VIOLET’S POV
I listened from a good distance as Elise talked to the villagers, trying as much as I could to conceal my appearance. Not everyone that has set eyes on me has been able to do so without a gasp or some sort of fright. The smell from my wound is terrible, it is obnoxious and even I cannot stand it. So I had to be as far away as I could from people.
Elise has been grumbling the most of this journey about how I am the reason it was impossible for her to get assistance. She feels I am a burden to her and she has been threatening to let go of me if she could not bear me anymore.
Even I have not been able to bring myself to look at the mirror this whole time. The burnt did terrible damage to my face and body due to the substance Elise had put into it.
A good amount of flesh on the right part of my face down to the front of my neck was scraped up, one could almost see the bones. Not to talk of the pains that I have to bear, they are magnanimous. However, Elise has been implanting some herbs to it and it seems to be doing fairly at relieving the pains.
“What did the lady say?” I asked in a hoarse tone, taking away my face as I noticed that the villager was straining to look at my face. I grabbed tightly to my veil should incase her eyes were strong enough to pull it off.
“My toes are burning, Vio” Elise replied with a big yawn. “We need to look for a place to seat and rest for a while. I might faint if we continue any further”
It was as if her words reminded my body of the pains it has long been harboring because as soon as the words left her mouth, I became fatigued and my leg dragged onto the ground asking to be left alone.
“Are they going to allow us to stay for a while?” I asked again in my very terrible voice as we moved away from the villagers. The accident really damaged my face, and I sound like some monster.
“We can’t, Violet. They said we must leave already” she replied angrily, irritated by my presence.
“But where is this…?” I murmured.
She hesitated a while, as she tried to pull her face away from glaring eyes. “See, over there, there is no one there, we could use it for a while away from the hostile faces of all these people,” she said pointing to an opening in a lonely path some miles ahead of us.
We made our way to where she had pointed, and just as she said, it was secluded and away from everyone else.
“Are you sure the owner of the land will not find us here? What if he does not want us on his property?” I asked.
“It looks abandoned. But let’s wait a while. We will sit on these stones for some time, and if no one comes to pull us away, we can spend the night in that little hut” she pointed at the old and discarded hut.
“Okay” I nodded, relieved that we would be able to have a place to rest our heads for tonight even though the place has completely deteriorated.
“But we can only rest for a little while. The villagers would not allow us to stay much longer” she revealed.
“Where is this place, Elise?” I asked again as we seat on the big stone.
“This is Pixolands” she revealed.
“The land of the Pixies…” I gasp as I felt a rush in my blood flow.
There was a lot of reason to make one wary of being in the land of the Pixies, but that was the least of what occupied my mind at this time. Elise has said that we would be going to Dark Age to meet with her alpha friend and I thought that was where we were headed for this past few days.
“You should be able to tell with their sizes, Vio, or are you now also dumb” she snarled in disgust.
Yes, I should have known we are on the land of the Pixies when I saw that the villagers were mostly on the little size, but then, I have never seen a Pixie before, I only hear of them and their unique little sizes.
“Oh, okay. But I thought we are going to Dark Age” I said.
“We are not welcome in Dark Age,” she said regretfully.
“But how is that so, you have always been a very good friend with the alpha even when he made himself a sworn enemy of against our Pack?” I was stunned.
She heaved and shut a look at me. “I will have to tell you this now, Vio. We are in this together and there is no need to keep some things away from you” she paused and threw her gaze away.
For once, I could see how helpless she was. I could see the hidden pain in her gloomy eyes and I almost thought I saw a tear in it before she looked away.
“You can talk to me, Elise, what is it?” I encouraged.
Honestly, I am not sure if I wanted to hear what she had to say. I have, no we have had a series of bad events, unleashing one after the other and I am tired of hearing more heartbreaking news. But Elise is my friend and listening to her is the least I could do for her.
I might want to argue that she has done so much for me after we were disgracefully banished from the Pack, but then, she brought all of this upon us. If I had not listened to her and had let Jake go as soon as he returned with Scarlet, none of this would have happened.
But I have come to discover that it is my fault to a great extent. I am big enough to know what is right or wrong, and I should not have heeded to her wrong counsel.
So I have forgiven her for misleading me.
“Elise…” I called as she continued to look far away.
She replied without turning to me. “I had a deal with Dark Age, Vio” she revealed.
It was as if my world came crumbling before me all over again. Do I even know who I call my friend, what else is she hiding from me?
I took some deep breaths to enable me to relax and calm my nerves. There is nothing that could be worse than the situation we are in right now.
She finally turned to look at me and I almost hugged her when I saw the heap of regret that was registered on her gloomy face.
“It is alright, Elise,” I said when I saw the tears finally pull out of her eyes.
She tried to be strong and not allow herself to be overtaken by her emotions as she went on to tell me all that transpired. “I was working as a spy on our Pack for the alpha of Dark Age all these years, Vio. He promised to make me his luna when the time is right and I was foolish to believe him”
I gasped, this was too much for me to take in, and I almost screamed at her but I restrained myself. She was going through so much, we are both going through so much and apportioning blames won’t make it any better.
She continued. “When we are thrown out of the Pack, I sent words to him but he said that I am useless to him now and promised to kill me if I dare to set foot on his Pack. I allowed myself to be shamelessly used against my people for my own selfishness”
I gulped and held out my hands to her. “I wish we could make this right, Elise,” I said.
She took my hands. “Maybe we will get a chance here with the Pixies” she replied.
“And if…” I stopped myself from going any further.
“Then we would be left with the rogues” she muttered.
“The rogues” I gasped as fear overtook me.
“They said we have to meet their queen before we could be allowed to live among them” she changed the topic.
“Their queen…” I nodded.
“We will do that early tomorrow morning, that is if no one stops us from resting our heads here for tonight” she forced a smile.
I tried to smile too, but that would make no difference. The thought of all that we are passing through sent a wave of pain into my heart.