Lacking Humanity|Half Crescent

Chapter Forty-Three (Rewritten)

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Sage stood out beside the mountain. She had almost forgotten to warn the pack about the silver located here, which made communicating extremely challenging.
When Remus and a group managed to go up, he shared how difficult the pressure would build throughout the time spent searching the mountain. 

However, everyone here has had an experience with silver once in their lives, some more than others.

So it was hard to say who was struggling more than the rest, other than the pups, of course. It was pure torture for their little minds, and they even said it was worse than the altitude pressure from the plane ride.
Which made Sage give the pack breaks much more frequently.

"We're almost there, Luna," Torin said with a slight nod, and Sage frowned.
"No," She claimed, "a storm is coming." The male almost smirked had he not seen the turmoil in the young Wolf's face, and now that he sighed, the burden had been placed on her shoulders for some time.

"It will be alright. They cannot fault you for what's happened." Yes. They could. It felt like a never-ending cycle of snow being her worst enemy. Had she known it was going to be this bad, she would have mentally prepared for this type of torture.

The journey felt slow, and Sage's actions felt sluggish as she plowed through the gentle snow. What was worse, she collapsed out of pure exhaustion by midday, her motivation and devotion having masked her greatly.

Sage?!

Andy's frantic voice filled her mind as his beast went ahead and licked her cheeks. An unsteady whine escaped her as she couldn't tell what was wrong, other than a gentle wave of sleep that threatened to loom over her.

It could be the silver. It's fresher when it hasn't been mined out. We'll settle nearby. It's all we can do now, especially with this storm coming in harder.

No! I'm fine. I can—

Andy's growl had silenced Sage's excuse. Torin's reasoning sounded plausible, but it wasn't truly what was bothering Sage. The stress and constant movement without a home started weighing on her.

I'm not feeling so hot myself. Maybe it's better if we head in for the night.

The Beta female had joined in, and thus, it was decided. However, the chirping of Holly's Robin had called to the group of Wolves and other beasts of her arrival, and she flawlessly shifted, quickly pointing to the direction from where she came from. "There's a forcefield off that way. I don't know what it is, but it feels like a coven is hiding a getaway retreat in these mountains." She explained, and Sage whined out loud.

No, Crescent Moon facility. It's old and evil.

Andy had remained still as there was unsure tension in her voice, and he remembered that Sage had mentioned a structure in the mountain—But no part of him wanted to venture further to search for it.

Nor risk the pack like that.

Sir? What's the plan?

Severin asked, and Andy shifted to skin, wanting the witches to hear this as well, as he squeezed his fist and sunk further into the snow. "We go forward. Birds, scope out what you can, but don't touch the forcefield. We'll deal with that as a pack." Andy ordered, accepting the combined yowls and other noises of agreement.

"How are you feeling now?" He asked, turning down to face her, his large hand gently rubbing across the top of her head. Yet the small action had resulted in whimper was followed by a huff. It was clear that Sage was annoyed that she had grown so exhausted after coming so far.
"It's alright, hun. We covered a lot of ground. Can you shift back?"