Silver Light (ONC 2024) LONGLIST

Chapter 4

Pawprints padded across the soft green grass that covered the den floor. Though her pawsteps were slow and hesitant, the grass underneath felt lushly soft with each one. Her dark forest green eyes were downcast, not wanting to make any form of eye contact with anyone she may have been walking passed. It was bad enough she allowed Nevanthi to talk her into doing this, she didn't need the pack questioning her loyalty or whining that she was getting too cozy with the prisoner. Sentaiaya was afraid she would end up appearing like a traitor to the pack, the one who had possibly let the trespasser into the pack. She didn't want to get involved with their prisoner, not when he could have been a threat to anyone and everyone that resided within the pack den. At the same time, she had no choice since her best friend -and alpha's daughter- had asked for her assistance. She couldn't very well turn down Nevanthi due to those reasonings, even though she had tried to do so. 

A heavy sigh of frustration escaped from Sentaiya, still in utter disbelief of how gullible she had become over the years. She could remember when her and Nevanthi were younger, she would and could easily tell her no. She would have been able to run off to her mother and hide under her paws, escape from whatever crazy her friend had in store for them. 

It seemed things had definitely changed, the pack hierarchy definitely being displayed within their current actions and requests. 

As she approached the small area their blue eyed trespasser was being held at, her eyes scanned the prisoner's holding cave. It was her way of creating a distraction so she didn't have to make eye contact with the two guards sitting on either side of the entrance just yet. She didn't want to lose her nerve of asking them if she could speak with the prisoner, let them know she was there only for information and nothing more. It was hard enough not to just turn around and head back as it already was, she didn't need the added stress to it. Especially since this was the first time Sentaiya had been anywhere near the holding cave. She had never had a good reason to be over there in the first place. Her first thoughts on seeing it immediately saddened her, wondering how their pack could treat even their prisoners like this. It seemed like such cruelty to have them in such tiny and unkempt conditions, ones which seemed so harsh and unsanitary to herself. 

A small cave barely big enough or deep enough for even a small wolf pup to sleep in was the entirety of the holding cave. The stone ground looked uneven and rocky, it only covered in itchy and stiff straw someone found at a nearby hunter's home. No food was seen being given to their prisoner making Sentaiya wonder if he was being fed at all. The area was guarded by two strong warriors at the cave's entrance. It was a sad space and she could only imagine how uncomfortable the silver wolf was having to stay under their watchful gaze day in and day out. 

"Hold up, stop right where you're at." 

Sentaiya's eyes shot over towards the voice addressing her, meeting with a pair of suspicious amber orbs. They narrowed on her and filled quickly with curiosity. It forced her own dark forest green gaze to pull away and shift off to the side, away from the black wolf that was staring at her and awaiting her response. Her ears quickly flattened against her head at the harshness of the demand, at the same time, her head lowered as if she had just been scolded. It looked like Sentaiya had been trying to shrink into herself and hide from the wolf eyeing her. 

"I'm sorry, I was just here to see if I could get any information out of the prisoner." 

The large wolf that had spoken to her gave a side glance to the second one standing at the other side of the prisoner's cave entrance. He was an identical black wolf to the first with the same amber eyes, but something seemed far different about the other than the first one. He brought with him more of a calm, a peaceful feeling rather than that of intimidation and fear like the one who had been addressing her the first time. So, it wasn't hard to figure out just who these two wolves were with just a single glance at the: