The Scarlet Apprentice

A gut feeling

When she was around 20 minutes in to her walk, y/n picked up a long stick which she used to put some of her weight on to take as much as she could off her leg.

Instead of taking the rocky route over the mountains, she decided to take the way through the woods. Even though wanda did warn her about wolves, she didn't fully believe it. She thought, even if they were real, she was staying on the outskirts of the woods, thinking they wouldn't go out that far.

The sun had started to hide away, causing the darkness of the night to pour in. The only way she could see where she was going was when the moonlight slipped through a gap in the trees and highlighted the path for her.

Wanda's help with her leg did make the pain less unbearable, but it didn't completely hide it.

She didn't fully know where she was going, but she'd mapped out a plan in her head based on what wanda told her, and improvised it as she went alone. Frankly, she was too tired to feel scared or worried that she was going to get lost, which had its advantages and disadvantages.

One advantage was that fear didn't slow her down, nor did it knock her of her podium of confidence. On the other hand, a disadvantage was that she wasn't focusing on the possibility that she was unsafe in her trails.

Back over in the cabin, wanda mindlessly wandered back and forth while contradicting thoughts circled through her mind. The small feeling of worry grew in her, but she was easily able to push it down and ignore it, so she wasn't too concerned by it.

Further into her journey, y/n found a small log which made her consider what her next move was going to be. The log sat there on its side, looking like a perfect place to sit. There was nothing too close to it, yet it was still nicely hidden, which interested her.

So, instead of standing around to decide what she wanted to do, she walked over to it with the intention to have a small break. The stick hit the ground once she let go, before she dropped down to sit on the log with a small sigh.

Like the instincts of an animal, the sense of worry grew over wanda again. She rolled her eyes again, but this time sighed and dropped her head into her hands, annoyed by how impactful the feeling was.

Her hopes to push the feeling away were shattered as it intensified to the point she couldn't ignore. With one loudly obnoxious groan, she pushed through the front door and began marching over to the woods.

Y/n remained sitting on the log, and she hadn't made any effort to start thinking about where she was going to go next. She fiddled with the laces on her boots while keeping her full attention on how it looked twirling around her fingers.

Like wanda predicted, she came to regret her decision of leaving. However, she was too far in to try and back out now, so she carried on.

Digging the end of her stick into the ground, she pulled herself up and sighed, preparing to keep going forward. The moment she stood up straight, something felt off. It wasn't a feeling that spawned from inside of her, instead it was a suspicion that there was something else around her.

She stood still for a second as the fear and worry finally hit her. Even though she had no idea what she was afraid of, her heart dropped and her mind was engulfed in thoughts.

All in one moment, the thoughts became a reality. A small twig in the trees surrounding her snapped under the pressure of something stepping on it, which made her heart race.

Then, from the darkness the trees created, emerged an indomitable, stealthy grey wolf. It was creeping through the woods over towards where y/n was standing, until she spotted it, then it snarled at her.

"Oh, god." She muttered as quietly as she could as her breath hitched.

She gulped, not knowing how to get out of the situation in any way. Her eyes stayed glued to it purely out of fear.

Just when a part of a plan entered her head, another wolf crept in from the opposite side, which sandwiched her in. In that moment, any percentage of hope she had completely flew from her body, forcing her to prepare herself for the end.

Wanda quickly grew tired with not being able to find y/n and get rid of the worried feeling, so she gave up trying to search on foot. With her hands at her side, she pushed herself off of the ground and flew just above the trees, squinting down into whatever opening she could.

As the wolves got closer, y/n held her arm over her head as if would stop her from worrying about what she knew was about to happen.

When wandas eyes landed on y/n standing surrounded by wolves in the gap of the trees, she pushed herself down into it as fast as she could.

Red energy softened her fall as she hit the floor before she flung her arms up in the air, spewing out a ray of her magic into the area around the two. Under the pressure of wanda's magic, the wolves turned and retreated into the woods as fast as they could, leaving the two girls alone yet again.

"Did you not listen when I told you about the wolves?" She dropped her hands and turned.

With heavy pants, y/n moved her arm away from her face and looked at wanda with disbelief, "what the hell are you doing here?"

Ignoring her question, wanda moved closer to her, "a 'thank you' would be nice."

Her brows furrowed in anger, "Are you stalking me?"

It wasn't that she wasn't grateful for wanda saving her life, she was just annoyed in the moment that every step she tried to take to get away from her, only pulled the two closer together.

"I'm saving your ass." She corrected her with a slight brag in her tone.

"Did you not get the message that I don't want to be with you?" She asked.

"There's no one else you can be with. No right now, anyway. So can you just get inside before we get killed, then tomorrow you can set off on your stupid little journey." She argued then paused to wait for a response, her eyes burning into y/n's.

It was very clear that y/n was fighting back the overwhelming urge to argue - as she usually did with everyone - but she managed to minimise it with a sigh.

"Fine." She gave in.