Danger Zone

Daime puts the logs on the wooden basket near him and waits for the old lady to come back from her hunt. He looks down to the ground as he thinks of Aiden and how much he misses him. 

"If only Primo is not around, you will be mine." Selfishness.

Daime has never think of being selfish in his entire life. His parents have never let him grow as one of those jealous and selfish Santoro kids just like his other cousins. 

They make sure that Daime is well educated, well fed and well taught of certain things that he might encounter inside the Santoro mansion. 

But after meeting Aiden, Daime has only one thing in mind. He sighs as he throws a tiny pebble out in the bushy part of the mountain. 

The pebble hits something but Daime never bothered to look into it and is about stand up when he hears growling from the bushes. 

Daime takes out of the thinnest log from the wooden basket and looks at the bushes, waiting for that monster to come out if there is one. 

"I swear I heard something growling towards me."

Daime swings the thinnest log and prepares himself from an attack. But there is none. The thing behind the bush is completely silence, making Daime irks and walks towards it to see what it is.

He carefully pushes the bush away and jumps back when he feels something stings his hand. He looks down at his hand and sees three bleeding slashes present on the top of it. 

"Shit."

The young man positions himself to stand ground against the malicious beast as the monster immerses from the bush. 

Daime gulps as he stares at the mountain wolf looking back at him with saliva coming out of his mouth. The young curses under his breath as he grabs another medium thin log. 

Not caring about the pain on his hand, Daime grabs the medium sized log tightly as he waits for the dog to attack. 

In a flash, the dog moves swiftly towards him as he snarls at Daime and is about to gnaw at his left arm when Daime swings the medium sized log straight to his head. 

The mountain wolf stomps to the ground as it whines in pain. Daime takes this as an opportunity to attack and pound the wolf's head nonstop, not giving the mountain wolf any time to attack or fight back. 

Moments later, as Daime gives the mountain wolf the last strike, the old lady grabs his arm and faces him towards her with a serious expression plastered on her face.

"Stop! Stop. It's already dead."

When Daime hears what she said, he looks down to the lifeless wolf and steps back. Unable to speak to what he just did, Daime looks away from the wolf and heaves a heavy sigh.

I can't believe it! What did I just do?

The old lady just stares at the wolf as he pays her respect to the mountain wolf and drags his body to have his proper burial. 

It is not a crime to kill an animal in the mountains. But the show that she just saw earlier is a magnificent sight. 

She saw the anger and the frustration that Daime is hiding from the very beginning and it made her a little bit excited to see more from the young man. 

Even if he is a bit younger and more gentleman that the Aster she once knew, the tenacity is still there; lurking and ready to attack any time soon.

Mapping her plan in her head, she rushes the wolf's burial before grabbing Daime down the mountains to cooks themselves some breakfast. 

She, herself, catches some wild bunnies while hunting for some wild boar. She looks at her basket and sighs defeatedly. She thought that she can cook Daime some wild meat for breakfast but she only caught some bunnies and some other vegetables. 

The old lady sigh as she enters the house while Daime follows her from behind. He is still stunned by what happened earlier and is now sulking near the table next to the stairs while leaning his back from his chair. 

I never thought myself losing any patience I have. What the heck just happened there?

While Daime is thinking of the possibility of losing his patience, the old lady is preparing the ingredients that she will use for to cook their breakfast. 

It has been long since she cooks breakfast for a guest. She has been along since her family died because of a stupid virus that spreads around Moscow. 

She sighs as she remembers running towards the mountain to hide and survives on her own. Years had passed and she still doesn't have any information about her family until that day came.

She was hunting a wild bunny at that time and was about to catch one when she received a phone call from a hospital saying that her family died. 

Out of shock, she came down the mountain and rushed to the hospital to know whether it is true or not. Hence, when the doctor talked to her, she cried that night while climbing up back to the mountains. 

She even screamed to the mountain gods, if they even exist as to why they let her family died because of that non-fatal virus. 

She didn't climbed down the mountains since then. 

But when she received a news that one of her family member from another country survived a plane crash, she went back to the hospital that declared the death of her family and wished that her only family shall live.

She was happy to find Daime sleeping soundly at the hospital bed. There is no broken bone or missing limbs that got stuck from the plane crash. 

She is happy that her little Aster is alive. 

She looks at the young man that is having a big contemplation in his entire life as she stops chopping the vegetables in front of her. 

"I know."

She knows. She knows that he is not Aster. But she also feels his desperation to let go and run away from the cage that he was in before that plane crashes to the snowy part of the mountains in Khabarovsk. 

"But I will make you part of my family so you can take revenge to those who hated and manipulated you. Don't worry, my child. I will teach you everything to survive and fight back."