It's honestly been an amazing day for me. Well, half of the day is amazing and the other half is... not so much.

I didn't think lycans and werewolves are so different, yet very similar at the same time. Our anatomy and physiology are quite the same, but mentally, we have a major difference in the presence of our wolves' selves. Werewolves have separate consciousnesses from their wolves, and sometimes our wolves can override our control toward our bodies. But lycans don't have that problem.

Also, lycans have way more back problems than werewolves because of how they stand with two feet after they transform.

I end up being another healer people can go to that day. Although some conditions are unfamiliar to me, so I ask the other healers about the pathophysiology first before helping them with my magic. There are some illnesses and physiologic conditions that lycans have differently than werewolves. Sometimes, I get Ganesh's help too. And he's been the most helpful person to me.

I end up learning a lot. And I take notes on more questions that I would need to find the answers to when I get back.

When the day has come to an end, I walk to the nearby lake and sit on the dock. It's just me and the calm, quiet lake. Well, Grey is on standby at the end of the dock. But he realizes I need this alone time to recharge myself.

"You did great today, Mars," a warm voice resonates with the calm breeze of the afternoon. I don't know how long I have been in this same spot, but when I look up, the sky is a myriad of purple and orange hues.

I turn to see Ganesh, walking fast as usual, even with his cataract eyes and one bad leg. Starting to wonder if Ganesh's and Naver's cataract eyes are just a ruse. Perhaps it's a new trending contact lens, colored in milky-cloudy white, that old lycans like to wear? After all, Ganesh is a healer himself. Why has he never tried to heal his eyes?

"Thank you, Ganesh," I bury those questions inside me, "Thanks for the opportunity."

Ganesh stops me from standing up to greet him. He instead sits next to me, with his legs dangling down from the dock, almost reaching the cool lake underneath us.

"I think it's obvious that we should thank you for your wonderful gift," he says. "Without you, we wouldn't have finished this early today. And Fidre would have lost its chief and protector."

He is talking about Duncan, the man who told me to go back to the one place I ran away from.

"But I was not supposed to handle patients directly, right?" I hold my tongue before it slips out of Lola's snarky and unhelpful instructions. The least I need right now is to be called a snitch. "Since I am new and everything."

"Also, sorry for being late," I wave my hands on my face. "I rarely dress up like this. Next time, I won't make anyone wait just to make a good first impression."

I hold my tongue from saying Nari's name, too.

Ganesh only looks at me for quite some time, as if he is studying me. Then he gives me a small but kind smile. A different smile than the one he usually gives. Somehow, this smile has a tinge of sadness hue to it.

"Naver is right," he says, "You have a pure soul."

What?

I guess my face looks blank after he said his words, but how am I supposed to respond to that?

"No, I..."

"I know Nari came to your room this morning and held you up," Ganesh suddenly says, "And Lola sent an insulting text to the entire class with your picture through that silly human device kids are so raving about nowadays. They were laughing at you. And Duncan asked you to just go back."

I blink. Instinctively, I look back at Grey. Did Grey tell Ganesh all this before the old man sits next to me? But Grey has his gaze looking downward as if he is ashamed to look at us.

"But you still gave people the best of your ability," Ganesh continues, "And that is what shines through, Mars."

"How do you know about...?"

"Nothing escapes me despite my cloudy eyes, young lady." Ganesh chuckles lightly while playing with the water on his feet. At his gesture, I elongate my legs to reach the cool water, too. Small fishes swim around my feet, creating a tickling sensation on my skin. Ganesh tells me to let the fish eats the dead cells on my skin, so I let the fishes be.

"I guess I was stupid enough to trust people so easily, huh?" I look down at the fish on my feet. Wish I can just as easily erase my past like the fishes eating my skin cells so leisurely.

From the reflection of the lake, I see Ganesh shaking his head. "Nari was Adina's favorite seamstress. Adina was the one who saw Nari's talent and saved Nari from working in a boutique owned by her abusive boyfriend, then made her a royal seamstress."

Adina.

My heart feels like lurching down to the bottom of the lake when I realize that must be the name of Lyall's mysterious woman.

"Adina...," even her name sounds so exotic and intriguing. Unlike mine. I got a warrior's name when I couldn't be a warrior at all.

"Lola's family almost hit bankruptcy if it wasn't for Adina's help, too. So Lola felt indebted to Adina," Ganesh swings his leg in the water, creating ripples that scare the fishes only for one small second.

"I see," I mutter under my breath, "What about Grey? Does my "bodyguard" have some attachment to this Adina, too?"

This time, Ganesh gives a sad smile. "No," he says, "But almost all warriors in this kingdom adore Adina's grandfather, which was the greatest lycan warrior to ever live."

Great. Not only a lot of people are indebted to this Adina, but she is also the direct descendant of a great lycan warrior.

"Then... where is she?" I ask, "Why haven't I seen her at all?" If she is that great, shouldn't I have seen her at this point? Not even Sky has told me where his mother is. According to Sky, Adina doesn't enjoy hearing Lyall with me, so why hasn't she come to me herself?

