Keeper's Oath

Chapter 17: Shades and Family

Few days had passed since Hope was rescued by Forgo.

She was sitting on her bed, watching the snow fall from the grey sky. The snow kept on piling up, there seemed to be no end to the winter. Hope couldn't wait until spring was here and then summer. Spring was still months away.

The young woman was dressed already. Hope had her red hoodie over her. She wore her usual blue jeans as well. It looked like she was ready to but was told to stay in her room. Ritter had told both of them that the Court would be used for a meeting. The man had let them know earlier in the morning in case they needed to get food or do anything before the meeting began. Hope was curious as to what the meeting had been about. In her mind, she made a mental note to ask Ritter about it later.

The past few days, Hope had been practicing switching between her guardian and human forms. She was having a lot better luck than Livius was having. Just yesterday, Livius finally turned into his guardian form which also was a dog. To be exact, a Great Pyrenees from what she recognized the breed as.

It had been amusing for her to watch him try to walk. Everything was off balance for him. Livius slowly made progress and towards the end, he was getting pretty good figuring out his legs. She was thankful she hadn't been struggling as much.

It helped that she had to run for her life when Hollow was after her. She had to learn fast with that exercise. Also, it helped that she got thrown into it where Hope felt like she had to figure things faster.

She shuddered at the thought of the black werewolf. He plagued her nightmares, she often woke up a few times during the night. In her dreams, he was following her... hunting her for sport. His howls echoed in them, her name was cursed by him. Thankfully, when she fell back asleep, her dreams were more calm.

Hope stood up while stretching her arms and legs. She glanced outside to see that Forgo was in his hut. There was smoke coming from the chimney. The young guardian wished to have more of his hot chocolate, that had been the best cup of it she ever had.

Soon, Knowledge should be back. Hope remembered from what Forgo had told them. It had been a few days since he left the Shadowlight Court. Part of her wondered if he would scold her running off like that. If she was lucky, he would never know about it.

There came noises from the hallway. Hope walked over by the door and tried to listen if she heard anything that wasn't muffled. Her hand hovered over the doorknob for a few seconds. Unsure if it was okay to come out, she hesitated. The guardian didn't want to make Ritter mad. He had been worried about Hope the other day. The Shadowlight had been relieved to see that she was fine.

There was a voice she recognized, it was Ritter's voice. Even though it was muffled, she could recognize it from anywhere. Hope remembered what Ritter had told her. She backed away from the door and sat down on the bed eyeing at the door in hopes of it opening. There being a knock would be a blessing as well. Thankfully, she wasn't hungry or needing to use the restroom. It didn't bother her being stuck inside the room a bit longer. Her curiosity was making her want to get out and see what was going on.

Hope looked at the nightstand next to her bed. There were few bottles of soda, snack cakes and fruits in case she would get hungry. She still hadn't been able to visit the library. Ritter had explained that it wasn't a public library where she could borrow books when she wanted. There had to be a purpose for the visit. As both of the occupants of the library didn't like to be disturbed.

The hallway grew silent again, Hope bit her lip looking outside over her shoulder. She saw people walking towards the gate. There were humans mainly in cloaks vanishing before even approaching the gate. Then Hope realized there was a blue dragon who had white hair running from head to the back. She watched the dragon stop by Forgo's hut and curl next to it. A younger man had been walking beside her, he entered the hut. The dragon had made themselves comfortable watching the sky above them.