C17 It's My Duty To Protect You

Dean POV

"I can risk my life for Rieka, please I wanna meet her, please take me to her", I said.

"I promised her that I would protect you and your friend, I know what will happen if I took you to the kingdom of shapeshifters, don't worry Rieka will come for you, as soon as she escapes from her aunt's house, she will join us, I can assure you that", she replied.

"Thank you for saving our life's, if you would not show up these wild beasts would tear us both into several pieces", I replied.

"I would not protect you. I am only here because of my sister, you are her love, so it's my duty to protect you, if you have to thank anyone, then thank her not me", she added.

"What's your name?", I asked her.

"My name is Helena", she replied.

"So you are a shapeshifter too, just like Rieka", I asked her.

"Yes I am a shapeshifter, and a dangerous one too, my sister is not dangerous as she has still not gained her powers yet", she replied.

"So you saved Rieka from the emperor?"Ryan asked her.

"Yes I was the one who dragged her into the forest, I saved her life", she replied.

"Thank you for saving her life", I added.

She is my sister silly!!!, I had to save her life. "I love her, I can do anything to protect my sister", she replied.

"Did she tell you anything about me?"I asked her.

"Yes she told me many things about you and your friend, she loves you, she can risk her life too for you, like how you risked your life to meet her in this forest", she added.

"I wanted to ask her why did she use me, why didn't she reveal her identity, was she scared of me?", I said.

"No she was not scared of you, nor she used you, you misunderstood my sister, she never used you, she loved you, I won't tell you anything else, you can ask her yourself, when she arrives here", she replied.

"Okay fine, can I ask you one thing?", I added.

"Yes you can, ask me anything u want but except about my sister",she replied.

"How did you defeat the bears in just a few seconds? There were three bears, it's impossible to do that", I asked her.

"Why do you always forget that we are not humans, we are shapeshifters, the animals are our food, we hunt them to fill our belly, we don't eat humans, we hunt the other wild ones, and we have their flesh", she replied.

"Ohh, I didn't know that, I thought that you guys hurt humans", I replied.

No we don't hurt humans, once a upon a time we used to save humans and protect them, but when time passed humans changed they began to hunt us and hurt us, because of you humans we lost many of our shapeshifter, Rieka lost her parents, and I lost my dad too, just because of you people", she replied.

"We killed Rieka's parents,it's not possible because our villagers ever killed any wolves", I replied.

"The king killed her parents and my dad too, I lost him When I was little", she replied.

"I am sorry for your loss but we never meant to hurt you shapeshifters, we were just trying to save our lives from the emperor, he ordered us to get at least one wolf a month and hand it over to him alive, if we don't obey his olders he would kill each family a month as a sacrifice", I replied.

"Do you know what his intentions are, why he wants the wolves, that is us the shapeshifters' ', she asked me.

"He wants your skin, because he is fond of animal skin", I replied.

"No you idiot, he doesn't want our skin he wants our charm, this charm has powers, it protects us, it shows us the way, it shows us our true identity and it will always remind us who we are", when we are born this stone gets created by itself, he wants it he wants to capture the shapeshifters soul, he has captured Rieka's mom and dad's soul, my dad's soul", she replied.

"Why don't you defeat him, you have the powers, you are so powerful?",I asked her.

"No I am not that powerful, he is a Sorcerer, he is the most powerful Sorcerer in the world, he has our charms too which makes him more powerful, he can kill us anytime if he gets to know where we are hiding, we cannot defeat him", I replied.

"There must be some way to defeat the emperor, there is nothing impossible, there must be a way?", I asked her.

"Yes there is a way, if we get our charms back, the souls of the shapeshifters will help us defeat him, but without the charm it is impossible to defeat him, the souls know how to defeat him, he must have kept the charm is a safe place where no one could reach them", she replied.

"Is it possible to defeat the king with the charms", I asked her.

"It's not easy, but It'll weaken him, which will make it a bit easy to defeat him, we just need a plan", she replied.

``I want to defeat the king, he has killed enough of my people and your people too, I want to put an end to this, after defeating the emperor we all will get our freedom, we are no longer his slaves, we have to not risk our lives to hunt the wolf", I replied.

"Yes I know, we will be free too, we have to not live in terror of losing our lives, we are all afraid that if the king gets to know our hiding spot, he will come in search of us and hunt every shapeshifter, kill all of us, and he will gain more power, which is very bad, he will take advantage of his power, by harming other,we need to stop him before he hunting the other shapeshifters and grab their charms and souls from them", she replied.