Well, not that I want to go head to head with a big, influential person like her. But if we can solve our differences, I think it would be better. Instead of her sending her minions to bother me, she could have just let me be to live my life. Maybe... I can tell her that I will distance myself from Lyall?

Wait. I still need Lyall's sentiment to keep me in this kingdom.

Besides, we are mates.

Urgh! Why are things so complicated??

"Lyall will tell you when he's ready," Ganesh answers me, "Until then, what are you going to do, Mars?"

"Huh?"

Ganesh shrugs so casually. "What are you going to do knowing that you had been duped by Adina's followers? Are you going to take it all and do nothing? Showing that they don't bother you is good too, but are you really going to let their disrespect to you go unpunished?"

My fists curl on my side. I think the fishes fill the tension in my body because they all flinch a little before continuing to eat my dead skin cells.

"What can I do, Ganesh?" I sigh in exasperation, "I am only a werewolf in a lycan kingdom. Just to be able to try being a warrior and going into an academy have been great opportunities that I would not have in my old pack. Shouldn't I be content that no one is putting me in a cage in this kingdom?"

My head spins to Ganesh, thinking that he would understand me at least a little. But what greets me is the old man's strong finger flick on my forehead.

"Ow!" My hand goes straight to my forehead, where there is a pulsating pain now. This old man's strength is no joke!

"Except that you are chaining yourself," Ganesh clicks his tongue in disapproval. "Why should you belittle yourself just to please others? Why should you feel content just because things are better than before when they still could be much better than now?"

Ganesh stands up with difficulty on the edge of the dock. I'd offer to help, but his eyes are burning with fire that I don't dare to touch him.

"Let me tell you something, Mars." He looks down at me, and I swear his eyes are shining. "A warrior does not always fight on battlefields. They are not always strong physically."

He grabs his cane and taps it several times on the wooden dock, scaring the fishes away for good this time.

"No. The most impressive warriors are those that are strong right here." He points to his head. "And here." Then he points at his heart.

"You have one of the greatest emotional strengths I have ever seen, my dear Mars. How you serve the patients, how you handle situations, and how you take on people's emotions without wearing yourself thin." With his cane, he taps my left chest lightly, at the place where my heart is beating. "Even the most professional healers in this kingdom won't be able to take a lot of emotional burden at one time as you do."

He taps on my chest again. "That is your gift. That is your strength. And you should use it to set yourself free, not to barricade yourself in your self-made cage. My dear Mars, people can only lock you up in a cage that we build for ourselves. If we don't believe there is a cage that can contain us, even if they try to lock us, nothing can hold us from soaring instead."

"So your task now, Royal Healer," he calls me with a title, "is to cut the chains you have put on yourselves."

I can only blink after hearing his words. It's true.

Had I not thought the men in my old pack could cage me, I would have run away sooner instead of staying and living a restricted life as a female. So, now... should I just accept that people like Nari, Roy, Duncan, and Lola would try to send jabs at me because of something I couldn't control? I can't control being Lyall's mate and the one person who can move his feelings. Should I believe the cage these people are trying to put on me?

"Look up, Mars," Ganesh says, "See that eagle soaring above us?"

The eagle is huge. I have noticed it since I walk onto the dock and it still has not stopped circling the lake.

"That's the king watching you."

"What?"

"If you tell him tonight what some of Adina's followers did to you today, he would have taken actions for you," Ganesh says, "But would you rather depend on him or depend on your own strength?"

I know Ganesh has just asked me a question. But all I could think of right now is the fact that Lyall doesn't know about Nari's visitation and Lola's plan. Also, he's been watching me. Somehow I feel warm knowing that he has my back.

Back to Ganesh's question, however... "Ganesh, please don't tell Lyall anything except that my first day went well."

Ganesh's smile blooms at the same time as my courage is expanding from my chest. "I'll deal with them my way. With the strength I have. After all, being too dependent on someone is a cage on its own."

The old man's smile turns into an infectious wide grin. "That's my girl."

I am just about to tell him about my plan for the rest of the day when someone calls me from behind. "Mars! Ganesh!"

We both look back to see Duncan waving at us behind Grey's enormous body. He looks at me with a pitiful look, silently asking for me to tell Grey to let him get through. So I tell Grey it's okay.

Duncan approaches fast as I get up from the dock. When he looks at both Ganesh and me in awkwardness, Ganesh clears his throat and excuses himself. "I think Sir Duncan would like a private audience with you, my dear Mars." The old man winks so effortlessly at me, "It's time to soar, don't you think?" he whispers the question. Then before I can reply, Ganesh has already walked across the dock, leaving me alone with Duncan.

In the distance, I hear the eagle shrieking loudly in the sky. It swoops quite low to us, even almost hitting Duncan's head if he did not duck fast enough. "Wow. What's with the eagle?"

I clear my throat after giving the eagle a glare, letting Lyall, wherever he is watching me, know that I know about the eagle and I am not amused by his interruption. "The eagle has a territorial issue."

"So," before Duncan would ask more about the eagle, I distract him with my own question, "What do you want to talk about to the girl who has stolen your family's benefactor's position as the person standing next to the lycan king?"

Duncan widens his eyes. "You know that our family owes Adina?"

I give him a weak smile.

–to be continued–