Issue #4-Chapter 8, Part 2

My eyes spotted nothing but the bar counter and a lot of tables full of rotting food on each table. Some of the food was moldy and the others were full of maggots on them. Even some of the alcoholic drinks stood by those abandoned meals. No one was around there.

The same smell wafted my nose just as much as it was in the kitchen. Silence echoed in the room around me. Hearing the back door was finally knocked down and the lycans roared from the kitchen, that was my signal of needing to hide from these monsters this instant.

Moving my body against the wall, I tried to search for the hiding spot anywhere and sprayed those same spices in my surroundings. I found no hiding place so far. I was desperate to find it, yet I still failed to find it, until I decided to hide by the counter's outer side and blew the candle out.

After those monsters scratched on the door several times, they were finally able to break it down and started searching. Their noses caught the smell of the spices, and they screeched even more in pain, touching their noses and moving their heads sideways.

I watched them behind the broken, rounded vase. I made sure the shadows around me hid me well from my enemies. After a while, they patrolled the entire room as I patiently waited for them to leave.

But they were patrolling around at a much slower pace than I expected bit by bit. No matter how much I desired them to leave, the more they continued to patrol around, the more impatient I got. Although I wished for these enemies to leave the room entirely, there was nothing I could do to change it since I saw nothing useful around me to get them out of this room.

By the time one of the lycans turned to check in my direction, I quietly gasped and hid myself behind the shadows and the pot all at the same time. Staring at it from a distance, I shivered and took a couple of my quiet breaths when I looked up at its glowing red eyes. Its footsteps were echoing closer to me. With sweat forming all over my body a bit, my heart pounded beating faster on my chest from fear. When my eyes were twitching, I hoped I wasn't caught by that beast.

When it stopped near me, my nose absorbed its strange smell. I didn't know what it was, nor could I describe it. It was this mossy and moldy smell mixed in together. I scanned for any mold on its skin and sawnone.

While it was searching for me, it only scanned at the walls around it, not looking behind the pot. It tried to sniff the air for my presence, yet those spices prevented it from finding me through its scent. It growled with its drool coming out of its mouth; it desperately wanted to smell for my scent yet its nose couldn't, which frustrated it more to the point that it stopped searching for me and turned back the other way.

I took a deep breath out of relief while I watched the monster walk away from me. Its footsteps were fading away the more it walked further away from me. One of the lycans roared with one another and exited out of the room at the door on the left, banging on it a couple times.

Relighting the candle, it felt safe for me to get out of the shadows and walk away from the pot. After my eyes wandered around a bit, I saw no other door other than the one in the kitchen and the other one on the left.

So I turned to the other one and swallowed my spit once more, shivering a bit. I saw both doors completely broken open and the moonlight beam entered the room, casting its light inside alongside the fog. A couple of buildings from the opposite side gazed at me out of curiosity, wondering who I was.

Okay, Mara. Time to get out of here and find that water fountain.

I slowly headed my way towards it and stood behind the doorway. I smiled out of relief when I saw no lycan in sight on both sides of the road. But it wasn't the only one I saw. On the left side of the road, I saw something in a further distance. Was it the fountain that the old man spoke about? Well, that was when I was willing to find out for myself.

So I walked forward and was on a lookout for any lycans around me back and forth. Although I was happy I didn't see any lycan in sight for now, I was still cautious about seeing them first hand. I wanted them not to be at that possible fountain over there, yet I wasn't convinced otherwise until I saw it for myself.

Once I arrived there, I stood there to examine the area. I saw no lycan in sight and turned to something right in front of me, not even hearing their growl. Surrounded by buildings and street lights, I actually made it to the fountain after all.

With the ravens and crows' caws echoing above me, they all stared down at me from either the street lights or the fountain. It was covered in moss, vines and cracks all at the same time. Inside the water basin, there was no water inside. Instead it was filled with old coins and rotting corpses which my nose received its bad smell from. The blood stain was all over the fountain and the road, probably committed by the lycans.

This was the fountain that the old man spoke about. I now needed to find Aleke and…Silverus for help. I crossed my arms to cover my chest in case I encountered Silverus in my search for him and Aleke. I turned to the right and hoped that the old man was okay.

By the time I returned to the fountain, that was when I decided to search for those survivors quickly. I really hoped that old man survived. I didn't even know how long I was out here. But that didn't matter. What mattered was to find those survivors, have Silverus make the potion and take them to the old man. That was all I had to do at the moment.

Now I searched everywhere for Aleke and…Silverus throughout the area, and I haven't found them so far. I didn't even shout out their names, fearing that my voice would attract those monsters here. I wondered where they usually go. That old man didn't even tell me which building they were residing in. What a joke.

While I continued searching for Aleke and, uh, Silverus, I heard a loud thud behind me. By the time I turned around though, I only heard the lycan's roar, a man's fearful scream, and their footsteps in the distance. I didn't even see them in sight. It was obvious the fog covered the scene as I stood there, shivering my ass off with my hands covering my mouth.

Taking a couple steps back, I surveyed the environment out of hope that no lycan would come in my direction. Then I heard the footsteps behind me, making me quickly turn around. Following the sniffing, then the lycan's roar, I frowned to know that I was indeed in trouble. I searched for a safe place, yet there was none so far. When the lycan dashed towards me, I lifted up those spices and wanted to spray them in the area, yet my hands were a bit shaky from fear, making me have a difficult time spraying it all the sudden.