"What are you?" He asks me, breaking the silence. I am quite shocked by this question. Mostly because I don't even know how to answer it.
"Werewolf. I think... And you are a vampire," I state. He nods.
"You don't smell like a werewolf." He lifts his...
We sit side by side discussing which way to go first. North? West? Definitely not south, the Blood Moon pack is that way, and Kai swore that he would never travel East again. He wouldn't explain why, but I guess it must be where he comes from.
I look up into the sky, the sun is well above the horizon now. I bet it's about nine o'clock. I wish we had a watch or some other way to be more certain. I stand up and look first north, then west over the edge of the hill.
I turn around and look at Kai and Hera, who are still sitting down in front of each other. "Why don't we just go North-West then?". Kai immediately grunts while still looking down. I suppose it was a suppressed giggle. He glances up at me through the side of his eye, his head still facing down.
"Yeah, why not?" He jumps up and pats Hera on the head quickly, prompting her to stand up as well and shake her body. Dirt particles fly around her, and she pants softly and looks at Kai with her big golden eyes. She then closes them, tilts her head down, and then lets out a big yawn.
"Stop complaining", Kai says mockingly with a smirk and pushes his hip into Heras's shoulder. She blows air out of her nose in a snort, her way of laughing, I guess.
~~~~~~~~
We have trotted at a steady pace for the last hour and a half. The heat is getting quite intense and the flies and mosquitoes swarm around us every now and then. I look down at my shoulder. The bite mark is more or less healed now, but I can feel the sunburn coming through on my delicate and newly healed skin. I sigh.
"Are we even getting closer to anything?" I ask, not really directing it at anyone. Kai puffs and lets his head fall while still maintaining his speed. He seems tired. Well, we are all tired. None of us has slept the entire night. And yeah, I know Hera and I at shift retreated to heal, but that is pretty energy-consuming as well, so that doesn't count. I hear Hera's stomach rumble and we look at each other. I give her a sympathetic smile and grab my stomach. Even though it's healed, it's still aching, but more from the inside because of my hunger.
"Kai slow down. We need to find food. We don't know how long before we find a city, and both Hera and I are starving." He looks over at me and nods in agreement, as his stomach growls as well.
"You're right. Let's just find some shade and sit down for a bit." And so, we do. I fall down heavily on a rock beneath a large oak. I dry the sweat off of my forehead and exhale loudly. Kai stands for a bit with his hands on his hips. He looks down at Hera who has decided to lie down with crossed paws and her head resting on them. She looks up with her eyes only, and then rather unwillingly stands up with a huff. Kai looks over at me.
"We are going to go hunting, you just stay here. You are too slow to catch anything." Now it's my turn to huff, but I know he is right, and honestly, I won't complain about being allowed some rest. I see them run off and then I lie down on my back on the stone with my arms under my head. I close my eyes and try to get some sleep in the cool shade. I begin to snooze when I am suddenly awakened by a sound. It takes a second before I'm back to my senses, but then my eyes shoot open. To my left, I hear a twig snap followed by heavy breathing. I whip my head around but can't see anything. I jump up ready to defend myself when I feel a hand on my right shoulder.
"You okay?". I let out a small scream, but then quickly exhale in relief when I see Kai in front of me.
"Yeah, sorry, I'm fine". He holds up his right hand and in it, he has two pheasants. My mouth runs in water at the sight and my stomach growls loudly. I grab one of them and sit back on my stone. I begin pulling off the feathers, as I see that Kai is doing the same. Hera is back to her resting position with her legs crossed and her head resting on them.
"Aren't you going to eat anything?" I ask while still looking at the pheasant in my hands, but Kai just lets out a small giggle.
"She already ate". I look up at her, and sure enough, she has a feather stuck to her muzzle. I just giggle and shake my head.
~~~~~~~~
We are done eating. I found some twigs, a stone, and flint and started a fire to cook my bird. Kai was impatient, so he just shifted and ate it raw. That's also a way to go about it, I guess. Why he wasted time plucking it first I wont know. I guess he just has standards for himself. We continued walking and have now been on the road for another two and a half hours.
I'm walking in my own thoughts just staring blankly in front of me. Something in the perimeter of my eyesight snaps me out of it, however. I quickly look at the place but see nothing but trees. I could swear it looked like a person though. I walk on a bit, now with all my senses on high alert. It almost sounds like someone is walking beside us in the bushes, but every time I try to spot something, the sound stops, and I see nothing. Suddenly I am convinced that I hear someone say my name. I whip around.
"Hello?!", I yell into the bushes and look around us panicked. It must be the warriors that have followed us.
"Athena, what's the matter?" Kai asks confused, but still on alert.
"I swear someone's following us. I keep hearing footsteps and I just think they said my name..." I quickly look over at him as he doesn't answer. He just looks doubtful.
"I think you may be dehydrated. I haven't heard anything, and Hera should have caught the smell if someone was here." I hope he is right, but something in me says that I'm not hallucinating.
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