The Alchemist And The Beast

Chapter 13

Exploration was the best thing Varian could think of to help him pass the time.  Of course, the west wing was circling on his mind.  His curiosity was always his weakness, and never was able to set apart the dangers and the want to know answers.

It was nearing evening when he finally found it.  Slowly, he opened the door and he took a deep breath.  What he saw made him pause.  The room was full of broken furniture.

He walked in and moved some of the debris out of his way.  A faint glow caught his eye.  Naturally, he followed it found a floating rose.  He lifted the glass, hoping to find out how it was made.  He was millimeters away from touching a pedal when he was suddenly shoved away.

"What are you doing here? What did you do to it?" Cassandra roared at him.

"N-Nothing!"  Varian's eyes were wide with terror.  He never heard her come and that alone would be enough to frighten him without the yelling.

"Do you realize what you could have done? You could have condemned us all!" She screamed.  "Get out of here!" She threw a chair at him, but he rolled out of the way.  "Get out!"

Varian fled for his life, believing it truly was on the line.  Behind, he didn't realize that Cassandra broke down sobbing.  The fear of condemning everyone she knew to an eternal curse was more than she could mentally grasp.  She immediately regretted lashing out at him, but she took in deep breaths to calm herself.

"Checkmate. Again," Eugene announced.

"Wait! No! You cheated again," Lance accused.

The friends' banter quickly ended when they saw a terrified Varian run right past them.  They saw him grab his clock off the rack.

"Woah, Goggles, what are you doing?"

"Getting out of here."  He rushed out the door.

"Wait!  There are wolves at this hour!"  Lance warned, but Varian was already gone.

"Why?" Eugene groaned with stress.

Varian had Fidella saddled up and mounted her in record time.  He made her run full speed out of the gate.  He hated the tears that ran down his cheek and that he was shaking from the terror.  It caused him to miss the first howls of the wolves.  By the time he realized they were chasing him, it was too late.

He yelped when one jumped out at them.  It missed, but that didn't stop his pounding heart.  He willed Fidella to speed up, but she was already running on adrenaline.

The next wolf jumped at them and Fidella accidentally bucked him off.  He rolled in the snow on impact.  Immediately, he picked himself up and grabbed the branch next to him.  He swung it at them in an attempt to get them to run away.

A wolf jumped on his back and he screamed in fright.  Before the wolf had a chance to do more, a powerful paw slammed into its side, knocking it off him.

Cassandra gave a roar as she fought off the wolves.  All Varian could do was sit in the snow and watch.  He was frozen to his spot.  It was a miracle that his heart had yet to pound out of his chest.

The wolves ran, seeing they would not win.  Slowly, Cassandra turned to him.  She stood there, heaving heavily until she just passed out.  Varian finally snapped out of it and made to remount Fidella, but something stopped him. He turned his head to the beast.

Varian leaned closer to Cassandra.  "Hey." He shook her gently so she opened her eyes.  "You have to stand for me."

She grunted and he helped her onto Fidella.