The Love of a Lycan

Chapter 110 - METANOIA (6)

Maybe (love) means something more- something we can't yet understand.

Maybe it's some evidence, some artifact of higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive.

I am drawn across the universe to someone I have not seen in a decade who I know is probably dead.

Love is the one thing that we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.

Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it.

-Brand, Interstellar-

*************

The faint ray of light, from the window next to the bed, fell on Raine's face, gently woke her up to a beautiful morning as the particles of dust floating in a stream of bleak sunlight.

Raine stretched out her body and yawned sleepily, she wanted to sleep a bit longer, but remembered that she couldn't do that.

Lidya had let Raine stayed inside her house and even became so nice to treat her as if she wasn't a stranger.

At the very least, Raine could do something that she could.

With the last yawn, Raine opened the blanket that wrapped her body like a hotdog and welcomed the cold air.

She shuddered and hugged herself while proceeding to go out of her room, walked down the stairs and headed to the kitchen and found the cabinet as she opened it.

Raine would see what food ingredients that Lidya has, maybe she could find something for their breakfast.

Inside the cabinet, Raine found brown bread, eggs, bacon, dry meat and fish and dry vegetables like lettuce and carrot. Raine thought she could make a simple sandwich with that.

But then, just now she realized, aside from sink there was no stove also in the kitchen. This kitchen only filled with a big cabinet for them to preserve food during winter and another cabinet for plates and cutleries.

At the other side, there was a simple stove with pot atop of it, where they could boil a soup, yet there was no way Raine could grill something or fried anything there.

Once again she found herself at lost with this condition, what happened exactly with all of this inconvenient? What year actually they lived for not having those kind of basic kitchen?

Raine stood there absentmindedly, she wanted to do something for Lidya in return for her kindness, but she didn't know how to do it.

Biting her lower lip, Raine took the brown bread and put it on the plate as she found a jug filled with milk, but it was cold, so she needed to warm the milk inside the smaller pot.

Raine was standing in front of the simple stove while holding the small pot filled with milk while thinking how she lit up the stove.

First she needed a firelighter. Raine looked around, but couldn't see any lighter there…

Why it was so hard to only make a simple breakfast? Raine frowned

"What are you doing Raine?" Suddenly Lidya's voice sounded from behind her.

Raine whipped her head toward her direction and saw Lidya yawn widely while covering her mouth with her palm, a glistening sleepy tear on the corner of her eyes.

"I want to make breakfast for you, but…" Raine waved her hand awkwardly toward the stove. "I don't know how…"

Seeing what the problem that Raine was facing, Lidya let out a crispy chuckle. "We don't have breakfast at home Raine, we will always have breakfast at the Great Hall." Lidya took the small pot from Raine's hand and put it down on the table. "But, thank you anyway, maybe you can help me with lunch."

"Sure." Raine mumbled as she nodded.

"Now, I will get you a new dress so we can go to the Great Hall and have our breakfast there, alright?" Lidya suggested, grabbed Raine's hand and led the way back to the second floor.

Raine went to her room again, waiting for Lidya with her new clothes. The weather was so cold, even with the sun was shining so bright, Raine couldn't see the scenery behind the frosted glass.

Not so long, Lidya had returned with new clothes in her hand, that was including a thick woolen cloak and several layers of clothes also a scarf, they were in the gradient of blue color.

"This will be a bit big for you, but I think it still fine." Lidya put the clothes on top of the small cabinet beside her bed.

"Thank you Lidya." Raine said her gratitude, but the other person only waved her hand casually.

"When you are done, Dorian and I will be downstairs." Lidya informed Raine.

With the thought of Dorian, Raine recalled the event last night when that man's big hand wrapped around her neck, he could easily snapped her into two.

Subconsciously, Raine touched her neck, it left bruises, but because the clothes that she was wearing it would cover them just fine.

Raine started to take off her sleeping dress and slipped into new clothes that Lidya had brought, it was so cold for her to stand n.a.k.e.d, even when she was in the closed room, her teeth chattering.

