Chapter 555 - THE DEMON WOMAN

"Hope…" 

There was a voice, but it didn't come from the young Kace in front of her. The young version of Kace was still crying silently pressing his lips together into a thin line. 

"Hope?"

There, the voice could be heard again. This time the voice sounded closer and when someone shook her shoulder, Hope turned her head to look behind her. 

"Hope, wake up." 

Ian's face came to her sight. Hope frowned. Ian was also in her dream? However, when Hope turned her head again to see the young version of Kace, all she could see was only the beast, still lied down beside her. 

"What happened?" Hope groaned, a little bit upset because her dream was interrupted. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Lori returned. Do you want to come and ask them? Or, Ethan and I tell you about it later?" Ian asked. Hope looked tired and reluctant to leave Kace alone inside the barn, thus he thought maybe she wanted to stay there. 

However, Hope shook her head. "No, I'll go too." She stretched her body and sat down. 

"Are you sure, you want to leave him?" Ian nodded at the beast. 

"He will be fine," Hope caressed his fur tenderly before she stood up and patted her clothes to get rid of the hays off of her, Ian was helping by picking out the hays from her hair. 

"Let's go." Ian waved his hand and walked towards the door.

With a heavy heart, she took the last glance at the sleeping beast, then left him alone there, while talking to herself; 'I will come back soon.'

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Hope knew that wasn't only a dream. There must be something. Just like her previous dream about Kace's beast, which turned into fireflies. 

Unfortunately, neither the first dream about the beast nor the recent dream about the younger version of Kace, Hope understood. She just went with her gut feeling, that something was wrong and those dreams had special meaning. 

Hope's line of thoughts were interrupted when Ian opened the door for her, and then her eyes caught a sight of Mr. and Mrs. Lori, who were sitting on the sofa in the living room. 

"Good evening Mr. Lori, Mrs. Lori." Hope nodded at each of them politely and sat down beside Ethan, who was talking to them when they entered the room. "Thank you for helping us."

Ian sat down beside Hope, sandwiched the girl in the middle. 

Outside, the sun was almost set. Yesterday, it was around this time, when the carnage was happening. The beast went berserk and killed more than three dozens of hunters.

"Please, don't mention it." Mr. Lori waved his hand, diminishing the rigid atmosphere among them as he leaned his back against the backrest. "Chiron needed us to help you, of course we will do it gladly."

They were human, no doubt about that, yet they acted as if seeing a half-human-half-horse creature wasn't something out of ordinary. Probably, Hope also would act the same way, if only she stayed a long time there. 

But, she would love to go back to her world as soon as they had done whatever it was needed to be done there. 

"Can we meet him?" Hope asked straight to the point. "We also need to see the priestess." Hope added. 

"Our friend needs her help," Ian chimed in. 

"We lost one of our friends too." Ethan remembered that they had not heard anything about Lidya since they were separated yesterday. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lori looked at each other, this time Mrs. Lori who answered them. "We can help you to meet Chiron, but about the priestess…" then she took another glance at her husband. "It has been a year since the last time we saw the priestess."

"What happened to her?" Ethan asked.

"A year ago there was a demon woman who trespassed our land. The hunters, the centaurs and all the supernatural creatures were looking for her and then there was a fight." Mrs. Lori looked at her husband.

As if it was on cue, Mr. Lori continued the story. "The priestess fought against the demon woman under The Mountain of Uzu." He raised his hand and pointed at the shadow of a mountain that they could see through the glass of the window. "They fought for two days and two nights."

Hope and the siblings looked at each other, but didn't say anything as they listened to Mr. Lori when he tried to remember the event from the past. 

"When the priestess came back from Mount Uzu, she was greatly injured, but the demon woman was defeated," Mr. Lori said.

"Ever since that day, the priestess has been too weak to come out of her chamber. And only one person who could see her—a young maiden who was appointed to take care of whatever her needs was, and relays her messages to the young maiden, if ever she had something to say to others." Mrs. Lori wrapped the story.

"But, I think Chiron had talked to her," Hope remembered the reason that Chiron had told Leroy about, when he stopped him from getting Hope killed yesterday. 

"No one has ever really talked to the priestess since that day." Mrs. Lori watched as her daughter walked towards her with a doll in her hands. "However, the priestess and the centaurs have their unique way to communicate with each other."

"Just like what the centaurs are good at, they read the stars." Mr. Lori added. "And the priestess is the protector of this place, her spirit is so strong that they both have a common way to see things."

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"What do you think?" Ethan asked Hope when he helped her to clean the dining room. 

They just had their dinner and Hope and the siblings insisted on cleaning up the mess after their meal as a token of their gratitude because Mr. and Mrs. Lori were nothing, but very nice to them.

However, that was not the only reason they adamantly wanted to do it. It was rather because the three of them needed some time to discuss something, before the centaur came to see them. The centaur usually would come out of their den when the night fell.

Hope took out the candle, which flames were still blue, indicating that the priestess was not nearby.