Chapter 17

All was silent, all but the sound of footsteps shuffling quietly across the stone floor. Elana's sock covered feet barely making a sound as Xiumin led her back to his room. His own wolf nails, clicking against the hard surface of the gray mountain rock. The wordless silence between them was stifling. While Xiumin could not actually talk, he missed the sound of Elana's voice. As she would usually fill the silence by asking questions he only wished he could answer.  Normally, Elana would take advantage of his forced silence to display her worries, concerns, and curiosity with her situation. Some of the questions she would ask like: "How do you not get lost is this place? It's so big." Or even questions like: "If you can't enter the village, where to you get your food from." They were innocent questions, that presented her natural curiosity. Questions that made Xiumin laugh on the inside, yet also filled him with regret because he could not answer her. Even so, those types of questions were his favorite. Xiumin much preferred them over the questions of why. Why was she here? How was she to get home? Would she ever see her family again? And the worst one: Would she live to see tomorrow? With each of the questions Xiumin's heart stung. Because the questions of why, only proved to him more that she really did not want to be here. That she didn't want to be with him.

More so than her questions of curiosity, Xiumin wished he could answer her questions of why. He wanted to be able to look into her beautiful eyes, smile, and then say: "Yes, you will live to see tomorrow. I would never let you be harmed." He would then want to pull her into a hug, running his hand down the back of her head, his fingers playing in her soft hair. "Yes, you will be able to see your family again. If you wish to be home, I will take you back to your village no matter how far away it is." Pulling away from the hug Xiumin imagined moving his hand to cup her cheek, His eyes would work to remember every line and curve and tone of her body. With all the love in his heart, he would answer her question, "You are here, because I would die without your presence by my side. You are my protector from the dark." But he couldn't answer her questions, he could silently lead her to where she wanted to go, because he was forced into silence. Even though he could not answer her, he still loved listening to her talk, but now, Elana was quiet. Brooding in anger as he lead her. The thoughts in her head surely drifting to what Corliss and Suho had said before he had dragged her from the room.

When they had moved far enough away from Suho and Corliss, Elana had shaken her sleeve from Xiumin's grasp. She pulled the midnight blue hood of the cloak he had given her over her head. Pulling it far enough over her face to hide herself from anyone's sight, and then began the silent walk back to Xiumin's room. As they neared his room, Elana began to recognized the hallway. She had seen his door enough times to know which one was his. Once they were close enough, Elana broke away from Xiumin, running into his room, and slamming the door shut before he could follow her in. Leaving Xiumin to worry as he lay down against the closed door to his room, cringing every time he heard a crash or scream of frustration. Only when there was a loud thud against the door, startling a bark from his mouth, did he truly begin to panic.

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Elana slid down to the floor, her back resting against the door, her arms wrapped around her legs. All she really wanted was some answers. She didn't want to live in cold, enormous castle filled with people that thought they could turn into wolves. She wanted her normal, predictable life where she would go to school during the week, and then hang around the house and do nothing on the weekends. She wanted to go home.

Remembering the plan she had come up with that morning, Elana pushed herself up. Nervously she walked towards her phone, now charged enough to work. With shaking hands, Elana unplugged her phone from her solar charger, and pressed down on the power button. She could hear her own breathing as she watched the little white apple light up on her screen, the seconds ticking by at a slow pace. Finally her lock screen popped up, with a deep breath she entered in her 4-digit password: 3-9-6-5. The phone unlocked and Elana was faced with the background photo of her and her two best friends. She tapped into her contacts scrolling through the names, stopping at her best friends name. Elana paused, fear beginning to creep into her. If this didn't work, she didn't know what she was going to do. She was completely out of ideas. Finally Elana took the final steps and pressed call, bring the phone up to her ear.

She was met with nothing but a dial tone. It's monotonous key, shedding all of Elana's hope. Her plan was a failure. She should have known, there were no cell towers in this land. They weren't even advanced enough to know what electricity was, how was her phone supposed to work. Elana bit her lip in frustration, tears welling up her eyes. With every bit of strength in her, Elana chucked her phone onto the bed, screaming out in despair. Reaching out she grabbed a pillow off of the bed, throwing it across the room. It hit the wall in an explosion of feathers, a fluttering white snow falling down around the room. Paying no mind the mess of feathers, Elana turned towards one of the chairs in the room, kicking it to the floor in a loud clatter. With a shaking breath Elana looked around the room for something else to throw, still with enough sense to not pick up the fragile, easily breakable things in the room. As much as she didn't want to be here, she wasn't going to break someone else's things if she could help it.

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