Crimson

Woof!

JUNO

They had all offered to come with me .

Vita , I had expected .

And of course , Fabia .

Nero had been surprising but still expected .

Keanu , Marcel , Jun and Gus had been very unexpected .

The fact that they had been at my house was still a mystery and now , they wanted to go with me in search of Ali .

I had told them no and matched out of my house , I went through the opening in my wall that Ali had used .

It was small , so , I had to bend and crawl .

As I crawled out , I saw the redhead behind me also on his hands and knees .

Behind the redhead was Nero , also on his hands and knees and behind Nero was another person that I did not wait long enough to see .

I adjusted my clothes and the sword I had slung on my back and ran .

I lived on the outskirts of Agrippa which meant no neighbours and I was very close to the forest .

In fact , the opening in my wall led to the forest .

I knew the forest well , I had run through it hundreds of times since I came to Agrippa , I had perfected running through it and leaving no trace .

Leaving no traces worked two ways , even if I left no traces I could still see traces left behind by others .

I ran through the forest , hiding myself and searching for traces of Ali .

When we had first met , I had thought him how to move around the forest without leaving traces but I had not let him perfect it .

After all , I had been unable to find my Mama because she had perfected leaving no traces .

I kept a steady pace and continued heading towards the shelter .

That had to be where Ali was .

Something was off about the air , I stopped running , slowing to a jog .

The sun was completely blocked out of this part of the forest , so , it was always damp .

The dew on the leaves usually lasted up until midday and sometimes the smaller plants even slept for longer .

I touched a few leaves , they were not damp .

People , several of them had come through the forest and very violently , all the plants were wide awake .

I bent to a patch of hydrangeas , they had been trampled on .

" Poor babies , who did this to you ?"

I put my hand to the hem of my shirt and tore a clean strip of material out .

I picked one of the needles out of my hair and tied it to the flowers stalks , it straightened with the new weight that supported it .

They would grow beautifully now .

I continued my jog , following the way the plants showed me .

They led me through the way the soldiers had most likely come through .

Something on one of the leaves stopped me , I slowed down and walked gingerly to the leaf .

It had something on it , I touched it , swirling it between my finger tips .

It's viscosity was high enough for it to be suspected as blood but the colouring was off .

With the different blood hues around , colours did not matter anymore when it came to determining blood .

I continued running , picking up my pace .

There were tracks for horses in the middle of the forest but I was staying as far away from the tracks as humanly possible .

It was hard for me to keep up pace when I was avoiding the only opening that was large enough for humans and larger animals.

But , running and being pushed around by branches was not new to me .

Voices .

I stopped , there were a lot of them .

I moved closer to the voices , they were scouts .

Scouts that the squad had sent ahead , this meant they did not have Ali .

They were arguing about splitting .

" The captain put us five to this route because that's safest ".

This was from the guy whose back was closest to me .

Another one with his sword out paced around .

" He's injured , he can't be far . Finding him would be easy and with the state of things , we are sure to get highly rewarded for bringing back an accomplice ".

The rest agreed with him .

The first guy shook his head again ,he grabbed the sleeves of another of the soldiers .

" But , it's still dangerous to move around separately , what of the wolves that have been attacking travellers lately ? ".

The other men began to laugh at him .

The stories of the wolves were a bit of a stretch , they had not been attacking travellers just specific people .

The plants up ahead shook slightly , I crouched closer and watched as the plant shook again .

I put my hand behind my head and touched the hilt of my sword .

The plant shook again and something brown rolled out , I left my sword and pulled out a short blade , it was a small animal .

It came towards me , I put my blade down , it was a wolf's cub .

And it knew me or at least my scent , it ran into me and began to whiz , then howled , or tried to .

I laughed softly as I lifted it up , it had a mark on it's necks too , it was one of ours .

Ali and I loved wolves , we had met a lot before we moved to Agrippa , now , they lived around the shelter .

Ali kept them there to scare away wandering folks .

I scratched his neck , how had he come here ?

He put his paws up to my face , what was he trying to show me ?

I looked back at the scouts , they were still arguing .

Behind them , the forest was alive with movements but they did not seem to notice .

The cub I was holding whined playfully , I rubbed his neck again and he whined softly , his parents had to be Star and Whale .

They had been the first wolves we had decided to keep .

I looked back at the soldiers , they were finally leaving .

They stopped though , it had taken them a while but they had finally began to hear it .

The low growls .

The cub that looked like fluffy chocolate whimpered , he had heard his parents amongst the growls .

The forest burst open and the wolves came out , howling wildly .

I did not recognize a few , star had been up to gathering strays again .

