“A white wolf,” she said. “You must be new here, since you don’t know about this myth but it is a charm from this village, the white wolf will keep you away from bad luck.”
“Bad luck?” Zuri stared at the shape of the liontin. She tilted her head, looking at the liontin’s head which was in the shape of a wolf. “What myth?” she asked curiously. She was still holding onto the necklace.
“There is this myth in this village, but maybe you don’t want to hear about it. It is a sad one,” the old lady said, as she counted Zuri’s change, after she gave the money to buy the dress.
“It’s okay, I want to know. I plan on living in this place for a long time, so I think I want to know what kind of myth this beautiful place has,” Zuri prodded politely.
This old lady was probably in her late sixties or early seventies, but she still looked sharp and there were traces of her beauty on her wrinkled face. For some odd reason, she reminded Zuri of Anne.
“I will tell you while doing your hair, what do you think? Your date will love your look later,” the old lady was so kind as to offer to do that.
“Oh, thank you,” Zuri said gratefully, as she sat down on the chair that the old lady pulled out for her as she stood behind Zuri to do her hair.
“Your hair is very soft.” She complimented Zuri again and this made her feel so great. “I wish I had a daughter like you, so I can do her hair...”
From this short encounter alone, Zuri could say that the old lady loved to talk about anything and everything. She was very open, even to a stranger like her.
.....
And then after talking about a few trivial things, she started to tell Zuri about the myth of the white wolf.
“In the past there was a white wolf which was also a companion of a god, a god of destruction...” the old lady started, but then Zuri immediately knew how the story would end.
She stiffened because she didn’t know how to react to this news, since she didn’t know how to respond to the story that she had heard. Chaos even took her to that moment...
However, the myth was slightly different from what Zuri learned.
“The then village chief asked the devil for help to revive his dead son and in return, the devil asked for a white wolf as sacrifice but the only white wolf the villagers ever knew was the white wolf who always accompanied the god of destruction...” The old lady braided her hair carefully and put on a hairpain.
So, that was what actually happened? Zuri furrowed her brows. That was why the villagers killed the white wolf, not because they wanted to take revenge on Chaos, but the chief of the village was having a deal with the devil...
Zuri didn’t need to think so hard to figure out which devil had made that kind of deal, since it was very obvious who was behind it.
Just like the old saying... the story repeated itself...
“Therefore, after the catastrophe that killed almost all the people in this village, we have been using the white wolf as a charm, a symbol of peace, so the god of destruction will not take revenge on us again,” she said. “Do you know where the chief of the village sacrificed the white wolf?”
“Where?” Zuri asked the old lady, she was not sure what to feel after hearing this story, or even if this story mattered to her at all, after all, it happened in the past and it wouldn’t affect her in any way or form.
“If you go out of this village, there will be a row of trees that surround this village, but beyond it there will be a vast land, a meadow.” Zuri bit her lips when she heard this description. “In the middle of the meadow, there was a huge tree. It is an old tree that has lived for hundreds of years. People believe that was the tree that was used by the village chief as the sacrifice spot. Right beneath it...”
Zuri clenched her jaw and balled her fists when she heard that, she looked like she was in trouble. A part of her told her not to be bothered by the story, since it happened a long time ago and it had nothing to do with her, but a part of her realized one thing.
This was the place that Chaos had taken her to when she was a nymph, in their first encounter, in her first life when she met him, but this place was also where they were together the second time and also the place where she met her demise. The place that Chaos had destroyed out of anger, when he found about the death of his companion.
But now, here they were again, in their third encounter, they ran back straight to this place and felt peaceful in this village. The same village, the same place while it was happening all over again.
What did it mean? Why did the moon goddess take them to this place? It didn’t make sense to Zuri how attached Chaos and she were to this place.
“Okay, it’s done now,” the old lady said in a bright tone. “Oh, you look so beautiful. The man you are dating will be so proud to have you by his side,” she said cheerfully.
Zuri then stood up and looked at her reflection in the mirror, but all she could think about was; did Chaos know about this? Was he aware?
“Thank you, I will come to this place often,” Zuri said, as she hugged the old lady and gave her a warm smile.
“You are very welcome to come as often as you want,” the old lady said as she stared at Zuri intensely.