Wild Wars

2

The wolf and the huntress
~
Accalia
~

Accalia was weighed down. The fight was leaving her and weakness was setting in.

Starvation.

Lack of water.

Being a blood bag.

It was all setting in and Accalia could hardly walk straight. Her bare feet were scrapped up by rocks and sticks, the bases of her feet were bloodied, her nails split and the skin around it was fleshy. The rags hung off her and she was more bone than skin.

Despite it all, she considered only one thing worse than everything else: facing her father. Telling him what happened. Her legs giving out could have been as a sign, a sign to turn back and not tell him. She wanted to collapse in a heap and bury herself into this soil, never to be bloomed out from its roots and earth.

It would break him. The deaths of many before had taken a toll, letting him slip into spite and alcohol. But this ... Accalia didn't want to see it.

"Lycus, I can't keep up with you. You're too fast." Accalia panted, exhaling in pain when her foot met another rock.

His ear twitched at her words, but he continued, his hind legs taking him distances away from her.

His ignorance of her was bothersome and she was defensive about it.

Lycus was avoiding her but wanted to be with her, in her line of vision and following her every step as long as it wasn't too close.

He wanted it to be in his realms of control.

Accalia swallowed thickly and reigned herself in, breathing out before exhaling.

He hadn't had control in months and if there was one thing about Lycus Fenris he valued control when everything was spinning out of his hands.

He could be impulsive, reckless, but as long as it was within his realms of control, he didn't mind it.

Having Accalia near, but not too close to touch was a way of control to him. He could see her, but he didn't have to touch her to secure it.

"We're nearly at the town where you told me to go," this was the first sentence she got out of him. She gave him orders of where to go and he followed. Far, far ahead of her.

"Are you going to turn back into a human when we get there?" Accalia inquired curiously, watching as the muscles on his back flexed.

"Are you going to give up your sword when we arrive?" Lycus countered sourly.

Accalia frowned and gripped the handle of the sword, confused by him. "No, it protects me."

Lycus made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat, mixed with irony and annoyance.

He had slowed his pace, but not enough that they fell into the same rhyme of stride.

"You don't need a sword when you have me," Lycus informed her.

Accalia loosened the grip on the sword and glared a hole into the back of his head.

Her great protector.

Her shield.

He couldn't always be that.

"And you don't need to be in that fur," Accalia remarked fiercely and gestured at him even though he couldn't see her. "You can turn back. You don't have to be afraid, you're with me, Lycus."

They were both wearing shields of armour. Accalia, her sword. Lycus, his fur.

But neither could lower their weapon.