Fantasy The Silver Lining (Exif & Willowmere)

[Willowmere]

Mynnow stared at Roland, a frown on her face. Her fists were clenched, she realized, and her body was shaking slightly. Was he serious? Why would he go so far to help her? Even if he was a knight, she was not even a human girl anymore.

"B-But I... I am..." She started speaking, her voice trembling. 'I am a monster.' She didn't finish speaking, fearing that someone else would hear her. The other patrons were hardly paying attention to them, too involved in their own conversations, but her paranoia still left her unable to say it out loud.

"...Why?" She settled for that single question. Why did he not kill her when she almost murdered him? Why had he not handed her in to the authorities yet? Why was he offering to take care of her?

Her knuckles were white from the pressure she exerted on them, and tears began to pool in her eyes. She didn't take his hand, instead throwing herself at his chest, trying to hide her weeping face by pressing into him, and hugged the large man, trying to pretend she was hugging her father instead.

"W-why? Why, why why!?" She cried, tears sliding down her face. She was a monster. She was a werewolf!

A butcher! A murderer! The voice croaked with sadistic glee.

She clamped down, stopping her train of thought before she lost control again and just stood quiet, sobbing into Roland's arms. "Why...?" She whispered one last time, tightening arms around him.

 

[RhenVao]

Roland didn't know what he was expecting Mynnow to do, but bypassing the hand entirely and throwing herself at him for a tear-stained hug was definitely not on the list. For the longest ten seconds of his life, he remained frozen in place as Mynnow sobbed in his chest, tears dripping down his armor and arms squeezing him with a surprising degree of strength that threatened to pop his spine like a twig.

Slowly, he put his own arms around Mynnow and pulled her close in an embrace of his own. He lowered his head and whispered into her ear, "Because I know you're not like the others." Mynnow wasn't the first lycanthrope he'd encountered and he spoke with absolute certainty when he said she was different. The lycanthropes he fought were little more than feral beasts incapable of becoming human, all traces of humanity consumed by primal instinct. No conscience, no hesitation. The human hosts were as much victims as those they preyed upon as beasts. It was a terrible fate. Never had he encountered a lycan capable of changing back. She was different, of this he was certain. As long as some of Mynnow lived, he would not take her life.

Roland looked up, noticing a few patrons had begun to stare. "Come on," he said, picking her up in his arms. "Let's get you cleaned up." He left a handful of coins on the table and briskly walked out the doors. He walked out to the back of the inn and set her down to procured a hand cloth from his satchel pouch. He gently wiped her face, soaking up the tears and getting up any leftover soot and dirt from last night's excursion. He brushed a few loose strands of loose hair out of her face and fixed it up a little. "There we are. Listen to me, I don't know how you came to be a lycan, but I've never encountered one capable of changing back to their human form. It's unheard of! The lycans of the Great Terror were ravenous beasts whose humanity was lost to their carnivorous urges. You are different." He gently lifted her chin to look at her with soft eyes. "I promised I would take care of you and I will. But you must control yourself. If you reveal yourself, they won't understand and they'll kill you. I will aid you in this endeavor however I can."

 

[Willowmere]

Mynnow nodded, drawing her eyes away from his face. She brushed her eyes, drying away the tears on her slightly reddened face with a small sob. She felt a tinge of embarassment in the pit of her stomach due to her outburst, and she still could feel her heart beating too quickly on her chest.

"Y-yes, I understand." She answered softly, her voice still cracked. She felt like she should say more, but didn't want Roland to hear her quivering voice. Drawing a deep breath to calm herself down, she leaned against the wall and took a minute to settle herself down.

She was different- or so Roland said. She could turn back into a human and that was apparently something unique. She didn't know if it was something good, though. Perhaps it only made her even more dangerous than a normal lycanthrope.

"Wha... What are we going to do now?" She asked hesitantly, once she felt like she wasn't about to break down crying at the slightest push again. She dared to look at him, directly at his face for the first time as she made the question, even though she immediately moved her gaze away after a second.

She had no one else to trust in, but she couldn't stand look at Roland's face for more than a few seconds at a time. The shame she felt as she remembered what she almost did to him inevitably made her look away.