Wolf Child - Lìfa-saga Book 1

XIV.

"... I swear to the gods if you pull that rope one more time-"

"Then what? As far as I remember you're the hostage here, not me!" Finn jerked the leash a few more times with a devilish smile.

"Well, at least I'm not a backstabbing traitor like you! Ouch-" Lìfa yelled back, angrily rubbing her neck where the rope had scratched her skin.

"Look," Finn turned to her letting out a big sigh and pinching the bridge of his nose. "We've been walking for hours now, and in the meantime, I told you at least a hundred times. Maybe this time you'll understand. I wasn't there when your home got attacked. I didn't know that you were after this stuff too, and no, I did not lie to you," he continued with mild annoyance pouring from his tone.

"Oh, yes? Then why am I kept on a leash like a dog? Why am I a hostage if you didn't betray me? How could I believe anything you said?" Lìfa tried to put her tied up hands on her hips, piercing the boy through with a demanding look.

"Can you repeat it a bit louder? I think there may be some trees in the forest that haven't heard it yet!" the boy yelled back with his face turning into red from anger. He was about to say something else too when he heard his name from the front, cutting their never-ending argument in half.

"Oh, I'm so sorry but as you could hear, I'm needed elsewhere," Finn turned to Lìfa with mimicked pain and sorrow on his face. "Sadly, I can't let you run around by your own, so if you'll let me-" his voice was dripping with sarcasm as he uttered these words.

He quickly tied Lìfa's legs together and her leash to a tree, ignoring her constantly cussing and struggling against her restrains. After that, he rushed ahead to his friends, leaving the girl behind.

As Lìfa could see, they stopped and prepared a camp for the night. They were marching in a killer pace all day in the deep forest, following the river up to the mountains. As she had heard earlier, the road was around two or three days long on foot. The thought of spending any more time with these men filled her soul with fear. The poisonous feelings of being alone and defenseless crept into her heart like a spider and wrapped its ugly, sticky web around it. She just got her friends back from the dead and now she felt like she lost them again.

All day, aside from blaming and annoying Finn on purpose, she kept her eyes open for her friends. She hoped that Ingolf just lied about their death and that they were somewhere out in the forest, coming for her rescue.

So far, for Lìfa's disappointment they didn't see any sign of the Thirteens, so Ingolf was in a rush to ensure that he would reach the cave first and place his hands on the hidden prize...

As Lìfa was sitting under the tree Finn tied her to, she watched the boy interacting with his crew. While one of the warriors started a fire to cook dinner, Finn helped a short, fat man gathering more firewood and chopping it. For the task, he tied his long hair up in a ponytail to keep it away from his face and pulled back his sleeves. Lìfa watched him striking down with his axe on the pieces of wood again and again. During the hard work, Finn's muscles tensed under the thin fabric of his tunic, showing off his well-sculpted body. A stray lock of hair constantly kept falling in his eyes which he occasionally tucked behind his ear, just to make it fall in his face again. His little frowns of annoyance made Lìfa's lips curve into an involuntary smile.

When she caught herself staring, Lìfa felt her cheeks turning into a slight shade of pink and quickly tore her gaze away from the boy. She wanted to hate Finn, to keep her anger alive but as she looked at him smiling and laughing among the other men, he was like back in Heilaholm. She didn't see the traitor and the enemy in him, but the honest and kind boy she spent a night with.

However, Lìfa still wasn't sure if she could trust Finn or not. He was one of Ingolf's troops. He worked for the man who destroyed her home and whom she wanted to kill so badly. With all these thoughts on her mind, she decided not to give in to her feelings and to keep her distance and wait for Finn to show who he really was.