Flaming heart

Chapter 14

  

"The what of who?" lydia asked, taking a bite of her food before sending a confused look to allison. The girls and I sat at the lunch table discussing random topics at lunch, which caused allison to pull out a book and ramble about something her aunt had told her to read about that might have been connected to her family.

"The beast of Gevaudan," Allison informed, flicking her eyes to the redhead before bringing them back to the old book in her hands.

"Listen," Allison smiles slightly as she reads to us. 

"A quadruped wolf-like monster, Prowling France's Auvergne and southern Dordogne areas from 1764 to 1767. La bete killed over a hundred people, becoming so infamous that King Louis XV Sent one of his best hunters to kill it."

"Boring," Lydia slightly mocks allison, sending the girl a playful look after.

"Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan." Allison continued to read from the book.

"Still boring," lydia and I simultaneously tease the brunette that sat across from us. Of course, we were only teasing, but messing with allison a little bit was fun. I almost felt normal this morning. I had no creepy dreams last night and wasn't getting any weird pains in random parts of my body; I cherished this moment with these girls.

"Cryptozoologists believe it may have been a rare subspecies that roofed predator, possibly mesonychid."  Allison ignored the redhead's complaints and continued reading from her book. I can't lie; I wasn't exactly interested in this whole story; my mind wanted to drift elsewhere. I wanted to know what the boys were doing, and I assumed it was probably more fun than learning about old history.

"Slipping-into-a-coma bored," Lydia once again winced at the brunette's relentlessness, a small sigh falling from my lips as I looked over to the girl.

"Sounds like you're having a blast, Lyds," I smirked, chuckling at the girl's comment. Allison continued to ignore our teasing as she began to read deeper into the story of this beast, and I have to say France in the late 1700s did not sound like a fun time. 

"Others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape-shift into a man-eating monster." Allison read and looked up with a smirk, shifting her eyes between Lydia and me.

"What exactly does this have to do with your family?" I finally asked the brunette, curious about where she was going with this whole story. How could her family be involved in something that happened hundreds of years ago?

"This," she smiles before shifting her eyes to the book again.

"It is believed that La Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renowned hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall prey to the creature."

Lydia and I shared a look of confusion, as the statement had not cleared our confusion. If anything, we were now more confused. I looked back at the brunette as she looked up and smiled widely. 

"His name was Argent."

"Oh, okay, so your ancestors killed some big wolf," I gasped slightly, finally understanding, feeling slightly dumb as I had not put the pieces together in my head.