chapter 6
#6 of Wolves' Legacy Saga
Chapter 6
Knowing that in Wayfar they had enough from the criminal rates, they set off the next morning, before sunrise. After helping Albreich cleaning the stand, they started their first journey, and for Lilac, far out from their homes.
As days went on, Lilac and Ifrit started to make the carriage into a better home than what Albreich had in mind. Using some of both Lilac and Albreich's savings, they started to repaint the fading house-carriage exterior, making it looked newer than what they saw at first. In the next carriage station, Lilac even suggested Albreich to buy a new grill while trying to resell the old one. Using the new technology on gas lighting, they could stay illuminated at night.
Stopping on a small village, they all made a good sale from the new steam-powered toys (from Albreich's deal at Wayfar city), and after they left, they took a stop near a river, where they wanted to at least wash their clothes.
"Ifrit, throw me the spear, will ya?" said the 30-years old trader. "There are some nice fish here."
The hellhound knew what 'spear' meant, so he ran back to the carriage to fetch a spear sitting in a barrel. He tried to return it to Albreich, but he tripped on a rock and sent it flying, almost hitting Albreich if not for him to step aside.
"Oh, what the hell are you doing, hellhound?! Are you trying to kill me?!"
"No, wait, I tripped this goddamn rock! (Ouch, fuck it!)"
"Hey, are you alright? Is that paw hurt?"
"Don't mind me, Al, just find that spear."
Lilac was near the spear and she just plainly surprised. The spear caught a fish and with a precise shooting it hit the middle of the fish, gushing blood everywhere, but at least they caught one. She pulled it out with her wolf's strength, but the Albreich took it from her hand.
"Step aside, Lilac. This is no woman's job. Hey, can you prepare the food while I catch some fish? We'll gonna have grilled fish tonight."
Lilac did what the man said and with a sigh returned to the carriage to prepare for the dinner. She took a bath ahead from the two and had started to wash the clothes when both came out from the carriage carrying some home-made fishing spears. What happened next had happened.
That evening, they ate a good portion of grilled fish with lime, coupled with dried berries and cheese. Lilac also made three earl grey teas for them to drink (Albreich bought some tea leaves for the drink). The small feast was full of laughter and story-telling, but mostly came from the human trader. They watched the star that night as it was clear, but Albreich said, "It's going to rain soon. Let's retire for the night."
"But there are no clouds."
"The wind tells me otherwise. C'mon, I'm also beat."
True to Albreich's words, the nature poured down rain water after some minutes they were inside the carriage. His horses were covered by a waterproof veil, which he installed from the driver seat to the front, making them dry while they slept.
Inside, they all started to unroll the bed rolls (Albreich bought some in Wayfar after they agreed to come live with him) and in the middle of the rain, Ifrit went to sleep when a nightmare came to him again, this time, it was different than the one he always got.
Now, he was inside a room, lying like how he was in the real world, when he heard an argument. He couldn't stand, but he could hear the arguments faintly, yet it felt clear in his ears.
"(I don't care how we're supposed to go on like this. We have to save him!)"
"(He's not our real son!)"
"(We can't live without him. This is...)"
The voices were now faint, but in his place to sleep, he felt a strong heat, like it was trying to scorch him, and then it suddenly stopped with a blade suddenly materializing over him and descended on him.
This caused him to wake up with a jerk and panting, feeling very scared. He didn't like the blade. He hated them and was afraid of them. He tried to scan his surroundings. The rain still poured down that night, and as far as Ifrit wanted to know better, he knew getting wet in the middle of the night wasn't going to make others happy.
"(Guess I'll go to the porch)," he said to himself.
The next morning, Lilac, as always woke up first, but after seeing Ifrit wasn't in his bed, he thought the hellhound had woken up before her. When she found a canine head resting on the window facing the driver's seat, he saw Ifrit was sitting there, watching the sunrise that was directly in front of them. Since Lilac didn't feel she had to prepare things, she just sat beside Ifrit when she saw that the hellhound was also smoking (this is awkward, okay, but he did smoke).
"Morning, Ifrit," said Lilac after sitting beside him. "You wake up quite early."
"Yes...just I cannot sleep."
"You can't sleep? What's wrong?"
Ifrit took out the smoke from his maw when he cleaned the ashes, before sipping it again. "Usual thing. I always get this nightmare."
"Oh...do hellhounds...dream?"
"I am not sure myself. You always said the opposite of what my life is moving, so I can't always be sure."
"That's why...you look like a person with a feeling, not like what my knowledge about your race."
The hellhound didn't answer her. She would get into an argument again when he said it was instinct. In truth, the hellhound himself didn't know what to say about it. If he developed a feeling he would felt weird, like something burdensome had been put in his heart. Yet, everything he talked, the anger he thought as normal made him think he really did have a feeling at all.
Just when he wanted to get down from the side, Lilac said, "Wait!"
"What? What happened?"
