Visiting Grandpa

 Ivan had just been released from prison, his punishment for assaulting a human was greatly reduced because he was unaware of the rules, but it wasn't as simple as he thought. Normally, new male lycans would be fed different animals brought by older hunters until they gained some strength and only then would they join the main group to hunt. In the meantime, they would only go out around the caves doing small tasks while gaining experience outside, but they would always return to the tribe, never needing to rest in the open air.

But because of his crime, Ivan had lost all these benefits. Later tonight he would be sent along with the Alpha and other more experienced hunters for a hunt that would last almost 7 days. Without feeding on any powerful prey and exposed to the first full moon only tomorrow night, he was nothing more than a human a little stronger than normal without his transformation. But even with all this danger, that wasn't what was on Ivan's mind, but rather the conversation he had with the prisoner who escaped today at dawn. The man's words were still in his head and now that he was being sent out of the caves, the words became even stronger...

Lost in his thoughts, Ivan felt something hit his chest, the comfortable warmth followed by something wet made him pay attention to what had happened again. Natasha had hugged him while she cried and apologized.

"WAAH"

"SNIFF"

"I'm sorry Ivan, it's my fault you spent so many days in jail and now... And now... Waah... You're still going to be punished…"

Ivan didn't care about anything and returned the hug, that strong hug from the person he loved was the most valuable thing he had received. He was willing to spend many more days in jail if he could receive more hugs from Natasha... Only after comforting her a lot did Natasha let him go. He had many things to prepare before leaving tonight. And Natasha said she was going to visit her grandfather, since she spent the last 7 days worried about him and didn't visit her only "family".

Natasha walked for almost 4 hours, taking many detours in the winding caves before finally reaching a kind of scrapyard. There were all kinds of scrap metal here and among them, things that Natasha could not even guess what they were for. This scrapyard had items that belonged to her Tribe even before they moved to these caves. Even though most of them were useless, most of the metals and other materials that the Tribe had, came from the recycling that happened here.

The junkyard was so large that it was easy to get lost in it, it was divided into many different sections. In the older sections it was possible to see many items that looked like carriages that did not have the design of something that were pulled by animals, according to her grandparents many items were powered by magic, but not even they could understand how they worked, there were remains of huge structures made entirely of metal, these were the ones that fascinated those who worked here the most since they were just simple blacksmiths, and did not understand how such structures were created on such a large scale. As Natasha continued her walk she finally reached a familiar place that brought her nostalgia and memories of the past.

When Natasha was young and lost her parents, she started visiting this place very often, her curiosity was enormous and soon one of the builders who worked here became very attached to the little girl who was always rummaging through the "dump". The man and his wife began to take care of her and teach her everything they knew about the many items they had here. And Natasha soon became attached to them, calling them grandpa and grandma. Unfortunately, Natasha's grandma, who was already quite old, caught the magical plague, one of the few diseases that the magic granted by her relic could not cure and ended up passing away. And now the old man and she were the only family the two had.

"GRANDPA I'M BACK!"

A gray-haired old man who was hammering on an anvil immediately stopped what he was doing and went to hug Natasha.

"Girl, why did you take so many days? Do you want to worry your grandfather to death? Look at you, your hair is so beautiful… Your grandmother would be so happy to see how beautiful you've become…"

Natasha decided not to complain to her grandfather about not becoming a priestess, and accepted his compliments that tried to comfort her for not getting what she wanted. She then told him everything that happened in those 7 days, only hiding the fact that she tried to "take" the Relic. But that went wrong when her grandfather started to scold Ivan for being irresponsible and almost putting her in danger along with him…

She sighed and then smiled hugely for the first time since she became a lycan, thinking about the scene where her grandfather would scold Ivan a lot because of something she did… But she knew that Ivan wouldn't care about his grandfather's unfair accusations and would just bow his head apologetically, she then remembered how she hugged Ivan in a way she had never done before and her face started to turn red, her grandfather then took her out of her thoughts with some news.

"Girl, I've been very busy for the last seven days and I'll be busy for the next seven too. The High Priestess has given us a lot of work, but it's all for the good of the Tribe, so we're working non-stop… That's why I didn't go after you…"

"It wasn't necessary, Grandpa, the walk from here from the outer caves to the central ones has a lot of complicated and difficult terrain and I…" Natasha was interrupted by him.

"I know you failed to become a priestess, but do you still want those things? That item you wanted, I finally found."

Natasha's yellow eyes widened, the final piece for an item she had been working on for many years had finally been found…