Chapter 36

Over the next few days, all three men and even older men and women would show up outside if her cell, demanding that she smell things they held out to her. She felt like a side show at a circus, a 'freak' to be gwaked and jeered at. None of them saw her as a wolf. Their curiosity being only on the strange ability she had. She'd figured it might be rare to be able to smell theb wolvesbane, but a few easy questions had her realizing that it was not rare, or was unheard of. No wolf was ever known to be able to smell it once it was mixed with food or drink. It was a weird quirk that she could only guess came about from almost two decades of being forced to consume it. It must have been some sort of defensive trigger, awoken when her wolf was. The people who came barely spoke a word to her, just telling her to tell which one was poisoned and which was not. It would have been humiliating if it were not so important to them all. A genuine problem now with a simple fix.

After the three days, it was back to constant silence and darkness. She almost enjoyed having so much company. It was better than the nothing that surrounded her when she was alone. Cold and dark were all she knew. The rough stone walls were now all too familiar to her touch, and she knew in which part of the cell she was without even needing to see.

The deliveries of food remained unchanged, though there was no wolvesbane in the water now. She was glad for it, but she felt as though it was not really something they had actually chosen to do. They could not really poison her if she knew the poison was there.

Ariel had decided early on to count the days by the meals. She would get three a day, enough to keep her healthy and well fed. She wondered why they were keeping her healthy, she was a prisoner after all. She of course had no way of knowing if this was actually how wolves treated all of their prisoners. She felt, everyday, her lack of knowledge of her own kind. The files the hunters had never said anything about how the wolves lived and their culture. It was just about how to kill them or capture them, the best ways to torture them. It was disturbing.

Ariel had stopped expecting people to visit unless it was to give her food, so when the light from the torch came down the hallway again, she tensed up. She shifted her position and sat with her hands in her lap, looking as if she was expecting them. It was two men, both fit and muscled. They wore form fitting black long sleeve shirts that looked as though they were woven out of some kind of synthetic fiber. There were grim looks on their faces at they unlocked and opened her cell. Her heart began to race in her chest.

"Let's go." One of them demanded, his voice sleek and unsettling. She stood without a word and walked out. She was led down the hall, and up a wide set of stairs. At the top was a large iron bound door that was rusted and cracked with age. Dried moss clung to the edges of the door frame, old stains from water damage streaked the thickly grained wood.

The door opened with a loud screech and into yet another long hallway. This one smelled far less damp, and it was clear that this hallway of cells was better maintained. Fires burned in wall mounted sconces made of iron. The cells were molded like the one she had been in, but the bars looked newer, and the stone looked like it was into blocked and placed carefully. This area was very unlike the rough and raw rock walls that made up her cell. They also had mattresses to sleep on and a bucket in one corner of each cell. Clearly the prisoners up in their portion were treated far better. She understood now where she stood with them.

They ascended another set of stairs, the door at the top was made entirely of iron and clearly well maintained. It was clean and well oiled, making just a whisper of a sound as it swung outward.

Warmth and sunlight enveloped her as she stepped out, a cacophony of sounds and smells assaulting her as she continued to walk with the two men. It took a few moment of blinking for her eyes to adjust to the light and her mind swam as her mind tried to comprehend everything she could hear and smell.

The ground was still wet from a fresh rain, the smell of baking bread carried on the wind. She could hear the distant shouts and laughter of children, and somewhere flowers were in full bloom. It all felt surreal after the darkness she had been living in, and a pang of pain washed through her as memories of what her life was like before flashed through her mind. This place was so much like the hunter town she was raised in. It was just normal people living normal lives.

The two men flanked her as they walked down a pebble path that wound through carefully manicured groves of trees. You should see for what felt like miles, with the ground covered in a thick blanket of fallen evergreen needles. Lush bushes srpiuted up every now and then, breaking up the open expanse created by the sparse vegetation.

They created the top of a hill and Arielngot her first glimpse of the town she could hear and smell. It sprawled lazily and haphazardly along a winding river that cut through the thick deciduous forest. Thatched and metal roofs would poke up through the canopy here and there, smoke raising from chimneys in other places where the trees were more densely packed. She could see the space for a town square, holding a single large oak tree in the center with several large and official looking buildings scattered around it. Then she was back into the tree cover, the men keeping her moving.