The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 27 - gathering information

"stop no! Dad!" Cara screamed at the man holding the giant black wolf down. The wolf fought against the ropes but to no avail.

the men creeped closer to the wolf, blade glistering as they went by. Cara was frozen in place, she could only watch as the men started stabbing and slashing the wolf.

Finally the wolf gave up and fell to the floor. His head turned to Cara as she saw the light disappear from its eyes.

"Cara love wake up."

the building that she was in slowly vanished and was replaced by snow. The laughter of the men died down and slowly vanished as it echoed in her head.

"cara wake up, it's a nightmare."

She opened her eyes and looked around, she was not in fjerda but in ketterdam. She looked a little disoriented until she felt a hand on her cheek.

"you're okay, you are here with me" her heartbeat slowed down as she heard the familiar voice. She turned her head towards him. he still had his hand on her cheek.

"you are okay, you're safe." His voice was soft and she felt her emotions calm down.

she couldn't help herself as she threw her arms around him hugging him close. He did not expect it and almost pulled back at the touch but soon relaxed and melted into the hug as he wrapped his arms around her body.

"do you want to tell me what it was about? Was it about the pits like the others?"

She shook her head no. "it was about my father."

he pulled back so he could look upon her face. "your father? I thought you didn't know much about him."

"my uncle told me, he fought with fjerda in the army but was betrayed by a gang of people there and murdered because he was a shifter."

the eyes of the man next to her turned cold, the gears in his head turning hard as he processed what she had said.

"do you know the gang of people who did it?" he asked her.

"no but my uncle does, he told me he went to get revenge but failed, they must be very dangerous.." she took one look at his face and immediately knew what he was thinking.

"no kaz we can't go, its to dangerous. I don't want people getting hurt because of me."

"Cara you need closure, I haven't decided anything yet don't worry. How about we go to your uncle to get more information about fjerda and the gang."

Cara still felt unsure but maybe her uncle could convince kaz that it was a bad idea to go to fjerda. So she nodded at his idea.

"good, then lets go."

he turned away from her and stood up from the bed as he made his way to his dresser to get a warm outfit for the trip. Cara got out of bed to but decided she would wear the outfit she had worn the day before so the walked over to the chair where she had placed her clothes on.

she hadn't changed with kaz in the room yet so she felt a little conscious about his presence but pushed any bad thought away as she quickly changed. She had her back turned to him but she just knew that he was smirking.

when she was ready she turned towards him and she was right, the smirk never left his face so as she walked by him to get to the door she playfully slapped his shoulder earning her a light chuckle.

When they went downstairs they greeted the dregs who were minding their own business. Kaz went to the store room to grab some supplies while Cara got them both breakfast.

it was a clear day outside, not particularly warm but also no rain so it was a good day to travel. They walked side by side in ketterdam towards the exit gate. Once they were outside of ketterdam kaz reached for Cara's hand as he offered her a smile.

She squeezed his hand as she smiled back at him as they walked towards the forest clearing.

once they arrived Elvis almost ran kaz over to greet him as Cara laughed at his surprised face.

she went over to the pair and tapped kaz's shoulder to get his attention. Once he turned to her she carefully grabbed his hand and placed a small whistle into his palm.

"he's yours now, he finished his training and he belongs with you." Kaz looked from the whistle back to her and something clicked in his mind. He knew how important elvis was to Cara as it was the first horse she ever trained.

he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. "thank you love."

She quickly tacked up elvis and venus but when she was ready to get on kaz stopped her.

"we should take venus to, the dregs will start bringing building materials here and I wouldn't want anything to happen to them." She nodded her head and whistled at moon to follow them.

She looked over everything one more time and then got on venus. Kaz was already waiting for her on elvis as he grinned. Cara smiled at him, she remembered how hesitant he was to horse riding at the start but with elvis he really seemed to love it.

they rode at a comfortable pace the whole day and made good progress int heir journey, they didn't need to rush so they made a little camp off the road and took turns sleeping before moving on in the morning.

it was late in the afternoon the next day when they arrived at their destination.

Peter was working in the smithy as they could hear his hammer clinging against metal. They walked over to the smithy and got off to greet him.

When he saw the pair peter's eyes lit up and he gave Cara a hug. "and you must be the man I have heard so much about." Kaz glanced at Cara who's cheeks were heating up slightly.

"I would give you a hand young man but.." before he could finish his sentence kaz had outstretched his hand in a greeting. Peter took it as they shook hands.

"so what brings you here?"

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peter had agreed they could stay the night there. He was currently talking with kaz inside the house while Cara took care of the horses. Peter had taken good care of the horses jesper and inej arrived on.

They were 2 young horses, both chestnuts full of energy. They immediately got along with he little herd. She knew from jesper that they had stolen the horses from a merchant so she decided that when they came to get the horses again she would bring them with her to the clearing.

quite a few hours passed before peter and kaz emerged from the house. Kaz told Cara that peter had agreed to take care of elvis, venus and moon while they were gone ... meaning peter did nto convince kaz not to go to fjerda.

she still found it the worst idea ever but kaz thought otherwise. What Cara didn't know is that he wanted to do this for her, so she could get closure about her family. Peter had told him everything he knew about the group.

they were a fairly small group of wealthy people that ran a gang, nothing they couldn't deal with. The reason peter wasn't able to revenge his brother was because he couldn't take on that amount of people alone but kaz knew that with the other crows it should not be a problem.

he could also make his crows happy with the money they could potentially steal from the rich men. Making sure they could buy everything their hearts desired.

Cara was quite that evening. Even the morning after she hadn't said much.

then it was time to leave back for ketterdam.

"goodbye uncle peter, than you for everything." She hugged her uncle as he chuckled.

"you know I would do everything for you Cara" he pulled back and shook Kaz's hand once more.

"you guys stay safe now, take care of her kaz." Kaz glanced at Cara.

"I would give my life for her sir." Peter smiled.

Cara turned to kaz. "I will say the same thing I told jesper and inej, hold on and don't you dare fall off. Oh and you will have to give me your cane." Kaz lifted his eyebrow but nodded.

Cara shifted in her big wolf form and took the cane carefully between her teeth. She then laid on the ground so kaz could get on.

they made their way back to ketterdam and arrived late in the evening.

Cara stopped a little outside of ketterdam and kaz got off, she gave him his cane and shifted back.

the walk back to the slat was quiet. Both deep in thought about what was to come. When they arrived at the slat kaz turned to her. "you go ahead and hear to bed, don't wait for me because I will be back pretty late. I will organize out trip to fjerda."

without another word he had turned around and walked off. Leaving Cara alone in the room.


AN: sorry for the short chapter today. I had a very bad day yesterday and I feel a little mentally drained right now. I promise next chapter will be longer as our couple will head to fjerda.