49: 49 The Bone Wolf

49 The Bone Wolf

I didn't think I'd be intimidated by her threats. But the next second, her face changed. She lunged at me, her red tail flying through the air, and I fell to the ground. 1

"What are you doing? !" I exclaimed.

Catherine didn't answer me, but I knew the answer right away.

As soon as I fell to the ground, I saw a white object flash over my body. His fur was rotting and his limbs were bare of bones. On his thin head, two green flames floated in the deep sockets of his eyes. In his mouth, which was slightly open, his fangs were thick. I was stunned for a moment, but when I looked closely, I realized that he seemed to be...a wolf?

The Bone Wolf let out a shrill howl, and turned to stare at Catherine and me, cocking its head as if to weigh our strength.

I was thrown to the ground by Catherine, my eyes wide with horror, and the only thought that crossed my mind was, "Why are there wolves here, and what is the Bone Wolf?"

"How dare you enter this competition without knowing anything? You are so devoted to his highness Kral."

Catherine didn't look back at me. With a sneer, she rose from the ground, took her long whip off her waist, and stared at the Bone Wolf, who was hovering over me.

Why was Catherine armed? According to Susanna's instructions, women taking part in the Queen's trials are not allowed to carry any weapons. Alen gave me something in the carriage, but now is not the time to think about it.

"Now what do we do? What the hell is it?" I looked at the Bone Wolf, clutching the lantern in my hand.

"Don't talk nonsense. I don't need you. Go away."

Catherine cocked her head. The whip in her hand gave a loud crack.

But the Bone Wolf leaped lightly. He dodged the whip!

Catherine's eyes were stern. She immediately turned around, the whip in the air also turned in one direction, and then the Bone Wolf's head was hit!

The Bone Wolf saw that he could not avoid it, so he opened his big mouth with fangs. His sharp fangs opened and closed in an instant, and he bit down hard on the whip.

"Damn it!"

Catherine clenched her whip, her knuckles bulging, her eyes staring at the Bone Wolf flickering with ghostly fire, gritting her teeth as she searched for a way out.

Looking at this situation of tension and confrontation, I was very anxious. The Bone Wolf looked thin and weak, but he was strong. Catherine kept her balance, the veins in her forehead bulging, and her cheeks turning pink with effort.

"How dare a corpse without a soul get in my way!"

With a loud cry, Catherine suddenly threw down her whip and shifted into a beautiful red wolf, opening her claws to the Bone Wolf!

The wolf was still biting the other end of the whip. Now that he was free, he staggered back two steps and lost his balance. And just then, Catherine's gleaming claws were in his throat!

"AH."

The Bone Wolf's throat was broken. He fell to the ground. The red wolf bit at his throat, her sharp claws ripped through his rotting fur, and plunged it into his naked heart!

He howled bitterly, but there was no blood in his wound. The faint green flame in his eye socket died, and he eventually turned into loose sand and disappeared on the ground, leaving only a palm-sized, white-glowing bone.

So, is that? I looked at Catherine, who had returned to her human form, her face sullen as she picked up the bones from the ground, looking displeased.

It all happened so fast. Without a wolf, my hearing wasn't as sharp as Catherine's, but I was caught off guard by her saving my life.

Silence lies between us. I watched her frown as she put the whip back around her waist, and I didn't know how to react to Catherine's sudden act of kindness.

"How do you get through a graveyard guarded by the Bone Wolf when you don't even have a wolf?" Catherine asked mockingly, staring at me.

She knows!

I remembered that Bernice had died from a sudden arrow. That day at the castle, she was pointing an arrow at me. Could she have killed Bernice? That's how she knew my secret.

But why did she save me? I don't understand.

The skin on my ankles was scraped, and the wind blew a chill down to my bones. My throat was a little dry and I said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Ha-ha," she laughed mockingly, and turned away from me to walk toward the valley.

In the distance were two towering mountains. The mountains were covered in lush green. A large forest sprawled down from the top of the mountain. Beside the pit stood a huge stone. There was a faint red lettering on the stone, and I approached it and found 'Wolf Valley' written on it.

Catherine kept me at arm's length. She walked calmly, but kept her hand on her whip warily.

The lantern lit the path at my feet. The grass was wet, and the trees on either side of the road were very tall, their branches entwined with each other, their leaves blocking out the sun and the stars. Apart from the rustling of the leaves, it was as quiet as isolation.

And in the shadow of the woods, I saw black headstones standing in the shadows, each with a different name, those names in the dark emitting a bright white light.

“Here lies King Caesar and Queen Isabella.”

“Here lies King Alex and Queen Olivia.”

“Here lies King Louis and Queen Anna.”

........

So this is the Land of Glory where the kings and queens were buried, and also the graveyard where Catherine was mentioned just now.

Each tombstone bears the shape of their wolves. I see two wolves snuggling under the name, the royal gold insignia still glittering.

I would stop at each tombstone, trying to find flowers, but I found nothing but black tombstones. Here, time seems to be frozen in a state of stillness, with no one to disturb their eternal rest.

The Black Forest is boundless, only the tombstone provides us with a recognizable direction. But Catherine didn't speak to me. She didn't even care about the tombstones. She just played with flickering white bones in her hands and walked in silence.

There is a strange atmosphere between us. As I passed another tombstone, I looked at Catherine's back and asked.

"Did you kill Bernice?"

"What?"

Catherine stopped. She turned her head, the white bone in her hand illuminating her face, her black eyebrows raised, her face full of impatience.

"I said, Bernice, did you kill her? And why did you save me?"

I didn't stop. I approached her step by step in the Dark Forest and studied Catherine's face, trying to see the expression on her face.

"Save you? ! I mean, you're not expecting anything strange from me, are you?" Catherine's expression was a mixture of surprise, amusement, and doubt, "Delia, why do you trust someone so easily? You don't forget I'm your competitor, do you?"

The anger in her eyes nailed me to the spot.

"I really, really hate naive, stupid people like you!"

Catherine gritted her teeth and threw the bones on the floor. The stone broke the shell of my lantern and the fire went out. The sound of the bones breaking seemed weird at night.

Without the light of the candle, everything went completely dark. I didn't understand Catherine's anger, but her contorted expression reminded me of Bernice for a moment. I shivered and took two steps back. Then I saw a green flame rising behind me.

In the silent forest, many green flames surrounded us, like fireflies.

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