Nora's POV 6

Nora left the house, the mute man was again acting mute and was not answering by speaking so it was useless maddening and questioning. Before the evening she would be able to collect a handful of herbs and woods which she could drag back to the wooden house. Thinking that she treaded carefully in the forest the forest was full of dangerous animals and they seemed hungry over the year not letting humans collect woods from the forest and if possible attack on humans and rip them up into pieces, and visiting alone the darker part of the forest also horrible. This was the reason that Nora never went into the deep forest to collect woods after the death of her uncle. He taught her all those skills which could help her to live alone, he also taught her to read and write.

The outer edges were empty of any spare woods and possibly she cannot cut the big trees Nora could only sigh at her luck; the nearing neighborhood farmers and houses has already collected those could found on the outer edges so there was no other choice than to walk further and then see if there were small shrubs which could be taken along. Now she was walking almost terrified to get caught by any wild animal. "I should hurry rather than slow walk." Nora encouraged herself. After half a mile, she could see the signs of some small woods; waving the iron pole axe which was left behind after her uncle's death, Nora started cutting woods and boughs. 

The young man saw her cutting woods and walked in front of her; Nora was shocked to see him there, he silently picked the pole axe from her hand and it was understood what he was supposed to do; the girl was here to collect woods and he was here to help. He belonged to the rare race of ice dragons quite powerful but currently wounded so it was normal that he was not using the real strength of a dragon or it was best to imitate a human rather than act powerful and get caught suspicious. 

He was engrossed in cutting woods when Nora shrieked her lungs out and ran toward him; she almost banged against him and the soft lips trembled to feel the cold lips of the man. A group of wolves surrounded them, one of them was the same who wanted to attack the girl and rip her up into pieces but the man strangely hindered it. So today it was here with the pack of wolves to stop both humans and kill to take revenge. The young man hurriedly looked at her and Nora pointed toward the blood thirsty eyes of the wolves. Ice dragon tightened his grip on the pole axe; to let these wolves suffer a horrible attack of ice was not possible yet and considering their numbers it would be difficult to face them straight. He could save himself and attack but Nora would be under danger in the same time. 

He kept the pole axe in one hand and grabbed her hand with the other; he chose a direction where lesser wolves were eyeing. Nora wanted to cry out seeing the wolves not moving away to let them pass through meantime the young man waved the pole axe and the wolves jumped aside wounded. Nora wanted to breath heavily but she was still running, it was not that she was happy to see the man trying his best to run away; she has already some notion and suspicion about him. 

The wolves started running behind them though they were afraid about the human when he waved the pole axe valiantly. Nora and the man were running between the woods and the man was using pole axe as weapon to get rid those angry wolves. Soon they lost the will to further follow behind when half of the wolves fell wounded. "Wait, we cannot go back empty handed, I need to take the boughs with me for stove." Nora stopped and looked around and started collecting small bough and tied them in bundle. 

A little amount of healthy shrubs was enough for two to three days later she would come and collect more; almost the day was over because of the wolves chasing them most of the time. The man pulled the string of the bundle of boughs and Nora kept the basket of flowery shrubs and herbs. The cold air was blowing in the near evening when they returned. 

Nora saw the house from some distance and stopped to ask the man, "Who are you?" he was here and did not tell who he was, how he ended up wounded and when would he leave. With him around she might end up depending on him more often which would be bad if he suddenly left.    

….

The lady was convulsing with anger if it was proper in her eyes she would have thrown these gamblers from the cliff and obliterate every evidence of their existence. Since they has already seen her and most alarming that they failed to complete the task handed by her now they were only a headache for her. "Milady! For sake please give us another chance." The man begged her to give another chance and the lady was confused whether to take this risk or not. 

She was not in favor to kill the girl before she could get the papers signed; these papers were taken with utmost efforts and according to property papers the whole estate belong to the only daughter of the mayor who died long ago but the mayor believed that she was alive. If the mayor happened to know that she was really alive then it would be doomsday for the second lady. 

Today after meeting Nora and seeing the same sign on her wrist; the lady almost cursed in her heart. The sign matched to her mother and it was a proof about her actual identity. When the girl was born, the mayor announced six months celebrations he was much happy that his newborn was blessed with the fortune sign just like his wife. "I am willing to give another chance, go and burn her cottage house if you wanted to remain alive." The lady ordered them and threw a pouch of gold coins. She has to decide what was most necessary and it was to kill the girl; she could get the wealth by persuading the old mayor but the alive Nora was like a naked hanging sword on her neck. 

The man hurriedly picked the pouch and ran back with his men, he was thankful for getting another chance. It was evening now and they were heading toward the countryside where the girl was living. This time they were not supposed to kill directly but to burn her house and she would eventually be killed and burned alive.