"Is it possible for the shapeshifters who lost their charms and souls to get alive again,Rieka would get her parents back and you can get your dad too, I replied.

"No they will get peace, they won't be alive", she replied.

"At Least their souls will rest in peace instead of suffering with the emperor", she replied.

"Anyways let's talk about something else, if you want to ask anything related to our world you can ask Rieka, because to tell you the truth I am literally tired today I had to make sure you and your friend were safe, I didn't rest even I minute, I put all my strength in tracking both of you, I need some rest, Is that your tent, I will rest in your tent, and Dean's friend, Ryan right? Can you please fetch me some water, I am very thirsty, I will wait for you to get a glass of water in your tent", she replied, saying that she went inside our tent.

"I am not her servant, dean",Ryan whispered in my ears.

"She saved our lives Ryan, we are in dept, and for now she is our guests, she also helped me knowing about Rieka, at least I know that Rieka didn't hurt me in purpose, she has a valid reason, all I need to do is now just wait for her", I replied.

"Okay fine, but I won't tolerate this again, because I am not her servant, no doubt she is beautiful, hot, attractive and gorgeous, but she can't treat us like that dean", Ryan said.

"Ryan, listen she belongs from a royal family that's obvious she will have this kind of attitude,just tolerate her for sometime only for me please, just do as she said, after we get. our answers from Rieka we can leave, you can return back to the village", I replied.

"You are not coming along with me", Ryan asked.

"No I might noto, I am thinking of settling in another village, my mom's relative stays there, she might give some space in her house to stay", I replied.

"Why are you not coming along with me Dean?",he asked.

"I can't return, the king will come for both of us, if you return alone he spare your life, if I return along with you he try to get answers of his questions from us, I can't risk your life, and you know very well the king can go to any extent", I replied.

"Now go and fetch sone water, ahevis tired and thirsty, till then I will complete our pending work, we need to also collect mushrooms and fruits for dinner tonight", I replied.

"We can have the bear meat, something different, dean", he replied.

"Oh yes we can, but we sti need to collect them for breakfast Tomorrow, so we need to leave to collect them", I replied.

Ryan POV

I was not feeling well that day, because of the trip, Dean told me to rest and he by himself without Max went to collect the mushrooms, fruits and he also went fishing alone.

I was resting in the tent, I vomited twice. Whenever I travel, I get sick. We traveled continuously for 3 days. Max was sitting near my tent, I was feeling lonely without Dean so I hugged Max. he was inside the tent, he was protecting me.

After a few hours Dean showed up, he began to prepare for dinner.

He made mushroom soup, and fish fry, he added some medicinal herbs in that so thai o could feel better.

I also watched the night, to make sure that we all are safe, and no wild beast could attack us in the dark.

I felt bad for Dean, he is so stressed because of Rieka.

Rieka would never get a man like Dean in her life, he is a precious jewel, only lucky ones would have someone like him in their lives.

I am lucky to have a friend like him, who is understanding, and who always has my back. Whenever I am in trouble he will be there for me, he can also sacrifice his life for me, I am lucky to have a friend like him in my life.

It was morning, Dean woke me up by handing me a bowl of soup.

I was now feeling much better, I could join Dean in collecting the items that we needed to prepare for dinner and breakfast.

We were in shortage of arrows as we used them all to kill the wild poisonous snakes who tried to kill both of us.

Dean went to collect the sharp stones and woods to make the arrows, I stayed behind to search for a stone on which we could make the arrows sharp.

I searched the stone and waited for Dean to get the woods and sharp stone.

After an hour Dean showed up with them, we began to make the arrows. I helped Dean In making Dean, he was an expert in making tools for hunting as he used to help the villagers to make theirs.

Suddenly three bears showed up in front of us, they looked dangerous, Dean told me to light the woods with fire as it was the only way of getting rid of these bears.

I did as he said,I tried to light up the woods with fire but it was not happening, Dean was yelling from behind to hurry, I yelled back that I am trying.

All of the sudden, the whole atmosphere was filled with fog, it reminds me of Rieka. The same thing happened when Reika transformed herself into a wolf, and attacked the emperor. And she disappeared in the fog, the same thing is happening again today, we couldn't see anything, I called out for Dean, to make sure he was okay, after few seconds the fog disappeared, and we saw something which was horrifying