Knock Knock

“You can come in.” Lara answers the knock on the door.

“Is he awake yet?” Julie asks walking inside with a bowl of porridge in her hand.

“No, he is still unconscious, by the way is Aron okay?” Lara asks taking the porridge and placing it on the table.

“He is already up, he is checking out the weapons of Rex. He seems to be really interested in them.” Julie chuckles.

Lara gives a faint smile and looks at the sleeping Rex on the bed, his upper body is without clothes, his lower body inside a blanket, his injured right shoulder is covered in bandages. His wounds have closed due to the healing spell but he has remained unconscious till now.

“Oh yeah, how did we get back.” Julie asks giving a curious look at Lara.

Lara looks at the ground avoiding the eyes, she speaks in a soft voice, “Well, the people from the village came to search for us. They are the ones who brought us back.”

“I can tell that you are lying but it doesn’t matter how we got here. What matters is that we are alive.”

Julie takes two gold coins from her pouch and places it on the table, “Here is the two gold coins that I promised.”

Lara picks it up and places them inside her purse, she hears a groaning voice and she quickly turns around, but she disappointed to see that Rex still has his eyes closed. Julie gives a smile and walks out of the room.

In the evening, Julie and Aron take their leave from the village, they had to return back and report the incident of the evolved wolf and the death of their friends to the academy. Julie asked them to stay a night at her house, but she couldn’t convince them.

“No, please not now.” A mature woman with brown hair tries to struggle from the clutch of a man.

“No one is inside the house, I promise I will be quick.” The man hugs her from behind while giving kisses at her neck.

“Get away. I will not risk my marriage for you.” The woman pushes the man back.

“You bitch, you will do what I want. I will fuck you whenever I want.” He slaps her, making her stumble.

The woman roars and strikes at the man with a ladle, the man tries to dodge but he slips, he hits his head on the edge of the table and falls down. Blood starts pouring from his head as he remains motionless on the ground, the woman panics and tries to find a way out.

“Mom, where are you?” a ten-year-old Lev enters inside the house.

“Don’t go inside.” Rex yells trying to stop the naïve little boy.

He opens his eyes looking around in daze, he sighs in relief and tries to forget about the bad dream. He grabs his head and sings a song trying to clear his mind, after he calms down he removes his bandages to check the injury. He sees the scars but no wounds, he tries moving his arm but stops when he feels his hand motion is little stiff.

“I think it still needs few days of recovery time.” He gets down from the bed and heads towards the kitchen not bothering to cover his upper body.

Oh my god I am so hungry. Someone better have food ready for me.

“I need food, hurry up. I will eat you up if you don’t hurry.” He shouts from the dining table.

Lara’ s face turns red and her eyes open wide when she hears him say that he will eat her up, Rex on the other hand does not realize what he has just said. He is at the table rubbing his stomach waiting for the food.

Lara quickly brings out the prepared food, “Here is the foo, food.” She stutters.

Rex dives in to consume the food not noticing the embarrassment of Lara, he quickly finishes a piece of chicken and before long he consumes a full chicken.

“Ah so delicious, thank you for the meal.”

They head to his room and sit on the table to discuss some important things. Rex wants to learn more about mana and magic and he wants her to introduce him to Julie so that he can satisfy his curiosity. Before he can begin asking some questions Lara hands him the two gold coins.

“What is this?” He asks while keeping the coins in the pocket.

“This is the payment I received for being the guide.” She answers raising her head proudly.

“Payment, are they gone?” He asks standing up.

“Yes, they returned back to their academy.” She answers with a smile.

Rex wants to scream at her for her stupidity, how can she take two gold coins as payment when they saved their fucking lives. He stares at her but the smile on her face makes him hesitate, he sighs and grabs her cheek.

“You did a good job. Here take the money back and pay the debt that we owe.” He returns the gold coins.

After taking the coins back she gets up from the chair to leave the room, she takes a step only to be grabbed at the hand by Rex.

“What?” She turns and questions him with her eyebrows raised.

‘Stay with me.” He says looking straight into her eyes.

Lara is taken back by his request, tears pour from her eyes not because of sadness but because of happiness. She is glad that Rex made this request, every woman wishes to be loved, be embraced by her husband and she too wished for it. The lack of interest shown by Rex towards her before had made her feel self-conscious, she had thought that there was something wrong with her body.

‘You don’t have to if you don’t feel like it.” He quickly replies when he hears no reply from her.

“I..I will.” She replies hiding her face behind her hands.

They both head towards the bed, Rex takes one edge while Lara takes another. They blow the candle out and close their eyes.

Why did I ask her to stay with me? Is it because of the bad dream or is it because I always slept with a woman after a fight for survival.

Next Morning

“Let’s do it.” Rex mutters and grabs the monster core from the wolf. The core is bigger than before, but it is still black in color. The same warm energy enters into his body but in a huge quantity, after few seconds the core crumbles turning into dust.

After few more seconds the energy gathers into his right hand, he closes his fists which makes the energy disappear. He waits for something to fall down but nothing happens, he looks around to see the summoned item, but he can’t find it. He is about to cry in anger when he feels something crawling on his fingers, he turns his left hand around and notices two ants at the center of his palm.