Snowblood mountains

Chapter 7: Snowblood mountains

[London]

"Hello Ms.Campbell. We meet again."

Isabella saw a girl standing behind her in the washroom mirror. She frowned trying to remember if she knew her.

"You are?" She finally gave up remembering and asked.

The girl's perfect smile cracked a bit but she composed herself again.

"I am Mia. Mia Cooper. Heiress of Cooper constructions. I am Benjamin's girl friend. We met the other day in the parking lot."

Isabella raised a brow hearing this. She only asked for a name, not life history.

But then again, the girl that day had her hair painted orange. Today it is purple. One cannot blame her for not recognizing her.

"Hello ms.Cooper. We meet again indeed." Isabella said with a smiled, took a tissue to dry her hands and turned around to leave.

"Wait. I and Benjamin haven't apologized to you properly. We would like to treat you to dinner. How about ..."

"I remember settling our scores that day Ms.Cooper. There is no need for this. Excuse me." Isabella left the washroom and packed her bag to go to her part-time job.

Mia came out of the washroom after Isabella left the library. No one had ever showed her that attitude.

She was so used to people fawning over her all the time, that Isabella's indifferent look made her crazy.

And on top of that her boy friend, Benjamin, shamelessly asked her to convince Isabella for a dinner this weekend. She can already sense Benjamin's thoughts towards Isabella, and that made her angry.

Taking a deep breathe, she ran out to find Isabella but found her boy friend's yellow car parked infront of Isabella.

Benjamin got down the car and sweetly smiled at Isabella. He had a bandage on his nose but he was happy to flaunt it.

"Isabella. Are you going to work? Let me drop you"

Isabella already guessed Benjamin had done a back ground check on her. But this man was really shameless.

She simply walked past him but Benjamin kept pestering her even after she came out of the campus.

"Hey. Are you playing hard-to-get? I am talking to you." Benjamin harshly grabbed her left elbow, and made sure to press hard on her injury.

Isabella hissed in pain and struggled to get free from his grip.

"You are just an orphan. How dare you ignore me?" Benjamin gripped her jaw tightly and forced her to look at him.

"Benjamin. This will not end well. Leave me"

A dark chuckle escaped Benjamin's lips hearing this. He really didn't know where her attitude came from.

"Indeed this is will not end well if you keep up with this attitude missy."

"I will not get into your car. I don't need you to drop me off anywhere. And I will not come to dinner with you. Do whatever you want."

Isabella said each and every looking into Benjamin's eyes. She knew he won't do anything to her in the middle of the road where she could just scream for help and get everyone's attention.

"Oh sweet Isabella. This temper of yours. Do you know, these past few days, all I could think of was you every time I had a girl under me"

Isabella felt sick listening to his words and struggled harder in his grip.

"Tomorrow night 9pm. Come and find me. We can both enjoy ourselves if you cooperate. I promise your life will be so easy from then on."

"Or. You can chose not to come and I will use my own methods to make you willingly come to me and beg for mercy."

Benjamin smirked and released Isabella. He slipped a hotel card into her bag and left to get his car.

Isabella didn't even look at the card and threw it into trash before heading off to work.

----------------------

[Vandrad]

Roar.... Roarrr...

Calhoun could hear Adrian's dragon roars from a dozen miles far.

There was nothing except for a few deranged wolves attacking the flower beasts in the medis valley. Anyone else could do this job too.

But the second prince has to find a reason to skip the banquet. So that their royal father would not feel the queen's party trying to usurp the throne by sucking upto other kingdoms.

As for Calhoun, the king as usual didn't want his mediocre son to appear in public and diminish his glory.

"Those cowardly beasts didn't even come out as soon as I stepped here. What a wasteful bunch" Adrian smugly commented as soon as his uncle got down of the carriage.

Calhoun didn't bother with the uncle-nephew pair and directly walked into the royal tent arranged for him.

He tapped on his white coiled snake like bracelet on his left hand twice and the little snake came to life.

