Way of the Wolf

Chapter 3 A village

The full moon is out, and I re-think the past few days, as I walk to the cave where Wanderer lay. In my section of the forest, there is a cave where I usually sleep in. Since 5 days ago when I ended up saving Wanderer from her pool of blood, I have been looking after her. She hasn't spoken, seeing as she is so weak, I am not surprised. When I enter the cave, I gaze upon her fragile body, wrapped in make-shift bandages that clotted up the wounds from the Sutoraiki plant. She breathes, her breathing now steady than it was before. I start to wonder if it was such a good idea, bringing her here. If the children found out, they'd surely go and blab to the others, and I will be graded down even further. Suddenly, I felt the urge to kick myself. I felt guilty, for putting my popularity before a life.
'But is it really that bad?' I asked myself, crouching beside the girl to examine her.
'After all, she is a meager being. Mortal.'
Wanderer opens her eyes slowly and trains them into my eyes. She smiles, then her tummy rumbles loudly. She grimaces, light in her eyes, a sign she was feeling perkier than she had been before. I pass over a branch of wild berries. She devours them like Sakebi devours his roasted Mongrel legs. She smiles up at me apologetically, and I feel as though she is trying to read me. But years of people teasing me and mocking me have taught me to keep my emotions limited to words, not facial expressions.
"Sorry." She says, the smile and light dropping from her face. I was a little shocked by the sudden change in her face.
"What for?" I ask stiffly, starting up the fire by scraping my nails on the rocks to get a spark into the mound of twigs and grass in front of me. Wanderer sighs heavily.
"For stopping your chances of being liked by the Wolf Youkai. I realise you were hoping I was a youkai when you saved me." She lowers her eyes away from my hard stare. I sigh heavily. She was right, I had been ignored and mistreated even more since the wolf children had told the others that I saved a human, not that was even possible. But I was glad that I had saved her.
'At least I had one person to talk to, who could actually talk to me in return.' I thought drily of my animal friends who could only communicate in chirps, squeaks, howls, typical animals noises. That's the one thing I am incapable of. Other youkai, can understand animals perfectly. Not half youkai like me.
"Nah." I say to Wanderer. She looks up in surprise, then smiles in delight. Once the fire is going, I lean against the wall and proceed to sharpen my nails, under the watch of Wanderer.
"What's up with your name?" I ask her. She looks down at the last berry on the branch, then eats it, but takes a longer time chewing if as if she wants to stall time for what she is about to say next. She looks up, raking her long hair with her fingers.
"Before I tell you," she says quietly, sitting up slowly, wincing so that she leans up against the wall opposite from me, "I should tell you a story, about a village."
"About a good few months away from here, there is a village. Nestled at the base of a mountain, it's a plentiful and rich with good soil. Many animals live there, and birds too. It gets a good amount of rain and sunshine each season, it's paradise." She pauses, a faraway look in her eyes, and I can picture this paradise she describes vividly too. I've always wanted to visit the mountains, but never have.
Then she continues, "There was a family, well respected and rich. They were kind, and often gave away all they had to less fortunate people who may happen to pass the village. Everyone adored this family."
"One day, the lady of the family, already consisting of a Lord, and a older boy and girl, gave birth to a girl. Everyone was overjoyed. But then a being came entered the village. Wether it was a youkai or a Mongrel, no one knew. But the being placed a curse on the child."
"When she turns 14, this child will bring bad luck to this paradise you call home. She will be an omen of sadness and death." He did this to spite the family, but they had hope. That the villagers who seemed to love them would help them to break their child's curse. But the villagers told them, "The curse of any being other than a human can't be broken. When she turns 13, we shall send her away from the village, so that our paradise will not fall."
"The family pleaded with the villagers to reconsider, but were forced to remain in the village as residents there till their deaths. They threatened the kind hearted family, to either send their child away alive, or to kill her. So they consented, for the fear their child would die."
"And so, they named her Wanderer, for they knew, she would one day roam the earth alone." Wanderer looked up at me, and I guess I looked quite a sight from her story. Like me, she didn't have a choice in this life. She was driven away from her family because of the selfishness of humans, and her family were suffering because of their love for her. I was separated from my family through death, and my mother must've suffered from being bullied and left out by humans because she loved my father, but I am suffering from that love. But they wouldn't have planned that. They probably thought we would've been a family, but then they died. Wanderer laughs, a timid slightly insane but sad laugh. I look up at her. She grins at me, a cheerful smile of friendship.
"I guess we are in the same boat, huh?"