A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter Forty-One “What do you want?” Aleric yelled out to them. They either didn’t hear or had no desire to answer because they approached us slowly without hesitation.

It was clear what their intention was. “Aleric?” I called out nervously. “What’s wrong with them?” I could see from here that something was off. Wrong. Their clothes were dishevelled and they looked like they hadn’t seen a proper bath in years. But not just that, they were also giving off some sort of weird vibe. Like they were sick…

…And dangerous.

“They look like rogues,” Aleric said, moving closer to my side to get into a defensive position. “You need to get out of here.”

“You’re joking, right?” I snapped. “I can handle myself in a fight, Aleric. What do you think I’ve been doing all these months?”

But his explanation made sense given their appearance. Normally, anyone who left a pack could be accepted into another after due process and screening. So, this meant that the remainder of those not accepted, those who had failed that process, were usually criminals banished. They became rogues. But rogues were actually pretty hard to come by these days since territories had expanded so much. There wasn’t really any one place they could stay for long without being driven out by the pack in charge. Something that made me wonder how they’d managed to make it so far into the Golden Blade territory, especially without being seen… and why they had come out of hiding to target us. “Why aren‘t they shifted?” I asked, warily eyeing them off as they paced around us.

There were four of them in total, each a fully grown male, and yet not one of them was in their wolf form. I could also see that one was far more muscular than the others and noted he was the one to be most careful of.

They were sizing us up, watching what we were doing carefully, and we were doing the same. Each side waiting for the other to move first.

“If I were to take a guess…,” Aleric said, looking around. “I would say it’s to help hide their scent in getting this far. Running past the boundary in wolf form would be picked up faster by the patrols. The fur leaves a stronger scent.” I hadn’t realised that was a real thing, but then again, I‘d never dealt with rogues before, nor had I taken the time to notice the difference in potency back when I’d had my stronger sense o f smell.

fanlanmathing naging in my brain rnar 

The whole situation seemed wrong though. I could feel something there was something obvious I wasn’t realising. But I had to push it aside, knowing I needed to

focus on what was in front of me if I didn‘t want to get killed. “You need to leave the minute there is an opening,” Aleric said. “Aleric!” I yelled angrily. “Enough!” And then one of them finally came forward, charging towards me. I moved to face him, ready for when he got closer, but Aleric was quicker. He lunged forward and had him on the ground within seconds with a powerful hit to the rogue’s head

There was no hesitation in Aleric‘s movements. Everything he did was confident and fluid. So much power displayed as tackled the rogue down, the man‘s head hitting the ground with such impact that there was no hope he had survived. He had died immediately.

This enraged the others, seeing the death of their comrade occur so fast. They advanced quickly on us before we’d even had a moment to get our bearings. Two went for Aleric, the largest of the bunch being one of them. The third ran towards me, but I was ready.

to catch me in the face, but I moved back and dodged it effortlessly. His movements were sluggish compared to my father and Cai, but his body was more built, more muscled. I

one but he was having to keep his defence up against the second rogue as well. He didn‘t look to be in any trouble, or at least he didn‘t show it, but

the man was still continuing his aggressive approach. But I wasn‘t letting him anywhere near me. I abruptly leapt backwards, catching him off guard as he tilted off–balance; the momentum of his flying fist having sent him forwards. I took the opportunity and managed to get my leg up with enough force to kick him back the way he came, my foot connecting with his face with enough power to

flat to the ground behind him and I quickly jumped on him, not wanting to miss the chance to finish him off. But blow after blow against him, I found I wasn’t having any success. He was neither

I saw

I saw a flash of the moonlight catch on

had a firm grip on it now and was refusing to let go. I didn‘t

Just enough to punch him as hard as I could in the nose, allowing for his hand to loosen,

didn’t even

I immediately embedded it directly into

them and could help Aleric fight now. But then everything happened so quickly. Too fast for me to have done anything about it. I stood up, inspecting

to where I’d heard his voice but found he was closer than I’d thought. In fact, his back was now directly in front of me, obscuring my view completely of whatever was happening… …And all I proceeded to hear was a grunt, the sound of flesh being sliced open… followed by Aleric moving his arms in a forceful movement that created a sickening snapping noise. I realised what had happened straight away. I

body of a dead rogue before him; their head turned to an

…And I screamed.

Because I realised what had been nagging me this whole

this was my vision. This was where it took place. The

was where Aleric

rogue who was staring at me expectantly; the largest one of the bunch. But he couldn‘t have known what was waiting for him. It was like my body lost control and I moved faster than I had ever before, faster than I had ever thought possible. And before he could even register where I was, I had climbed my way up him, swinging myself around his torso until I sat upon his shoulders. He didn’t even get a chance to lay a finger on me before I had snapped

in surprise. I could see him start

starting to give out. I rushed forward to catch him before he fell to the ground, his head managing to land against my

just as the vision had told me, but I had gotten i t wrong. So wrong. It hadn’t shown me the rogues.

just as I grabbed at the

have hurt Aleric so badly. His accelerated healing should have meant that, whilst he would be wounded badly, he shouldn‘t bleed to death from it. So, what could have possibly caused what

I realised it only

I quickly held onto him, preventing the vision from becoming reality. “Woah, wait, wait, wait,” I quickly instructed, stopping him. “Just slowly. I‘m going to help lay you down.” As gently as I could, I lowered Aleric to the ground until he was finally laying flat. “Aria…,” he mumbled, his hand reaching towards the stab wound. “Don’t touch it,” I ordered, though I wasn’t sure if he could hear me. I firmly placed his hand b y his side just in case. I didn’t waste any more time after that and knew I needed to confirm my theory. Quickly, I began to inspect him. I pushed his skin down the blade just enough that I could squeeze my fingertip onto the surface, and immediately I felt the mild burn upon contact. As I had suspected, the knife was made of special silver. My heart sank. On a surface level against our skin, the silver would only cause mild irritation. But embedded into someone like this...? Well, there was no way he’d be able to heal himself.