Chapter 7
1170 Words
Chapter 7
|ELEANOR|
“Please tell me how you survive this.”, I cried.
“Easy. I don’t want to die.”, Vanessa replied and patted me on the shoulder. “It will get easier, it was only your first training.”
I was lying on the floor in the training room and wiping the sweat off my forehead. Austin had left some minutes ago after proclaiming today’s session is over. After running more than ten kilometers around the garden, doing pushups, abs, boxing, ton other exercises whose names I didn’t bother to remember, I had a one hour sparring session versus Vanessa.
Needless to say, she beat my ass off.
“Come on, let’s go have lunch. We deserve it.”, Vanessa got up from the floor and extended her hand to help me up. We crossed the garden in silence, each one of us buried under layers of exhaustion after the four-hour session.
We used the side entrance for the Tower and saw Valerio with his back towards us speaking to several people. I could tell they were not Triads and I got curious as to who they were.
As soon as I walked through the glass doors, he turned and looked straight into me even though I hadn’t made a sound.
“The canteen is this way.” Vanessa gestured to her right and past the elevator I had used just yesterday to meet with Valerio in his office. I turned my eyes away from his and followed her, suddenly feeling a loss of appetite.
We entered the canteen where three people, all our age, were having lunch already. I noticed they had an uneasy look at Vanessa and I wondered why. Both holding a tray of food, we walked past the group of young Triads (I was getting better at distinguishing them) and took a table by the window. There wasn’t much view to enjoy, as we were facing the fence separating the Tower and the narrow human street I had used the day before to try and run for my life.
“So you’re staying on the nineteenth floor?”, Vanessa asked while chewing on a piece of broccoli.
“I don’t know how you eat that, honestly.”, I said with a look of disgust while I mooched on my carbonara. “And yeah, my room is on the nineteenth floor. You can come up and meet Pebble if you’d like.”
“Weird.”, Vanessa said while staring at me.
“What is?”, I asked confused.
Was she referring to the mention of Pebble?
“The nineteenth floor is restricted for High Council members who need to spend the night, or guests close to the King. Like really, really close.”
“Hm, I didn’t know that.”, I replied and I could feel the confusion showing between my eyebrows.
“Who is Pebble?”, Vanessa asked and I chuckled.
“It’s my handsome boy.”
Vanessa’s eyebrow lifted at my response and I laughed even more threatening to get carbonara sauce all over my chin.
“He’s my cat. He actually really likes it here, I’m sure he would be happy to meet you.”
“Uuuh…”, Vanessa stuttered. “You know we do not get along with cats, right?”
“What do you mean? Pebble loves me.”, I frowned.
No way my sweet Pebble had hatred for anyone in his tiny bones.
“Yeah, you can look it up in the books Austin has sent for you. Cats can sense we are not humans and stay away from us. Something must be definitely messed up with you if you are missing your wolf but have a cat best friend instead.”
…..
After lunch with Vanessa I went to my room and lied on the bed next to Pebble. My body was hurting from today’s training. Brushing my fingers through the long black and white fur of Pebble’s tiny body, I wondered if what Vanessa had said was true and it was indeed weird I had a bond with a cat.
I also learnt that the people Valerio was speaking to in the lobby were the members of the High Council who visited the Tower every morning. I had spent so long hating Valerio, believing he did something to mom and dad, I never questioned if he was a good king or not. I never wondered what his life is like or if people loved him. All I wanted was revenge, and now all I wanted was…
A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
“Come in.”, I said, waking up Pebble in the process. Matilda walked in and I noticed Pebble was calm around her.
“I just came to check if you need anything else, miss Eleanor.”, Matilda said with a warm smile.
“No, but thank you.”, I replied.
I already liked Matilda even though I didn’t know her at all. There was just something about her and her presence that made me trust her.
“Hey, look, Pebble doesn’t hate you! So it is not true that cats don’t like us!”, I exclaimed.
Matilda looked at me and then at Pebble who was pushing my pillow with his paws now, ready to go to sleep… again.
“Cats do stay away from supernatural creatures, miss Eleanor. But I am not one anymore, that is why he is calm around me.”
“What do you mean you are not one anymore? Are you not a Lupus?”, I asked, shocked.
How was it possible for someone to lose their wolf if they had already found it once?
“My wolf… she drifted away when my children died. I am not a Lupus anymore, and while I age much slower than a human, my time will come too... One day”, Matilda explained and left me speechless.
“I… I’m sorry. About your children.”, I whispered while looking at Matilda’s round, wrinkled face.
“No need to be sorry, my child. I will meet them again one day.”, she smiled. “I came to let you know your evening is free but it is not recommended you leave the Tower, yet.”
“Can I see Valerio? I mean, the King… And please, call me just Eleanor”, I asked Matilda.
I was eager to see Valerio again for reasons out of my reach.
“That wouldn’t be possible, Eleanor. He left around noon and I don’t know when he would be back.”
- Writer
