The Return of the Beast Princess

Chapter 157 - The woman at the bottom of the lake*

"We all hail the goddess Insha!" All the beast men who remained bowed down exclaimed together.

Asha sighs as she looks at all the beast men around them, still knelt before her with all their heads bowed down. She was able to wake up from her sleep when they entered this hidden cave. It felt eerily familiar even though it's her first time to be in this place. She looks around some more. The familiarity exudes everywhere. From the trees surrounding the walls of the cave, the lake that has formed below the hole on top of the mountain, the small river connected to it with little colorful fishes swimming, the river current flowing steadily to somewhere only these beast men residing in this place knows, the greenish grass beneath their feet, the scattered wild flowers where some butterflies are resting... it's definitely a hidden gem in the Destitute Plains.

She can feel an aura very familiar to her is surrounding the whole area. That's also one reason why she is looking around. Looking for that very familiar face she hasn't seen for a long time ever since she got sent to the beast world. Her heart is beating so fast. She's feeling nervous for the very first time. Excited, a bit. The aura feels like him. But she doesn't want to expect that he is here. That he has found a way to get here in the beast world because if what she's thinking is just a figment of her imagination, she'll feel more disappointed. She'll just miss him more.

From everything everyone has been explaining to convince her that she is the reincarnation of a goddess, it's making her realize little by little that whatever they're telling her has some truth in it. There's too many coincidences happening. It's hard to avoid the topic anymore.

She knows they're not lying. It's what they have been believing all these cycles. It has been passed down from generation to generation. But she doesn't care. Even if it's proven a hundred percent that she is Insha's incarnate, the past is the past. Insha's dead but she as Asha is alive and well. She won't let someone's past life control the life she's living now. She is Ashanti Bridges. A human who got sent and trapped in a world of beast men. What she was before doesn't implicate nor even dictate what she has to become because she is her own person. Whatever they say Insha did, has failed to do and what needs to do, it has nothing to do with her. Whatever the prophecy has said that she needs to do as Insha, she'll decide on her own if she will do it. And if she will decide to do it, it will be as Ashanti Bridges and no one else.

"All of you please rise," Asha said in a commanding tone that made everyone stand up. She can see their curious gazes at her. She can feel how happy they all are. The relieved and hopeful look they have on her is making her feel a bit awkward because she doesn't even know all these beast men that are treating her like the goddess that they all believe is her.

Only the sound of the pouring rain directly on to the lake is the sound everyone can hear. Everyone is waiting for her to speak.

"Please don't call me your goddess Insha because I'm not her. My name is Ashanti Bridges and I'm not a goddess."

You, are Our goddess master. I will fall on my knees to worship my beautiful wife whenever. You can even rest your leg on my shoulder while I serve you with my tongue.

Asha blushed as she looked at Tarik who is flirtatiously looking at her while licking his upper lip seductively. Dumu, smiling mischievously at their wife, hit Tarik with his elbow that made the wolf beast groan a bit. Theo just smiles at her adoringly.

"But you look very much alike the effigy that is at the bottom of the lake," Eury blurted with a pleading voice that made the other beast men agree and say the same thing.

"Please refrain from provoking our guild master," Gan suddenly spoke while stepping forward to shield Asha from their eyes.

"You are talking nonsense. If you are truly worshipping the effigy of the goddess Insha, why have you not put it on some altar and just leave it at the bottom of the lake? Is that not sacrilegious itself?" Corbin looks at Eury dismissively.