Untrodden

03. Sight and Shadow

 "Where are we going?" said Ray with his voice jumping at every bump on the road.

"You will see when we get there," answered Suzie cryptically.

A few more minutes passed and the heavy forest canopy suddenly opened up to bright shiny blue skies. The morning sun was now heavier, stronger, slowly walking to midday. They were at the top of the hill with a bird's-eye view of the entire city. A beautifully crafted walkway surrounded the place, with a charming and spacious gazebo in the center.

"Wow, it is beautiful," uttered Ray.

"Wait till you see the view from there", answered Suzie dismounting the bike and heading towards the gazebo. "Come!".

Suzana pranced ahead, excited. Raymond, undeniably out of shape, ran the best he could to caught up. He almost bumped on her when she suddenly stopped.

"What happened Suzie?"

There was no need for her to respond. Her clenching fists and disgusted expression easily translated her feeling towards the youth gathered around a circle in one of the gazebo's benches. Wearing thorn clothes, with big manes of waving hair and sharp pronounced teeth and nails, those were unmistakably...

"Werewolves," murmured Ray.

They were laughing and playing something, occasionally exchanging punches with one another. A big and heavy tanned guy, seeming like the leader, was laughing the hardest, inviting some of the small ones to try some strikes. Cans of beer, some empty, some yet to be empty, surrounded the group as some joyous decoration.

And Suzana's rage was sizzling.

"I understand it, Raymond. I understand that werewolves are useful. I'm not dumb. They are strong, almost impregnable to magic, perfect for being soldiers and police. But that is something you decide for yourself after the Collegium. Tell me, Raymond, why would anyone waste their life choosing to become one disgusting werewolf before admission? Why waste the potential for vampirism or high magic just to waddle in the mud?".

Her words were getting higher and higher. With that, the attention of the werewolves shifted towards them both. Their laughter and playfulness narrowed to squinting eyes with predatory glimmer.

To Ray's horror, Suzie responded with a challenging glance of pure disgust.

"Suzana, I think it is better if we leave."

"No, Raymond. I came here to show you the view. And it will not be a bunch of werewolves who will stop me doing that."

Daringly the girl strode upright and fashioned a sit in one of the benches, far away from the werewolves teens, and tapped the place besides her for Ray to sit. Begrudgingly the boy followed, his eyes afraid to look in the direction of the werewolves.

"Suzie, please, don't anger them. Even if it was but one werewolf it would be enough of a problem, and there are four of them! Suzie, are you listening to me?"

"Look, Ray, the view", she said with her eyes clouded with the mist of tears.

Only then did Raymond fully realize the dazzling view that the gazebo provided over the entire region. The building sites sprawling with activity with the heavy machinery working as a trail of iron ants. The cars dashing through the streets as blood pumping through the heart of the city. The watchful hills surrounded everything as perennial guardians.

"I just wanted to share with you this view as a way for you to have hope. To see that even the biggest problems can become as tiny as ants. So tiny that we could grasp them in one hand."