The soldiers did not run , they must have been really flustered because they brought out their swords instead and began to wave them wildly as the wolves surrounded them .

I watched the wolves , they had improved their game , they used to be scary but not this intense , even I was wondering if I wanted to meet them .

The opening they had come out of was still slightly opened , I caught a glimpse of white hair .

Ali was the one with the wolves , it made sense now .

Fluffy chocolate was the scout , his almost howl had alerted the rest and Ali .

I laughed quietly , Ali must have been flustered to have come up with such a plan .

I would wait for the scouts to leave , I did not need people knowing that both Ali and I were in good health and together .

Someone yelled to get the attention of the wolves , they stopped circling the scouts and looked ahead .

I moved from where I was standing to see who the new people were , fluffy at my heels .

Six men .

One of them , an extremely fiery redhead was dragging away another one that was still yelling .

Vita stood at the edge of the line , his head turning from side to side , his sword was raised .

Their horses were not with them , I watched them quietly wondering what they intended to do .

Vita intrigued me , he had joined me to fight these very same soldiers twice today and now he was raising his sword to save them .

With the focus off them , the scouts had an opportunity to run off , they took it .

Vita had met the wolves before , he must know that they were dangerous , yet he was not running .

Ali came out of his spot and whistled softly , the wolves stopped growling but did not move from around Vita and his mismatched crew .

Ali walked towards them , they exchanged words I could not hear while I watched them quietly .

Ali was shirtless again , it was still surprising how he was never cold .

All the other men stared at him , their mouths wide , Ali often solicited that response .

I bent and opened my arm for fluffy to run into , he did and settled quietly .

I pulled the hanging branches aside and stepped out , Vita stopped what he was saying .

Ali turned around , he looked relieved , he must have been asking about me .

Star ran into my legs , jumping and showing me her teeth while whale just howled , he had always been arrogant .

Their cub must have taken after his mother , he was jumping in my arms and trying to lick my face , I bent to touch Star .

She also tried to lick my fingers and I took a step back avoiding her tongue , I left her behind walking towards the other men .

As I walked closer , I took in the looks on each of the men's faces .

All of them , particularly Vita looked unhappy or disappointed , I could not really tell .

Ali moved in front of me blocking my view of the others .

He was silent as he accessed me , his eyes sweeping over me .

I let my eyes sweep over his form too , when our eyes met again , we smiled quietly , he was okay .

He moved aside and I looked at Vita .

" You know these wolves ? "

I shook my head , I did not exactly know all of them .

" They attacked us once before ", Nero said .

Ali snorted .

" They are not savages , you probably got unnecessarily scared when they just wanted to see you ".

Keanu and I exchanged smiles .

I turned to Marcel and the rest of the men .

" You should all go back to your houses now ,you have helped more than enough .I don't want you getting in trouble ".

I turned to Marcel and smiled , I had wanted to check out his fashion house one day , it seemed it was not anytime soon .

I moved closer and shook hands with Gus , then Jun , I had barely known them and yet they had come to help me .

I approached Marcel for a handshake but instead he pulled me for a hug , he must have spent sometime inside my house , he smelled a lot like lavender .

Keanu offered me his hand too , he had a quiet confused look , we could have been good friends If fate had permitted .

Nero pretended not to see me when I moved towards him , he turned around , dragging Keanu with him .

I watched him walk off with the other men .

Ali was bent , touching a disgruntled looking Whale while Star watched jealously .

Vita was watching me .

" Where to now, Juno of Agrippa ? "

I smiled and turned around ," Everywhere , anywhere , nowhere ".

He nodded , I nodded too .

" And you , Brigadier from Caeso ?"

" Back to somewhere too ".

I wanted to ask if he meant back to where he belonged but I kept my mouth shut .

We both watched the wolves take turns to lick Ali ,one of the wolves carried a satchel with his teeth , he dropped it at Ali's feet .

Ali picked it up and brought out a black material out of it , a shirt , he wore it and stood up .

It was time to leave .

I was not good at goodbyes , I had never really had to say them sincerely .

Were goodbyes ever really sincere ?

A horses neigh sounded close by , Nero appeared again with Fabia .

Vita cleared his throat .

" You should keep Fabia , it will be easier to travel with him ".

I looked from the horse to the owner .

" No ".

" Then I will come with you ".

I looked at the owner again .

" Why ? "

He blinked as if I had asked a foolish question .

" Do you experience memory loss already ?"

I showed him that I was harmed to the teeth , he took a step to the side .

" I told you already , I am not saying goodbye , not yet ".

I nodded immediately , pretending to have completely understood .