Chapter 25 - Bianca

My first night in Sanctuary was quiet and restless.

I had slept so much during the day that it was hard for me to fall back asleep at night, even after the unbelievably hearty and fatty meal of ox stew porridge. I didn't want to leave the warmth of my small room so I resolved to sit by the window overlooking the courtyard and watch the falling snow.

I was told earlier in the day that the large building I was to stay in for the coming days was a sort of barracks for the fighters, most of whom were half-breeds like Ganzorig. As I watched the gentle snow, I could see flickering lights from the rooms across the courtyard. There were some solitary young men and women, till I found myself snooping into the window of a young couple about to get it on. I sighed and looked away because it only reminded me of what and who I'd left behind and this sudden responsibility that was thrust upon me.

All I wanted was to get away from home and find myself à la 'Eat, Pray, Love'. I wasn't expecting this divine duty. And why me of all people? Yeah, I may be a descendent of the Greywood bloodline, but I don't see how that makes me any more special than, for instance, the Jiminez blood of Violet Moon or even uncle Freddie from Golden Heart. At the end of the day, I'm just a wolf from Silver Bow.

I grabbed the new phone I purchased before leaving Silver Bow and went back to bed to surf the net for a while and distract my thoughts. Given that there were no reception towers for miles from my location, the connection was quite slow. Like a creep, I decided to check on Astrid's social media for an update, but by the time just one page loaded, I realized she set her pages to private and I wasn't logged in on my account to view them for fear of getting tracked. So, I flopped over in bed, closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

For about an hour, my mind was filled with anxious and self-deprecating thoughts. Would my parents want me back? Would Astrid be disappointed in me? And Valentina, well, she was a vampire with a cold and sly exterior. She wouldn't care at all. I don't know if it was the silence of the dark room I was in, or the feeling of loneliness that was starting to sink in, but my head was not a place I wanted to be in.

I opened my eyes and I felt like I was hallucinating, like I was in a fever dream.

The circular patterns on the ceiling above seemed to move and become an entangled mess that I was mentally detangling. It was frustrating, to say the least, when one shape wouldn't obey its form and the other disappeared from view. I started to sweat under my three-layered blankets so I sat up to remove one layer of my sweater.

And then, I saw a dark, smoky figure standing quietly in the corner of the room.

Please be a dream, I thought to myself as I blinked and rubbed my eyes for the thing to go away.

It approached me slowly, and with the voice of a thousand souls, it laughed sinisterly, stopping right at the foot of my bed.

"They are coming," said the voices.

"Who?" I dared to ask though my voice was trembling in fear of the answer.

The dark figure leaned in closer.

"The destined," it said.

Astrid and Rio?

I should have felt relief knowing my best friend was coming to me, even if with her supposed destined mate. But then I remembered the Sun Goddess's message that destiny would play an important part, and judging by the shadow's echoing laughter, something told me destiny was not all that it seemed to be.

Is Astrid in trouble?

"Be prepared to meet your doom," the voices said as the shadow crawled onto my bed, its weight holding down my legs.

It lunged forward and opened its mouth to reveal two yellowed fangs, glistening with saliva.

The memory of that encounter still shakes me to my core as I get ready for Guru's next test: a face-off with tigers. I change into a thick pair of leggings and a long sleeved, high-necked top made out of the same thick and insulated material as the leggings.

I tie my long blonde hair back and a small thought pops into my head of cutting it all off, but all I have in my possession sharp enough to do the job is a pocket knife. I mull it over for a while, but perhaps this is part of my weird little 'Eat, Pray, Love' journey. The symbolism behind chopping off years worth of hair growth would do something to help me heal. So I roughly cut at the braid just where it ends at the nape of my neck.

I shake out my new 'do and notice a few straggly pieces which I try to level out, but this is as good as it's going to be for now.

Out in the courtyard, the snow has been cleared to reveal solid ground, although it is still snowing lightly and the misty sky up above hasn't cleared yet. Guru awaits with a tiger beside him, a lot smaller than any I've seen before.

"I trust you had a restful sleep," Guru says as I approach, not really caring for the mass of golden hair on my head that is now mostly gone.

"Not really."

"I see," Guru squints, analysing my face and my composure. He clears his throat. "This is your first opponent of the day."

The tiger steps up and huffs, her hot breath steaming up in the cold air.

I get into position.

"Begin!"

She launches herself at me immediately and I use that momentum to my advantage. That was one of the first lessons I learned fighting against Astrid; if the enemy is bigger and stronger than you, keep light on your feet and use their weight against them. When I've got the upper hand on the tiger, I grapple her body and deal heavy blows to her side. She squirms and whines.

"Enough!" Guru calls for a stop.

The tigress limps out of my grasp. Guru dismisses her.

"I'm sorry," I apologize to the both of them. "I guess I'm a little agitated by my dream last night."

"What did you see in your sleep?" Guru prods.

I recount every detail of the shadowy figure and especially my theories and concerns about the whole destiny part of it. Guru listens without interrupting and when I'm done, he claps his hand and calls another name, another fighter.

"Well, what do you think of my vision?" I ask.

"I think we shall discuss this later, Bianca."

A bigger tiger steps onto the courtyard, already growling and snarling at me.

"Guru, do you think, maybe, the odd pairing between Astrid and Rio has something to do with everything? Like, why pair a tiger and a Lycan after all these years?"

Guru focuses on my next opponent and shouts, "Begin!"

