Chapter 6 Deep in thought

Hazel's POV

"Hazel you can't sleep too?" Lilian's voice drew me back to the present, she was awake too probably awaken by the cold. We are four in the room but the other two people were sleeping soundly like the cold was nothing or you can say that they are getting adapted to it.

" The cold woke me up. What about you, why are you up?" I asked as she sat up lending her back on the wall.

" I guess it's the cold too, I can't wait for winter to pass. Let's gather more firewood tomorrow at the field, it is worse this night because the fire is out. " she suggested and I nodded in agreement even though am sure she may not see the gesture, the room is dark unless because of enhance eyesight as a wolf.

" Happy birthday. " she continued after few moments of silence. I was surprised because I didn't know that she remembered, I had told her about my birthday at the refuge camp back at my former pack.

Then I was so delighted to be finally turning 18 in few months and I don't hesitate in telling anyone that cares to listen about it. I am a late bloomer and had not experienced my first shift yet but according to people the highest I could go was until I turn eighteen so thus my happiness. I can't wait to experience the mighty first shift that people talk so much about and to meet my wolf however after my family's death the spirit died.

I am not sure if I still want to meet my wolf, I am not sure if I still want to be a werewolf again after all being a wolf has done enough damage to me. Sometimes I use to wish I was a human, at least humans live independently and don't have to submit to any proud and selfish Alpha.

"I'm surprised that you remembered. " I told her

"Of course I can't forget, you talked so much about it that it can't leave my memory even if I had an amnesia. " she replied and I couldn't stop the smiles spreading across my face. Lilian is such a sweet soul that she always find ways to make jokes that end up putting smiles on people's faces.

"Thank you. "

"you are welcome."

Silence descended on us again, none of us talked about how I had not yet shifted or at least started experiencing some changes. I know that she was intentionally avoiding the topic and so was I. Naturally I was supposed to shift at twelve(12) am today but non of that happened and as far as am concerned there is no change either.

I wanted to feel bad but surprisingly I can't, if anything I am unbothered , perhaps I'm still numb from the emotional pains I recently suffered. One of the worst things that can happen to a werewolf is to not feel her wolf or shift because you will literally be stuck in between being a human and being a werewolf.

It is rare to hear of a wolfless werewolf but the few I had heard from history ended up turning rogue and some were never seen again, so I wonder if that is my case but not like I care much. If they release me from here I would be the happiest to live the rest of my life as a human in the human world. Being wolfless would even make it easier for me to blend in.

" I think it's morning already." Lilian noted

There is no clock in this abandoned building for us to even know what the time says so we only use our sense to guess the time which most of time turns out wrong. We use the position of the sun and how dark the day is to Judge the time or the animal signs like the birds and the cocks.

"I have not heard any bird chirping or the cock though. " I complained earning a scoff from Lilian.

" Did you sleep off or were you lost in thoughts again? The birds has been singing for about 30 minutes now, they just probably decided to take a break. " Lilian said laughing.

She is right I had unknownly gotten lost in thought.

" I guess I slept off. " I admitted, it is easier to say that that to say that I was lost in thought, I don't even know what I was thinking about.

The jingle of keys got us up and alert confirming that the day had indeed arrived. The guards entered and woke everybody up and we filed up in a single line as we match outside.

I may not know what the time is but I can assure that it is about 5am to 6am, that is when they they usually wake us up to go outside and bath.

The males bath at the front yard while the females bath at the backyard, yeah we don't have bathrooms here so we only bath in the morning and in the night.

We lined up taking turns in drawing water from the wall in the compound, the water was cold but not chilling like the temperature to my happiness. You could say that my inability to shift yet is making me more sensitive to cold than others because Lilian did not even flinch when she poured the cold water on her body from head. Meanwhile I have to meticulously rub the soap throughout my body before I pour water, it may sound funny but that way I feel less cold.

Getting here, while the experience was not like the slavery I had read on novels it looked like they were looking for manual workers rather than slaves. We work at a gold mine from morning to night having two breaks in between ; first one at few hours after starting, for breakfast or maybe I can call it brunch instead. The second at late noon for water then we stop at evening.

After ending the work, we go over for dinner and then bath and sleep, the cycle continues the next day. In as much as I complain about the twice meal daily instead of three I must say that am grateful that the meals are nutritious and are of meaningful quantity because I really can not do without food. At least they have the conscience to include enough proteins to the meals, after all they need us to be strong to do the works so I won't call them nice.

It was almost like we are some hired manual workers except that there is no wages.

When we arrived, we are divided into different departments, the males doing the hardest works like the digging while the females do the less difficult works like gathering the ores and packing them.

Some of us were trained on the use of machines and handled the ore processing in the industry and the rest while the main pack members handled transporting the refined golds away from the industry to God knows where.

Lilian and I are among the people gathering the ore digged out, yeah I know that it is small compared to those digging it out but I still end up with back aches. None is easy here actually but I guess our wolf strength contributes greatly to our adaptation here.

The day went by like every other days, we had brunch by 12 pm, the mine has an old clock hanging at the entrance so we can only know the time when at work. The meal was consist of meshed potatoes, vegetables and enough meats and the quality nice as well.

After the meal we continued working, had water break at 3pm and closed work by 6pm. We rested and then had dinner by 9pm after which we bathed and went back to our various rooms to rest.

Lilian and I did not have enough chance during the day but we were still able to get some firewoods for charcoals.

We burned them to collect off the charcoals during the resting period before dinner so at least this night I will not freeze to death.