Chapter 24

A giggling child materialized before them. “What the hell-“  Luna almost cussed in front of the child. “Is this the reason why water nymphs are so forgetful?” Luna said out of amusement. Victoria glared at her mate, “This is not the time to be joking. You’re hurt and we need help.” She turns to the child, “What’s your name?” she asked. “My name is Naeun.”  The child said while giggling. Victoria’s lips formed a thin line looking at the kid, then at her mate’s wound. “Can you help us?” Naeun the sea water nymph nodded her head. “We need help. Can you get to Michino city and ask for an old vampire’s help? Her name is Dara.”

Naeun looked at Victoria for good three minutes looking confused. This made Victoria worried; wondering if they can actually put their lives on this kid. Naeun then just disappeared out of nowhere. “Naeun, where are you?!” Victoria called out to the vast blue sea. Luna pulled Victoria’s hands making her flop down beside her.  “We can do nothing but put our trust on her. She’s our last hope...” Luna said as she was pressing on her wound to stop the blood from coming out. Victoria hissed as she tried to stop the bleeding with dittany.

Dara was walking on her way to the big house when she heard a kid calling for her from behind the bushes of the river connected to the sea near the camp. She walked towards the river and saw a little river nymph baby boy.  “What’s your name little one?” The kid just stared at her with a goofy smile on his face as Dara kneeled before him to see him eye to eye. “William” the boy named William said. “Why were you calling me?”  Then the boy appeared to be suddenly remembering what he was supposed to say and pointed to the edge of the river where the sea and water from his river meets. “Noona, ayaa….” Dara’s eyebrows furrowed trying to decipher the boy’s baby talk. “Noona is hurt?” she asked to which the boy nodded frantically. Dara looked at the direction- it wasn’t that far, but sea water nymphs can’t cross over river territory. So she stood up and gave the little boy some sand cash_[1] that appeared on her hand then the little boy the hurriedly rubbed the cash on his body making him cleaner than he was awhile ago.

When Dara reached the section, she saw another nymph; this time- a sea water nymph. “What’s wrong baby girl?” Dara inquired as she kneeled down to see her eye to eye like what she did to the river nymph awhile ago. The girl just looked at her with curiosity. “Are you Dara unnie?” the little sea nymph asked. “Yes, why are you asking?” The kid made a face and put her fingers on her chin. “Two unnies from China told me to find you.” She said as her face turn from confused to worry. “One of the unnies had big res awiie here…” she said gesturing her forefinger to her chest making a big line. Dara came into realization that these unnies could be Victoria and Luna that she sent to China to dig some information. “Can you give me their coordinates?” Dara asked to which Naeun just nodded as she drew lines on Dara’s wrist; the lines glowing yellow. She stood up and kissed the kid’s forehead as she handed her some sand cash too.

Dara then ran to the big house, everyone was seated already as she slammed the doors of the big house open. Everyone looked at her panting self. “I need Yoona, Seohyun and Taeyeon to come with me! I need them now!”

“What’s wrong?” Yuri questioned.

“I’ll explain along the way. Yuri, you and the others stay here. We need to cancle the pack meeting today. Please be on your guard. I need Wendy to be here as soon as we come back. I think they hit jackpot.” Dara said without pausing for a breath.

Yuri made a curt nod understanding Dara’s intention of keeping the Kwon’s safety above anyone else.

They all ran to the river and went to get the yacht working. “Seohyun, I want you to open a portal going to this place.” Dara then produced a parchment paper from thin air and her wrist hovering on the paper; the coordinates showing up on the paper written in black ink, she then passed it to Seohyun. She turned to Yoona handing her a pouch, “Yoona, Seohyun’s going to be drained when she finishes opening one portal. I want you to keep feeding her ambrosia after that. Can I count on you?” Yoona looked at Seohyun and then snatched the bag of ambrosia_[2] from Dara’s hold, “Of course.”

Taeyeon was looking back at the big house where her mate was still unconscious on the second floor.  “I’m sorry Taeyeon, but you’re their pack leader. Before being a mate- the pack always comes first.” Dara said. “I know. She’ll be fine- Sunny will be fine. She has Seulgi by her side.”  Taeyeon said confidently.