Only when she put the last layer of clothes and wrapped her body with the thick dark blue cloak, she felt better.

Immediately Raine went downstairs and found Dorian was arranging Lidya's scarf, so it would cover her neck perfectly, preventing the cold wind brushed her skin.

Lidya was so adorable when Dorian treated her that way, her blushing cheeks slightly reddened when she saw Raine was looking at them.

"Raine, come here." Lidya pushed Dorian's hand from her lightly as she gestured Raine to follow her outside.

Raine walked closer to the couple and gave a faint smile at Dorian that didn't reciprocate in the same way. He grunted and took big steps to go out of the house first, leaving Raine and Lidya alone.

"Is he angry with me?" Raine asked carefully. She could feel the hostility from him.

Raine could understand with the misunderstanding last night, but she couldn't understand why he still treated her as if she was an enemy? Wasn't the misunderstanding had been cleared?

"No, he just not used to have a guest at home." Lidya explained. "It is always the two of us only."

"I am sorry, I have became a nuisance in your house…" Raine was really feel terrible for that, she didn't want to disturb them, but aside from Lidya's house, she didn't know where she could live in this strange place.

Lidya realized her words and hurriedly waved her hands, gesticulating there was nothing to be worried. "It's okay, you will find your own house sooner or later." She said.

Find her own house? What does it mean?

"What do you mean with find my own house?" Raine asked while wearing Lidya's boots, they were slightly too big for her.

Raine was busy with her scarf and missed the change expression of Lidya, she grimaced when Raine asked that question. "I will tell you later." She mumbled and locked the door behind her.

The snow was so soft when they stepped in the yard and gave the two of them hard time to go to the Great Hall.

Raine and Lidya were having difficulty to walk as their boots kept sinking. Even the road also covered with thick snow.

Once they were arrived at the Great Hall, both of them were slightly panting.

The so called Great Hall was a huge building with many intricate decorations on the surface of its big pillars, there were around hundreds of staircases to reach the hall.

They needed to be extra careful when they climbed up the stairs, because of the snow underneath.

Raine was astounded by the scenery before her eyes. The Great Hall was approximately three hundred meters long while one long mahogany table occupied the center of the hall with hundreds of wooden chair along the table and the ceiling height was pleasantly commodious, designs of flowers were carved into the moulding and small children with wings look down at them from every angle.

The wall was painted in birch color, gave a sense of warmth with sweet smell wafted in the air.

Some people had seated on the chair and chatted with the person near them, or they just ate alone before they left in hurry, but from the interaction among the people, they seemingly knew each other.

Raine had never imagined such a splendid place to eat, she was in awed by what she was seeing. Beside her, Lidya nudged her hand, drew Raine's attention to her.

"Let's get our food there." Lidya pointed at the stall in the corner of the hall.

The process was like when Raine still in the orphanage, they would stand in line, waiting for their turn to get their food.

Raine was standing behind Lidya with a big porcelain plate in her hand, taking some bread, bacon and sausage along with a mug filled with milk.

Afterward, she followed Lidya to the empty seat while occasionally greeted the people that they meet.

Many of them would stare at Raine with curious gaze, but Lidya would dismiss them by saying she was a new member and introduced them one by one.

Until they reached their seat, Raine had been introduced to four people, she tried to remember their names and their faces.

"Like I said before, there are not many of us and to keep us united with each other, we built this Great Hall." Lidya explained. "The people here that you see now are the whole citizens, well less dozens people who had left or not yet come."

Raine looked around, there were many people there, with approximately three hundred people…

"But, most of them are the shadow warrior, not a guardian angel." Lidya waved her hand to the person across them. "Hi Aeon!" She greeted him.

The man has hair as dark as the night sky with black obsidian eyes, he was almost as burly as Dorian.

Aeon waved back at Lidya and glanced at Raine before he resumed eating his breakfast.

"He is a new member of a shadow warrior." Lidya whispered at her.

Raine took another look at Aeon, he wasn't as scary as Dorian, she thought.