Rodwood Academy

Chapter 9: Doubt

Exhaling deeply as he walked away from Nina's chambers, Alex rustled his hand through his hair. Passing by different groups of wolves on patrol in the cave, he decided to take a small detour before going to check back in on the doctor for Nina's sake.

Rather than exiting the cave back into the village, the man briskly walked down another corridor leading to a row of chambers.

Unlike Nina's corridor where she had the entire hall to herself, there were at least ten different chambers between these stone walls.

Passing by not only his sleeping quarters but those of the village councilmen and their elder members, the man reached a room at the end of the hall.

One that was shortly after his.

Clearing his throat Alex gave the wooden door a hard knock. Waiting patiently for any indication of life inside, he knocked again. "Lauren. It's me." He said loudly.

But the woman he anticipated to respond instead remained silent. "Lauren? I'm coming in." He alerted as he grabbed her handle and pushed the door in slowly. As he made sure to make her aware of his presence, Alex finally had the door open when he was greeted by nothing more than an empty room.

The stone walls all around him were only lit by the small lanterns around. Her bed of stone and leaves were empty but her space was a mess. With broken rocks scattered on the floor and what looked to be a small red puddle stained onto her floor, he looked up concerned.

Bending down to the odd stain on her floor he pressed two of his fingers down into stain. When he lifted them up a faint print of red could be seen. Taking his fingers to his nose, the man sniffed the red stain hopping it wasn't what he expected.

But as his nose caught a waft of the red stench he fell back to the memory of the night in the forest. The night when nothing but this horrid smell filled his nose as the blood all around his friend was tragically spilt onto the soil beneath him.

"Lauren?!" He shouted as he ran from her room looking through each of the corridors in hope that she was just taking a casual stroll around the cave and his suspicion was wrong.

But when his search turned up empty handed the man rushed out of the caves mouth. Looking to the first wolf on guard Alex stood in front of the brown furred wolf in a panic. "Have you seen Lauren leave the cave?"

After the wolf nodded, as did those around him, it sent Alex sprinting for their village.

Wanting to find Lauren eagerly but not create panic amongst the people of their camp, he slowed his pace but continued to walk around hastily.

Checking from the village guards to pups, Alex looked everywhere for the missing woman.

As he was passing by the crops growing on the far side of the camp, the man could feel a presence coming up from behind him. He could hear their footsteps approaching and there were multiple at that.

Turning around he spotted three of the village guards all walking his way. Standing in an orderly manner the three guards consisting of two men and a woman in leather gear stood tall before him. "We have a report on the returning hunters." One of the men said.

"What is it?" Alex said overwhelmed.

"The wolf sent out to retrieve the closest hunter reported that nobody was at the post."

"What?! Where'd they go?!"

"We don't know sir. The order was to retrieve the hunters and report back. He wasn't allowed to go looking around considering all that's happened."

"So we have a hunter who disappeared?"

"Yes sir."

"Have you heard any word about the other hunters?"