Mia
Oh good! I couldn’t stop smiling to myself when Quinn checked his map and announced to us that we were almost at the Aselia tree. Even though I had been tired, all my fatigue went away. The journey was about to come to an end and all the stress we had gone through was about to be worth it.
I moved forward, amazing the boys at how quickly I walked. I walked faster than they did and scowled as they walked up to where I was. I didn’t have to wait for them to catch up with me for crying out loud. They were werewolves and while I was human, well semi-human since they had said that I had been turned into a werewolf that exciting night.
Not that I minded a lot but they could have asked me about my opinions before they turned me. I scoffed as I remembered how the night had been. It wasn’t like I gave them much chance to talk. I had gotten myself naked unexpectedly before them and practically ordered them to take and mark me. Which kind of men would have resisted that sort of temptation especially men who had made it clear from the moment they met me that they wanted me?
I snorted at myself for being ridiculous. Would I have stopped them from marking me if they had told me that there was a risk of me turning into a werewolf? No, I wouldn’t. That night was perfect just as it was, a memory I would keep buried in my brain forever.
Now that I was no longer human and wouldn’t have to suffer any disease like dementia that would affect my brain and memory as I grew old, it was certain that I would be taking the memory to my grave – if I ever had one.
I chuckled to myself. Good so I had to stop myself from thinking of what I didn’t need.
“When did you become old men?” I teased the boys as they walked up to me. “Even a snail would have walked ahead of me a long time ago.”
Their noses flared at my veiled insults but I didn’t worry about them. They deserved it. They shouldn’t have treated me like a baby. I had told them repeatedly to stop treating me like a baby but they wouldn’t ever listen. I knew why they had been slow. They had done it on purpose so I wouldn’t get tired trying to match up with them. They were being ridiculous and I had to make them know that.
“Should we find a snail and test that theory?” Jack scowled.
“And waste our time when we are almost where we are going.” I snorted. “The others would object to that.”
“I don’t mind.” Quinn said.
I looked at the two boys and started laughing. I had truly hurt their pride. “That is how I feel everytime you make me feel like a weakling. Want to count how many times you have done it to me?”
“You don’t have to be stubborn, Mia. I’ve told you it’s our nature to be overprotective.” Quinn sighed.
“And I’ve told you it’s my nature to not be seen as a baby.”
Jack chuckled. “Let this go, girlfriend. Don’t be petty.”
“I guess being petty is a wolf thing.” I said, referring to how they had flared their noses when I had called them slower than snails.
I said that, pretending to be angry so I wouldn’t blush and have Jack know how pleased I was at his words. They had always been calling me their mate and I knew it meant someone to spend forever with but hearing him call me girlfriend struck at a chord in me and I couldn’t understand why it felt so different when they had been declaring their commitment to me all along.
“Oh! Isn’t that the Aselia tree?” John said, pointing ahead and putting a stop to our unnecessary argument.
“Where?” Quinn asked, checking the map in his hands.
We all strained our necks and peered into the map. It was indeed the Aselia tree. It looked exactly like what was shown on the map. We had found it. The goblin had lied. It was there waiting to be found and not playing a sick game of hide and seek, analyzing who was meant to see it.
I snorted. As if we would have gone home because the goblin said it. Finally, all the ordeals we had gone through had paid off.
“Let’s go do some sap tapping.” John grinned as he moved forward.
We walked after him. We got to the tree, stared at in amazement after a while before we bent down to open our bags and brought out the containers that we would tap the sap into. This wasn’t a journey that we wanted to repeat so we needed to have as much sap as we could tap.
Quinn brought out the tool to cut the tree open and placed the first container at the side of the tree.
“What do you think you are doing?”
We heard a bark and turned around to see three mini creatures looking at us with anger. They looked small, tall only up to our stomach level but they were heavily built and certainly seemed like they could hold their own in a fight.
