The Fenrir Saga - Part I

Chapter 2

--- Beonnie ---

I ran for days. Maybe even weeks. And I loved every single moment of it. I avoided the main roads during the days but ran like a wolf, even if not in the form of a wolf just yet, on them at night, knowing that it at least somehow protected me from breaching unknown pack territories. I was too young to have connected with my wolf just yet; this typically occurred when we turned 18, but since I was closing in at that age, my wolf senses had already awoken, and I was stronger and faster than an average human. 

Even if I was not fully wolfed yet and thus not much of a threat, I still wanted to avoid pack territories. Especially since I had a vague plan to leave the Prospect that my pack belonged to. The werewolf community on this continent was divided into four major territories, called Prospects, ruled by the Alpha King Prospects. These were further divided into smaller territories governed by ordinary alphas, like my former pack. The size of these different territories depended on the power and ability of the packs that lived there. So, the stronger the alpha, the stronger the pack. 

This organisation of packs had been created to prevent outright war, but it had often led to increased rivalry. There was supposed to be an Alpha King, supported by the Council of Elders, but he had recently passed of old age, and none of the four Alpha King Prospects had ascended the throne. As I was exiled from my pack, and the rumours about my father no doubt had spread to the other packs in my Prospect, I figured I had a better chance of finding a new pack in a Prospect where no one knew who my father was. 

Without a pack, I would be labelled a rogue, an outcast without protection, to whom any pack who crossed its path could do whatever they pleased. So, even if I technically was a rogue, I didn't want anyone to mistake me for acting like one, as rogues had such a bad reputation, and I didn't want anyone to think I was a threat of some kind. I just wanted to be left alone until I could figure out where to go and what to do with the rest of my life. Running in human form was less provocative to other packs, and running along highways at almost wolf speed during the nights made me move quite fast anyway.

I didn't have any specific goal for where to go, but I noticed that I always seemed to run in the same direction. It was as if my body had a goal that my brain was unaware of. It was obviously not the case, but one day, I found myself stopping in my tracks because I took a wrong turn, only to realise that objectively, there wasn't such a thing as a wrong turn since I wasn't going anywhere special. However, subconsciously, it FELT wrong, and thus, I turned, ran back to where the road forked, and took the other route instead.

"You will find them, Beo."

The memory of my father's words almost made me stop in my tracks.

"Find who?" I had urged, but his reply didn't help at all.

"I don't know. But you will. We always do."

It is hard to find something you don't know you are looking for, but somewhere, I hoped that the gut feeling I had in which direction to run would eventually make me find... whatever I was supposed to find.

The terrain had shifted from flat grasslands to forests, to rolling hills, and back again, but then the rolling hills gave way to steeper, more rocky hills and even cliffs. This particular night, I heard the roaring of thunder from afar, and as a sudden flash of exhaustion came over me, I decided it was time to get some sleep. 

The game had been rare in the area, and I supposed it was because I was very close to pack territory. No doubt they had hunted this area recently, as I still could smell the blood from deer and rabbits that had called this place home not many hours ago. Even if I had been able to hunt in wolf form, it would have been hard for me to catch anything. I had a few chocolate bars left in my backpack, and even though my human hunting game with traps had proven successful in more prey-dense forests, I was getting hungrier as time passed.