Chapter 2: CHAPTER 2: THE GUARDIAN

What's this smell? 

 

I take in the aroma that is seeping into the room. 

 

It reminds me of Mother's cooking... Mother...

 

"Mother!" I shout as I jump up from where I was laying. The sudden rush causes my head to pound. I take in the haphazard room that I am in and realize that I am in my room. "How did I get here?" 

 

Once the pounding in my head subsides, my nose catches wind of the aroma in the room again.

 

That smell. Someone's in the house! 

 

I slowly rise from the floor and quietly walk over to the door. As I slide the door open a crack, I see an almost translucent man sitting outside cooking something over a fire.

 

"I see that you are finally awake," says the man whose back is facing towards me.

 

"Who are you? Why are you here?" I open the door and walk out to the edge of the walkway.

 

The man begins to walk over to me at a comfortable speed. Not too fast so that I don’t get scared but not too slow either.

 

He doesn't seem like he wants to hurt me, but I can't let my guard down. He could have been hired by someone. 

 

"That's kind of rude don't you think. I have been with you your whole life, but you don't know who I am?" His playful face almost makes me want to hit him, yet I just can't seem to.

 

He takes my hand and kneels down which took me by surprise because people don't normally show this kind of respect to others nowadays. The translucent man looks up at me with this sincere smile on his face. 

 

Now that he mentions it, he does seem kind of familiar, but I cannot seem to put a finger on it.

 

"I'm sorry for such late introductions. My name is Delic. I am your guardian wolf spirit."

 

"Guardian?!" I yell as I yank my hand from his. "Guardian my ass! Where were you when I needed you?! Where were you before my parents died?! Where were you when I was constantly being pushed and pulled every which way from absurd traitors who just want to use me for their own personal gain?! You are no guardian to me! I had to suf-"

 

The man pulls me into his arms and holds me. With reddened eyes, I try to punch and kick him to free myself, but that doesn't seem to faze him. He just keeps holding me tighter and tighter. "I'm sorry" is all that he says and continues saying.

 

At this point, I fall onto the floor and begin bawling my eyes out. All of the pain and suffering and torment that was building up over the past couple of months was pouring out of me through my screams and tears. Nevertheless, the man continues to hug me and tells me that I'm not alone anymore. That he won't ever leave my side again. That he doesn't want to see me cry anymore.

 

After a couple of hours, I finally calm down and sit next to the man on the walkway. I wipe my face with the wet towel the man gave me and take a deep breath. The man looks at me and hesitantly places his hand on top of mine.

 

"I know you have a lot of questions. I will most probably have the answers to most of them. But right now you have to eat something. You have been asleep for several days and haven't eaten much." He reaches over and hands me a bowl of the soup that he was cooking earlier. It smells just like Mother's cooking.

 

I take the bowl and glance over it before looking back over at the man. He raises his hands and shakes his head as if he is claiming that he didn't do anything to the soup. I stare over the soup before the sudden noise of my stomach growling breaks the silence. I guiltily peek over at the man who is now trying to hold back his laugh and begin eating the soup. The man puts his hand on my head and pets me as he gives his smile of praise.

 

After I finish eating, the man and I sit in silence for a while. Neither of us moving nor saying a word. I guess he is giving me some time to gather my thoughts. 

 

From what I have observed about him so far, he seems very refine. He makes no unnecessary movements. The aura that surrounds him makes him seem as if he comes from a noble class. His speech is clear and soothing to listen to. He is basically a prince in every way you look at him.

 

He did take care of me while I was asleep for several days. What was that even about anyways? The last thing I remember was the excruciating pain I was feeling in my head and chest. Then a bright light came, so I definitely thought I was dead.

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"Hey, you said that you were my guardian wolf spirit. What is all that about? You appear human to me. Well…aside from the whole translucent body thing. And I feel like I have seen you before, but I can't seem to figure out where."

 

The man clutches his chest like he has been shot with arrows. "Could you call me by my name, please? Being called 'you' by my master hurts my heart." The man peeks over at me with a stupid puppy dog face. 

 

I really wish I could punch him. I really do, but I need answers first. 

 

I let out a sigh of agreement with a hint of irritation and nod my head. The man beams such an annoyingly bright smile and starts explaining.

