Caged - Unleash the Beast

Chapter 9 - A Promise Not To Be Kept

"Better late than ever." He shrugged, offering a hand.
Jackie shook it before wiping blood from her eye brow, "I need to speak to Chief Prior."
"Very well, right this way." He smiled, before beckoning her towards the camp.
Jackie followed, riding beside the him. "Long time, no see." She stated.
"Thanks to you, everyone has gotten back on track." He stated.
"Yeah, well. What I am about to tell you and Chief Prior might change that." Jackie whispered to him.
"I am sure, it is nothing to bad. What could be worse than Chris being alive?" He replied, raising a suspicious eye brow at her.
"What I have to say." Jackie murmured to herself.
Once they reached the camp, the rest of the warriors branched away and joined others while Jackie was lead to Dylan's house. Jackie dismounted Jet before being beckoned in, by now a few people were trying to see what was going on.
"Ah, Zeke. How was the patrol?" Dylan asked, obviously not seeing Jackie behind Zeke.
"An, interesting one." Zeke replied, this caused Dylan to look.
"Chief Talon!" Dylan said, surprised to see her. "I hope my warriors didn't beat you up!" He continued when he noticed the cut above her left eye.
"No. It was not them I had the trouble with." Jackie chuckled, before shaking Dylan's hand.
"What do you mean?" He asked, looking at Zeke.
"On the patrol we found a group of riders and their lions and their lionesses." Zeke sighed. "We chased them off, to find that it was Jackie... Chief Talon they had surrounded."
"That is why I am here, actually." Jackie interrupted.
"Very well." Dylan nodded, before offering her a seat.
Jackie sat down before waiting for Zeke to sit down as well. "A few days ago, my captain's sister was murdered. I had lead a team of warriors to track and destroy the threat, unfortunately it didn't go quite as we expected."
"What do you mean?" Dylan asked, now he was sitting on the edge of his seat.
"We found out that it was..." She paused, she didn't want to say it. "Chris' lion."
"What!" Dylan said, standing up now. "That beast died during the war!"
"He had mated with a jungle cat." Jackie murmured.
"That explains it then." Zeke nodded.
"We had been spotted and were chased out, only for a warrior and I to be captured." She explained, not wanting to say who it was. "For a number of days we stayed as prisoners. We had attempted to escape once only to be captured again. That night they had tried to get me out of the cage."
"But they couldn'tan wrestle you out of anything without a fight." Dylan nodded.
Jackie smiled, "They had failed. The next day I was taken down to the river to clean myself up. I had stolen a dagger from someone that night. The guard watching me had joined me in the river and after a few minutes I held the dagger at his throat."
Dylan chuckled to himself, "You are sneaky."
"As I did, a group of warriors came to rescue us. We had taken him prisoner and the warrior that had been captured with has escaped too." Jackie closed her eyes, remembering the events. "The next day we had interrogated him and found out something that I wish was not true."
"War." Dylan sighed before she could say anything.
"Turns out, Maddi. Chris' daughter is alive and is now waging war against all of us." She informed Dylan.
"Thank you, for bringing this to our attention, Chief Talon." Dylan murmured.
"I must leave for the Rainbreaker Tribe." Jackie insisted, it was already mid day and by the time she had would reach the border the sun would be setting.
"Very well. I will send a warrior with you." Dylan insisted.
"You don't have too." Jackie sighed, standing up.
"You were attacked once, that won't mean that they won't try again." Dylan raised an eye brow at her. "If you have someone else with you, they will think twice about attacking."
"I cannot allow you to risk one of your own." Jackie said, resting a hand on Dylan's shoulder.
"It will be fine. Zeke go find someone to accompany Chief Talon." Dylan ordered.
Zeke nodded and left them alone, "You don't have to." Jackie insisted as she checked Jet over.
"In 4 days we will come to the Cloudchaser Tribe. All of the chief's and captains will come. We need to figure out what to do." Dylan instructed her.
Zeke had returned with a man, he was roughly the same age as James and the same body shape as Jake. Now that she looked at, he looked similar to Jake.
"This is, Jasper. He will accompany you until you reach your border." Dylan nodded.
"Pleasure to met you." Jackie said, shaking his hand.
"The pleasure is all mine, Chief Talon." Jasper nodded.
"Please, call me Jackie." She insisted.
"Have a safe journey." Dylan said, shaking her hand.
"Always." She shrugged, causing Dylan to shake his head.
Jackie beckoned Jasper to the edge of the camp, she didn't know what to say. She didn't even know whether to say anything, she was being accompanied by someone she knew nothing about.