Dire Wolf

Chapter 7

"What are you doing here?"

I gulped when I saw the menacing and feared Chief of the Ogawaran Province looking down on me after Surt introduced me to his guardian.

"I have come to pay respects to you, Your Highness," I said meekly, knowing full well that any moment my cover will be blown wide open, "I hope I find you in good health?"

Not working.

Ren Ogawa, the man whom the King of Kalalit fears the most to face, just scowled at me, not impressed by obviously poor acting that, thankfully, Surt is buying.

"Paying respects to an equal? That's new. Anyways, it's on weekdays. I don't accept an audience on Saturdays and Sundays," he said dismissively that instead of making me feel slighted, made me feel relieved.

In his own way, he is trying to tell me that he would not speak any further, and that's fine by me.

"Wait, that's rather rude, even coming from you, Uncle Ren," my boyfriend complained angrily as he put his arms on my shoulders lovingly.

I looked at Surt and furrowed my brows, "Uncle? Are you related or something?"

"Well, you can say that we are blood relatives, yes," he replied as he grinned at the still frowning at me, "He and my father are both descendants of Old Man Ogawa."

The chief raised an eyebrow at us and was obviously not amused, "You pick the worst person to be with."

"Who, me?!" Surt asked incredulously as his uncle looked down on us imperiously.

"Both of you," he said dismissively before turning to his nephew, "Didn't I instructed you to stay away from other people? You are too dangerous, volatile, and unpredictable. If not for Ms. Peregrine, I wouldn't have let you study in any specialization school."

In his anger, Surt suddenly ran away as fast as he can to the wilderness, and when I was about to come after him, the Chief of the Ogawara Province spoke to me in a hushed voice.

"They have been looking all over creation for you," he said in a seething voice as if I didn't know what I have done, "How can you just went up and vanish without a trace like that, Tsarevich Rosenbaum."

My temper flared up as I walked towards the chief and raised my head held up high defiantly, "If something like that happens to you, wouldn't you want to just disappear forever, Chief Ogawara?"

"You have a house to lead, Your Serene Highness," he reminded me, which didn't help at all.

"I have no house left to lead anymore, Chief Ogawa. In case you still don't know, they are all dead. All of them are gone. There is no House Rosenbaum anymore. We are finished! I am finished! This is my life now! I am no longer Tsarevich Kynan von Rosenbaum! I am Keenan Loussier now! Let me live, please, just let me live!"

I begin to run away in the direction of where Surt has disappeared with the chief hot on my heels.

"Don't go after him! He is dangerous right now! Your life may be in danger if you don't listen to me right now! He is..."

"Break the jar, Keenan..."

A familiar voice whispered to my mind, and without a second thought, I followed its instructions and grabbed the trembling jar inside my bag and stopped running away for a moment before facing the pursuing man behind me.

"I am already dead, Chief Ogawa! No one tells me where, when, and how I will find my final resting place! Leave us alone!" I raised the jar as high as I can before throwing it at the space between us.

The moment the jar shattered, the wind orb was unleashed and transformed into a giant whirlwind that made him roared in shock and awe as it stopped him dead on his tracks.

"This is..."

"With all the ancient knowledge of the Ogawa Dynasty that Ms. Peregrine has told me, I doubt you need any explanation, "Your Highness,"" I shouted snidely over the howling winds as I run as fast as I can to the forest after the boy who needed me the most right now.

I am sure of it...

-0-

"Surt..."

I muttered his name when I saw several articles of clothing scattered on the off the beaten path, and it leads me straight to a naked boy sitting in front of a grand waterfall so beautiful, it looked like it was taken directly from the pages of a travel magazine.

He didn't answer as he continues to look at the falls quietly with his back on me.

After several painful minutes, I decided to take a step forward as he slowly stood up and took a deep breath before facing me finally.

I focused my attention only on his face because he is wearing absolutely nothing right now, and I've got more pressing matters to think of aside from the fact that he is entirely nude right now.

"Why are you here? Why did you follow me?" he asked in a growl as my hair raised as if telling me that something is terribly wrong right now and he is no longer the boy I used to know.

No...

He is something more.

I mustered all the courage that I can and opened my mouth to answer, "I have no one to turn to, Surt. Unless you suddenly don't want me anymore now that your uncle has told you that I am the worst person for you."

"You don't understand, Keenan. Uncle Ren is absolutely correct. I am dangerous, unpredictable, and deadly," he said in a whisper as his amber eyes suddenly glowed for a bit before transforming into canine-like slits, "Get away from here while you still can. I don't know what will I do if someone is next to me when I turned back to who I really am."

I shook my head defiantly and take a step closer as he did the same, "You don't make any sense! Well, what would I expect?! Everything didn't make any sense ever since my family died! Me getting away from my appointed guardians without being detected, a seemingly ageless teacher, an orb of air, historical facts that don't make any sense, and then there's you. Who are you, Surt?"

"I think the best question is, what am I, my Keenan..."

What happened next blew away the little ball of perpetual air so much it looks like a cheap party trick.

The boy in front of me. 

The only person I can even call my friend and who confessed his feelings to me just this morning turned into something inhuman.

No...

He became something more than a human.

In a burst of brown fur and a loud howl that made hundreds upon hundreds of birds flew away in fear from the branches of the tall fir trees surrounding us, a giant brown dire wolf appeared where Surt was standing and the same height as I am and that is saying something because I am already almost six foot tall.

I know I should start panicking now because he is bearing down on me as if I am his prey, ready for the taking, but I curiously don't feel any need to run away as fast as I can.

