BLOODLINES

ELUDE

RONAN

'We've lost, everything's over' was the first thing that popped into my mind after gaining consciousness. My eyes winced due to the intensity of the light.

On complete restoration of energy, I analyzed my surroundings hopelessly. We were tied to a tree using a thick rope. In a few seconds, Sam also opened her eyes. A gasp was about to leave her mouth when I signalled her to remain silent. Aiden's head was still hanging unconsciously.

"I never understand how to use these homo objects" said one of the warewolf with a mobile phone in his hand.
We both acknowledged their presence and closed our eyes pretending to be fainted while eavesdropping their conversation.
"Give it here" said the other one.

This was followed by some sounds of dialing.

"Hello Jet! We've got the kids and everything is going as planned. By afternoon, we'll reach the gate and tomorrow evening we'll return with the blinder." Said the zealus.
Anger pulsed through my veins. There was a faint voice coming from the mobile phone which could not be deciphered from this distance.

"Yes Jet, we remember.... we'll not harm the kids in anyways no matter what. How can we forget that condition afterall, you probably said that a 100 times before we left" replied the warewolf.

Jet didn't want us to get hurt!? That was a questionable behavior from a Zealus. I could see Sam's eyebrow rising into a questioning look from the corner of my eyes.

While, all this was happening I saw Sam trying to heat the rope in hopes to free us from the bondage.
I also joined her attempt to set us free by producing a small knife to cut the rope although, in the bottom of our hearts, we both knew that we cannot escape that easily.
We both were struggling with the rope as Aiden started waking up. Before either of us could do anything, he let out a loud gasp from his mouth bringing all the attention towards us.
"They're awake!!" screamed one of the warewolf.

My pace with the knife increased rapidly and before the three men could reach us, we were free.
I glanced at Sam and Aiden and gave them a 'we'll have to fight them' look. They both stood up in union and got into fighting positions when, something unexpected came up.

"I don't have my wand" shouted Aiden in a terrified tone. They must've taken it to detect the door.
He's nothing without a wand. I mean, he might do fine in physical combats but we literally have werewolves in front of us.
Already, we've lost our chance. I saw Sam still standing dedicated, she hadn't lost hope unlike me. This boosted my motivation. Whatever happens, we have to try our best.

The men started turning into werewolves after they realised that we won't give up without fighting. They've been ordered not to hurt us so, probably they converted just to scare us or worse, they'll actually kill us.

Sam and I went for one of them each while Aiden was attacked by the third one making it a one side fight.
Ofcourse they were extremely strong and well-trained. I kept creating knives constantly, to hurt him but he easily dodged them.
He was concentrating on my hand motions and trying to understand my moves. So, I tried to change my actions. He kept growling like a wild animal but none of his movements were out of control. It was clearly visible that he was trying not to hurt me. After around 10 minutes of struggling, It raised it's right claws towards my face at around shoulder level when I created a long knife to hold it back and the tip of the knife came in contact with his fur causing a long scratch along his palm.
He started examining his cut with his vicious eyes. I angered the beast, it was a mistake. I got up and positioned myself with a knife in each hand. He let out a loud growl and came running to me. I attacked it with swishes of both my knives especially focusing on his injured palm.

He was just avoiding my attacks, he did not even try to hurt me. This was unexpected, it was like a one side fight, I kept attacking while he stood there just defending not even raising his paw to scratch me or something.

After several failed attempts, I managed to strangle the warewolf by his injured arm causing the hot red blood to drip on my hands. The wareworlf was whining in pain as I pressed his cut. I grabbed the opportunity and immediately stabbed him right in the stomach. His eyes closed and he stopped struggling. He wasn't dead obviously, you cant kill a warewolf that easily but yes, he was severely injured and unconscious.
I took a long breath, I wasn't exactly hurt but there were several scratches. I looked up and saw Sam fighting the warewolf. He was behaving the same way as mine not attacking, just defending.

Before I could reach for help, the warewolf jumped up high to reach and grab hold of Sam, almost reaching her shoulder. My breath hitched when, Sam drew out the silver knife I gave her yesterday and slashed his feet mid air. He let out a loud painful growl and fell then and there. The silver affected him alot and he laid there on the ground incapable of furthur movement.

He also wasn't dead but he might lose one of his legs which is not a very big concern as he can grow it back in a few months. Still, he's most definitely bed ridden for quite some time now.
Sam panted, fell on her knees and was clearly scared. It could be seen on her face that she was terrified by the fact that she killed him.

"He'll live" I said helping her up back on her feet.
She was relieved as a painful scream came from behind the tree. It was Aiden's voice. We both hurried there and saw Aiden lying on the floor holding up his bleeding arm. I ran towards him and started examining his wound. It was deep and he had lost a lot of blood. I teared the rim of my shirt and covered the cut.

All this while, Sam was struggling with the warewolf. He wasn't attacking much like the other two but he did hurt Aiden.
"My wand." said Aiden in a low and hurt voice.
Sam continued scaring off the warewolf with fire as I started searching for Aiden's wand. After 5 minutes or so, I finally found it inside a box that was kept in the camp set up by them.

I took it to Aiden and he held it up chanting some words. A bluish translucent screen kind of thing appeared mid air in front of sam. I understood what he was doing. He called out for Sam and signalled her to let her fire pass though the screen. She did and the fire magnified a multiple times. The intensity of the fire increased alot due to the magnifying charm and the warewolf was severely burnt.
Sam's eyes widened and she was clearly shocked by that magic.

Finally, it was over all the three werewolves laid there incapable of furthur fight. The three of us panted and fell on the ground relieved and tired. Aiden fixed his hand with his magic. It didn't cure completely but it was alot better.

All three of us sat there exhausted, breathing heavily not able to form words.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Sam spoke up
"Why didn't they kill us? They could have done that in like a few seconds if they wanted to."

"Ofcourse they could've killed us in a snap but they didn't, they didn't even try....all they did was defend. I was literally powerless so I pretended to surrender. He held me beside him and I tried escaping, while doing so he caught me off-guard and just to stop me from running away, clawed me." Explained Aiden pointing towards his injured arm.

"I don't understand why Jet asked them not to hurt us, I thought he wanted us dead. For you Sam, it makes sense beacuse of the running blood thing but us? If they wanted, they could've killed us both and taken you hostage easily. But they didn't. It doesn't really make any sense" I added in a confused tone.
We sat there for a few more minutes trying to get together what happened in the last hour.

"We need to get out of here." I said getting back to my feet.
Aiden raised his wand to sense the blinder and a smile appeared on his face.
"These werewolves have bought us pretty close to the blinder. I can strongly feel it." He said.
That was indeed a small good news after such a hectic confusing day.
We gathered our stuff and went away from the warewolf area. We hid among the forest and prepared to rest. Aiden protected the vicinity and ensured that no one sees/sense us.
Sam set up the bed that we stole from the warewolf's camp and we laid down.
After staring the stars, the weight of tiredness took over our eyelids and we drifted off to sleep.