CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Howl

Hope turned her head as she felt the pressure of the blade touch her chest. She expected more pain and not just what was coming from the blade, her hands were shaking with fear as she placed them on the blade on her chest.
Her eyes flickered open, the blade wasn't on her skin and not in her.
Rayk's face drew a blank stare at her. She looked up at the minotaur, confused at why he hadn't struck the blade into her as he had said. Looking down, she realized why.
The locket that she had gotten from Kno had blocked the dagger from killing her underneath her robes. She gasped, tears streamed down her cheeks. Kno... oh Kno... Hope thought, she gulped. Rayk's confused expression turned to malice again. He drew back his arm for another swing at it.
This time, however, Sight was more prepared to stop Rayk. Sight swung his sword's hilt at Rayk's skull from behind where it was the weakest nearest to the spine. Instantly, Rayk dropped unconcious to the floor with a loud thump. Sight returned his sword to the sheath. He then rubbed his hands together, with his palms the minotaur touched Rayk's back with them gently.
"Verah, Rayk." He mumbled, white orbs formed from the minotaur's palms and were absorbed by Rayk. Rayk began to glow brightly until it was too bright for Hope and Valko to stare at.
When they saw that the glow had gone from the walls returning to their usual color both of them looked down at the floor seeing that Rayk was no longer there. Valko and Hope stared at Sight and then at the flood where Rayk's body had been seconds ago.
"Wah-what happened?" Hope asked astonished staring at Sight as he took his full height. "What happened to him now?"
Sight placed his hands on his sword, looking down at the spot, sadness covered his eyes clouding him from the reason of doing what he had done.
"He's in another dimension, sort of. Waiting for judgement against the attacks he committed." Sight explained plainly. "My grandfather will judge his spirits."
Valko helped Hope to her bed, she looked completely pale on her face especially. She stared at her chest, where she felt the locket. It was pure luck, Hope realized that she wasn't killed by the dagger that Rayk had... If it wasn't for Kno, she would have died a minute ago.
"Judge his spirits?" Valko repeated, his voice sounded small and weakened.
Sight gazed down at the two, he smiled.
"The two of you know too much now... but there is nothing I can do about it. Since Hope, you are friends of the gods... I shall be a friend too." The minotaur's smile broke away though. "Mino will either let him live as a slave for his actions or take his life and send him to The Dark. No, not the good The Dark but the hell side of it."
Hope's fingers fingered around her locket, she shook her head. Tears dropped down to her chin, Hope took her locket off around her neck to look at it. Her locket during the whole thing it hadn't gotten a scratch from that dagger. She let the chain of the locket dangle beneath her hand freely.
"Why would he want to kill us all?" Valko asked, he looked at Hope's blank stare at the locket. "Rayk was a priest of your grandfather's... so why?"
Sight laughed bitterly, his ears flicked as if there was a fly hovering near it.
"If there was no Sight, if there was no Hope and if there was no Valko... Rayk's becoming the next god increased greatly that scares people out of their skins." Sight growled. The minotaur took his sword and placed it on the wood of the floor. He leaned against it. He shifted his attention to Hope now. "If that dagger would have touched you, you would have a high chance of be dying at the very moment. Perhaps, Kno knew something like this would happen. That's unusual though... Give me the bandages, Valko. I'll work on Hope's wing."
Taking out the bandage roll from the bag, Valko handed it over to Sight who took it letting go off of his sword. The minotaur walked closer to Hope, drawing a chair next to her. Then sitting down, Sight began to take a small strip of the bandage for cleaning.
"Valko, I have some silver coins in this bag." Sight said taking a small bag from his belt and handing it over to Valko. "Go to a shop and ask for a small bottle of clear water. Any shop should have it. Just look for the shop signs-"
"I have shopped before," Valko sighed looking at the small pouch containing large amount of silver. "This is too much, don't you think so for a small bottle?"
"Hope, I need you to sit at the edge of the bed with your right wing towards me." Sight said, crumbling up the small piece of bandage ready to dab at the wounds. Hope moved to where the minotaur wanted her to be at, she looked towards the window. The minotaur moved to see Valko on the chair. "Yes, it's too much but I thought that you should bring something to eat for the two of you."
