There were a lot of maggots at the bottom of the hole while the smell from it was very strong. It made Zuri want to puke. She was a shifter after all, her sense of scent was very keen.

It was just like what Chaos had said, it was too late, the tree had been infected.

Zuri took a few steps back, as she covered her nose with her hand, since the smell was too upsetting, while Chaos rested his arm on her waist. He didn't look affected by the smell, he didn't even flinch. His expression was devoid of any emotions.

"Is there something that we can do to help the tree?" Zuri asked, her brows furrowed deeply. She didn't really like the tree, but seeing it in pain from being tortured by Aaron made her blood boil.

"No," Chaos replied softly. He then walked closer, despite the burning smell and pressed his palm against its bark, as he closed his eyes.

On the other hand, Zuri was not sure what Chaos was doing right now, but she waited patiently for something to happen, yet when there was nothing specific that happened and Chaos walked back to her, she looked at him with curiosity.

"What is that?" she asked, she looked at him with bewilderment. "What did you do?"

"The tree will live for another three months, after that, it will die," Chaos simply said. It was not really good news, thus Zuri didn't know what kind of response she should give him.

A moment of silence ensued after that, as both of them looked at the tree as the wind played with their hairs.

"What exactly did you do earlier?" Zuri lifted her head to look at Chaos' expression, but there was nothing that she could read. He was very calm.

"Said my goodbyes," Chaos replied curtly, as he turned around and took Zuri's hand to leave the area. "We need to leave now."

Right, there was nothing that they could do to help the tree. The tree was so stubborn, he wouldn't back down in the face of Aaron's threat, even when it cost him his ancient life.

It was sad for a tree like that to have this kind of end.

As they walked away, Zuri glanced once again over her shoulder at the ancient tree. If Aaron was so willing to hurt and make the creatures around him end up ceasing to exist just because they didn't want to obey his words, what else he wouldn't do?

And here Zuri was, a few days ago, she was still thinking that she and Chaos could live a normal life in that village. How could they when their past was starting to hunt them down?

Zuri could feel Chaos' callous hand against her face, as he tried to turn her head around, as if telling her to stop looking at the tree, because it wouldn't make things any easier for her.

He was right… seeing the tree wouldn't make things any easier for herself…

=======================

Since Zuri and Chaos were on a different island from the mainland, they needed to travel by plane, since it was still not convenient for Chaos to just take them back right away to the McKeltar manor.

Zuri also did not want something unpredictable to happen to them later, just because Chaos used his power, since it would make things difficult for both of them later on. They wanted to be low-key the whole journey and Chaos needed to concentrate to control himself.

"Stay here, I will get them to issue our tickets," Chaos said, as he walked away, as Zuri sat down and watched the clear sky through the floor to ceiling glass windows behind her, where the sky was so bright and the sunlight felt so warm on her face.

This was a perfect and beautiful day, but somehow, Zuri felt so down lately, she didn't know why, but she didn't think that she wanted to do anything either.

Both Zuri and Chaos didn't bring anything, they were just wearing the clothes that they wore when they left the village, no luggage, no bags, nothing…

They travelled like this and in the future, they would always go about it like this. They couldn't afford to be so attached to anything, because at the end of the day, they would leave everything behind them…

Zuri shook her head and slapped her cheeks. Her mind would spiral down with depression if she kept thinking like that and she didn't like it.

But then, when she turned around and was about to look where Chaos was, she saw a little child, a little girl with curly, brown hair, with her green eyes staring at her. She blinked her big eyes a couple of times, which made Zuri frown.

She looked to be around three or four years old.

"May I help you?" Zuri asked, looking around her, trying to look for her parents, because she thought this little girl must be lost.

"I have never seen white hair," she said in her cheerful tone.

Zuri smiled at her when she heard that. It was not the first time for her to hear something like that. "Do you want to touch it?" she asked and the little girl nodded her head excitedly at her offer.

And then, Zuri bent down her body slightly and freed her hair, as she untied it, so her long and white hair would cascade down for the little girl to touch.

"Here."

The little girl widened her eyes in enthusiasm, as she giggled when she touched Zuri's haid. "Do you want to touch my hair too?" she offered her politely, as she raised the small strands of her hair for Zuri to touch.

"Of course," Zuri laughed, but that small happiness didn't last for long, as she heard a commotion from a distance, which was followed by a loud sound of explosion.

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*Read my new book: KISSED BY THE DARK ALPHA*

Alpha Micah Donovan's second chance mate.

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