The Cult of Light (2)

Bang!

One of the wolves fell headfirst on the ground.

Seeing that both wolves were coming from opposite directions, and knowing that she was at a disadvantage, Aris advanced towards the wolf on the left and punched him in the face.

Unfortunately, due to her lack of battle experience, the attack only partially hit the wolf's face. Luckily, her quick movement caused the other wolf, now behind her, to miss.

Grrr!

The wolves snarled fiercely at her and once again attacked in coordination. One of them lunged forward trying to bite her left leg while the other jumped for her neck!

Scared, she managed to dodge at the last moment by ducking down, feeling only the wolf's fangs pass close to her neck. However, as soon as she stood up, she felt a sharp pain on her left leg.

She looked down only to see some big teeth deep into the flesh of her thigh. The wolf's sharp teeth easily pierced her clothing, and when it tugged back, trying to tear her leg, blood spurted onto the snow.

"AHHHH!" Aris yelled. The pain was so intense that she felt like passing out for a moment. Even though she lived in the woods, that was the first time she had been hurt so bad. Fortunately, as the Qi circulated through her body, the pain lessened a bit and she persisted, she had to protect her father!

Looking at that damned wolf on her leg. Aris quickly concentrated the Qi in her right fist and punched downwards with all the strength she had!

The wolf, not expecting that kind of reaction, couldn't get away!

*BANG!*

*CRACK!*

The skull cracked and some brain mass spilled onto the floor. The beast died instantly!

Aris shifted her eyes trying to not look at the dead body. Yet, some of the blood spilled in her face. Striving hard to not throw up, she focused on the second wolf.

Fortunately, the wolf had retreated after seeing its companion killed. Meters away from her, the second gray wolf, walked slowly backwards to the woods, never shifting its eyes off her. That little human was scary!

*AWOOOO!*

It howled and immediately turned back, running and disappearing between the woods.

Aris Studistror sat heavily in a small snowdrift, tired, tears ran down from her face and froze even before touched the ground. It was not easy to comprehend what emotion caused it as she felt hundreds at the same time: fear, relief, sorrow and many others.

At that moment she didn't knew, but her personality was subtly changing.

"W-what happened girl!" Her father asked with a hoarse voice. He stood up painfully and was stunned by the sight of a dead wolf and the wound on his daughter's leg.

Immediately, Aris got up and ran to his embrace, crying.

"Bad wolf…" she said between breaths.

"It's okay now my little girl, let's go to aunt Andressa." The man's heart hurt more than the opened wound on his chest. His daughter was and he was unable to protect her! She was injured protecting him! What kind of man was he? Yet, Edvar maintained a calm face to not scare her even more.

********

The duo walked for around ten more minutes and soon arrived at the nearest town where Aunt Andressa lived. Her house was near the outskirts of the small city and it didn't take long to reach there.

Even though Andressa had a bigger house than the two, she lived alone. Her house was beautiful, but simple. Made of wood, it had two floors with three bedrooms and a large area around it, marked by trees that were now covered in snow.

The father and daughter limped towards the house. As the adrenaline washed off and she was constantly forcing her leg, Aris felt even more pain in her injured thigh leg. Fortunately the wound was no longer bleeding so much, apparently it was slowly clotting.

Soon, they climbed a few steps and knocked on the door.

"Oh my gosh! What happened to you?!" Andressa exclaimed, scared. Her eyes widened and her face paled the moment she opened the door and saw the two of them completely bloodied.

Aris and her father were not even able to say a word before Andressa ran to them, inspecting their wounds. The woman examined every part of Aris's body. In fact, only now did the girl realize that she was covered in blood and appeared to be in a much worse state than she actually was.

"Look at your leg!" Andressa finally found where she was injured and became even more worried, she barely looked at Edvar's wounds which were much worse. "Are these wolf bites!?"