Before I can get into a defensive stance, the tiger has launched himself onto me. I hold my forearm out as it tackles me down to the ground, snapping its long fangs at me and biting down on my presented arm. I hear a crunch as the pain intensifies under the pressure of his jaws. I try to move my legs but he's got all his weight over them, so I jab him a couple of times with my free hand right on the side of his jaw. He doesn't let go immediately but by the fifth or sixth blow, he tumbles back dazed at the pummelling.

I shake off the sharp pain from the arm he gripped in between his deadly jaws as blood begins to trickle down and I throw a nasty look at Guru.

I thought we were sparring.

I run forward to the tiger trying to get a grip on his sense and punch right down between his shoulder blades. He wheezes and roars to forfeit.

"Are you trying to rip my arm out!?" I question the fallen tiger then turn to Guru. "This," I point to my bleeding arm, "isn't training. You're either trying to hurt me on purpose or have me kill your fighters."

"I am doing what must be done for the need of the hour," Guru answers matter-of-factly as if the tiger behind me doesn't need urgent help.

I turn to help the tiger, kneeling by his side.

"I'm sorry." I try to offer assistance as he gets up but he flinches and growls in warning.

I sigh and stand up to address Guru, feeling the bite marks on my arm healing, but the fractured bone still very fractured.

"Is the 'need of the hour' a bunch of injured fighters?" I ask incredulously.

"They will heal quickly and be all the more resilient and stronger for it," he answers, waving in my third opponent.

The third tiger comes sauntering into the courtyard, with every confidence that he won't make the same mistakes as the previous two. Before I can get in another word, Guru shouts for the fight to begin. This time, I resolve to grapple the tiger into submission without hurting him; a difficult feat with my fractured but healing arm.

The tiger stands in his place, waiting for me to approach him first. Clever boy. He learned what the second guy should have observed from the first fight. I crouch down low with my arms out, ready for any sudden movements. I feign an attack to which he flinches, and when he does, I go for the opening he leaves me and swing myself onto his back. At first, he takes off and I hold on, but he quickly realizes he can throw all his weight on me by rolling onto his back. He does so and I hook my legs firmly onto him while getting the wind knocked out of me, but breathe through it to get as much of a choke hold on him as I possibly can.

"Just surrender," I whisper to him.

He flails his body in an attempt to shake me off, but I hold on through the pain of my fractured arm until the growls and hisses turn into soft choking noises.

"Come on, Guru! Call him off!" I urge the old man standing by, watching with hands behind his back.

The old man sighs and waves. I let go of the tiger. He flails himself to get upright, bows at me, then leaves.

"You have earned yourself a break," Guru tells me as he begins to walk off.

"What about my vision?" I ask him.

"Later," he calls.

I lie down on the cold ground for a while, catching my breath and riding through the warm regeneration of my fractured arm.

My mind wanders off in worry as I lay here with my thoughts flooding back into my mind. The training session may have been brutal, but at least it gave me time to get away from my anxious thoughts. And I remember that first night when I landed here in this place and that decrepit vampire calling me some sort of omen.

What am I doing here?

Did I cause some sort of butterfly effect that has got the heavens all scrambled up? What if I never got on that cargo plane to the sleepy Bhutanese town below Sanctuary? I should have just gone to Antarctica or sailed towards the unknown of the Pacific Ocean. And would things have been different if I stayed back in Silver Bow, awaiting my next suitor? But I would never have had the chance to become Alpha if I did.

I grunt in frustration at these thoughts and get up in a huff, stalking towards my room to get a warmer jacket.

I need to get out of this suffocating little village and clear my thoughts, just for a while.

So, I change course for the exit. When I reach, the stone doors are closed tightly, with no way for me to push them open. I bang my fists on the doors that blend in with the mountain, not really having the dramatic echoing sounds I thought they would make since they're just some slabs of solid rock.

"Open the gate," I demand whoever is standing guard above the doors or outside them or hidden somewhere.

There's no response.

"I'll be back. I promise."

A beat passes. I bang on the mountain side and keep repeating myself until I feel a little rumble under my boots. The gate starts to open slowly and I thank whoever is there.

The view as I step out is glorious and less foggy than it was than the last time I was here with Ganzorig at dawn. Although the mountains around me are still covered in a thin layer of mist, I now get a sense of scale of how small I am compared to the gargantuan Himalayan Mountains.

I start to strip off my layers of clothing to keep safe by a bench on the side of the mountain face so I can retrieve them when I return from my run. I shift and descend the thousand steps.

The change in altitude is palpable as I take the last step, as if I can inhale more oxygen from down here. Then, I hear some voices approaching in the distance and the sound of wheels crunching on fresh snow. Cautiously, I look for a hiding spot behind some frozen bushes as they approach: some young men wheeling a cart of vegetables up the mountain side.

When the coast is clear, I shake out stiffness from my healing arm then start to trot down towards the town, towards a better altitude to hunt beside the forests down below. And as I approach human civilization, I see the town is a bustling spot during the day. I veer off to the side towards the forest.

After a few paces of searching for prey, I come across a bloody scent. I move towards the scent cautiously to find two figures up against a tree. The one whose face I can see has a blissful expression on her face with her eyes closed, while the one with her back turned to me is huddled down on her neck.

A vampire? In daylight?

I crouch low and observe if my eyes deceive me. The woman with long dark hair comes up for air and thanks the other she was drinking from. I recognize that voice. The white locks of hair she tucks behind her ear. She holds her victim's chin and directs it to her vampiric gaze.

"Merci," the vampiress says as she pricks a finger to rub her blood on the two holes she created with her fangs.

Do I reveal myself to her?