Xander's POV
I heard the door unlock as I whipped up some spicy ramen in the kitchen.
"I'm back," Sophia said as she got in and shut the door. I closed the lid of the pot and came out from the kitchen to see her.
"Damn, looks like someone took a shower in the rain," I mocked with a chuckle.
"Not funny, Xan," she said as she marched into her room, with squishy footsteps that made me laugh even more. In a few minutes, she was out after probably having taken a hot bath.
"So how was your first day?" I asked as I went into the kitchen to turn off the stove.
"Terrible," she replied, "I mean, who knew that lectures would be even more boring than high school classes?" she asked rhetorically.
"Welcome to my world," I said as I served two bowls of steaming hot ramen on the table. "And, hey, FYI, it just gets worse," I added.
"Well, it isn't all bad. At least I get to meet Methis everyday just like back in high school," she quipped.
"Methis? That's the hot girl from the freshman party last night. Wait, you know her?" I asked in surprise, dropping my chopsticks.
"Yeah, we've been besties since like forever," she replied.
"Oh really?", I asked as I pondered silently on how to get closer to her. "Say Sophia, would you mind giving me...."
"Her number?" she interjected.
"Wow, you really got some clairvoyant abilities," I commented, "Soooo... ?" I asked.
"Not a chance," she replied pausing temporarily as she slurped on her ramen.
"Oh come on. What's the big idea?" I asked with a pleading face.
"I ain't letting a playboy like you anywhere near her", she said, "you're no good for her. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're literally poisonous to her," she added.
"Ouch," I said calmly, "but regardless, I think I like her. You won't ruin such a potentially beautiful relationship, will you?" I urged, trying my best to sound convincing.
"Not buying it," she said, "you're just gonna use her and leave. I can't let her get hurt because of you and that's final," she insisted.
"You know what? Fine. I'll leave her alone," I said as if resigning to defeat.
"Much better," she said, now dropping the chopsticks into her already empty bowl. Then she stood up and went to her room. I wasn't going to give up that easily, that's for sure. I had an idea!
Jamal POV
Maybe I needed to take more combat practice, or better still, more endurance practice. My performance in the fight was not what I expected and it was not encouraging at all. I really needed to up my game if not I would not be getting anywhere in the future. After the White Witch had left the castle, I knew she was going to go in search of the Dark Witch. It was what I expected her to do, and she did just that.
She might be a witch, but I was a werewolf, and if there was anything I prided myself in doing as a werewolf, was stealth. It was a werewolf thing and once you were a werewolf, you could do it. However, that was the undoing of a lot of us. They never practiced it because it was a gift and once a gift is not expanded upon, it becomes a liability.
Nothing is worse than thinking you are capable when in reality you are incapable. That ignorance is the parent of dangerous confidence. Confidence that was not backed by ability.
I was different though. I trained my stealth, and I had gotten so good with it that even a witch with all her magic was unable to spot me once I was in the zone and ready to trail. And that was exactly what I did to the White Witch. She was hard to follow, she was skilled, experienced, and light on her feet thanks to her magic and it took all my intuition and senses to keep up. On the way, she encountered perils that she dealt with expertly so I really did not have any problem. She was the wall and my first line of defense. If anything got past her, which hardly occurred, then I would deal with it myself, assuming it found me too.
The outback of the wolf realm was no joke. It was no place for mere folks to wonder. It was no place for feeble men. Sometimes, wolves went in packs or armies when going through the outback and only the best of the best made it out and back into the wolf realm alive. There were all manners of darkness that lurked in every corner. The whispers of dead men through their dried-up bones were muffled by the echoes of dark magic and the remains of past wars that had been fought here centuries ago. The stories went that whenever two armies made their way to fight a war in The Outback, three armies ended up fighting the war. The last army being the army of the dead. Jamal himself had had a taste of war here, howbeit just a skirmish in the sight of the other ones that were fought here during riskier and treacherous times. It was during the Great Mutiny of the Dark Witch or so it was called by the young pups who heard the story. A fierce encounter, it was. However, most of the fighting happened within the walls of the Wolf Realm because of the methods of the Dark Witch.