Slithering down the prince's hand, it slid onto the ground and transformed into a little boy who looked around 5-6 years old.

"Yawnnn... What do you want?" The little chubby snake lazily rubbed his eyes.

"Go sleep on bed" Calhoun instructed and the white snake already knew the assignment.

The boy's small form grew taller, his features morphed into that of Calhoun's and soon it was two Calhouns in the room.

The duplicate Calhoun didn't speak any further and went back to sleep on the comfortable bed.

He didn't have a beast, so he never had any signature smell like the remaining beast men.

He would usually smell like medicinal herbs, and luckily, a young white snake doesn't have a smell either, making it easier for them to attack and hide. No one ever noticed anything wrong.

After instructing Sasha to be careful and not let anyone doubt the sleeping snake, he sneaked out in a black outfit and went towards east.

There was something he wanted to confirm.

Something stirred with him a few days ago, as if pulling him towards the east, more precisely, to the snowblood mountains where he once got lost.

He didn't want to get his hopes high, but he definitely felt a strong presence within, which he never felt before.

For once he felt complete, though the moment only lasted for a second.

He thought of going there and finding the answers himself.

"The white wolf."

Calhoun pointed out to a huge white wolf as tall as a horse and slid a small cloth bag filled with gold coins towards the merchant.

It would be better to have a trained predator by his side. Atleast he could close his eyes peacefully during the nights without any worries.

The merchant's attitude became more polite after receiving the payment. Customer is god.

And the white wolf was not very favored by the customers. Many preferred tropical beasts that will not need any special care to raise. The white wolf needs cooler temperatures to survive, which was hard to do in Vandrad.

Thinking about this, the merchant became even more eager sell it off.

"You have a unique taste sir. This white wolf is calm and well trained. Knows to follow it's master. It is not hard .."

"Shut up and give me it's bond."

The merchant stopped his marketing and immediately handed over a silver token with a symbol engraved on it.

The symbol was also there on the wolf's forehead, acting as a leash and forcing the animal to obey the commands of it's master.

Calhoun took one last glance at all the other beasts in the shop and left with his wolf following him.

None of the animals were put in a cage, because it wasn't needed. There souls were already trapped in different silver coins and kill them if they disobey their owner.

"Go hunt some dinner for us?" Calhoun ordered when the night fell.

The majestic white wolf bared it's teeth at Calhoun in defiance but soon fell to ground and whimpered in pain.

"Good that you are not broken yet. Just go and hunt for dinner. Come back in half an hour."

The wolf didn't resist this time and disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Calhoun already set up a fire and a straw mat to stay for the night when the white wolf dragged few dead rabbits with it.

To Calhoun's surprise, the wolf didn't eat raw meat. It wanted neatly cooked and spiced meat. Calhoun didn't mind and did the hard work.

"Come here"

The wolf bared it's teeth dangerously, but still took slow yet graceful steps towards Calhoun.

Calhoun looked into it's cold blue eyes calmly before gently rubbing it's forehead. He pressed the silver leash on it's mark and the wolf howled as a bright light shone on it's forehead.

"There you go. You are free now."

The wolf looked surprised that Calhoun actually freed it from the soul bond after spending so many gold coins just a few hours ago.

"I am going to snowblood mountains. I need your help to reach their safely."

"You are no longer a slave. You can leave if you want. But I really really need your help"

Calhoun said with utmost sincerity.

There were many routes to go into snowblood mountains, but every route was more deadly than other. Sometimes it would be burning lava, sometimes never ending mazes, and sometimes deadly hallucinations.

The wolf clearly belonged to snowblood mountains, which means it knew a route to come out of the mountains.

The white wolf deeply stared at Calhoun for a few seconds before plopping on the ground nearby and closing it's eyes.

"Thank you" Calhoun said and laid back on the straw mat. Good. It won't be hard to get into snowblood mountains this time.

--------------

Please vote and add to your library if you are enjoying the story. Happy reading :)