard for me to adjust that easily in this place. But I’ll try my best.
“Can we play?”
Vin, one of the twins, clings to me after lunch.
“Of course!”
I already rejected them earlier so it would be hard to reject them again. Also, I don’t have to be cautious of the wolf inside this house and this village because mostly, omega wolves are weak and won’t cause trouble that would end up finding my true identity.
Although there’s Betas here, Elder assured me that it’s safe as long as they don’t find out who I really am.
Vin and Xin happily clung to me, we went outside the house. Freya’s walking behind us, looks like she also wants to join.
“What should we play?” Vin asked his twin.
“I don’t know!” Xin happily said.
Vin sighs.
“I can’t believe you.”
Vin is the one who thinks of the game that we would play but since it’s for the young ones, I thought of telling them a game that I know.
“How about we play rake?”
They focus their attention on me.
“What’s that?”
I told them what rake is and now they’re looking for a rock that they’ll use as a basis.
After they found a chalk like rock, I started to draw the pattern on the ground.
“Goodluck everyone!”
“You’re not playing with us?” Freya asked me.
I shook my head.
"I'll play later."
She nodded and they started playing.
When other kids saw them playing, they joined them and everyone was happy while playing.
I enjoy seeing the happy faces of these children.
When I couldn’t keep on just looking at them playing, I joined them.
“I’ll go last!”
There’s a total of ten kids playing here, then me and Freya.
Everyone’s laughing when they pass us and see us, particularly Freya and I, playing.
I think we're too old for this, but I can’t stop playing!
This is just the first time that I get to play like this. I’m old enough but I still enjoy these kinds of games.
It’s pretty fun.
It’s like, I am now experiencing the youth that I haven’t experienced before, and I’m happy for that.
We kept on playing until the sun was about to set.
“We’ll see you tomorrow!” Xin said his goodbye to his friends.
“Yes! We’ll play again tomorrow!”
“Bye!”
“Bye!” Xin replied.
He still has a lot of energy after playing that long…That’s incredible, I guess, that’s because he’s a wolf.
“How did you learn that game? That’s so fun!”
Later on, he asked me.
Oh… What should I say?
Hmm…
“We’re playing that on where I came from!” It’s not a lie…
“Really? Then it’s fun there!”
Not really…
“Yup!”
We enter their house and take our rest.
I couldn’t tell if it’s really fun where I came from, but I guess, it’s just me who’s lonely, not like other children my age, they must be having so much fun that time…
Mui and Shoyo are preparing our dinner, while the four of us, who played outside, are just sitting here on the sofa. Calming ourselves.
Later on, we’re called to help on preparing the table. We ate happily together.
That night, we all watched the sky before we slept.