Chapter 56 Scarlet the hunter
It was almost as if time had slowed down just for her. She could see the swaying of the tree branches just as the wind touched them. She could hear the chitters of the insects so clearly and when she looked down, she could see almost everything that moved.
The crawling worms and fat mutated bags in the soil which she had never seen before were clear to her today. When she focused and looked further she could easily see ahead now. She saw a wild boar dashing through the trees and it disappeared into a cave.
"Haha, look at what I have found." she said cheerfully.
"Stop patting yourself on the shoulder and look for the lizard." Severus yelled at her.
"Yes teacher." she replied reluctantly. She wanted to look for more live stock but the snake which Severus insisted on calling a lizard needed her attention urgently.
She was sure that it was a snake because it had been described as a crawling beast. What else crawled apart from a snake?
Slowly, she walked forward and listened for any hissing and looked for any caves or holes in the ground. She was already holding her soul binding rope in her hand in case it came for her.
She heard a sound similar to a hiss coming out of a hole and she picked up a stick and poked it inside slowly. "Come out, come out little snakey." she said softly.
She didn't want to poke too hard and piss whatever was inside off.
"Move on." Severus told her.
That meant this was the wrong hole so she continued walking deeper into the woods. She heard something falling from above so she stepped back quickly and threw her rope out without ascertaining what it was.
When she saw that it was a hairy round thing, she relaxed. It looked like a coconut so heart clamed down.
"It's too soon to be relieved." Severus told her.
She looked up with a focused gaze and she saw something purple slithering around the tree. It was silent and it barely made a sound. The slithering creature had black eyes and scales that glittered.
"Nice to meet you snakey." she said. She calmly waved her hand and said, "Why don't you come down for a brief conversation?"
There was a black smoke around the snake and she knew it was a mutated beast immediately, not just mutated in size but also mentally. With the thickness of the black snake she guessed that it was poisonous.
The snake lunged before she could ready herself and she jumped out of the way. Severus had told her to use her soul energy more and she was practically leaping into the air while throwing out air punches filled with power just as she had seen other reapers do.
The snake spat a dark liquid out of it's mouth and once more, she jumped and darted away. The liquid fell on the ground and it simmered, turning the small surface were it landed black. The little bit of grass and twigs were burnt. She had more information on the poison now, it was corrosive and it could not touch her skin.
"Finish it." Severus told her.
She fought the snake with her rope, it attacked with determination, without a fear but the minute the rope touched it head, it hissed in pain and turned around. Suddenly it was afraid of her.
The rope wrapped itself around the tail of the snake , coiling all the way to it's neck and she tightened it and pulled until the snake passed out.
She was concentrating on the fight so much that she did not hear the panicked footsteps of someone approaching her.
All she felt was her body being lifted up and she squealed. When she saw that it was Esong, she calmed down. But then she panicked again wondering if he had just seen most of what she had done.
"What are you doing here? Are you following me again?" she asked him angrily.
Esong threw her down like a piece of unwanted garbage and she hissed at him furiously. "Hey, that hurts, what kind of husband drops his wife on the ground?"
Esong looked at her, her hair was flying free with little bits of leaves and grass but she looked wildly beautiful despite the traces of dirt on her face and clothes. She licked her lips and his eyes followed the movement of her tongue. For a second there, his thoughts went to a dangerous place.
Then suddenly he shook his head as if to wake himself up from a day dream.? He reminded himself that he was furious at her because he had just seen her engage in a fight with a mutated beast.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he shouted at her. "Are you nuts?" His eyes were wide and his jaw was clenched.
He was extremely furious at her.
"You are a mother for crying out loud and I don't care about the little mental strength you have you are not strong enough to take a beast like this down."
"And yet I have." she pointed at the unconscious beast. "I am not snow white and you are not my prince charming. I can handle myself perfectly well Esong."
"Who is Snow white?" he asked her. He knew what prince charming meant because he had been referred to as the prince charming of many women in the empire.? However she had also just said that he was not her prince charming.
Was she saying that she did not find him attractive anymore? The more he thought, the more furious he became.
"Never mind," Scarlet told him dismissively. "I have other things to do."
She stood up and opened the storage pod to put the snake inside. She knew that the center for mutant beast studies would buy it and Esong was her connection to them but she was feeling too proud to beg at the moment.
Her arm was suddenly grabbed by Esong and he pinned her against a tree.
She looked at him with fury burning her eyes. First he dumped her on the ground like trash and then he grabbed her hand and forcefully pinned her against a tree and he would not let her go. Did he think that the could treat her any way that he wanted?
This was some form of bullying, he was bullying her!! She struggled to get away from him but her pinned her against the tree with his lower body.
"What are you doing?" she hissed at him.
She could see his black eyes looking at her with an unclear gaze and her heart suddenly started beating faster. What did he want?
Esong was thinking about the number of times that Markay had praised her. He was also thinking about how she kept dismissing him as if he did not matter. Why did he not matter to her anymore? Had she fund another man to obsess over? He had this urge to hit something but instead, he found himself doing the unthinkable.
He lifted his hand and gently placed it on her face. He could see the multiple questions in her eyes and the confusion mixed in with shyness and fear.
"Y....you what?" she opened her mouth and stammered over her questions.
"I think I have made a choice." he whispered softly.
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