Chapter 4 The Run

Freya peered through the window to see her friend waving at her. She heaved a sigh of relief,

"Ophelia, you don't know how happy I am to see you," she whispered. I'm coming out now."

"No, stay in, I'll come and get you myself." Ophelia shook her head and looked around suspiciously.

"Okay"

A few minutes later, a rap on the door alerted Freya, who hurriedly opened the door to see her friend smiling with surprise etched on her lips, "You seem very well, unlike how I left you, and you always surprise me, Frey."

"Uh-huh, and that's all thanks to you," Freya laughed. "The healing spell worked; look at you, getting good with this mage thingy."

Freya nudged her friend fondly, but her expression turned serious. "I checked the coast; it's clear. There's no life around here...well, if you count me and the greeneries and crickets out."

"Okay, so this is the point you explain yourself to me, and stop masking; you know I hate it when you do that," Ophelia sighed, placing her hand on her friend's shoulders. Her friend was really hurt but hadn't time to process everything that had happened. She did not know whether to be happy or disturbed that her friend hadn't broken down. Freya did this by putting up a charade to mask her true emotions; she was one to hide away her problems and pretend as if nothing ever happened, and Ophelia found it rather very disturbing.

Freya's eyes softened, and her shoulders slumped. She heaved a sigh and turned, walking towards the bed in the room.

"I overheard mother and father talking; I am not their daughter. Father said it; he wants to get rid of me." Freya sat on the bed.

Ophelia looked at Freya incredulously. She seriously thought her friend just wanted company, so she played along. Who knew...

"Don't look at me like that; I'm serious," Freya said, exasperated.

"I still find it hard to believe," Ophelia mused as she moved closer to her friend. Earlier that day, Elena and Garvin had been putting up a ploy, a full-on pretense... or maybe just Garvin; throughout his earlier presence, he had only been angry at Silas, not Cirila, who was obviously with child. Apart from cursing Silas, Garvin had been unusually quiet. He wasn't a talkative man-wolf but had a strong sense of justice, and Freya was their trophy daughter; he was usually proactive in situations like this, but he was in deep thought throughout. Ophelia had dismissed it as a response to shock. The event happened so fast, right before everyone's eyes. It was so fast that no one had control of the turnout of the events. Now, she could see that he was only busy weighing his pros and cons.

Too much information. She glanced at her friend, who shook her head,

Freya shrugged her shoulders, "Right? Me too."

"No, you have a semblance with your mum...well, supposed mum, if you insist. You both share unique Silver blonde hair, which is rare among us werewolves. Though yours is more Silver than blonde, the semblance is very much there", Ophelia reasoned. If this was it, then the story was not adding up. She was sure that Freya was related to her 'mother.'

"Do they know that you recall?" Ophelia asked.

"No, just you." Freya shook her head.

"Look, I would have thought I was hallucinating, but Father was behaving funny. Mother came into the room, and she said things, thinking I was asleep." Freya pulled her wrist up to show Ophelia.

"See, She left this for me on my wrist, something along the line of 'forgiveness and what not..."

Loud footsteps stopped Freya in her tracks. They were in the woods, but the people of their kind were blessed with a rather good hearing ability; hence, Ophelia and Freya could hear the approach from afar.

"Shit," Ophelia cursed. Freya had always been the discerning one between them, and now it made sense why.

Freya ran to the window and peered through very discreetly. As clear as day, she saw the man she had always known as her father approaching the woods with two other strangers behind him. Her father looked strange, and she didn't want to know why.

"We have to run," she grabbed Ophelia's hand. They made their way out of the Cabin as silently as they could and hid behind it. Running would attract Garvin's attention, and the friends did not wish to.

They watched in the hidden corner as Garvin approached the Cabin. He pushed it open and entered while the two strangers waited outside.

Seeing him enter inside, Freya mouthed to her friend, and they fled into the woods.

"You have to go somewhere safer," Ophelia said as Freya dragged her safely into the woods at lightning speed.

"Where, that's why I communicated with you earlier. I didn't know he would strike this fast."

"Cover for me, I'd send you a friend's place where you will lay low till we figure everything out."

"I can feel his approach." Freya stopped abruptly to catch her breath.

"Give me your hand now!" Ophelia grabbed Freya's hand.

Ophelia shut her eyes, concentrated her mind, and began chanting and muttering in a strange language. The night sky darkened considerably as Ophelia's tempo rose.

A sharp gust of wind out of nowhere pushed Freya off.

"Freya!" Ophelia's eyes flew open, and she screamed in reflex.

Freya had tripped and almost fell, but Ophelia had quickly steadied her on her ground.

A familiar voice called, "Freya, where have you been?"

"Father?" Freya's voice trembled as she coughed.

"What are you doing out here in the woods? You shouldn't be out here." Garvin was standing a few feet away from Freya and Ophelia out of the blue.

"Nothing. I just, errr... came out here with Philly to get some breather. We must have been carried away in our chat that we got this deep into the woods, right? Philly", Freya laughed nervously, subtly moving closer to Ophelia, who held her hand.

"Right, girly gossip," Ophelia laughed.

"Ophelia," Garvin glanced at Ophelia as if recognizing her presence for the first time. "I thought you had already gone back into Vermillion city; what brings you to the outskirts of the city?"

"I missed my friend, so I just came around to see her, and she just happened to be well. We decided to take some breather, as she said."

Garvin narrowed his eyes but kept a loving expression. "Alright, girls. Playtime is over. Let's go home."

"Yes, home." Freya smiled rather too widely.

A whirlwind suddenly erupted out of nothingness behind Freya; a portal had been opened there.

"You did it!" Freya was shocked.

"What are you doing?" Garvin's demeanor cracked, a harsh glint of light escaping his eyes.

"Go, I will fend him off; he won't kill me after all; tell who you meet, the first person you meet that Alexandros sent you," Ophelia whispered, pushing Freya into the Vortex.

"You Knew." Garvin's now vicious eyes glinted in fury. He flung his sleeves towards the Vortex in anger but only caught nothingness.