Smoke and Mirrors {Completed}

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Heart-to-Heart

Sapphire Nightborne

"I can't do this anymore!"

I rolled my eyes as Chloe collapsed to the ground next to me. We had just crossed the borderline which was just a small little brook running through the forest. I turned around to see the numerous humanoid figures among the foliage and smirked, they could not cross this brook and they knew it.

It was almost laughable, the big bad wolves were thwarted from their prey by a small little river, growls could be heard as they retreated to most probably tell Damien of the situation now. I waited till each and every single one of them disappeared till I turned my back to the other side of the brook, I would not put it past any of Damien's pack to try something rash and break centuries' old law.

"Ow!"

I took a deep breath as I looked towards the ground to see the heap at the base of a tree, that heap was Chloe who had so carelessly tripped over an exposed tree root and most probably sprained her ankle. She looked up at me with a sheepish smile on her face, I snorted before wordlessly picking her up and walking on.

"How much further?"

That question caused my heart to ache as I remembered a similar situation before when someone had asked me that question, someone who I had loved very much.

"Not much further, I just need to find a good place to camp for the night where we can rest and you can have enough time to heal. We need to find a place that gives us enough cover from the pack that currently lives on this land."

She silently nodded before her eyes wandered through the rest of the forest and we began our silent journey.

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"Why do you keep doing that?"

My question visibly shocked Chloe as munched on her piece of rabbit that I killed, nervously taking small bites and chewing on them for a ridiculously long time. The crackling of the fire between us was the only noise in the awkward silence that blanketed us.

"Why do you keep looking around the forest like it is the first time you've been in one? I don't know if you noticed, but you have been jumping at every sound the forest makes, natural sounds that usually comes with such a place."

She looked down and bit at her lip before looking back up at me, she swallowed the rabbit in her mouth as she saw me quirk my eyebrow at her body language.

"Well, it might sound weird as wolves...but...I have never been so deep in a forest before much more this far from home."

My eyebrows were in danger of escaping into my hairline as I processed her response.

"Does your pack not have mandatory training exercises in the forest or go out to other packs to source for alliances?"

The forest became our second home as we were often blindfolded and left to find our own way out in the dead of the night with traps laid everywhere so as to test our senses.

The blindfold scratched against my eyelids as my teacher continued to wrap the rope around me, binding me tightly to the trunk of the tree.

"Sapphire, I am going to untie your blindfold, but I want you to count to ten out-loud. I promise that you will be fine as long as you remember everything I have taught you, just trust your senses as you will be fine."

My pack might not have been pro-women in the warrior department, but Ryder's father still made sure that all wolves in his pack, no matter what gender, had at least the basic defence training in case of a fight. Hence why most of my pack besides the pregnant, young, old and sick was on the battlefield that day.