Veil of Shadows

Chapter 26. Dare To Find Me

Ranger was having technical difficulties.

When the news had come that Patch was nowhere to be found, and a poison ring had been discovered during the night, she had went into some kind of silent rage mode.

She had gone completely still, and her eye twitched once. Then she had turned on her heel, stormed back to her room, and slammed the door so hard that the hinges almost flew off.

They had left her alone for the day. They knew how she felt, knew how she thought. She felt that whatever had happened to Patch was her fault - which, to a certain degree, was true.

But after an entire day of nothing, they decided to try communication.

"Uh...Ranger?..." Wolf asked quietly, knocking on the door. There was no answer. This surprised Wolf. She had been expecting some kind of retort, possibly even an insult as a response.

But nothing? It wasn't normal.

"Ranger?" She asked again, knocking harder. Even still, there was no answer. The knock was loud enough that it would have been heard, even if Ranger was asleep, which Wolf doubted.

"RANGER!" Wolf shouted, slamming a fist into the door.

Still, there was no answer. Wolf was done. Drawing back a few paces, she lunged forward and kicked the door open. Utter shock was the only emotion visible on her face.

"Oh no..."

Wolf ran from the room.

Flinging the door of the inn open, Wolf looked around wildly, hoping to see something, anything. But there was utterly nothing, save for a few townspeople who were wandering about.

The situation was easy to piece together.

Ranger had left sometime during the day, without the Hero Squad, on a self appointed solo mission to save Patch - or avenge her, depending on the type of poison used.

It was a suicide mission. One person against the entire rebel army? It was an almost laughable situation. But then again...it was such a Ranger thing to do, they probably should have expected it.

"She left, didn't she?" Blaze asked.

Wolf nodded. "Sometime during the day, through the window. We forgot to check if it was open or not. And she's probably halfway to Shadow's base by now."

Then, a thought struck her. Blaze seemed to have the same idea at the same time. "The map." They said simultaneously, and ran back inside.

They were relieved to find that the map was still in the building, but Ranger had somehow managed to slip it into her room and study it for almost half the day, memorizing the route.

And, knowing Ranger, Wolf knew there would be something written on the back of the map. She turned it over and read aloud "Don't flip out on me. There are worse things than a shattered chandelier."