~The Royal Pup~

_3_

Akela POV

  About 2 nightfalls had past as Sia and I traveled further into the unknown forest. She wasn't as hungry anymore since we found a few animals here and there but our injured leg still hurt like crap. The best idea would probably not to shift back because in human form the pain would be unbearable.

  Exploring the forest was fun to say the most. We hadn't faced any more danger and it barely rained which meant the ground wouldn't've be all muddy. Something felt different though...the atmosphere felt like it had changed but I didn't think much of it. As long as I didn't stumble upon any living civilization everything would be fine.

  Her feet padded the rough dirt flooring as I looked around to mark our surroundings. The branches of the trees spread out far allowing a shade to cover majority of the forest. The shadows around me seemed to follow me or sort of alive. I payed no attention to that since it was probably Sia's imagination slipping into mine. 

  The day passed and the sky had gotten darker signaling that it was probably evening or nightfall. One thing I noticed was that we passed a bunch of  ruins, ones that i could use as a hideout so that's exactly where we were headed. Sia sniffed the surroundings her ears twitching while doing so. Something smelt different. She could hear voices but they were far away. 

  Quickly she made way to a ruin that was being destroyed by a large tree growing through its wall.  She ducked under a few concrete blocks turning a bit to get comfortable as the branches of a tree blocked the entryway a bit. It was kind of like a cave, which reminded me of our old 'home'. I missed it, the safety, the convenience..it made me want to go back, but I had no clue where we were. 

  Sia whimpered at my thoughts as she stuffed her snout in-between her paws. Trying to sleep she closed her eyes as she focused by listening to the insects outside and the breeze. Her fur kept her warm and we dozed off to sleep together dreaming about running around, playing and a place we could finally call home.

  Sia's ears twitched as we woke up. It was still dark and we could hear talking and heavy footsteps. Words like map, finally, magic were the only ones I could make out by the rough, gruff voices. By the sound of the voices and footsteps I realized that there were about 30 men. They smelled old, dusty and like...magic? Sia thought as her ears twitched to listen to more. Apparently they were setting up a campsite and were looking for the capital..wherever that was. 

  That's when the puzzles clicked in my head. Wizards. We entered the magical kingdom. They were defiantly not known to be kind. Actually they were the opposite of that. They started wars and were great manipulators with there magic, equally bad as witches. As I panicked Sia began getting scared. All of a sudden this hiding place was to small and the sound of the deep, scary voices didn't help soothe her.

 She whimpered as she tried to crawl further into the concrete blocks that only made things worse because our head bumped into a block making a long and loud whine escape from Sia. Very wrong move. Her breathing quickened as the footsteps got louder and louder as it got closer to us. Just as the sound stopped the blocks above us were lifted and Sia froze. 

 A large, ugly man almost troll-like, dressed in old robes and had a short white beard stared us in the eye. His wand grasp tightly in his left hand as he furrowed his eyes and shouted something that sounded like 'over here'. Before more could come Sia darted out, whimpering as about three wizards were chasing us. Blue and almost green short thunder bolts came out their wands trying to hit us with different spells as we avoided them.

 Sia kept running like our life depended on it..which it really did. She even used our injured hind-leg which hurt less now. Thank Merlin. We crossed muddy, dry, rocky paths before we escaped the wizards. I wanted us to travel further just to make sure but a large body of water sat infront of us. A very large swamp or just a dirty lake. Sia was panting out of breathe so she lapped some of the water up cooling down.

  Should we cross? I asked myself. It would probably be safer on the other side. I did not want to be in 'Magical lands'. I didn't want to become a pet for  a stupid wizard or which. 

  We stayed close to the lake for about an hour. Trying to regain some stamina and take a look at the surroundings. The trees looked the same but a lot had carves in them. A bat even flew by but it didn't seem to notice me. The sun had started to rise a bit but it was still quite dark.

 Eventually when the sun rose we crossed the swampy lake. It wasn't hard, Sia loved water but for now we were both mentally drained. Right now we were in a very mossy forest.  There were cut down trees and a pebble path. That was sketchy but we followed it anyways. The pebbles were mixed with gravel and it felt nice on our paws.  On all fours our hind leg still hurt but it was faster to walk with.

  At the end of the path there was a ruin. Or ruins I should say as this was an entry way leading to run down buildings that looked like castle towers..or look out areas. Our ears twitched for any sounds but none could be heard other than her breathing and leaves on the trees. Hesitantly we walk into the arch way, following the path that was almost dusted away. Looking at the towers they were covered with vines. As we walked she looked around at our surroundings. 

 The towers distanced as we walked farther down the almost non existence path. There weren't many trees but bushes covered the bottoms of the towers. Our stomach grumbled but that could wait, right now we were exploring.

 Just as I thought there was nothing going on Sia took another direction and stopped in her tracks. Slender figured gazed over the grass. They were built like a person but were mist of air? That was confusing. Just as Sia backed away her eyes widened as 3 of the figures surrounded our body. She growled softly as they made a wall around us and our breathing quickened. Could we not get a break?

Hope you enjoyed this chapter lovelies!<3 💜🐺