Louisa’s POV
"You have to remain still. Don’t move." my wolf said.
She seldom talks to me like this in my mind.
"Could you come out and help me, please?" I asked.
"No. The collar on your neck was dipped in wolfsbane. You can’t shift." she said.
I felt sweat dripping from my forehead.
Another spider arrived at my face.
I gasped.
"Don’t move." my wolf said.
"What are they doing? Are there more to come?" I was screaming silently, "I can’t do this anymore…"
"Stop panicking! You have to close your eyes and remain absolutely still. They won’t bite you if they think that you’re a rock." my wolf said.
I shut my eyes and mouth closed.
"The fear of spiders is a primal one. It’s an old phobia derived from our ancestors. I can’t help it." I said desperately to her.
"You can do whatever you want to do. Your fear is irrelevant. It’s all inside your mind. Just don’t let your fear overtake you. Just concentrate on healing yourself." my wolf said.
She was always so calm and full of wisdom.
Why couldn’t I be more like her?
I cleared my thoughts and temporarily forgot about the spiders crawling on my body.
"You can move your fingers now. That’s a good sign." my wolf said, "It means that the poison left in your body was slowly dissolved."
"I don’t understand…" I said, "I thought the red cobra’s poison was lethal. Uma used to come across some soldiers bitten by snakes. She had to give up on saving them, because they had already passed away before being sent to her."
"I guess someone hadn’t given up on you. The venom in your wound was sucked out. So it didn’t manage to make your heart paralyzed." my wolf said.
"But who has sucked it out? The black wolf?" I asked.
"I don’t know. I can only feel what you’ve felt. When you were unconscious, I lost my consciousness as well." my wolf said.
"Do you like him?" I asked.
"Whom?" she asked.
"The big black wolf." I answered.
"I don’t like him." she said, "He’s dangerous."
"He protected me." I felt a bit surprised.
"If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t have been injured." my wolf said.
"I thought you’d like him." I said.
"I’ve already found my mate." she said.
"But Alpha Lucas is cruel and mean to me. He just wants to torture me because I’m weak." I said.
"If you get stronger, he’ll start to like you." my wolf said.
"I’ll be stronger," I bit my lips, "but that’s just because I want to protect myself from him, not because I want him to like me. I will never ever fall in love with a man that… bad."
I just couldn’t find any more words to describe him.
He was a big bad wolf.
That’s what he was.
"I’ll be stronger and someday I will kill him. It’s for revenge for Uma and all the people in my village."
My eyes started to get moist again.
"I won’t let you kill him." my wolf said in a calm voice, "If you kill your mate, you’ll be dead, and I’ll be dead as well. I don’t want to die."
"How are you going to stop me?" I frowned.
The spiders seemed to detect the movement of my eyebrows and started to move towards my forehead.
"I can force you to do things, but I have never wanted to do that." my wolf said, "You’re my friend, not my puppet. But when you do things that endanger our lives, I will have to stop you, because I love you and I want to spend more time with you."
My heart was melting. I really wished I could hug her, like the way Uma used to hug me.
"I’ll be stronger. I promise." I said.
More spiders were getting on my face.
I tried to lift my palm, but I still couldn’t do it.
I felt that it was still loaded with lead.
Then, I felt something cold and slimy start to build up on my face.
It was the spider web!
Those spiders seem to decide to wrap my head up with their silk!
As more secreted substances accumulated in my nose and mouth, I started to feel suffocated.
I didn’t dare to open my mouth to breathe, because those spiders might bite me.
Or worse, they might get into my mouth.
"What shall I do?" I asked my wolf.
"Don’t get panic. Don’t move. Do you feel it?" she asked.
I started to feel the tremor on the ground.
It was a slow but steady rhythm, just like some giant animal stamping their feet.
The spiders on my face felt the same thing.
They quickly crawled down from my face and stampeded.
But my nose and mouth were still covered by layers of spider webs.
I focused all my strength on my hand and tried to lift it up to my face.
My head started to get dizzy because of the lack of oxygen.
Darkness and fear were unfurled into the shape of webs.
They covered me, layer after layer, slowly making me feel suffocated, gradually depriving the life of my body.
Just before I passed out into oblivion, I heard my wolf’s voice calling me.
"You can do whatever you want to do, Louisa."
"Try one more time."
I focused the last of my strength on my hand and it was finally lifted up slightly in the air.
I gave it one last try.
I miraculously managed to lift it up to my face and rip off all the spider webs on my face.
Then, I gasped the air into my lungs.
At the same time, the distant tremor on the ground transformed into some sort of vibration, getting closer and closer.
Then, I heard the piercing trumpeting sound of elephants.
I used my hand to rub my eyes, lifted my upper body up and looked at the entrance of the cave.
My vision was still bleary.
Everything in the cave seemed to be foggy.
But I manage to distinguish some giant blurry figures from the shadow of the night.
Big majestic animals with enormous trunks and flapping ears, basking in silver moonlight, were slowly moving into the cave.
It looked like they were performing some mystic but graceful ritual in the mysterious darkness of the night.
Then, a figure appeared at the entrance of the cave.