The black wolf's mark (The black wolf's mark ,#1) Read online

  “Upon my soul! Then you start telling me all that you know!”

  “Are you sure that you’re ready to hear the entire truth?”

  “Start! I’m ready to hear it.”

  The old man stands up, walks to the boy and stops behind him and his hand touches the engraving on the left side of his lung and the old man starts saying, “You have the black wolf’s mark.”

  “That is nothing new − the entire village yelled this in my ears last night.”

  “You were marked as soon as you were born.”

  “And who marked me with a hot iron?”

  “Likely an elder of any village,” he explains.

  “And why did he do this to me?”

  “It’s because you’re the seventh male son from the one family.”

  Zidane gazes at the mountains in front of him and he tries to imagine his family, his six brothers he has never seen.

  “You carry the black wolf’s curse.”

  The old man’s fingers go through the numbers on the boy’s ruddy skin.

  “When you have finally concluded 277 full moons, the beast that is within you, it’ll awaken and you’ll be a black wolf.”

  Zidane’s eyes become full with tears while he assimilates the entire truth in his brain.

  “That means I’ll be transformed into a wolf.”

  “Exactly, a black wolf.”

  Again Zidane remembers Amarilis, as she spoke the words - “FIRE! WOLF!”

  “She always knew about my fate! She saw this,” he says in a loud voice.

  “Her? Who are you talking about?”

  Zidane lifts his head and gazes at the cloudy sky and he also gazes at the endless mountains.

  “What should I do now?”

  “You should withdraw from people− soon you’ll be an extremely dangerous creature. Or people will kill you, or you’ll kill them with no piety − you weren’t born to live in civilization,” he confesses.

  “Where will I live?” he asks as he glances at everything around him.

  “You’ll live with me here− I’ll know to work with your curse. You just need to trust me.”

  Chapter 15

  A month later

  Amarilis is in her bedroom still holding the boy’s dark shirt. She brings this piece of clothing to her nose and her eyes close at the same time as she deeply absorbs the boy’s smell.

  She still has hope he is alive at some place, even if it is very far from her. Her hands go down in the direction of her breasts, still holding the dark fabrics, where she presses the piece of clothing against her chest and prays in silence for everything to be well with him.

  And at that moment she has a vision of the boy, where he is on the top of a mountain, carrying some fire wood, and she feels that this vision is real.

  Then a smile appears on her afflicted face while she exclaims in a low voice,

  “He is alive! He is alive!”

  Chapter 16

  “Murad, I already guarded all the firewood.”

  Zidane reports to him, as soon as he enters into the cave. He is replete with sweat and his dark shirt is wound round his head.

  “Your food is on the table,” the old man advises and sits at a rock table.

  The boy gazes at his aluminum plate and sees a strange food, however, he doesn’t protest and then he sits at his place before the table.

  “What are you preparing with those steel bars?”

  Zidane questions as he glances at the cavern corner and sees several steel pieces on the ground.

  “When your time comes, you’ll know what I’m preparing.”

  ***

  In the late afternoon, Zidane sits on the top of a rock at the top of a mountain, and he looks at the orange sky as the sun is setting on the horizon.

  He leans his right elbow on his knee and his fingers are holding a small stone.

  His right hand swings several times while he thinks of his past, his present and also his future.

  And once more he feels alone before a gigantic silent mountain.

  At the same time he feels the lack of a family he never had but he wishes to have, he also feels the lack of friends and a female companion.

  Within him there is an enormous desire to be in love and be loved by a special woman that opens her arms and receives him like the one and only man of her life and her eternity.

  Then, the small stone is shot out of his hand and reaches the firm land. At that moment he realises that this’ll never be possible.

  First −because he is sentenced to live away from people and this includes women.

  Second – the woman he desires at that moment doesn’t have much time to live.

  And his countenance wrinkles at his anguished feelings that supply him every day, every second, and every instant.

  Then he thinks it would have been better if he hadn’t come to this world and not to have experienced the bitter sensations in his atrocious life.

  Chapter 17

  04:04 pm

  “Where are you going?” Murad questions as he stares at the cavern opening and sees Zidane is standing, covering his body in a long black cape.

  “I need to see someone,” he answers as he is fitting the fabrics to his left fist.

  “You cannot return to live together with people!” Murad insists annoyed.

  However, Zidane remains resolute at his plan.

  “I need to know if that person is well.”

  He turns his back and walks out of the cavern.

  “I’ll come back soon.”

  Murad runs to the opening and sees the boy walking towards the forest, then his squeal echoes among the trees.

  “Take care! And don’t permit them to see you!”

