THE ISLAND WOLF - EPISODE 35

Dakar opened his eyes slowly as the sun rays blocked his full vision. He sat up on the sand and looked around him. Everything was still, just like it used to be. The ocean waves roared towards the shore as usual, the sand was white and smooth with only his footsteps on it. His arrow basket and bow were afar off and he wondered why it was only his that was there. He also noticed too well that her footsteps were gone, alongside that of the men from the ship. He got up and wiped off the sand from his arms and back. How long had he passed out that everything looked so different already? Had he been lying there for days?
He walked back, tracing his footsteps to his arrows and bow. Truly, it was just his. But Avril’s arrows and bow were also there. She had dropped them when he got shot.

Wait, he got shot? Why wasn’t he feeling any pain?

He touched his chest and it was as smooth and soft like that of a new born baby. Where was the wound? He heals very quickly but not from a silver wound. What was happening to him? He looked behind him for the bodies of the men he killed and no sign of them. Something was wrong somewhere.
He picked his basket of arrows and bow, then ran back to the spot they were training. To his bewilderment, no tree was marked red, no arrow puncture was in any of them, not even a slight change was in the sight. He ran to the mountain house using his wolf speed. Something was very strange about the house. He went to the kitchen, the last place they were before leaving; still same result. He went to his room, where she had come to pick up his own bow and arrows; same result. Finally, he went to her room. The place she slept every night and where she got dressed up for the training; same thing. Avril’s scent had completely disappeared from the mountain house. Dakar could scent a person who had been in a place as far as a month ago, but he couldn’t scent Avril. It was as if she was never there.

“No, it can’t be. Avril was in my life. I know it,” he assured himself as he looked around her room. It was the exact way it was before she arrived. The dress he made hung on the wall, and the bed had that same look. Her new boxes and clothes were gone. The swords and other weapons he ordered had disappeared. Her books, her coffee, her candy; everything was gone. He couldn’t even scent the rabbit.

For the first time ever, Dakar crouched down and cried for Avril’s sake. He was quick to realize that she had been ripped away from him forever.

***
Avril stood at the deck of the ship, holding the railing and looking over the vast blue color that surrounded them on all sides. There had been traveling for more than a week already, and each day she thought about only him. She worried about him, was nervous because of him. She wanted to act strong because that was what he would have wanted her to do, but the fact that the men couldn’t see him worried her. What if he didn’t even exist at all? What if it was her mind that was playing with her all along?
“For six whole months? No, I doubt that,” she mumbled.
The oceanic breeze were having no mercy as her hair danced violently around her face. Even her dress was almost torn off her body. Well, it wasn’t even her dress. It belonged to Betty, who was forced to give some of her clothes and shoes to Avril. Speaking of the devil, Betty showed up behind Avril.

“I would have pushed you off this ship if I didn’t have two reasons not to,” she said, announcing her presence to Avril. Avril looked back at her.
“Yeah? What are they?” she asked. Betty stood beside her and clasped her hands on the railing too.
“If I should push you, Paolo would push me in too. He could even push himself if,” she stated and Avril smirked. She however wondered why they took her that important. It couldn’t totally be because she was Freddie’s favorite.

“And, it’s not the first time you’ve been thrown overboard. You’ll just come back again,” Betty said.
“It’s not as easy as that. I was just lucky,” said Avril.
“Luck, you seem to have plenty of that,” Betty stated and looked at the left side, away from Avril who was at her right. Avril looked at her face, which still had signs of the beating she received.

“How did you get on this ship? Because you’re Paolo’s woman?” Avril asked. Yes, Betty was Paolo’s woman. That was why she had or claimed so much authority on the ship.
“Partially. I had no where else to run to. So, I begged him to let me come. He agreed, only on the condition that I become his woman.”
“And, you agreed? He’s way older than you.”
“I had no choice. I was running away from someone who was way older than Paolo. Though, he was Italian too,” Betty concluded. Avril needn’t ask who and why she was running from this way older man. With the things she had heard on the ship for the past one week, she knew the kind of life Betty ran away from.

“From what I heard from Paolo, you might be taken to somewhere worse. I do hope some of that your luck shines on you. Because, the Mexico they’re taking you, isn’t for the weak,” Betty stated.
Avril looked at her charm bracelet and smiled. Now she realized why Dakar thought her how to fight. She had asked if there was going to be a war and he said you never know. Life itself was war.

“How did you survive? Alone on that island?” Betty asked.
“Survival of the fittest. I faced the unimaginable. I had to fit myself in with him,” Avril answered and shrugged.
“Him?” asked Betty.
“Sorry, I meant ‘it’. The island itself. I am tired, I have to go and rest,” she said and turned to go.

“I’m sorry. The way I treated you that day. I apologise,” Betty said. Avril did not look back at her, she just sighed and started walking back into the ship.

***
That week without Avril was the worst and longest week of his life. Dojo kept laughing in his head, he kept getting angry and breaking stuff, he hardly ate and was staring into space for hours. Something strange, however happened one day. He went inside his room and checked his box for a pin he needed to stitch. He saw a paper and he couldn’t believe it. It didn’t disappear, the letter Avril wrote for him. He read it again and again and again. He finally felt alive again. This was proof that she wasn’t his imagination and that she was real. He folded the paper neatly and clutched it tightly in his palm. Suddenly, his eyes felt drowsy and he couldn’t stand anymore. He felt himself falling into nothingness. It felt like an eternity until he finally opened his eyes. He was lying down on a hard and wet surface, still clutching the letter in his hand. Water was splashing on his face and he realized it was raining. He heard voices, then saw a bright light flashed over him and he closed his eyes.

A loud and close voice now shouted excitedly, “It’s Prince Dakar! Everyone, run here. Prince Dakar is back!”