 

Delic is a wolf spirit that was assigned to me at birth. A guardian wolf spirit is proof of the Winter lineage. However, Delic in particular is a high-ranking arctic wolf who is only assigned to Winters with the power of snow and ice. Apparently, I have the power to wield snow and ice, but I never knew that I had this power since it has been rumored that only boys with natural white hair can be born with it, so I was never tested. I guess that explains why the cold was so comforting to me. And if being born after a snowstorm ended wasn't a big enough clue for anyone, I don't know what is.

 

I was never able to see Delic due to the fact that I was not aware of my powers. However, he says that he shows himself to me in my dreams as the faint faces that you know are there but can't really see. That explains why he looked so familiar when I saw him in person.

 

According to Delic, he had to force his way into the human realm from the spirit world before I exploded because if I had died back then, then the city of Eshea would have been covered in complete snow for months without end until another Winter with the ability of snow and ice was born. Since the entire Winter Family was wiped out with me as the only survivor, Eshea would have experienced an eternal ice age if I had died because there wouldn't be a vessel to contain the power. Not only that, Delic would have also died since his existence is dependent on the Winter Family holding the blood of snow and ice. So in a way, he was being selfish, but I will let that slide since he saved me.

 

The immense pain that I was feeling in my head and chest was the snow and ice abilities trying to surface after being contained and unused for 17 years. My deteriorating sanity also played a role in this since a calm mind is necessary to keep the abilities at bay even if I don't use them. Due to the abilities going berserk within my body, it did a huge number on me causing me to almost die from extreme hypothermia. The warmth I felt at that time was Delic wrapping me in his fur as a blanket to warm my body up, and, apparently, the warmth counteracted the blizzard going on within me. Because of the huge toll on my body, I ended up going into a deep sleep to let my body recuperate and heal back to normal body temperature.

 

During those several days of slumber, Delic has been by my side to nurse me back to health. During the day, he sets me outside in the shade so that he can see me as he fixes up the main house. At night, he goes into his wolf form and sleeps with me in my room to keep my body warm. When it's time to eat, Delic sits me up and slowly feeds me the soup he makes so that I have something warm in my stomach since my internal organs were the most damaged from the ordeal. He says that he even gave me baths so that I stay clean, but I didn't want to divulge into the details in order to keep me from accidentally murdering this man. I trust that he didn't do anything to me, but I feel like he was doing weird doting things towards me which really tempts my fists to meet his face.

 

After he finishes explaining, we once again sit in silence. The fact that I just got a bomb of information dropped on me is overwhelming in and of itself. But Delic added a question at the end of his explanation: What will I do now that I have been told the truth?

 

From everything I have been told, it really does look like the fate of the Winter Family rests on my decision to that question. Normally, the Winter Family follows a patriarchal system, but now that I am the sole survivor, I have no choice but to become the new head of the family. Can I really do it though? I'm only a high schooler and a girl to add to that. Will I be able to find people who will join a family headed by a teenage girl? Probably not. Highly doubt it. But I can't let that obstacle be what stops me.

 

I must have been quiet for a while because Delic begins to adjust his position and faces me. "How about instead of thinking about what you will do now, think about what you want. Start with what it is that you want the most right now."

 

What I want the most right now... 

 

"I want to avenge my parents and rebuild the Winter Family. I want the traitors to writhe in agony for what they did to my family. I want the organization responsible to be wiped out just as they did with my family."

 

"So what you are saying is that you want revenge."

 

Revenge. Yes, that's exactly what I want. I want revenge for everything they did. 

 

I look up at Delic to notice that he has a determined expression instead of his stupid smile. "Yes. What I want the most right now is revenge on the organization and traitors responsible."

 

Delic kneels in front of me and places one hand on his chest as the other hand reaches out towards me. "If that is what my master wishes, I will become your aide and support you with my whole being. Will you officially allow me the honor of staying by your side as your guardian wolf spirit?"

 

Without a second of hesitation, I set my hand on top of his. "As long as you don't betray my trust, I officially recognize you as my guardian wolf spirit and allow you to stand by my side." 

 

Delic then kisses my hand and places it on his forehead. A symbol begins etching its way onto my skin and onto Delic's forehead. A small snow blue jewel appears on my hand and Delic's forehead after the symbol was complete. When Delic lets go of my hand, the symbol disappears, but the jewel remains.

 

"With this, you and I are eternally connected until you die. I will obey your every command whether in combat or in bed." Delic gives me one of his stupid smiles and runs of. 

 

This man really wants to die, doesn't he?

 

As I chase after him, a thought runs through my head. Where will I go from here?

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