  Zidane, even from the back, raises his hand and waves goodbye to the old man that still observes him going away.

  ***

  He walks through a mount and stops in front of a landscape below him where he sees the entire village.

  That is, houses, people passing through there, animals in the pasture and some children playing in an area in the fresh air.

  Then his gaze runs in the direction of Norton’s house and he tries to approach more and more, but before that, he takes care of himself and puts his hood on his head.

  The young boy walks slowly among more than a few people and he stops between two houses that are from the other side of Norton’s house. A few minutes later, he sees two women that are leaving their homes.

  Amarilis is walking beside her aunt and her arm is leaning on Lyra’s arm.

  Zidane tries to hide behind the wall of a house for fear that Lyra might see him there. But his gaze is still fixed on Amarilis’s image, as usual in her long dark dress.

  The girl stops walking as soon as she glances to her right and says, “I know this smell.”

  Lyra stares at the face of her niece and asks, “What smell Amarilis?”

  “He’s close by,” Amarilis says in a low voice so Lyra cannot hear. “He’s here.”

  The young witch glances at all sides and up and down and her agitation is clear to Zidane, and he knows she feels he’s near.

  At that moment he gazes at the witch once more and then he runs to the back of the house and goes away from the village.

  11:45 pm

  The yellow fire grows more and more at the same time as Zidane puts little by little some firewood pieces on it. Thereupon, he sits on top of a rock and Murad is already seated on the other side of the bonfire facing Zidane.

  “You’re silent today.”

  The old man says as he sees the boy’s downcast face.

  “Didn’t you get to see who you wanted to see?”

  “Yes, I did,” the boy answers as he looks at the ground and then back at the reddish fire.

  “From a great distance.”

  “Do you mean you didn’t like what you saw?”

  “I need to go to that village again.”

  “You cannot run the risk of going back even for a person.”<
br />
  “I need to talk to her.” Zidane says looking into the old man’s eyes.

  “You are risking your life too much and it’s all for a skirt tail.

  “I’ll go back to that place − even if that is the last thing I’ll do in my life.”

  Murad observes the boy’s countenance and he stays silent as soon as he realises that his good advice won’t change the mind of the bewitched boy.

  Chapter 18

  09:20pm

  The village is having a feast to celebrate the birth of a child in the village.

  Women are dancing and a greater number of men are toasting and drinking with their wine mugs.

  Zidane approaches the village, hidden in his black cape and his hood over his face, impeding people from recognizing him.

  He walks directly among some people and later on he sees Norton together with some men and women. On other side he sees Mrs. Lyra is helping the women serve up.

  However, his search continues incessantly because who he wishes to see is not there among those people.

  09: 54 pm

  Amarilis comes out of her home and she walks through the village avenue in the direction of the feast in the open air. A small gasp comes out of her mouth when she feels somebody holding her arm and pulling her with brutality in the direction of the back of a house.

  She feels herself being pressed against a hard wall, coerced by the brute strength of the individual that holds her lips, for she doesn’t shout again to attract people there.

  The young witch feels that the stranger’s hand is removed from her mouth and she has the liberty to say something.

  “It’s you!” Her hands touch the boy’s face that is hidden in a black hood.

  He also holds her face with his hands and smiles happily at her.

  “I felt you were alive,” she continues saying while her white eyes move from side to side.

  “I needed to see you.” His face comes close to hers. “You needed to know I am alive.”

  “But you cannot stay here! They think you are dead.”

  “I know.” He gazes at her with tenderness.

  “You cannot come back here, they’ll kill you!”

  “I’ll not come back here again. I just needed to see you once more.”

  His fingers trace the contour of the blind woman’s face.

  “You cannot come to me, but I can come to you.”

  Amarilis says and Zidane is stunned at the girl’s insinuation, because she also wishes to meet with him another time. However, he shakes his head when his common sense takes over his mind again.

  “No, that’s dangerous for you.”

  “But I want to run that risk.”

  “No, Amarilis, you cannot go after me alone.”

  “Is it only because I am blind?” she compresses her lips, sulky. “I know the forest very well.”

  “It’s not only the forest that offers risks to you.” His eyes run through her beautiful pair of breasts and go up in the direction of her neck and stop at her luscious mouth.

  “Soon I’ll be an indomitable beast.”

  “You’re not able to do me any harm, I can feel that.”

  And both of them shut up when they listen to Lyra’s voice shouting. “Amarilis!”

  “I have to go,” she says desperately.

  Zidane passes his forefinger over his own mouth and after that he passes his forefinger lightly over Amarilis’s lips saying farewell to her through his affectionate gesture.