"It's muddy down there and you don't use any shoes. I don't want this small house get dirty from those paws."
"Why there aren't any shoes for paws like these?"
"Ifrit, there IS no shoes for paws. Even if there are, you won't be comfortable enough to wear it."
"(Oh, right)."
"But, uhm...maybe if we can go to the next town, I can give you something that can make your paws look better than nothing at all."
As Albreich woke up, they ate some dried supplies before continuing their journey to another town. As Ifrit and Lilac was like a passenger to Albreich, he treaded as smooth as possible with them, but it was also because of the black gunpowder he got an offer to take to a carriage station sitting outside of the military post. Unlike what Lilac thought as a normal sword-clashing post was now being riddled by loud noises that resembled explosions. The carriage station itself was small, with only a wooden house facing the road and with some fragile, clearly dangerous items being in display there. Since it was as Albreich said a 'Last Stop', they didn't get anything from there. Instead, with his carriage's storage space, he put most of the items he bought from vendors to be sold back.
Two days from the carriage station, they reached a town with similar population of Lycans and humans, yet unlike Wayfar, the place was more reasonable and Lilac could breathe easily here.
"So? You two can start helping me setting up the stand in the market. I've rented a place already," said Albreich when they had finished unloading the goods. "Well, for Lilac, of course, you can help me prepare the goods while I and Ifrit helped setting up the canopy. It's a weird winter these days."
They finished the stand sooner than they at first thought. Since both of them didn't want to risk Ifrit's real identity, Albreich insisted that the hellhound helped him wait at the store while Lilac tried to sell smaller goods like sugar blocks. Since Ifrit himself had a feeling that he didn't want to be useless he helped Albreich in carrying heavy goods that normally needed two or more humans to carry.
While waiting for customers, Albreich said, "Hey, Ifrit, do you happen to realize that your white hair won't cover those black horns? Some of your fur colors were red, too, so don't use this kind of open garment."
"But, uh...Lilac gave me this so I'm not, like, you know..."
"She had the right decision, but not the best choice since those stripes are still seen and you don't use anything under that vest. Hey, you know what; I'll give you nice cheap clothes, including those ragged pants of yours."
"But I don't have money."
"You shared your money with me, okay, so come on and buy some goddamn new clothes. Or, you don't know human's style?"
"Uh..."
"Okay," said Albreich with a sigh. "I don't force you to buy one. Let me help you with that. You are not fluent in English, too, so it poses a problem to you."
"Yes..."
"Oh, don't worry, you shy hound! I'll do the talking for ya. You pick good clothes on your style."
But then, in Ifrit's thoughts, he knew he wasn't accustomed to clothing since feelings weren't with him from the start, thought he recently got it. Clothing was, in many senses for him, didn't make him feel better.
Albreich seemed to understand Ifrit's problems, and said, "C'mon, now, young hound. It isn't that weird to wear decent clothes. I mean, it's weird enough to talk with a demonic wolf, but...having a demonic anthropomorphic wolf wearing clothes is not something awkward at all. You know what, after we finish the sales for today, I'll help you eat somethin' good around here. Deal?"
"Well...if you say so, Al."
Some hours later, after they had sold most of the goods, Lilac came back with her basket half empty, yet still profitable. They could finish their day jobs and as Albreich promised, he took them to a decent restaurant for a nice food. But also, as he promised, while they left Lilac with sorting out the menu (both the Lycan and the hellhound wanted an all meat menu, which the place provided especially for Lycans), Albreich took him to a pawn shop to buy some new better clothes, which was a leather jacket with white undergarment (Okay, this is so out of the supposed Industrial Revolution-like era, but let me remind you that this story is a work of hybrid fiction, with many anachronistic things). To cover his head, Albreich helped with using a bandit cap, covering his long curved horns partially seen from the white hair. Yet, for the pants, he gave Ifrit a pair of blue jeans, as somehow the hellhound liked blue the most.
"Now, look at you. In my place this attire made you feel like a speed demon. Get it?"
"Speed demon?"
"Leather jackets and jeans aren't common attires around Tragoria region, but still, many shops sell it. With this outfit, though, you can go around the other regions and of course, here, like normal."
"But, how about Lilac?"
"Well, since you're not from around here, she's content with her choices of clothes. Now, c'mon, we've made her wait for too long."
They ate for their content in the restaurant, sometimes Lilac made a joke that was only understandable by humans, but somehow Ifrit learned to properly laugh a bit, all thanks to the damned human warrior in his past. But then, when he thought about him, he couldn't believe he actually felt lonely. He missed him, and his faithful companion. He still wanted to know the reason why he was stranded on the Overworld with mortals. But then, seeing the happiness he saw from the humans made him temporarily forgotten on his loneliness. He saw how they laughed, how genuinely happy they were. He wished he could laugh based on feeling instead of formality.
They returned to the carriage after eating to their content. Ifrit wanted to sleep in the carriage when Lilac pulled him gently and said, "Hey, Ifrit, may I have your time?"
