CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED & THIRTY FIVE

Colin's Pov

The steed was a beast on the path. Tearing through the forest and thudding through the terrain like its life depended on it. I could sense it's thirst to return home, and the thirst built up inside me as well. The journey would be long, I knew; but lacking treacherous. As all the roads and shortcuts held a striking resemblance with the back of my hands.

I rode through the muddy and dry ground as the sun rose higher in the sky. Early afternoons had a knack for turning rainy nights into excessively hot mornings. As the wind hardly blew even as I rode down streets of vegetation and vines, over arched bridges and nature's own mini archipelagos. The horse's legs jerked and vibrated, and I could feel it in my legs too as I held onto the reins and my feet bounced inside the stirrup irons. We had covered a good distance already, but it was still a long way down to where we needed to go, because I wasn't taking the usual route.

The guards lined up in the trees at the pack border ma