They walked around each other. Sous shrugged her shoulders and smirked at the older Alpha. She didn't seem so scary anymore. This entire town didn't seem so scary anymore. Not now.
"How about this?" Sous offered, her fangs gleamed against the light from the street lamps as the nocturnal insects flew about the bulbs. "No wands, no seals, no nothing. Just us."
Zhiliary smacked her lips. She stopped walking and looked at Sous. She tried to pose herself as calm and collected but underneath the hard exterior, she was screaming out through sheer chaos.
"She told you I slapped her?" Sous nodded her head at Zhiliary's question, already getting in her fighting pose. No claws even, it was just them. Before she continued, Zhiliary looked over Sous to see just how two years changed her. She was taller, hair a bit longer, her antennas were coming in. At the end of it, she looked like an awkward lanky thirteen year old. "I apologized to her."
"Are you going to apologize to me? For slapping my Omega?"
"MyOmega?"
"My Omega friend," Sous confirmed but Zhiliary heard the first comment and she didn't think it was an accident. But she shook her head, her two silver braids switching with her head movement. She already came to the conclusion she wasn't going to back away from Sous.
The wolf charged at Sous with a strike to the face, Sous flipped backwards and when she did, performed an up kick to Zhiliary, knocking the Alpha on the chin. Sous landed with ease on her two feet and performed a tornado kick at the same time Zhiliary was recovering from the flip kick. The tornado kick landed directly onto Zhiliary's face, sending her flying. She landed roughly on the street but got back to her feet. Her ear was ringing and her eyesight on that side of her face became blurry.
One moment Sous was a bit a ways and next she was up close to Zhiliary. And with a knee to the face, the Alpha's lip busted. Sous took Zhiliary by the hair, jumped up and slammed her face down into the concrete with such power, it broke one of Zhiliary's canines and her nose.
"AAAAHHH!" Sous took Zhiliary's arm and slammed her on the other side of her. She kicked at her on the concrete. The power of Sous was so strong that when Zhiliary moved away from the kick, the foot landed on the pavement of the street, cracking it. Shards of concrete and rock lifted into the air. Zhiliary was too slow and her eyes couldn't keep up with Sous. At least with her battle with Doureena, Zhiliary was still able to keep up with Sous' movements.
Shadow taught Sous the basics when it came to sparring which helped her in the fight with Doureena but what really helped Sous was the sparring club at Hacate. The way those students fought was incredible. This included Faye and some of her siblings like Fredrick who was the leader, and this included the instructor who was just a mere human. Humans weren't the strongest bunch but sometimes they had exceptions.
Zhiliary slammed against a building, sliding down onto the concrete. She had a black eye, busted lip, broken bloody nose, her ears were still ringing, and she had a missing pinkie.
The blood dripped onto the concrete with Zhiliary unable to move like she was paralyzed, all movement gone. She could barely lift her head up to see Sous walking toward her through the dust.
"Tsk, you better kill me now," Zhiliary grunted, blood spilling from her mouth. She coughed. "Because the next fight won't be so easy for you."
Sous smirked. "Guess I'll kill you now then."
She raised her fist and directed it toward Zhiliary's heart. She struck but her fist landed into the wall of the store front, breaking it, and making a hole.
Sous looked at her fist that was now covered in her own blood. She smiled. She was so close to ending a battle with not a single drop from her but not today apparently.
She turned to see Doureena carrying Zhiliary on her back. Sous happily waved to Doureena. "I WASN'T LYING WHEN I SAID I WAS COMING FOR YOU, ALPHA!"
The two held a stare that only broke when Doureena took Zhiliary and jumped away into the night.
Sous ran to Kara's house and extracted her claws to climb up the house. She climbed to Kara's room on the second floor and peeked inside to see Kara sleeping through the closed window. She placed her bloody hand and then her forehead onto the pane of the window. She was happy to see her Omega...friend was safe.
When Sous got back to her shack, she took time to go to the spring to fetch water because even though she created a little pond for little baby basilisk, she hadn't installed any running water. But she was a magae, not an engineer.
She walked back to the house with the buckets and placed them in a steel pool. Once the pool was filled, she placed some sticks and kindling around the pool then started a fire. This was how she took baths when at her home.
Little Poop sat on the railing of the shack in the back and watched Sous bathe while eating some crackers. At first Little Poop ate about thirty crackers a day but because of her new diet, she could only eat about ten to fifteen a day.
The next morning, Sous awoke to the smell of eggs, bacon, and toasts. She awoke with a start, drool still coming down onto her pillow. She wiped her mouth and looked toward her makeshift kitchen area. Kara was making breakfast!
"Don't give Little Poop any sausages, she's on a diet." Sous said getting out of bed and yawning.
Kara didn't mention the handprint she found on her window that morning when she woke up. She also didn't say anything about Zhiliary not reporting in for work that morning.
When she delivered her messages for the morning, she tried to keep her ears open for whispers but nothing was heard.
The sound of the backdoor slammed as Sous came in from washing up for the day. She walked over to Kara and looked at the food. Sous was content until she saw Little Poop eating a sausage. She turned to Kara who smiled while a teardrop appeared over her brow, and when Sous turned back to Little Poop, Little Poop glared at her and turned her back to Sous.
Little baby basilisk had a small napkin wrapped around its neck as it consumed three frozen mice for the day.
"Thanks for the breakfast." Sous said after they ate and were now sitting on the couch together.
"I wanna make you breakfast every day until you go back to Hacate." Sous laughed but Kara was being serious. She nudged Sous and leaned into her a little. "Next week I'll be going to visit the campus of Faelock. You wanna come?"
Sous was a bit a surprised but not by the request to join Kara. "Wait so, Doureena is allowing you to go? She didn't say anything...?"
Kara sighed and leaned away from Sous. "I think...I think she wants to pretend that she didn't hear anything. That we're still the perfect wolf family that everyone should idolize."
"So...no one else knows?"
"No one else knows." Kara repeated. She looked at Sous. "I don't understand why you want to be here in Red Woods."
Sous shrugged. "They said my dad was the same way. His parents took him to Nadia when he was four and he chose to come back to Red Woods."
"Why?"
"Nobody knows..." During her time at Hacate, she was able to discover more about her father from the history. She wanted to find out more especially since he was also apart of the sparring club and apparently was apart of the flying club. He was one of the best flyers at Hacate. When Pixie Boy ran to Sous one day at lunch, he showed the image that was in the locker room. Her father, a tall poster of him in his flying uniform. She smiled thinking of it. "I'm sure he had his reasons though...just like I do."
They were quiet in their own thoughts and memories. When Sous thought of her father, she would also think of her mother. How could she leave Red Woods when there was so much she still needed to fight for?
"What is Alpha going to say when people noticed you're gone for so long for school?"
"She'll make up some lie." Kara slapped Sous on the knee and beckoned the girl to go out with her to practice her spells. Sous was still full from breakfast. Kara pulled Sous up from the couch, both girls laughing as they got their wands and went outside for the day. Sous didn't notice Little Poop stealing a few more sausages from the plate Kara had made, and then running off to her doll house to hide them under her doll bed.
"Diet, my ass," Petun said.