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Diving through the bushes revealed a small farm beside a field of dead harvest. Carrots who only grew to the size of his small finger lay abandoned on the dry earth, half-eaten heads of salad strewn around.

They were right, the lands were dying. A claw wound around his lungs, squeezing until he felt the need to breathe.

It was spreading like a plague, infesting the land and therefore the people’s lives. Soon there would be nothing to eat anymore, no way to survive. The kingdom would fall into a crisis of famine and there would be no people to rule over anymore.

“Follow me.” The woman flew elegantly over the oak-coloured fence, approaching the barn.

With a few grunts, still holding his side, he climbed over the fence, Spike squeezing beneath it.

“Listen there, I am going to stitch you up because apparently, the wolf holds a liking to you. Afterward you’re going to piss off from where you came from, all right?”

He sputtered again. Not ever has a woman talked to him in that way. She narrowed her eyes at him, waiting for an answer.

“If that is your wish.”

She rolled her eyes before pushing the door to the side, wincing in the process. Kai had already noticed that she seemed to be in some kind of pain. He could not recall the bear striking at her though. Something did seem to be wrong about her back, or else she would not hiss with every pull at her shoulder blades.

Before he could attempt to rush to her help, she pushed the squeaking door open, revealing the inside of the barn.

With a look around the abandoned farm, Kai followed her inside the lion’s den.

The first thing upon his notice was the godsawful stench surrounding the place.

Kai dry heaved for a moment, clutching his churning stomach.

It felt like the scent of decay crawled into the cracks of the walls, burying into the dirty ground. After taking a few deliberate short breaths through his mouth, he straightened up to scan the place.

The barn stretched on for approximately 120 square metres, the ceiling so high he wondered what one needed it for.

The left and right walls were filled with windows that appeared every 10 metres, frayed curtains hanging from crooked curtain rods.

One couldn’t look outside the windows anyway; they were coated in thick layers of dust, cobwebs woven over like the iron bars at the house they just were at.

The floor was filled with mountains of hay and an abandoned pitchfork leaned against the corner, the wood of its handle bitten into repeatedly.

What was the hay used for? Kai couldn’t make out any animals on their way here, he doubted anyone used this abandoned place.

A soft sound ripped him out of his observations.

The woman cleared her throat, raising a pale brow. “Finished with your inquiry?”

He ignored her question. “Is this your place?”

He did not want to sound condescending but to be quite frank this place was a disaster.

Her gaze narrowed and she took a few steps forward. He backed away, almost stumbling over Spike. The wolf huffed at him.

“Do you want to get stitched up or not, Charming?”

Charming?

He made a disgusted face at the place. “I would rather not. The wound might get infected…with decay.”

Like a seething viper, her hand shot out and squeezed his injured side.

“Fuck.” He slapped her hand away, wincing as the burning dizziness made his head spin. It felt like a fire spread from thewound, poisoning his mind with so much pain he saw black spots mar his vision.

“Can’t get any more infected than this. Now sit down, I really don’t have the time to drag your corpse into the woods and bury it.” She pointed over to a small wooden stool, one leg shorter than the other two.