Way of the Wolf

Chapter 13 Wanderers Travels

"Is this why you brought her here?" I demanded, looking around at the figures. "Is this why I'm here?"
Wanderer drags herself from her sopping state on the ground and looks up at me, eyes red and wild. She trembles head to foot,
"No...no please!!! Not Ashiato!!!" Before vomiting heavily, the contents tainted with blood. It's then that I realise she has a big bloody patch on her dress. She groans and slumps to the floor. "No...not him..."
"What is she saying?" I say sharply to the misty figures, and several of them begin circling me, as if to study me. "What doesn't she want to happen to me?"
This set the booming voice of into a booming bellyache of laughs.
"Why to see, and feel the intensity of her crimes." I snorted, Wanderer had committed no crimes, that I knew of. I look hard at the vomiting, and trembling Wanderer. I knew nothing of her travels, what she did to survive on her wanders. I guessed, I was gonna find out then.
"I agree to it," I called, my voice ringing, "I will accompany Wanderer in these sightings of her past." The figures laughed, but some muttered amongst each other. I walked briskly to Wanderer, and pulled her up. She groaned, and slumped in my arms. She must've already been through what we were about to see, and been tortured so much by it. She buried herself into my chest. She mumbled things that weren't picked up by my ears. Ahead, I saw a white light, but this one had a swirling red border around it. I draped Wanderer's arm around my neck, and proceeded to drag her towards the light.
"No!!!" She screamed, she tried to pull me back screaming "Please, not Ashiato!!! Don't make him do this!" Before leaning against me, a sickly, crying and dirty form.
"I'll be alright." I said gruffly, resisting strongly against her fighting self. I finally reached the light, and dragged myself and her in, and Wanderer was now pleading, "please...please no!!!"
And chaos was on the other side. I was in a forest. Wild Boar Youkai were around me, staring at me like I was a pile of dung. I glared at them, then lifting up their hands to reveal the spears in them, they proceeded to stab me, continuously and I couldn't fight back. I screamed, and my scream sounded like Wanderer's. Then one grabbed me roughly and snarled at me, "How dare you kill a Wild Boar for your own consumption you pathetic human!!! For killing our ancestors, you shall be stabbed till you bleed and dye the earth with your blood." Then another youkai walks from the trees. She is also a Wild Boar Youkai. She runs to the youkai who is holding me.
"Please!!! Don't hurt her!!!" I look down at me and realise I am wearing a dress and long black cape, now stained with blood. I also have a tangle of long brown hair. I felt sure that I had hazel eyes too. But the youkai man pushes the girl aside, but she yells to them, "Humans eat animals, she didn't know what she was doing!!!" Then dropping me like a stone, the youkai and other wild boar youkai surround the youkai girl and stab her instead, screaming "traitor!!!" Then blood spurting from the girl, she screams bloody mouthfuls off "run!!! Run now!!!" I immediately try to run yo her, but I find myself running away. I am screaming in my head, but no words come out of my mouth. Wanderer had left that girl behind to die, and had runaway. But that's what the girl wanted, and if Wanderer had died to try and save her, then the girls death would've been for nothing.
I am now on a riverbank, my wounds clotted up with crude bandages. My body aches, and I feel so weak. I am thirsty, and my body leans forward to drink from the river. He cold water soothes my dry mouth, and I sigh in pleasure. I hear voices, and I turn to see two people walking down a path. They are carrying baskets of fruits and bread. My mouth waters and my stomach rumbles. In my head, I knew what Wanderer was going to do. I follow them, and in the dead of night that seems to occur almost instantaneously, I steal both the baskets of food. I have a large meal, and before long, only half of one of the baskets is empty. Wanderer stole to feed herself from desperation.
Then more flashback like scenes appear before my eyes, I am running from a house carrying food whilst people chase me from a village. Then I am pinching things from the back of a carriage, and I am then running from a war in a village, people lashing at each other with swords, then one last scene.
I am tied up with 50 or so other people, with a bunch of soldiers patrolling around us. They have arrogant and smart looks on their faces, then I see a most horrific scene. People from our group were being taken one by one, and then stood in front of the others. Then, the man standing discreetly behind the soldiers, slits their throats to let them slump to the floor, blood spurting everywhere. The crowd silently watch, some looking away as their loved ones are carried of after heartfelt goodbyes. Then from absolutely nowhere, even I am astonished when this happens, but I take off like share to the forest. I am so sudden and quick, no one responds to it immediately. After I am a good 1 kilometre or so away, I hear more screams. Wanderer saved herself, and fled with her life. I felt disgust, I was angry at Wanderer for not even trying. But I heard one thing I needed to hear from her. I slumped under a tree, and a little blue bird with yellow highlights lands on my scratched and dusty knees. I feel a smile on my face, and her hear Wanderer's voice coming from my open lips,
"I am such a coward. But I need to stay alive. I need to. I plan on going back to my village. If I die, then my parents and siblings will loose all hope!"
Then I am back in the "courtroom", I wipe my mouth of blood, and realise that Wanderer is kneeling beside me. She looks ashamed and scared. I sign heavily, and stand up, my wounds and pains forgotten.
"Wanderer was staying alive for her family. She wanted to be able to tell them in the end that she was alright. That's why she did all that, for her family." The figures all mumble, then one walks away into a darker part of the fog. After about 5 minutes, it returns, and the loud booming voice calls, "This is the verdict of Caped Wanderer." There is a pause, and if it was for a dramatic effect, if worked. Then the voice booms again, "Due to the word of the witness, Caped Wanderer is free of guilt and may return home."
And we are slammed into the trunk of a tree and are thrown deep into the rotting mass of the forest floor that I had crossed to find Wanderer.