“Aliquo!”_[3]  Seohyun said as she opened the portal and just like Dara told her to do so, she lost her footing and was caught by Yoona; she then began to feed her nectar to regain her strength. On the other hand, Taeyeon began to steer the yacht to cross the portal and they appeared to the said coordinates where to find Victoria and Luna. From the yacht, Dara could see the floating leaf they were on and shouted, “There! Taeyeon steer closer to them!”

“There! Taeyeon steer closer to them!”

Victoria heard Dara’s face from afar and sure enough the pack’s yacht was sailing towards them. “Well, that sure didn’t take long.” Luna said with humoring the situation to which Victoria laughed out of relief. They were starting to think that Luna was going to die in sea because the nymph forgot about them already. “It seems like Naeun just wiped away every prejudice I have on their race.” Victoria said a flood of relief surging in her system as she saw Dara move her hands, making their leaf go forth to the yacht.  

Taeyeon set up a mat on the deck helping Dara and Victoria lay Luna down.

“Holy mother of Leto_[4]- what the happened to you Luna?! We were just talking from two nights before-“

Yoona couldn’t even finish her sentence because her mate just regained her strength enough to hit the back of his head.  “Can you not use Mother Leto’s name in vain?” she said as she moved closer to Luna. Taeyeon laughed, “I suggest you follow what she said if you don’t want to be stuck in your wolf form forever.” Seohyun scanned Luna’s wound. “Was this done by a clay wolf?” she asked, running her fingers on Luna’s wound purifying it off of the mud on it. Luna winced and screamed in pain.

 “Yes, we were attacked as we were retracing the footsteps of the child Dara had bitten.”  Victoria informed them as she held Luna’s hand tightly trying to show her mate some moral support; not that she can give her anything more than that at the moment. “While you weren’t here I tried to use the antidote spell on her and gave her dittany to fight the bacteria from spreading.” She said to Seohyun and Dara. “Good work, the dittany is actually working but it’s not as strong as the dittany we actually need. For this type of cursed wounds we’ll need dittany from Crete.” Dara assessed the situation. “We have to get her home fast. I happen to have a jar of those in my room.” She said then looked at Victoria. “Can you manage to lend Seohyun some of your nature power to open up a portal as I do some preparations on Luna’s wound? I need to make sure Luna can take the herbs in her system when we get there.” Victoria looked at Dara in the eyes full of trust. “I can do that.”

Dara smiled, “That’s good. Yoona, this time I need you to steer the yacht. Taeyeon come to me and hold Luna’s arms tightly. Make sure not to let her shift form!”

And on Dara’s commands everyone set to work. Taeyeon held Luna's wrist above her head. “Parare dolorem… Ad sanitatem praepare… contine corpus…”_[5] Dara kept on repeating these words under her breath for good three times with her hands above Luna’s body then Luna screamed in pain wincing as her body made some twist and turns under Taeyeon’s holds while her wound glowed in white. Hearing her mate’s screams Victoria’s hold of Seohyun’s hands tightened to which Seohyun clenched back to give her assurance. Taeyeon stole a glance at Victoria as she saw her face shift from worry to anger then to pain.  

“Amazed how Victoria can be so calm?” Dara whispered just enough for only Taeyeon and her to hear. Taeyeon made a nod putting an awkward smile on her face. “That’s because of their absolute bond of trust on one another. Victoria trust that Luna can pull through this, and Luna trust that Victoria will do everything to get her cured.” Taeyeon bowed down her head out of embarrassment on how she lashed out on other werewolves when Sunny was on the brink of death just a few days ago. “Sunny will wake up soon. You need to trust your mate that she won’t leave you alone, Taeng.” Taeyeon sob as she makes a nod still trying to do her job on holding Luna down as the spell takes effect.

Soon enough, their group arrived from the sea to the dock of Lykos.

1.  Sand cash; money made of sand, used as a currency under the sea. These can be used to purify any bodies of water under the territory of a nymph if they rub it in their body.
2. Ambrosia; food of the fairies; a milder version of Nectar than can be used to heal someone who is injured or weak to regain strength.
3. Aliquo; literally means to somewhere
4.  Leto; Goddess of wolves
5. Parare dolorem… Ad sanitatem praepare… contine corpus; literally means to prepare from pain, to prepare for cure, and to prepare the body.