Chapter 11

Fate was something that’s hard to battle with. A fateful moment confronting luck could happen in everyone’s life at least once or twice. It was hard to decipher at times and difficult to accept on some occasions. When the guardian of death came to fetch someone on earth to the other world, fate was the only one that could stop it. It could be either a fateful destiny or a fateful lucky day. As for Layla, she didn’t know which she belonged with though she was a stroke of sudden bad luck arrived and saved her from her dying last moment.

“Mm…” the beaten up young lady moaned when she opened her eyes. The sun rays hitting the shiny, clear and seemingly smooth object by the window reflected a solid white light that hurt her eyes. She was not used to the light yet and having seen too much with such brightness was not easy for her to take. “Ah!” A husky scream came out of her mouth when black dots started to increased in front of her. There was still the light and the black spots appearing out of nowhere frightened her.

Layla rubbed her eyes alternately with her hand. When she tried to lift her other arm, she realized it was not possible. Her bone was showing and her flesh too. She had an urge to vomit at the hideous sight, but she couldn’t. Other than the bread and several cups of water with a bottle of poison she took the other day which probably had been digested already, her stomach was empty. Nothing would come out if she attempted anyway. She roamed her views around to check on her surroundings when her sight got rid of the black spots from staring at the sunlight directly.

Her wandering thoughts settled on the question of why she was still alive. She was aware she muttered something shameless a few minutes ago and looking back at the situation, she should have been dead. Layla turned her head as she remained laying on the ground with her tattered clothes. She squinted her eyes when she saw two different species brawling.

‘What happened?’ the young lady thought to herself while dragging her cold and beaten up body with her arm leading the crawl away from the bunch of salivating beasts. ‘Did I survive that wave? It turns out that I still have luck on my side,’ she continued conversing to herself inside her head.

“Grr!” “Rawr!”

The proud sun on coming to its zenith position warmed the ground as time passed by. It was getting hotter while the temperature rose in midday. Layla hadn’t felt such warmth for a long time. The cold floors and walls in the dungeon were the foundation of her nightmares whenever she drifted to sleep. Unlike basking in the sunlight, she felt relieved and free. She pulled herself up to settle on her butt and lean on the tree. Her breathing calmed down slowly as she tried to inhale and exhale at a normal pace.

It was a miracle that she could still hang on with her current state; peeled-off skin in different parts of her body, bite marks on her forehead and feet, bleeding cuts all over her, ripped clothes, ripped flesh- she could see some of her detached flesh left on the ground where she found herself lying after fainting from the unbearable ‘torture’ she had.

“Ugh. Where did they come from?” Layla asked no one when she saw another pack of beasts fighting with the pack of wolves who was prying her safety moments ago. They didn’t look too different from the wolves. And Layla could identify which was part of which pack by looking at their colors. The wolves she encountered first were in the gray shade and the latter pack arrived was on the brighter side. Their fur matched the dry leaves scattered everywhere.

‘I need to leave this place while I still have the chance,’ Layla thought and held on to the tree to lift herself. Her legs were wobbling though she could still stand her weight. After taking some time to examine the place, she realized there was no other place to run nor to hide. The mansion was in the middle of the forest and just like how it sounded it should be, the surrounding area was nothing but tall trees and overgrown weeds. There was no guarantee she’d be safe once she entered the woods, nor she could find an entrance to the mansion. The latter option was something she didn’t want to do. Layla wanted to prove that she can survive on her own. Once completing the man’s task, she was sure to bore some ‘payback’ strategy in her mind.

“I have to climb on the tree,” she mumbled softly while looking up at the sturdy branches of the tree she was leaning on. “They could not follow me above. If they could, then that would be another headache,” she added in an exhausted voice. She cried so much the previous night that she finally experienced the consequence it brought her. Considering that her throat was dry most of the time, she could only sound hoarser.

“Rrrrrr!”

Layla quickly looked at the crowd of beasts to see if they’re done with their brawl which she assumed was because of her. Knowing how the wolves tried to tear her up into pieces without mercy, others would want to have a treat of fresh meat as well. A sigh of relief bounced off her lips when she saw them continued fighting. ‘Please, kill each other until only one remains. I might have a chance to duel with one but not a pack,’ she thought.

“Amp!” Her face was surely distorted as she forced herself up with only one hand tightly gripping on the branch she grabbed after jumping up as much as she could. In the end, she managed to jump a little more than two feet. Her feathery weight gave her the upper hand but the hardship was yet to come. Layla was sweating hard and despite the wringing pain on her shoulders as it carried her limp body, she felt good with the droplets of water exiting her pores. The problem was, her hand was also sweating that caused it to slip. She had to bury her nails just to keep her grip.

“Hiya!” Layla exclaimed when she swayed her whole body after kicking the trunk. She was aiming her feet to reach a certain spot on the tree where the branches met. It looked like a nest, and she could sit on the average space on it. She was planning to take a nap to replenish her energy from the damages she had, hoping that when she woke up, she could at least fight. Meanwhile, she had to successfully settle herself first before she could worry about her body condition.

“Hah!” She puffed a large amount of air when her feet reached her target. Since she couldn’t easily move her hand as it was needed to secure her grip which could be her last resort to survive from the beasts waiting below, she had to rely on her skinny legs and swollen feet. Layla wrapped her legs together with the branch in between. She slowly turned her body down, rotating around the branch, so she could crawl on it to her safety.

An overjoyed grin reflected on her face when she was finally facing the ground while hugging on the branch. She was almost about to celebrate when she heard the branch cracking. Truly, the branch was not too big which made her grasped it with just her hand. Her eyes widened as she dropped her jaw when the cracking sound continued whenever she moved. Her heartbeat increased its speed when her gaze landed on the gray wolf who happened to be the strongest among his peers as he was the only one left standing unscathed though it had some bloom stains on its ash fur.

“N-No…” Layla slowly moved, careful not to fall with the almost broken branch she was holding. One. Two. She was going smoothly until her entire weight focused on the part of the branch which was also striving to survive. Layla stopped. She caught a whiff of the piney scent coming from the leaves and took a few seconds to appreciate the smell of nature. Taking a deep breath, she forgot about her crucial state.

*CRACK*

“NOOOOO!”