Valko ran his fingers through his hair, thinking.
"Well, Hope and I have something to eat already. But I can buy for you though if you don't mind." Valko said suprised at the generosity of the minotaur. "Since it's your money."
Sight waved for him to go. "Don't forget your key."
"Yes, father." Valko rolled his eyes as he exited from the room.
Sight placed his hands on Hope's wing, slowly extending them as Hope's arms clenched. Small needles stung her wing as if the feathers were being pulled and placed back causing the pain that Hope felt.
With the bandage, he slowly started cleaning the wounds that still looked fresh as if they were made very recently. Truly, they hadn't healed at all but the pain of them had lessened greatly. Sight felt around the joint the connected the bone of the wing to Hope's back. He backed away grimly what he felt.
"Well, that one Myrbeast dislocated that wing. But, I think I'll be able to handle it." Sight said throwing the bloody bandage away into a bin near them. He smiled at Hope as she left the gaze of the window. "There's a greater chance that I'll hurt it more due to my power but I'll try to use less than I'm used to."
Hope gulped and nodded.
"Whatever it takes," she answered to him. Hope flinched as he placed his massive hands around the wing and Hope's chest.
Sight chuckled, he pressed force on Hope's chest as he was trying to get the wing back to its place. Hope's body shook violently, as the wing was being put to its place once more. It felt as if it was being taken out like the first time the Myrbeast placed its fangs on it.
She thought of different things that would keep her busy not thinking what was going on. Hope thought of her friends who all were back in the north. She wished that she could be there and not in this situation... More pain traveled around her body, she twisted her arm trying to think of that instead of the wing.
"Do you want that next to be fixed?" Sight growled. "Do something else that won't hurt your body."
Hope stopped twisted her arm, she flinched once more.
"Why are you doing this? Helping us, I mean." Hope asked, she bit her lip almost screaming out.
Sight for a second stopped the pressure. When he continued, he mumbled something to himself.
"Don't you know anything of our race, young Hope?" Sight began, he continued taking Hope's silence as her answer. "Minotaurs are a proud race... if there is someone who saves them. Well then they are in dept to that person until they believe the dept was payed for. I don't think that your life would be taken even if I didn't do this. This will be a start."
She opened her mouth, pain only came out as she gasped. A minute later, Hope started to feel better from that moment.
"So you will help us getting to the south?" Hope asked, she felt confused still of the matter that Sight was coming to help them just getting out of danger himself. The minotaur grunted as his answer pushing the bone gently as he could feeling around it.
"Ah," Sight smiled.
The next thing that Hope felt was relief from the bone as it made a popping noise. Sight still felt around the bone, moving it to what he believed to be the final place for it. Still, she had few sharp pains. Hope bit her lip, gazing out through the window.
Sight had let go off of her wing and stepped back looking at it from a bit further away. She turned her head towards him, seeing the wing was in place once more. Hope reached her hand over to her wing to feel it. When she touched the tip of her feathers, a painful stinging erupted from the touch.
"The wounds in the wing still are hurting you," Sight growled, he sat down again on the chair. Then taking out the roll of bandages, he took another piece of it again. He crumbled it like the last one he used for dabbing at the wounds. Sight took the tip wing to extend it while using the other hand to clean the wounds made. "No flying for a long time if you don't want to get your wing chopped so it wouldn't harm the left wing."
"Yes..." Hope winced, she lowered her head slowly. She could feel a slight sting coming from the part of the wing that Sight was working on but it wasn't that bad as it was minutes ago. "Why didn't the healer notice that the wing wasn't in its place anyways?"
Sight chuckled, he lowered the wing down for few seconds looking at Hope shaking his head.
"I might have had something to do with that, young one." Sight smiled dabbing Hope's wing with the cloth. "Or I didn't."
Hope frowned, she didn't like how the minotaur was talking in riddles at her. She looked towards the window seeing few butterflies fluttering near the open window. Tilting her head at them, Hope curiously continued to stare at them with sudden curiousity.