Ifrit didn't know what she meant, but he just said, "Okay."
The female Lycan pulled him to a small park, where both watched the night sky together. Without clouds, the half-moon over them shone brightly on both of them. Though it wasn't a full moon, Lilac felt tranquil just by being bathed by the light of the moon.
"Ifrit," said Lilac slowly. "Why are you stranded here?"
That was a question Ifrit couldn't answer since he had no idea about it himself. He kept silent on the question, which made Lilac said, "I know this is hard for you to tell me, Ifrit, but why do you and your fellow hellhound people come to the surface world?"
"I don't know myself. I only remember fire and a voice, calling me to (run away) and (survive). I don't remember being there, but I do remember being thrown away to your house, and that's it."
"But...do you have a family?"
"I do remember having a brother. That's the only family I knew." He then watched his clawed hand. "His name is Nergora, and unlike me, he's white."
"White furred?"
"Yes..."
Lilac saw that despite of having a pair of slit-pupil eyes uncommon to normal Lycans, she could clearly see the sadness seen from his expression. Lilac thought that from her knowledge on demonic creatures, they had no remorse on life and thus had no development on normal feelings except wrath. But this hellhound was different in many senses. Something told her that this horned black wolf was trying to change something in his life.
Then, after a silence between them, Lilac herself wanted to go back to the carriage to sleep when Ifrit said, "Lilac."
This in turn made Lilac stopped, but she didn't turn her head directly. Before she could, though, the hellhound started, "Hey, if you have a secret, I don't really want to know. I feel like you have something you don't want to tell me."
Lilac didn't want to answer that, but she realized that, despite of being a hellhound, he somehow cared on her, and this made her felt guilty to say that he was just a common bloodthirsty hellhound. She slowly felt that what Ifrit said about 'instinct' wasn't because of a literal term. Somehow, he didn't know much of her language, so he couldn't express it.
That night, Lilac kept awake. Aside from thinking about Ifrit, she felt ashamed on herself. True, they hadn't known each other for a long time, but the more she took notice of it, the more she felt that Ifrit was like an everyday Lycan to her. Aside from his black horns being covered with his shaggy white hair (or mane) and his red eyes, Ifrit seemed to pass for being a typical wolf-man, though having a long prehensile tail posed a bit of a problem for him.
She turned her head to where Ifrit was sleeping. From her position she now could see his tail. At night when no one's looking, he put out his tail so he could feel comfortable, but since it was prehensile, it posed a problem with her sleeping beside him. Lilac sometimes even had to put something between her and the hellhound so the tail wouldn't give her a bother, since it tickled her every night. Now, when she saw the tail, she was drawn on suspicion. True, many people said hellhounds had triangular tails, but this one had tail seen on lions, albeit with a longer tail. She tried to find about what's actually in the fur when Ifrit woke up. He just jumped up with a roar and his body hit Lilac's face square. She was fortunate she wasn't in her wolf form, or else she would be hurt. Again, she was caught in surprise by the smoothness of the fur.
"Oh!" exclaimed Ifrit when he saw Lilac. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..."
"I'm the one who should be sorry. To be honest, what is beneath the bushy tail? Hellhounds had triangular tips based on my knowledge."
"Lilac, triangle tip is not what you have seen in the books. I do have one."
"So, why..."
Ifrit didn't wait for her to finish. He put his long tail in front of him and combed away some of the fur, where Lilac found the real tip: a bone-white-colored triangle tip that looked like a hooked blade. It was very big and the fur completely concealed it from view when it was combed in a way before she saw the tip. It was pointy, but didn't look sharp.
Then, the hellhound combed back another, where she saw of what it seemed to be a set of three rune-covered golden rings circling the tail. Lilac then wondered. If those hellhound ears had their piercings, the rings could be his other choice of style.
"I don't have a recollection about these rings. I remember the piercings. I put them myself. These rings, though...I only remember little."
"But...you look better this way. Without your...jewelries, you are looking as menacing as the others."
Lilac then became silent, and turned her head to other way. Ifrit wanted to say something to her, but she then said, "Ifrit, I usually wonder. How old are you?"
"How old?"
"I don't know if demons know the term 'age', but...I'm just wondering."
"I...." Ifrit wasn't sure. For all of his lifetime, he never got to be said having any age, knowing that demons lived longer, if not immortal, than surface dwellers. He just vaguely remembered about what his friends told him, that he was just 16 when they left. It had been two years since then from the calendar he looted, and thus he said...
"I'm 18."
This made Lilac lost herself. She didn't expect that.
"You're a year older than me," said Lilac. "I thought you're older."
"I can't be very sure. My world and yours run in a different time, but I'll stay with 18 for now."
Lilac didn't make more comment before retiring to bed. She kept watching the hellhound, but then, she smiled to herself before retiring to bed. She didn't know why she smiled to herself, but she knew maybe one day, she would know.