15. Horror in the Air

The haze of fear was spread every corner of the deep forest of Andhar Mountain. The inhalation becomes even harder for Akshara. As her lungs were running out of oxygen, she begins to fill in through her mouth. The terror sucked every breath from her mouth.
She could feel that her heart begins to beat faster rapidly. Akshara’s skin started secretions of sweating to keep her body cool. She stood behind the tree with hands in her mouth to cover her breath sound not to be heard by the demonic beast behind the enormous tree.
Even though he is not the man she knows an hour before, it’s a beast. Only Terrific Beast!
Karen who now completely transformed into a werewolf could smell her fear, approached her to reveal his true self and called in a wolfish tone, “Axe…!”
Akshara freaked out in panic and her brain was preparing instantly to two options FIGHT OR FLIGHT. Either to fight off the danger which is standing majestically before her or run as fast she could to get away from him. Akshara chose the second option, i.e., to flight.
In the process of flight, she doesn’t mind her steps and ran deep into the woods in search of the path that leads her to her palace. She looked everywhere keenly to remember what could be the route Karen used before.
The teary eyes deceived her brain to choose the correct path. She lost track in panic; her visions were blurring due to tears. Each and every direction looked identical.
Akshara was lost into the deep woods of Andhar Mountain.
She frequently rubbed her eyes to see the clear vision and dared to look back to sense the danger approaching her. She thought she was senseless and even blamed her stupidity for coming to that place. Suddenly she remembers the saying,
“All the beauty beholds the mystery”.
Akshara was used to be a bookworm to read all the books in her home library. So she knew theoretically how to survive in a crisis. But it’s time for her to implement those lessons practically i.e., to run by not turning back.
Akshara’s mind echoed to her; how stupid you are to ignore your instinct about keeping tracks of the way to Andhar Mountain. See, what happens. You lost your way.
Now, what do I do now? I can’t ask for help from Karen who escorts me here. He is changed into a wolf. I can’t even imagine how did he change his true self from human to wolf.
Oh my god! Could he be Werewolf? What if I was dreaming… but it was too long and too real. It cannot be a dream. It was me who chose to see Bluemoon night. But it blows me away. It is indeed the worst nightmare.
The fairy tale, Red Riding Hood was recreating itself, left with the little girl like me and the big wolf-like Karen. Oh god! Please show some mercy of me to find my way to the palace. I will run into the hands of my elders for comfort.
Karen looked everywhere to spot Akshara. He was struggling with his true self as a werewolf. He finally found deadly relief in changing his shape to the werewolf. Even though, he wanted to safeguard Akshara from danger. DANGER! Who would dare to bring danger to his love as he the powerful Beta Werewolf?
But, Karen’s heart ached when he saw Akshara panicked in fear of seeing him as a werewolf. He thought to himself, how Axe will feel on seeing me like this. I was an inch apart from touching her lips. I was that close to confessing my love. Now I can’t confess.
I don’t know whether she will consider my love. I am not sure; whether she will consider me ever as a living being. Oh no, Axe is running in the wrong direction. I must help her.
Wait…she is running away from me. She must be frightened of my true self. Anyway, I am going to help her to reach the palace. It’s me who brings her to this mountain and it’s my responsibility to take her back to her palace safely.
Karen growled in a wolfish tone, “Axe… stop… Don’t run”.
Akshara doesn’t have the guts to turn to have a look at him, her red cloak was hung to one of the branches and she thought it was Karen who was pulling her cloak towards him.
Akshara shouted till her throat dried without turning back and she hurried to get rid of him and with a sudden pull of her cloak, it ripped off from the branch and ended up hitting against a tree and rolled down in the deep forest, unconsciously.
After a while, Akshara gained her conscious and she slowly opened her eyes and closed tightly by seeing Karen standing in front of her in a werewolf form and so started to screech in fear, “Karen…go away…leave me…don’t hurt me”.
By hearing her words, Karen lost all of his hope and stepped back with a heavy heart and hides him behind a big bush, away from his love Akshara. Tears rolled down from his golden eyes to hear such GO AWAY words from her.
Who will fall in love with such an ugly fierce demonic Beast?
Akshara somehow gained some strength to stand on her feet and started running. Karen felt sorry for her and followed her not to be hurt by any other beast in Andhar Mountain. She was bleeding on her forehead and had some scratches on her elbow and knees.
She found relief by reaching her familiar way to the palace.
*****
At the same time in the sky…
Ivan asked, “Nora, I don’t think we could find the witch palace”
Nora replied to Dev, “Let’s separate and hunt those phantoms, Dev.”
Dev agreed and replied to both, “Let’s gather here after we found that palace”
Nora, a purple dragon took her exploration towards Ardna Chirig and found a lonely suspicious beautiful palace with a large backyard with a gigantic tree. She glimpsed from the sky while taking a big round around the palace and could identify that the tree is Peridexion.
Nora could not find any witch palace and thought, “Information must be false. Perhaps, it may be a trap”, she hurried to share her idea in the place where Dev told them to gather.
When Nora was about to return, a ball of fire hit her back. She growled in pain and she suddenly turned to look in the direction of fireball came from. She moved even closer to the palace to examine who did this to her, to her rage and another ball of fire came out from the same direction. Nora escaped the second attack.
Nora doesn’t want to give up on an unknown opponent and opened her mouth to shoot her flames in the direction. The purple-coloured flames were burst open from her mouth. There were a series of purple flames and balls of fire exchanged from both sides.
Akshara with her wounded legs somehow reached the palace and halted to watch the series of fire flakes in the sky.
Akshara asked herself, “Who the hell is doing these fireworks in this middle of the night. Everyone was slept by the time I left the palace. Are they celebrating the transformation of Karen? No, No. No one except me knows the fact about him.
Uncle Bruz would be shocked to hear this news from me. On seeing him, he would panic like me. Aunt can’t tolerate this. It would be a sudden blow to her. Who has a strong heart to see their beloved child changed into Wolf?”
When Akshara was about to enter the palace, a big storm from nowhere started to blow by collecting all the specks of dust to form as a mist. The smoky mist continues to cover the entire palace and she could feel the ground shaking under her feet. She rushed to nearby ground and hold on to something which was caught by her hand and yelped.
Karen took a great leap and he rushed to Akshara to help her but hesitated to go near her thinking that his look would scare her and also his furs would sting her. Though he rushed to see what is happening exactly without involving the scene he was alert all the time to help Akshara if she needs.