Ancient Wolves - Prophecy of the Ruins

After breakfast, I helped Tyra with cleaning up, and the children were ready to leave the house and venture around. Meanwhile, Svea was sticking very close to me, basically not leaving my side, and when I wanted to leave and go to my house, she whined and wouldn’t let me go.

“Let’s take her with us. I will bring her back with me later,” Gunnar said with a sigh.

I heaved the heavy pup into my arms, and she cuddled close to me.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Tyra asked.

“Don’t worry,” I said, and barely avoided getting a kiss from Svea right into my face.

“Okay, fine. See you later,” she said.

“I can carry her,” Gunnar offered, because I was visibly struggling halfway to my house.

“No, it’s fine. I can manage.” I was way too stubborn to hand her over to him, and I carried her an even longer way, and my wrist was hurting then. Crazy to think that happened only a few days ago.

When my bungalow came into view, I slowed down a bit and tried to figure out if George was still at my place.

“He isn’t there,” Gunnar said.

I glanced at him. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Believing him, I walked quicker again.

Gunnar was right. George wasn’t around anymore and probably had left a long time ago. It didn’t feel like he had been here recently.

I placed Svea on the floor, and she roamed around and sniffed everything.

I turned to Gunnar. “Thanks for accompanying me.”

He crossed his arms, a frown on his face.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

He blinked and shook his head. “No, sorry. I was lost in thought. No problem. Do you need help with anything?”

“I don’t have many things, only a few clothes, and a few books. I probably only have one or two cartons to fill. Actually, I believe a suitcase would be sufficient,” I answered, looking around the room and creating a mental checklist of what to pack.

“Do you already know how to transport your stuff?”

I shrugged. I haven’t thought about that. “Not yet, if I’m honest. Maybe I will take the bus and a taxi for the rest of the way. No long-distance bus will stop where I used to live.”

I walked into the storeroom and pulled my suitcase out of a corner. It had been a while since I last used it, but it was a pretty big one.

I carried it to my bedroom and placed it on the bed. Gunnar and Svea followed me. The little pub jumped on the bed, turned around a few times, and made herself comfortable while watching me.

“There isn’t much to do for you, though,” I said to Gunnar and put clothes into the suitcase. I saved an outfit to wear later and one for tomorrow, but everything else went into the suitcase.

“I have nothing better to do,” Gunnar said. I contemplated if it was worth it to argue longer about that or just accept the fact that he was going to stick to me like glue now.

“Are you that worried?” I asked him eventually.

He eyed me curiously. “Worried about what?”

“That I turn into a wolf and lose myself.” I didn’t look at him and focused on sorting my clothes. I found a few pieces from George, and I made sure to not take any of those with me.

“You were close to changing earlier. I don’t know what will happen if you change or when it does, so I would rather stick close to you."

“Well then, at least sit down somewhere. You are making me nervous.” I pointed to the spot next to Svea. He sat down without a complaint.

We remained silent while I put away the last clothes and walked into the bathroom to put my makeup into a bag. This way I only had to throw that into the suitcase tomorrow and I would be ready to go.

I collected a few books I would like to keep, important documents and my favorite cups and placed them into the suitcase, too. It didn’t take long, and I was already done with collecting my stuff.

Gunnar’s eyes widened. “You didn’t joke around when you said you didn’t have a lot of things.”

“I didn’t need much, and I had limited space here, too. I couldn’t buy other furniture, because the bungalow had to remain the same, so they can rent it to visitors after I leave,” I said.

“Did you never want to leave here before, so you had more freedom?”

I shrugged. “It was convenient the way it was and cheap, too. George and I talked about buying a house at some point, but our plan always had to wait until his parents approved of our relationship.”

He arched a brow. “Fair enough.”

“Anyway, it never came to it,” I added, and looked around the bungalow one more time before deciding that I had everything I needed. Whatever I would leave here, they would probably keep for a while anyway and tell me to pick it up before throwing it away.

“We still have some time to kill before this evening. I might take the time to say goodbye to a few people,” I said. Gunnar was still sitting on my bed, playing with Svea.

He stood up and nodded. “That’s fine.”

“I suppose you also still have things to prepare for the BBQ tonight?” I didn’t want him to abandon his plans to babysit me.

He stuffed his hand into the pockets of his jeans and smiled. “I’m sure they would be fine without me.”

“Don’t worry, Gunnar, nothing will happen. You can do what you need to do, and tonight I will drop by at your place, and we can leave for that BBQ."

He furrowed his brows and took a long time to think about my proposition. “Fine. But tell us whenever something doesn’t feel right.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said and ushered him out of the house. Svea was trotting after us.

He picked Svea up with one smooth movement. “I take Svea with me.” She wasn’t amused and wiggled in his grip, trying to follow me. But he didn’t let go of her. “No. You had your fun, Svea. It’s time to go home now.”

With a huff, Svea stopped struggling, staring at me with her big puppy eyes. It almost made me want to take her with me, but I knew that taking a small wolf pup with me, that might as well change back into a human at any point now, is probably not the best idea.

“I will see you later.” I waved and moved towards the offices where Stephany and I used to work.