Moonlit Beauty

A promise

(A:N Picture of Hana. Enjoy the chapter! ^-^)

Chapter 9

Dante blearily opened his eyes and yawned. He rubbed his eyes and tried to stretch but found that he couldn’t. Something or someone was lying on top of him, preventing him from getting up. He looked down and was surprised to see Zhalia sprawled over his lap. Her hair fell around her in a long, black curtain and she clutched his grey shirt tightly in one hand. The other was spread out behind her.

Dante smiled as he watched her sleep. She stirred, her eyebrows furrowing as she slowly woke up. She noticed their position and Dante’s cheeky smile. With a shriek, she pushed herself off him and blushed in embarrassment.

“I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that but I don’t know what I do in my sleep so for all I know-“She was cut off as Dante chuckled.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

An awkward silence followed before Zhalia broke it.

“We should get going. We’ll be at the mountains in 4 days if we keep going at our pace.”

Dante nodded before crawling out the cave. Zhalia sighed in relief. That was so embarrassing!

She also made her way out of the cave and stretched. The funny thing was that she had a great sleep. She glanced at Dante. He brushed his hair away from his icy, blue eyes. The silver strands of hair glittered as they caught the sun’s light.

Zhalia looked away quickly as Dante felt her gaze on him and stared at her curiously. She felt her face heating up and desperately tried to cover her face with her long, silky hair.

“Come on, let’s go.” Dante shouted over his shoulder as he walked away.

She squeaked before running after him. When did he get away so fast?

They both walked in silence, their steps were in sync as they were both lost in their own thoughts. Zhalia stumble into Dante’s back when he stopped abruptly.

“Why did you stop?” She questioned.

“I think I heard something…” He whispered.

They both quietened and tried to listen for the noise that Dante heard. A second later a soft cry could be heard. Both wolves glanced at each other in confusion before cautiously heading over to where they heard the sound. They followed the soft crying into a clearing where a small figure was huddled over two dead bodies that were lying in a pool of crimson blood.

They both stepped forward towards the crying figure.

“Um…are you alright?” Zhalia felt like hitting herself. Of course the child wasn’t alright.

The figure stiffened before turning around quickly and baring her teeth at them.

“Stay away! I thought you went away when you killed my parents, leave me alone!” She cried in terror, trying to look intimidating but failing miserably as tears poured down her face.

Zhalia’s eyes softened as she took in the girl’s bruised body. Her clothes, which were a simple shirt and shorts, were stained in blood and her golden hair was messy and had a few twigs tangled in it. She had leaf, green eyes that studied them closely, looking for any hints of a threat.

Zhalia looked at the bodies behind the girl. They were obviously her parents. Their throats had been gouged out and their faces were set in a silent scream. Their eyes were still open and stared up at the sky, lifeless and unblinking. It was slightly creepy. They were both covered in their own blood, it was really sad. It looked like the work of the rogues they were hunting.

“It’s fine. We’re not going to hurt you.” Zhalia hurriedly went to the young girl’s side and pulled her into a hug whilst Dante watched awkwardly. He obviously wasn’t good with dealing with crying children.

The girl stiffened but soon relaxed and buried her face in the crook of Zhalia’s neck, sobbing loudly.

“They killed my mum and dad! They were going to kill me too but the leader with green eyes told them to leave me so that I can suffer and die a slow, painful death!” The girl bawled.

Zhalia shushed her. “Don’t worry. I’ll look after you. You’re not alone; you can come with me and Dante. I’m Zhalia by the way.”

The young girl sniffed before looking up at Zhalia with her big, green eyes. “You promise?” She glanced at Dante who made his way over to them.

“You can come with us kid.” He mumbled looking at the ground that was so fascinating. He rubbed his neck before giving her a small smile.

The girl gave them both a watery smile before rubbing her eyes. “I’m Hana Nakamura.”

Zhalia straightened up and smiled at Dante warmly. She didn’t think he’d be so nice to Hana. Who knew there was a caring wolf under that tough exterior? She mentally smirked.

Dante looked away as Zhalia smiled at him warmly. His face went slightly red.

Hana gazed at the two people in front of her and smiled slightly. They were a bit like her mum and dad. She frowned sadly. Her parents were dead. A few tears leaked out of her eyes but they were brushed away by a gentle hand.

Hana stared at Zhalia, wide eyed.

“Don’t cry Hana. We promised that you can stay with us. We are on a mission right now so you’re going to have to come with us since we can’t go back to our village right now. Have you had your first shift yet?”

Hana nodded and quickly turned into her wolf. Zhalia couldn’t help but squeal at the cute wolf in front of her. Hana was a golden wolf with gorgeous green eyes. She was small but so sweet. Hana tilted her head to the side in confusion as Zhalia fawned over her. Dante just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation before smiling at Hana.

The sun was shining brightly and it was around 10am. Zhalia and Dante walked on either side of Hana who was still a wolf. They had also shifted into their wolf form and were taking Hana with them to the mountains. They were planning on hiding her so that she wouldn’t get scared or captured by the rogues.

The three wolves made an odd sight. Zhalia was pure black with purple eyes, Dante was silver with blue eyes and Hana was a golden wolf with green eyes. They made an odd sight together.

They were walking in silence before…Zhalia started humming again.

“Not again!” Dante groaned in agony.

Hana giggled before joining in. The two girls started singing loudly, purposely annoying the silver wolf who was currently trying, key word, trying, to get away from them. They just smirked and matched his pace.

Dante looked up at the sky.

“What did I do to deserve this?” He shouted at no one in misery.