Andressa was the older sister of Aris' mother and they were quite similar, at least in the photos Aris had seen. The older woman had long blond hair and green eyes, matching her tall and slim body. Even though she was in her fifties, her smooth skin gave her the appearance of a thirty-year-old woman.

"Auch!" Aris complained when her aunt touched the wound. "Wolves attacked us, but papa scarred them away!"

"Oh gosh! I'll call the doctor right away!" Even though they were not bleeding out, Adressa helped them into the house and got them clean gauzes. At the same time as she was calling the doctor, she was looking at Edvar with contempt.

Thankfully, she didn't start an argument, but Edvar knew he wouldn't be able to escape later.

As the city was small, with barely five thousand habitants, there was only one doctor in town. Fortunately he received the call and it didn't take long to arrive.

Minutes later the group heard the noise of wheels in the street and an old man rushed through the door. Concern etched on his face as he carried a white suitcase of medical equipment.

"Where are they!?" Without greeting Andressa, the doctor searched with his eyes and soon found the father and daughter in the kitchen.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"Wait…" He furrowed his brows and looked at Andressa. "From the way you said it, I thought they had lost a leg or an arm, Andressa!"

"But look at them!" She went closer to her niece and pointed at her leg. "These are wolf bites!"

"Okay okay, let me take a look." The doctor could only sigh, he could not argue with her. Andressa was known in the city for being headstrong.

"Let me clean this wound." Noticing that Edvar's condition was worse, the doctor took the man's shirt carefully and got a saline solution to clean it. After Edvar lay down on the dining table and the doctor cleaned the wound, the older man took a syringe and aspirated a translucent liquid. "How did it happen? I'm not a hunter, but don't wolves tend to avoid people?"

"Normally, ouch!" Edvar exclaimed after the doctor injected the local anesthetic in his chest.

"It'll stop hurting in a second, then I'll stitch it." The doctor explained. When calmly analyzing the wound, he soon noticed something different. "This wound in your chest is not from a bite, why would a wolf attack with its claws!?"

The doctor was intrigued, in his entire career, even in this region, he had never seen a wound like this. Wolves used to bite people and not attack with their claws, what was going on?

"They were indeed acting weirder today, even after shooting they didn't back down. In fact, I've never seen them act like that!" Edvar explained as the doctor stitched his chest.

"Hmm… the Cult of Light must be right." Suddenly, Andressa chimed in. Her face was filled with worry. "At first that demoniac forest and those strange books, now the wolves are acting like crazy. I must be the Devil's work!"

"Do you really believe in that thing?" Edvar asked incredulously. He never thought that his sister-in-law would come up with such ridiculous excuses.

"That is the only reasonable explanation!" She exclaimed.

The doctor said nothing but Edvar noticed as the man shook his head lightly, it seemed he didn't believe that either. A few minutes went by in silence and the only sound came from the stitches the doctor made.

"Done!" The doctor said while taking his bloodied gloves out. It wasn't easy, but the result was satisfying. Both wounds - in the chest and the leg- were completely stitched. "You must rest or the wound may open again. A cut that size can take months to heal completely, use the antibiotics I prescribed, it will help."

"T-thank you." Edvar thanked him and got up slowly. Fortunately, the local anesthetic was still working and he felt almost no pain.

"Now, let me help this little girl." The old doctor came closer smiling, after putting her on the table, he cleaned the wound and inspected it. "It seems that no bones broke, you are really strong, girl!"

She smiled back, but was lost in thought about what her aunt had just said.

"Hm, your skin is pretty hard for your age…" The doctor murmured to himself while stitching her. Even though the surgical needle was sharp, the doctor had to put a lot of strength to stitch her. Fortunately, it all went well and after some minutes he finished.

"It's done!" The doctor stretched his back and smiled.

The doctor was friendly and after guiding them on the correct procedures, he left. Knowing Andressa's personality well, he said that she could pay him later. As soon as he left, Aunt Andressa tidied up the rooms and everyone went to sleep.