“Ten silver. You can take them for ten silvers.”
“Who are they?” Zuri asked the old woman, she was not happy with this. How could they openly sell children right now?
“They are no one.” She averted her eyes from Zuri. “Orphan from the street in front of my house. They are sister.”
“And why do you think I will buy them?” Zuri stared at the two little girls. One of them, the younger one, looked so timid, as she kept glancing between her sister, the old woman and then Zuri, she was biting her nails.
Meanwhile, the older sister, stared at the ground, she didn’t make a sound at all, though occasionally, she would steal a glance toward her younger sister.
“Because the lycan needs children.”
Okay, this was getting absurd. “And why the lycan needs children?”
“You don’t know?” The old woman widened her eyes, as if she was shocked that Zuri didn’t even know the common thing, she looked at her as if she was stupid, despite she didn’t have any idea who she was talking to. “The lycan needs the children for his practice in black magic. The lycan has an army of black magic users and they need children as their sacrifice for their power.”
Zuri closed her eyes to calm herself down. As they marched to the heart of the Blackthorne pack, they started to hear rumors after rumors, which she assumed, it was the last effort of the king to turn the people against the lycan.
However, this was the most absurd thing that she had ever heard. How could they come up with such wild rumor about the lycan?
“What?”
Yesterday, Khaos just conquered Heartleaf city. The city was in terrible condition, more than half of the area was burned to the ground and it took them half a day to extinguish the fire, by that time, Khaos had gotten yet another city of ashes.
Right now, Zuri was simply roaming around the city with Caiden, but that man had gone somewhere for a while, leaving her alone when this old woman approached her in front of a burned building.
“Do you want them or not?” The old woman insisted, she was getting impatient. She looked around her, as if she was afraid Khaos’s warrior would catch her. “Eight silvers and I will not go lower than that. They look weak, but they work hard. They can be a good sacrifice. They are healthy.”
“I doubt that…” Zuri frowned at their scrawny figures. She fished her pocket to get one gold. Khaos would put his money in the same place and she was welcomed to spend as much as she wanted. “What are you going to use this money for?”
The old woman immediately snatched the gold and released the two girls. The younger one rushed to her sister and they hugged each other, staring at Zuri and the old woman back and forth.
“We are fleeing this kingdom. This kingdom will be destroyed under the lycan’s regime. We are going to die.” She lifted her head and then looked at Zuri closely, probably this was the first time she observed her. “You are not from this city, aren’t you?”
“No.”
The old woman sighed. “You should know better to save your life. You need to leave this kingdom quickly before the kingdom fell into the lycan’s hand. Once it happened, all of you will die.”
After saying that, the old woman turned around and spoke sternly to the two terrified girls to stay with Zuri, their new owner and she was going to beat them up if they dare to run. And then she left, as fast as her old self could get her away from there.
Needless to say, Zuri knew, who was the perpetrator behind this rumor. Rose was being very creative when she created rumors. No wonder she was really good with story telling. Back when they were in River Creak pack, she used to appease the children with her skills in story telling.
And now, Rose was going to ruin Khaos’s name with these petty rumors.
“What’s your name?” Zuri asked the two sisters, who stared at her, clearly terrified.
“I am Rena, this is my sister Naya.” She hugged her sister, as if Zuri was going to beat them, which she didn’t have any intention for that.
Right at that time, Caiden returned and his gaze immediately fixed on the little girls. “I just left for a while and you have gotten yourself two children?”
“Someone sold them,” Zuri replied in a matter of fact and told him about the ridiculous rumor.
“Well, that kind of rumor is getting creative now.” Caiden scratched his head. The rumor didn’t hurt them, but it was annoying and it tended to create chaos, which was the last thing they wanted. “What are you going to do with them?”
Zuri shrugged her shoulders. “You can leave.”
However, as they walked away the two of them followed. They kept safe distance, but it was obvious that they tailed them.
“We have nowhere to go.” Rena looked at Zuri with her big eyes and beside her, her sister whined.
“I am hungry.”
Thus, Zuri didn’t have any other choice, but to take them within their campsite. Usually, because of how bad the city had been burned, they would camp near the city wall, separated Khaos’s warriors with the civilians.
However, Zuri started the idea to build an open kitchen, where they could feed the civilians. This small act of kindness could counter the nasty rumor that Rose had spread.
Showing them that the lycan didn’t use children for sacrifice and people didn’t need to be terrified of him.
“I bought them,” Zuri said when Khaos raised his brows to see the two little girls, who tailed behind her.
First, Zuri used his money to build the open kitchen and fed the people and now, she bought little children.
He touched his chin and smiled in amusement. “I see. You are getting creative of spending our money.”
The open kitchen was proven effective for the people to tame the nasty rumor that had been spread by the royal about the lycan.
It had been a while, since they got a warm meal, especially when winter came and they couldn’t get enough food supply, therefore, they were very grateful for the free meal, twice a day, this was more than they could hope for, as they expected the worse from the occupation of the lycan’s warriors.
It was understandable, seeing how the royal warriors treated them, it was easy to think the worse for the next one.
“You did a good job,” Caiden said, as he sat down next to Zuri, she looked exhausted after she helped with the distribution of food. She learned her mistake in River Creek pack and now she put herself out more as a figure that they could rely on. A luna of the pack.
She felt sick to her stomach because she had to smile often. Her cheeks hurt.
She couldn’t not to smile, because they would think she was angry when in truth that was only her normal facial expression. Fuck. Zuri remembered Rose did that with ease. She didn’t even need to smile all day.
“Thank you,” Zuri said tiredly. “Compliment me more, it feels good.”
Caiden rolled his eyes when he heard that. “Can’t do that. As an honest and righteous man, I can’t lie.” He praised himself instead.
Both of them were sitting under the tree, staring at the civilians, who ate their meals and the children, who pressed their small bodies to their parents, they didn’t even dare to roam around, just like normal children.
Despite Khaos had established the rule here to stop them from fleeing the city and put themselves into more trouble, there was still people, who didn’t trust the alpha and believe on the rumor more.
Two days ago, there was a man, who was trying to kidnap a little girl to sell her out of the city, Khaos’s warriors chased him, retrieved the baby and killed the man. After that, the kidnaping attempt had ceased down significantly.
The cult was rather tame, they didn’t cause trouble and obviously, they couldn’t do anything to her when Khaos keep his eyes close on her.
Just like right now, Khaos was walking toward them once he finished with his meeting, it seemed, he could find him anywhere and this little fact was comforting.
“I think that’s my cue to leave,” Caiden said, as he stood up and then walked away.
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