A week had passed since the day Alpha Dan had visited and tauntef me with my captivity on the training grounds. Each day after that, he had come to the training grounds to watch me train his pack members, and it had been a constant struggle for me to maintain my composure and keep myself focused on the training. On one hand, I was doing a great job keeping myself together whike I trained the guards, but on the other, my heart ached for Brad, my pack and the freedom I had lost. More hope was getting lost as the days blurred into one another, and I had almost given up hope on Wally every going to my pack and helping me out. I found that I had gotten the respect of the pack warriors, and I was starting to get comfortable in the pack. It was a small shift in my psyche, almost unnoticeable at first, but it grew with each new day, and every time I caught myself I cursed at the gods for letting me get comfortable in a place that did not want me. I found myself waking up in the mornings wi
The following day, dawn shone through the new window, and the instant my eyes shot open, even I knew that the air held an unusual tension. The air in the dungeon seemed mustier, heavy. It was as if the very wind knew that something serious was about to happen. I had woken up with a strange sense of calm, even as I knew that I would continue to train Alpha Dan's pack members.As I stood on the training grounds that morning, I couldn't help but feel my sense of discomfort continue to grow. I could attribute it to paranoia, say that I was seeing things where they weren't, but unfortunately, that was not the case.Even the sky was heavy with gray clouds, and it seemed like my balance had disappeared. I felt antsy, and my hands had developed jitters, so I glanced around, wondering if something was amiss. Yet, everything seemed normal.The guards were just casually going about their duties, and the warriors around me were preparing for another day of training, stretching and oiling their
With our plan in motion, my pack members, led by Brad and I, split into two groups. The primary mission of the first half was to evacuate the members of Alpha Dan's pack from the burning grounds and guide them to safety. It was a chaotic move to make, since I had a vendetta against their pack leaders, but it was a necessary endeavor to ensure no one got hurt in the spreading fire. Meanwhile, I, along with Wally and Brad, ventured into the depths of the dungeon to free the prisoners who had been locked away for far too long. There was no doubt in my mind that most of them had even been locked up unjustly, and they would be left alone to burn in the heat of the dungeon, unaware of what was going on. It was a task that was especially important to me, having lived in the darkness of the dungeon for so long, and I was determined to right the wrongs that had been committed by Alpha Dan's pack against the people who lived in the orisons. The dungeon was a grim and oppressive place, with c
A murmur ran across the cave and I looked across at all the pack guards that I had trained. It might be temporary, but I had earned their respect during training, and their loyalties lay with me. Along with my pack members, who had met Alpha Dan and had a vague idea how he and Alpha Leon looked like, we separated the people of the pack until we had two distinct groups - one for those willing to cooperate and assist in the search for Alpha Dan and Alpha Leon, and the other for those who remained loyal to their leaders, even in the absence of the pack that they belonged to.They had unconsciously separated themselves into two groups, each one wary of the other side. The co-operative group were people I remembered from our days as the outcasts, people who had helped us build willingly and would stand on the side of the truth, and the other were people I recognized with sniggers as we had attended campfires with their pack, along with some of the men that had come with Alpha Dan to help
The night in the cave passed with tension still hanging in the air between both packs. Our failed attempt to locate Alpha Dan and Alpha Leon had left us with a sense of frustration and unease, and an unspoken disdain now lay over the entire pack, most especially the members who had ratted out Alphas Dan and Leon. Despite the cooperation of some former members of their pack, the two Alphas had slipped through our grasp once again, and it left me infuriated. The night before, when we were having dinner, the members who had remained loyal to Alpha Dan had only pushed their food around, only taking in scraps of food and chewing slowly, as though they expected poison. As morning light filtered into the cave, we were greeted by the sight of our new, mixed group. It was funny to me how just the day before, I had been sure of the pack members that I had, and now all of a sudden I had more than I knew what to do with. Some of the ones who had remained loyal to Alpha Dan before had now made
Chapter Ninety-Nine As the sun dipped that evening, casting long shadows across the cave entrance, we continued to discuss the logistics of moving our now expanded group back to the Safe Water pack. It was no small feat, considering the varied ages and physiques of the people we had now welcomed into our fold.There were people who were so old they had a hard time standing, and even more that were so young that they couldn't understand what exactly was going on. Seth, one of our skilled pack members who had grown up with an unfettered sense of direction in the wilderness, volunteered to lead the group during the first leg of our journey. He was well-versed in navigating the terrain of the woods, and his sharp instincts had often served Brad well during previous expeditions. “Are you sure he can handle being at the helm of the expedition? Because it might drain him pretty fast, and I need to be sure that he knows the way. ” “He knows it better than anyone else. Well, except you," h
We continued that way for over a week, the journey taking its toll on everyone. People were cranky, and sleep had become a foreign thing for my elders and I, but I was proud that we were almost home. What was left of the journey back to the Safe Water pack was less than an hour long–I recognized the body of water I saw by tye magical plant I saw. It was still early days, yet while everyone else slept or tried to, I would stay away, daydreaming of what my home would look like now. Brad would have been forced to move into the pack house in my absence, and I wondered if he had even bothered to decorate the room and make it into something beautiful for my arrival. I was going to leave all of them there and get a headstart to the pack the next morning, then I remembered how understaffed the pack was, and how much of a struggle it was to find pack members who were healthy, knew they way, or weren't ill in any capacity when they were on their way here. She sat down with her feet folded b
The next morning, excitement woke everyone up before we actually had to leave, and we set on the road before dawn's forgiving light filtered through. We were less than an hour away from the pack that I called home, and everyone was merry, singing songs and chants of joy. As we approached the familiar territory of the Safe Water pack, my heart quickened with a mix of excitement and fear. I hadn't known what to expect as I returned, but now that I was back, I realized that a lot–so much–had changed. The landscape seemed to have morphed in my absence. The once-charred remains of the pack house that had held our sick had now been replaced by vibrant greenery and thriving farms. It was as if nature itself had conspired to erase the scars left by the fire on the land. It was beautiful, and I smiled when I realized that the flowers that grew were red roses, in Isabella's honor. The other buildings all around us stood tall and proud, freshly repaired and adorned with colorful banners. Pe