5. A Wolf's Bane.

The healer checked Winifred's palms and eyes for the zillionth time, looking so focused like she knew what she was doing. Winifred, however was getting tired of whatever it was that she was doing.

The middle-aged woman had a hawkish air around her. Even her nose was curved and beaky. She had eyes of palest blue that fixed you in ice should you dare disagree or talk out of turn. She was willow-wand thin, so stick-like that it was hard to imagine her eating much at all, at least not without wiping her narrow lips after every bite. Her hair wasn't so much blonde, it was almost like a washed out brown, like it just couldn't be bothered to be any colour at all. Winifred didn't like her and that was for sure.

"She is fine. She just lost some of her memories like I had predicted based on what you told me before even seeing her..." the healer said, giving a proud look, that looked to Winifred like, "I know my job too well, I never go wrong."

"She must have made contact with a beast or something, all we have to do is revoke the curse placed on her and shell be back to normal.. Aquila will have to follow me to get some concoctions for her, to keep her sane. All you have to do for now is to explain things to her, anything at all that may look strange to her even when it shouldn't be." She concluded, as she got up on her feet.

Winifred scoffed. "This is so crazy and hilarious."

The healer decided to ignore her and so did the other people in the room, to them, she was sick as the healer had said.

"Go to sleep, sweetheart. We'll sort all of this out tomorrow, this is more reason why these beasts shouldn't even exist in the first place." The head priest said to Winifred before he started to leave, followed by Aquila and the healer.

But Winifred was definitely not going to sleep yet, she had other plans as she had decided so she only feigned sleeping.

And when she was sure that everything was silent, she got off the bed carefully and started to tiptoe out of her room and out of the house.

"Oh shit! I'm so stupid!" She whispered to herself as soon as she was out and everything was suddenly dark due to the lack of lights unlike the house. She turned back and walked back into the house on tiptoes, all the while trying not to hit anything on her way. After getting a lit lantern, she went back to continue her journey before she suddenly silently exclaimed again, "yea, I must be the dumbest person right now!"

She had just realized that she hadn't asked for where they kept their prisoners or anything which meant that she had no means of finding it easily but she decided to just trust her instinct and go wherever her mind led her to.

And as the universe would have it, she was able to find a building behind the house. It looked like a little space for housing pigs and goats and as she walked into the small building with a lamp in her hands, she couldn't help but get scared. There was absolutely no sound and no lights. Most of the little rooms were empty and the stench that covered the whole space was enough to kill a human if left for a day. It smelt like rotten meat, excrete and urine altogether.

"Is this even worth it?" Winifred couldn't help but ask herself repeatedly even though she didn't stop forging ahead.

A sudden loud creaky sound made her jump in fright and as if the creaky sound wasn't enough, a large rat came charging at her thus making her loose her balance, but to her shock, she didn't hit the dirty ground. Instead, she had fallen into someone's arms and this was enough to even get her frightened the more.

"You have so much bravery coming into this dungeon like place, you know." A very deep voice said as Winifred was forced to quickly regain her stance and take a look at the owner of the voice and to her surprise, it turned out to be the same man she had been there to save.

He was even looking refreshed and totally fine like he wasn't brought into the place to get killed.

"How... how come?" Winifred found herself stuttering as she decided to look around at the little cells and discovered that one of the cells had its railings bent like a hulk had broken out of it.

"Did you... do that?"

"Do what? Look, girl, I don't know what you came here for but I'd get out of here instantly if I were you. I have zero tolerance for humans." The man said.

"Wow, I can't believe that I risked my life just to save a douchebag."

"You came here to save me? And what's a douchebag?"

"An assh...." Winifred began and as if she just realized that she was in an unknown space with a man who might have bent iron which meant that he could snap her in half if he so wanted, she changed what she wanted to say.

"A great man. A strong man. That's what it means."

The man gave her suspicious looks as if he knew that what she said had a different meaning.

"A fragile girl coming to save a strong man. That's laughable." He mocked.

"Yea. That's quite stupid, I'll take my leave now. " Winifred rushed out as she attempted to start leaving only to be stopped by the man. She decided to assume it to just be a mistake and so she tried to bypass him only for him to step in front of her again.

"You can't leave yet. You have something to do for me, you either open the wolfsbane surrounding this building or I rip your heart out of your body." He said in a tone that scared the living out of Winifred.

"Wh... what? What's a wolfbane?"

"Really? You're trying to play that game with me? Do I seem like I love games?" He snapped at her and then proceeded to grab her by her neck.

"I'm so... sorry but... but I don't know what that is, please. I'm not playing any games." Winifred started to plead.

The man looked at her in confusion, wondering what kind of human in this world doesn't know what the popular plant used to limit lycans' powers was. He could smell the fear off her and he knew that she was saying the truth.

"At the entrance of this building, there's a black powdery substance, you would simply break it in a way that you break a circle." He explained as he released her and followed her closely.

Winifred found what he was saying and did as she was told and as soon as she did that, the man ran off in an inhumane speed. She tiptoes back into the house and even as she laid back on the bed, she couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.

But she didn't mind, after all, she was going to be back in her huge room and mansion the next morning.