"My grandfather is Mino, while my father is like any oridinary minotaur, a warrior. He would have liked being the god but my grandfather refused, saying that the first born of his should be." Sight dropped the bloodied bandage to the thrash next to him and ripped another one to dab it on her right wing. "Mino did this because he cared for his only son. Now, he cares for me as well seeing how I am. And so, he'll hold on until Mifourmanta is brought back. Mino shall be the God of the Minotaurs forever then. Do you know why he's keeping the position?"
Hope shook her head, she looked down at her hands. Her mind buzzing with different ideas, of the history.
"Mino knows that the gods' jobs are harder than they look. He didn't want my father to suffer or me becoming a god of the minotaurs." Sight chuckled, he gazed at the window looking at the butterflies trying to come into the room. Returning his gaze at the wing, he whispered. "My grandfather didn't want us to suffer the same fate as he but on the day that I was born... I was made his god apprentice."
Hope whirled her head at Sight, amazed what she heard.
"The first day that you were born...? Doesn't that break rules of choosing the apprentices?" Hope asked keen into learning more of the gods. She kept her head towards Sight as she listened.
"No, there are no rules. An apprentice of a minotaur could as well be a human if that was what the god wanted. But there would be an uproar amongst the people. That would tell that the god is not good enough for that job, but what can the mortals do these days? No mortal can defeat a god in his or her own will. A god can be killed by another god or a very special potion. No god has been killed but that will change with Hollow around." Sight concluded, he started gently wrapping Hope's wing with the endless bandages still coming from the roll. Hope turned her head to her hands, she felt sorrowful. She thought of Claudia, the daughter of Akaza the farmer...
"But there have been tens of apprentices killed by someone who's jealous of them just like Rayk." Sight said as if he had read Hope's mind.
Minutes passed quietly as Sight was finishing up the wrapping around the wing carefully not trying to hard the feathers too badly. With a small bow at the end of Hope's wing, Sight managed to cover the whole wing perfecly so not a blue feather could be seen through the bandage. Happy with his own work, Sight stood up and held his hand for Hope to take. Helping Hope to stand up, Sight looked over to the window, worried.
"You friend has been gone for sometime now," Sight thought to himself outloud. "Perhaps we should go-"
A deep howl filled the silent air around them. The howl sounded like it was coming somewhere close around them. Seconds later, the howl stopped only to be continued by a new howl.
Hope looked down from the window, she saw villagers running away from something back into their homes locking up the doors.
"Let's go, Sight." Hope said managing grabbing her staff as she walked by it quickly. She was at the door but Sight grabbed her shoulder.
"No, I'll go and you stay here." Sight said opening the door instead of Hope. The loud howl was getting nearer to them every second they stood there. "This shouldn't have happened. I thought the gods took care of him."
"Who?" Hope raised a question with a single word but Sight didn't answer.
The minotaur walked quickly out of the room, holding his sword in his right hand ready to protect Hope. Behind of Sight Hope walked quickly as she could with the wing weighing her down just a bit. Making sure that she was just few feet away from Sight, Hope's head faced the floor watching her feet walk oddly.
Coming to the stairs, Sight took Hope's free hand and jumped off of the first step down. For a single moment, Hope thought that Sight was mad to do this. Second later, the two of them were hovering gracefully down the stairs by magic. With a thump, the two hit the floor with their feet making Hope unbalanced until Sight caught her almost falling over.
"Come." Sight said still holding onto her hand as they were coming out of the door through the first room where the human keeper was no where to be found.
Walking to outside, Hope saw that there was nobody there except for Valko who was dragging his foot leaving a blood trail behind of him. Valko stood tallest as he could for few seconds looking at Hope with his eyes filled with fear for his loved one.
"Hope, watch out... He's here." Valko staggered a bit but managed to stay up a bit longer. "King Blood." With those two last words, he fell over to the dirt. A deep growl suprised Hope and Sight from their side.
A large brown-furred canine stood proudly, baring his fangs at them glaring.
"At long last... I will avenge my son."