  She remains still and he leans his nose against hers and says in a low voice,

  “I’ll be in the forest tomorrow afternoon.” Then he separates himself from the young woman and says again, “Meet me there.”

  Another shout echoes on the other side of the house. “Amarilis!”

  The lass smiles and goes running behind the house as she keeps her body on the house wall trying to go in a hurry to her aunt.

  Chapter 19

  03:00 pm

  Zidane puts his hand over the trunk of a tree and he walks round the tree several times, due to his anxiety that consumes him as he awaits Amarilis’s arrival there. For an instant he looks down at the ground and he thinks she won’t come to the meeting.

  Exactly a second later, he hears somebody approaching and when he glances over his right shoulder, he sees the lass walking with her hands over the tree trunks.

  The boy runs in the direction of the lass and hugs her strongly. Amarilis rests her head on his chest and her delicate hand moves to the boy’s back. She feels the fear of losing him and he also feels the same while he smells her long black hair.

  But both remain silent for some time and only their bodies communicate with each other through their skin, their warmth and their hands.

  “If I could, I would spend my entire life this way with you.” He says, pressing her more and more in his arms.

  Amarilis remains silent and passes her hands lightly over the boy’s ruddy back.

  Over the immense ground that is covered with dry leaves, they lie down, both of them are side by side and their hands are united. At the same time they gaze up at the sky above them.

  “I am able to see you.” Amarilis confesses and her fingers touch Zidane’s fingers.

  The boy turns and moves over her body looking into her eyes, even though they are entirely blind.

  “Wow! How do I look?” He asks gluing his forehead to hers.

  She shrinks her shoulders as a shudder goes through her body.

  “Your skin is ruddy, your hair is black and your eyes are dark.”

  “I’m exactly like you described me,” the boy confesses. Then his mouth moves further down and meets the lass’s virgin lips. And Amarilis, even though she is blind, closes her eyes to clearly feel his lips against hers. And her body receives a heat wave, fear, dread and desire.

  One of Zidane’s hands passes lightly over the virgin’s shoulder and his fingers stop over the advantageous breast of his belle and cups it. His desire for her is amplified in his attempt to possess her completely.

  His lips separate from hers and he says with his heavy breath, “I think that it’s better we stop here. I don’t want to frighten you.”

  The boy turns to the side and sits on the ground. His hands are leaning on the ground. He throws his head back and his nape reaches part of his back. Amarilis remains on the ground with her belly up and her own hands touching her breasts and her thoughts remember again the sensations of the kiss she ended up getting. She also thinks to herself that she was going to die without knowing the real taste of a kiss, but Zidane came into her life in time and he gave her that fabulous experience.

  “It’s late,” Zidane says at the same time as he gazes at the ashen sky. “You need to go back to your village.”

  “Let me stay a little longer.”

  “No, Amarilis, I think of your safety.”

  The boy stands up in a hurry and puts his hands around Amarilis’s waist and pulls her up, and again their faces are so close.

  She runs her hands over his face and asks him, “Will we see each other again?”

  He glances at both sides as if he was being hunted and gazes at her face and answers with caution, “I don’t know.”

  She hugs him strongly. “I need you.”

  “It’s quite a risk,” he murmurs throwing his head back.

  “I need you beside me.”

  “Please, Amarilis don’t insist. It’s for your own good.”

  “My good isn’t in living away from you.”

  “Go, before night arrives!” he orders and pulls his arms from her waist.

  Amarilis looks lost and confused and then Zidane holds her delicate face with his hands and confesses to her, “I would never forgive myself if something terrible happened to you.”

  He kisses her again on her lips, a goodbye kiss that slows for an instant where they have no time to move their tongues.

  Then, Amarilis receives another kiss on her forehead and her hand separates from his with slo
wness, and the blind girl returns home, following the same path she used to get to the place of her love.

  Chapter 20

  277th full moon night

  05:55 pm

  “Do I really need to spend a night in this place?”

  Zidane questions the moment he walks into an iron cage for the first time.

  “I didn’t construct this cage for nothing. I took months constructing this for your protection.”

  The old man closes the cage door and passes a bulky chain around it and he also utilizes a padlock to lock the chain from end to end.

  Zidane stares at the cage ceiling and also at his sides and that makes him feel imprisoned like a ferine animal.

  Murad puts his hands on the cage chains, fixing his eyes on the boy’s face and informs him, “This night you’ll be completing your 277 full moons.”

  However, Zidane stares at the old man quite scared about what is to come.

  “And you already know what’ll happen to you this night.”

  The ancient man turns and walks forward, but before leaves he says, “I’ll sleep on the outside of the cavern. It’ll be safer for me.”