Chapter 23: A New Dawn

Erik was confused to find himself in the forest. It was dark; he never entered the forest at night. But suddenly, he remembered the dream that he had in the past. It appeared the same as that dream.

He heard the sound of the stream; it was dark around him so he carefully walked toward it. After a few meters of walking, he was out of the lush greenery and he saw the stream flowing before him. He walked closer to the stream when his eyes caught sight of a dog—or at least that’s what he thought at first.

He quickly recognized it; it wasn’t a dog, but the same fox-like wolf cub that had now grown big. It was as big as a bulldog and it had red fur on its body, which was emitting red light. Those fur strands appeared like they were burning with fire.

Suddenly, the wolf turned its head toward him and saw him standing on the other side of the stream. It had an expression of anger which turned angrier at seeing him! It quickly stood up and rushed toward the stream and took a jump; the fox-sized wolf was in the middle of its jump when everything turned dark.

Erik woke up in his bed with a heavy headache. It was worse than the previous ones. He was sleeping naked in his bedroom.

The memory of all the information that was provided by Tanha came rushing to him. He also thought about that letter, but again some alien emotions started to give him headaches, so he stopped thinking about it.

One thing was clear: something was wrong. The wolf bite, then him lose control over his body. Some kind of instinct dominated his senses. Changes in his body increase in his sense of smell and hearing ability. Also those weird dreams and doing things that he didn’t remember doing.

‘And then the event that happened that night.’

If what the letter said was true, then Alice’s real name was Minerva and she had a twin sister and both of them were witches. Last night during a rescue mission to save Minerva’s sister, he had somehow fought the hunters and killed them.

He killed people! The thought itself was unnerving for someone like Erik. All of this information was disturbing his heart and mind. He took a shower and went down to the kitchen. He found Tanha wearing the same yellow dress while cooking.

“Good Morning, Master!”

“Morning.”

He sat at the dining table. The thought of Alice-Minerva leaving the town again came to his mind; it started to give him another headache so he dropped thinking about her and instead focused on his breakfast.

He thought about the dreams. When he had the first one about that small wolf cub, it was a weird dream. Then in the second one, it was the same wolf but it was now the size of a fox.

“Tanha, what do you know about werewolves?”He asked the question to the demoness who was serving him his breakfast.

“They are cursed beasts, Master. Like the bastard version of Hellhound, but a lot weaker.”

“Oh! Do you think I am a werewolf?”

While he knew Tanha wasn’t a reliable source of information, since he barely knew her, one thing was clear. Currently, she was the only one who knew more about him than he did.

“Haa, hah hah!” Sweet laughter came out of the demoness’s mouth. “Master, you are anything but a werewolf!”

He wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but he looked at his breakfast and started to eat.

She spoke again, “Master, werewolves are unique creatures and there are various stories about their origin. And if you think you are a werewolf, then don’t worry; tonight is a full moon and we will see the truth.”

She appeared to take things very casually; now that he could see her face, she was enjoying the moment like she had gotten some kind of good news.

While explaining about werewolves, Tanha knew very well that Erik wasn’t one. Then the question was, what was he? She had never heard about any human or beast that could replenish their life force.