Valencia

    I was thrown against the floor hard as someone jumped on me.

    “He is losing it again! Quick!” somebody cried, and I heard the sound of footsteps arriving near me,

    I felt my head bang against the hard cave floor, and it took me a second to focus on what had knocked me out.

    A man who appeared to be in histe thirties was sitting on my chest, his legs pressing hard against my ribs.

    His hands had gone around my throat, and he was cackling viciously while he tried to choke me to death.

    “Get off her, you mother fluffer!” I heard a familiar voice.

    Not one but four women had to use all their strength to pull him away from me and another two to drag him back to the bed where he was supposed to

    be sleeping.

    Coughing and breathing hard, I got up or tried to. I could still feel the strength in his hands and the force with which he was trying to crush my windpipe.

    Somebody ran towards me and helped me get up.

    “Oh shit, I mean, oh shrub, are you okay?”

    Despite the coughing and heavy breathing, I couldn’t help but snort to hear the familiar voice and the way she corrected herself midway.

    “Sarah,” I groaned as she helped me get up back on my feet and sit on one of the chairs to the side.

    “Are you okay?i” /ishe asked, and I nodded weakly. She handed me a ss of water, which I emptied in a second.

    I wasn’t aware of how thirsty I was until she offered me water. I asked for one more, and she gave me a water bottle to chug down.

    As I tilted my head up to drink the water, she examined my neck and muttered.

    “He really tried to kill you, that mother fluffing ash pole.”

    I snorted, and water came out of my nose, making me choke.

    “Mother fluffing ashpole?” I asked, and she tried again.

    “Mother fluffing mashed roll?”

    I coughed again as the water I was supposed to drink went inside my nostrils. I could barely contain myughter.

    Sarah rubbed my back and patted it as I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve.

    “Remind me to never drink water when you are using your clever take on swear words”

    Sarah batted her eyes innocently.

    “I dont know what you are talking about.”

    I coughed some more before finally getting enough air in my lungs to get ba /bgood look at my attacker.

    The temple workers were struggling to get him under control.

    “I thought the temple allowed entry only to women,” I whispered to Sarah under my breath.

    b11:10 /bThu, 28 bAug /bA

    She ced a hand on my shoulder to gently squeeze it.

    “He is a patient first, a manter. If he is still one.” She said thest line while looking at him warily.

    One of the women pulled out a needle and injected something into his arm to stop him from trying to thrash everything

    He was struggling to get out of the bed, and the women had tied him down with chains when their strength was not enough to keep him down.

    He kept thrashing his head and muttering something loudly, but his voice was a mess, and his words sounded choked and raspy.

    While thrashing, his eyes fell on me, and I saw his face contort in fury..

    “You…you should die…” He said in a strained voice and tried to struggle out of his bindings once more.

    Luckily, the injection seemed to dull his senses because his eyes grew hazy and he copsed on the bed a secondter.

    “What is going on here?” Somebody stepped inside demanding an answer, but I was too busy staring at the man.

    I didn’t recall seeing him before, yet he seemed to recognize me. And he hated me.

    So much so that he wanted to kill me the second his gazended on me.

    Not once but twice.

    I wondered what to make of it as somebody answered the authoritative voice.

    “Patient number 33 was having one of his episodes again, Elder Amara.”

    One of the novices answered the elder priest as she came in to check on him.

    She wordlessly reached for his hand to check his pulse, then opened his eyes, mouth to check for whatever she wanted tob. /b

    “Did the new medicine not work?” She asked the novice, who turned a paper and read through it to answer.

    “It did not make much of a difference, Elder Amara”

    The old woman just sighed grimly and reached for a cloth to wipe his head. And that is when I saw the scars on his body that I had not seen before.

    There was hair on his body, a dense growth that started from his feet and stopped somewhere around his abdomen.

    The upper half of his body was like that of a human, flesh and bones without the excess fur covering the lower half of his body.

    It was a very unusual sight to look at. Almost as if he had been turning into a werewolf and his transition was halted midway.

    Elder Amara looked through the bottles ced on a small alcove near his bed and examined the medicines.

    She then remarked to the novice who had answered her earlier.

    “Increase the dosage of ice fennel and administer the cavern thyme only if he wakes up again and is not stable. Report his condition to me every four hours.”

    She washed her hands in a nearby basin and proceeded to look at the other patients. Almost all of them were male and looked tall and healthy.

    Except they weren’t.

    I dared take a closer look at them and realized they were all well built and tall, almost like they werent sick and weak but warriors who were injured.

    I also saw them all having spurts of fur growth in odd ces. Some had ws instead of fingers but only bone /bbor /bbtwo /bws, and bthe /brest bof /bthem being fingers instead of the entire hand morphed into a werewolf paw.

    11:10 THU, 8 Aug ?A

    It was as if they had tried to transition and gol din midway t

    bther /b

    ) and Sarah watched the scene dazedly, and only now did Ilder Amara notice vs.

    “What are you doing here?” she asked me, and I immediately sputtered.

    “He he attacked me.” she straightened her back and approached me.

    “You are not supposed to be here. Go back to your work station.”

    “But, he jumped on me and tried to kill me!” I informed her however, she was in no mood to listen.

    “The patients here are not in their right minds. Let them sleep. Go outside.”

    My gaze flitted to the man who had tried to choke me, and my hands brushed against my throat.

    “But he was…”

    “Enough!!” Elder Amara thundered, and all the other women froze instantly as if she had shouted at themi, /inot me.

    She then reached for my elbow and dragged me out of the room. Sarah got the hint and scurried outside before she received the same treatment

    “I was also told that you dont really respect the rules, yet I chose to take you under my wing because of Prince Killian’s request. Do not make me question my choice again. Is that clear, Novice Valencia?”

    She asked, her gaze almost drilling a hole in my skull.

    “Yes, Elder Amara,” I said, though my eyes still drifted towards the man- patient 33’s cot.

    B

    AD