I groaned. What was this? I thought that we were done with this. Even in a game, once the players had gone through all the adventures and challenges and gotten to where the treasure was, nothing else happened except for him to claim the prize. Why couldn’t it happen like this? I was reminded that this was reality and not some game in a fictional world.
I sighed. If only life could be as easy as imagination at times. I didn’t want the boys to fight the creatures so I prayed that they would quietly leave on their own. It wasn’t that I was intimidated by the strength in the bodies of those little creatures but I was worried that the strength in the bodies of my boys might not be enough for the fight.
Our food was already getting diminished and to save up on it when we didn’t know how long the journey would take, we had decided to skip breakfast. Lately, the boys had been eating smaller portions of whatever we had so I could have more and I knew that would have affected their strength.
I felt guilty. I shouldn’t have teased them about being old men when I knew that even though I also knew that they were being slow because of me as well.
I couldn’t believe how far they were always willing to sacrifice to protect me and make me feel safe. I didn’t think I could ever love them more but I did.
Quinn took the container away from the tree and stared at the creatures. I didn’t even know what to call them. They were strange. “Who are you?”
“We are the guardians of this forest. What are you doing here?”
“There is evil in the human world. We came to get the sap of the Aselia tree to stop it.”
One of the creatures moved closer and sniffed our bodies. We all stiffened as he did that. He finally moved back and we breathed in relief. “You are not human. Why do you care about the human world and the evil in it?”
“It is affecting us so it’s normal that we get rid of it. Moreover, the evil isn’t human so we are the ones in the best position to get rid of it.”
“I see.” The creature who had spoken earlier said. He must be the head of the group as he was the only one speaking and the others nodded at his words as if to confirm to us that he was speaking their minds.
“Let’s us take the sap and go.” Quinn nodded.
We nodded at his words just as the creatures had also done when their leader was speaking.
“Don’t you know nothing is free here? You can’t take anything and walk away.”
“What do you want?”
“If you were alone, you would have paid with your life. If you were a group, one of you would have paid with his life but there is no need to claim your life since you are here for a noble deed and going back to the human world to be heroes.”
I breathed in relief. I was about to say thanks to them when I heard the next words.
“Give us the girl and you can go on your own.”
“Fuck! Not again!” Jack cursed beside me.
John had his fists curled in anger and Quinn thinned his lips as he stared at them. “That is not possible. You sniffed our bodies earlier and would have known that the girl is ours.”
“Which is why we want her.” Their leaders grinned. “It makes it more fun to have what is difficult to have. It’s difficult for you to let go of her because you think it is, it is not impossible.”
“She is not an item to be used for bargain. We are not leaving here without her.”
The leader growled. “Then be prepared to defend her with your lives.”
“We are always prepared.” John growled. “Bring it on.”
The creatures jumped at the boys and it became an intense fight. The boys were holding their stance in the fight and I was proud of them. I shied away from the reach of anyone of the creatures who tried to get closer to me.
I gasped as one of the creatures folded Jack and John in his grip, squeezing the life out of them. Quinn roared, left the one he was fighting with and rushed to their side, trying to get them free. The one he was fighting with rushed there as well and tried to pull Quinn away but he wouldn’t budge.
I wanted to rush there to help but knew there was nothing I could do. Even Quinn was having some difficulty breaking the boys free. I wanted to move to them but the look the boys had given me when the battle started was painfully clear. I was to stay off the field regardless of what happened on it. It was hard but knowing that I would be a distraction they didn’t need and get them enraged if I get injured was enough to make me listen.
They needed to fight with their heads in the game. Making them become emotional and lose their cool wouldn’t help them.
I was focused on the struggle to break the boys away from that creature that I didn’t notice that the third one wasn’t on the field. I screamed when I felt a pair of hands grip me from behind. The fight went out of the boys and their eyes widened in terror as they turned and saw me. I saw them running towards me and watched as the other two grabbed them and flung them off. I screamed as I felt myself dissipating with total darkness engulfing my senses.