After they finished, they lay there on the ground for a while, just staring up at the stars. Being chased and hunted down, fighting for their lives, and capping it off with a moment of absolute pleasure underneath a moonlit night made for a wild series of emotional highs, lows, and everything in between. Lola was still breathing heavily as she laid her head on Russel’s chest. She loved the warmth of his skin and she wriggled in closer to him. He let her, the arm curled around her pulling her in closer to himself.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” he told her, kissing the top of her head.

She looked up at him, a wicked smile on her face.

“No you’re not,” she replied with a small giggle. “You meant every word you liar.”

He laughed right back at her.

“You’re absolutely right. I thought I was going to lose you so many times tonight,” he said, his voice turning somber.

“To be fair, there were a lot of times I thought I was going to lose you too. I…” She paused, her voice hitching a little bit. “I thought you wouldn’t be able to come back to me.”

“It was hard,” he replied after a time. “Becoming that…thing is not easy. The more control I give over to the wolf, the harder it is to remain human.”

“Do you want to be human?” she asked tentatively, her voice halting.

“Yes,” he said, not even hesitating. “Being human grounds me. I feel more…stable when I have control. And besides, I’ve seen what happens when a werewolf loses all humanity and gives in to the wolf all the way. I’ll never allow myself to become that. I’d rather die first.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

But Russel didn’t elaborate further and she didn’t press him for more information. She could see an almost unbearable pain cross his face when he thought about that particular memory. Seeing him like that made her feel bad for even asking the question.

She sat up, the pebbly, rocky ground suddenly feeling very painful against her naked skin. She brushed a bit of dirt and grass off herself. Then she looked down at him. His nakedness was very alluring and made her feel…certain ways despite it still being caked in ghoul blood but she felt it was a good time to get moving again. It was the middle of the night, it was cold, and they were both extremely filthy. They needed to do something about those things. Russel saw her start to get up and stood up too. He looked down at himself.

“Let’s head back to grab our supplies. Then we can find a small pond or something to bathe in. It will probably be freezing but I’d rather turn into an icicle than have this foul ghoul blood all over me,” he said.

“Good,” Lola responded. “I wasn’t going to say anything but you stink.”

“It’s all the ghoul blood,” Russel remarked with a somewhat indignant look on his face.

“Sure it is,” Lola teased.

They spent the next ten minutes walking back to the spot where the ghouls and the oni had attacked them. They had thrown their packs down in the ensuing chaos and left them there, more concerned with their own lives than their stuff. Russel grabbed them up, put on his own, and then handed Lola hers. Along her desperate run from Russel, she also dropped her blade but when they backtracked their way to the spot still covered in ghoul bits and pieces, they found it and she picked it up.

Once they had their packs, supplies, and weapons back, they trekked through the area looking for somewhere they could get clean.

“I am pretty sure there’s a pond or something close by,” Russel explained after they spent a good twenty minutes searching for a source of water.

“This is your kingdom right? Shouldn’t you know more about it?” Lola asked.

“I’ve learned the maps growing up but let’s just say, I wasn’t the best of students,” he replied with a shrug.

“I hope that doesn't mean we’re going to be out here until the sun comes up, walking around naked and filthy, still looking for a place to get clean,” she said but in a joking way. Mostly.

She was getting extremely tired. All the events of the night had wreaked havoc on her body and all she wanted to do was sleep for a week straight.