Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 29

Yore winced against the pain as his body contorted itself into wolf form once more. He'd about lost track of how many times he'd shifted today, and he'd have to do it at least once more when he reached his destination. Hopefully his grandmother wouldn't want to travel anywhere. He didn't like to show weakness in front of her, but he was really pushing his body to its limits.

Running helped loosen up some parts of him and made others hurt more. He tried to just ignore the pain, to disregard it and deny it any power over him, but it wasn't always easy. It was a constant battle against a tireless enemy, and whenever he faltered, there it was.

Despite all the chaos, he'd enjoyed travelling with Fanner. He hadn't felt the need to pretend to be perfect, to hide when he was hurting. For those few days, he was nothing more than himself, and that was all Fanner had wanted from him.

That was what he'd enjoyed about his time in the human military. He'd been a different person back then, of course, with none of this pain or the dark memories that stirred every time he smelled his own blood or felt restrained, but he'd still had the weight of responsibility bearing down on him. Being completely unimportant for a few months had been a welcome break.

He'd had his detractors back then, too, of course. Others who felt that spending time around humans was a waste of time, dangerous, even traitorous. He hadn't worried about that kind of thing back then, though. He was the rightful heir, and most people had liked and approved of him. Nobody would have acted against him.

Now he was... less popular, or at least people had less faith in his leadership abilities. Less faith he would even truly qualify as his grandmother's heir. He didn't disagree with those assessments. Under different circumstances, he might have willingly stepped down. As it was, though, there was no one he trusted to take his place, to continue to advocate for the mages. At this point he was fairly sure he would never inherit, but he had to keep this going as long as he could for the sake of the mages.

It was a few hours of sprinting through the wilderness before he started to see the first signs he was nearing his destination and slowed down. Yore liked to try to imagine what the crumbling remnants of houses had looked like when they were new. He had seen pictures in books of what neighbourhoods had looked like, had seen human settlements now in his travels that maybe weren't so different, but it was still hard to imagine these houses surrounded by flat stretches of bare grass and with neatly maintained gardens.

His favourite house along this stretch had a tree growing up through the middle of its remains, branches reaching through windows until the top of it had finally torn a hole through the roof to free it.

Pixies had made their tiny homes in its branches, hanging glass spheres of every colour with holes in the fronts so that the pixies could crawl in and curl up inside. They'd decorated them with jewelry they'd scavenged from nearby houses, old coins, and shells from the nearby beach.

A pixie fluttered down on sparkling wings when it saw Yore approach and landed on his back, burrowing its tiny body through his fur. Once thoroughly covered in his scent, it fluttered off to let Yore's grandmother know he'd arrived.

Yore continued down the street to where Old Man Frog sat on his front porch, his fat, greenish brown body slumped in a chair that was too big for his short stature. A brown, brimmed hat clearly made for a human sat atop his too-big head. He had long toes and webbed feet, but his hands were humanlike enough to grip a long cane that rested across his thighs.

Yore took the opportunity to shift for what he hoped was the last time that day, his whole body popping and cracking. Straightening his spine as he stood up on two legs made him draw in an involuntary breath through his teeth. It was a few moments before he dared move, but the delay didn't make it hurt any less. He made himself stretch, easing out the sharpest of the pain.