No matter how monstrous and beastly this creature is before me, I don't feel any terror nor shock in my very being right now.

What I am feeling is something entirely and surprisingly different.

A feeling of clarity and understanding. 

As if everything makes sense now. 

The beast quickly closed the space between us, and his mouth inches next to my face so close, I can smell his breath that oddly smelled like what we have for breakfast.

I just looked at his piercing yellow eyes, and I suddenly remembered something that made me angry.

That very same eyes are the ones I saw staring at me from the bushes yesterday.

My vision became clouded as I am filled with annoyance and anger, and without even thinking that this wolf is far more robust and powerful than I am, I grabbed his next and lifted him with all the strength that I can muster and threw him to the ground in a loud thud.

"That's for scaring the s**t out of me!" I screamed at him as he yelped in shock and whine a little with his tail between his legs and ears down as I walked towards him imperiously, "Now I know why you are so concerned about my injuries! You are guilty!"

He just blinked at me as if he is wondering why I am not caring about the fact that he just turned into a wolf right before my very eyes when that shouldn't even be logically possible in reality.

"Between Ms. Peregrine's obviously questionable age and that stupid orb of air she conjured to make me suffer, you turning into a wolf is no longer shocking, to be honest. You don't look that impressive for all the warnings the chief has spouted behind me as I ran here to look for you," I replied dismissively as I begin to properly fold the clothes he took off earlier before stopping abruptly when something dawned on me, "Wait, did I just answered your question?"

Surt howled excitedly and barked, and I am sure that it is a yes as he began "speaking" once more.

Now he is staring at me and wondering if I can accept him now that I know the entire truth about his condition.

To answer him, I inclined my head a little to the right and grinned tearfully at the gigantic wolf walking towards me quickly, "I am just looking at things from a different angle, Surt. That's what you taught me, right? Try to see things from a different perspective, and you know what? You are right. When you change your point of view a little, you will really find many answers to the questions you have all along."

He suddenly tackled me to the ground and began licking my face happily and excitedly as he muzzled my neck before beginning running around in circles and chasing his tail in joy.

"You're really something else, Surt."

He stopped running around before looking at me and smiling widely, saying that I am the one which is surprising all this time.

"You can say that again," I said as I blushed a little before shoving his clothes into my bag and looking around us, "But really, this place is beautiful. Are there a lot of beautiful sceneries around here? I mean, it's just ten in the morning. Would you mind touring me around the wilderness that you always tell me about, Surt?"

To answer my request, he leaped towards my side and kneeled on all his knees.

"Are you sure?" I asked when he told me to ride his back, "Well, don't mind if I do then."

I quickly rode his back and grabbed the scruff of his neck as he rose up again and stretched his legs before sprinting as fast as he can into the forests once more.

The thrill and exhilaration of such speed are so much I just laugh out loud as he began howling in joy while jumping from boulder to boulder while we scale the massive massifs of the Ogawaran Mountain Ranges.

Surt brought me to the vast hidden lakes, at the mouth of a seemingly endless cavern, and into the deepest part of the jungles where several previously thought extinct animals lived peacefully untouched.

Then we went to the mouth of an active volcano where fearsome magma and boiling lava continuously flow quietly in their deadly path before going to the hot springs, where we took a short break before finally making a circle back to the edges of civilization.

The bushes next to my house, to be exact.

"So this is where you were lurking yesterday," I said in slight annoyance as he chortled as he showed me how he crouches and watches over me as quietly as possible.

He is still unsure why I managed to notice his presence when no other has ever done before. When he started stalking, humans can't be aware of him.

"I don't know. I just felt that someone is staring at me nearby. Then I saw you, or rather, your eyes. Damn, it was the worst shock I have in my life. You still owe me for that, Surt," I retorted to him as I punched his back in annoyance.

He just howled again loudly in answer before turning around in the direction of the gigantic whirlwind I unleashed a while ago so big, it can be seen from four kilometers away.

"I'm sorry about that. Something or someone urged me to break the jar in my head, and I am just desperate to follow you as fast as I can..."

He barked and told me that he can take care of it himself with no problems.

I just hope he is correct as we traveled at breakneck speed, and before I know it, we are back in front of the villa of the chief of the Ogawara province, where we found his Uncle sitting calmly in front of it without a care in the world while eating his after lunch snack.

When he noticed the two of us, he blinked at me as he can't believe I am riding the back of a giant dire wolf without so much as batting an eyelash.

"And here I thought I have to go through all the trouble explaining your demise, Keenan," he said in a deadpan voice before glancing at the whirlwind still billowing in front of us, "Can you remove this thing, Surt? My earth element is no match to Ms. Peregrine's unbelievable wind prowess. But then again, even the Old Man Ogawa is mightily afraid of her, so that's saying something. Anyhoo, get to it, nephew."

As per my boyfriend's instruction, I grabbed his neck as tightly as I could and braced myself because he took a deep breath and howled so loud that it is no longer differentiable with the roaring winds around us.

A blast of wind erupted from his mouth and blasted straight through our history teacher's creation.

To my surprise, the moment they collided, they canceled each other out, and in a blink of an eye, the whirlwind dispersed as if it's not even there in the first place.

"Now that's better," the chief said appreciatively before finishing his snack and standing up from the ground, "Welp, now that the jig is up and you are still surprisingly alive, I guess a full explanation is in order. Let's go to my house so we can talk privately."

Surt glanced at me, and I smiled encouragingly at him, "It's alright, Surt. At least I have something to submit to Ms. Peregrine by tomorrow."