The Kingdom of Wolves

Chapter 10

It had gotten late, but I knew that we still needed to talk.  Lena had calmed down considerably, and Syl had stopped giving me murderous looks when I tried to talk, so I figured I should probably try to ask Lena if she was comfortable asking her father and/or grandfather for help on this.  I was really really hoping she wouldn't break down again.  

"Hey," I said softly, standing behind Lena.  She was sitting down, staring out at the stream and the hills beyond.  "Can I sit?"

She gave a slight nod.  I sat down next to her on the lichen-covered log she was sitting on.  "Is Syl here?"  She asked.

I shook my head.  "No. He's out hunting. I want to talk to you though."

She turned to face me. "Okay. Talk."

The look on her face matched with her tone was probably one of the most devastating things I'd ever seen or heard.  She wasn't bubbly and happy like she had been when I first met her.  She wasn't angry.  Her eyes told me she was sad, but her tone was just dead.  Completely empty of feeling.  I took a deep breath and the words tumbled out.

"I know that I probably should have waited until tomorrow to start talking about what if we're going to ask your grandfather or your father for help, and I know that this isn't a topic you like to talk about anyway, but I was wondering - "

"Do whatever you have to."

I blanched. "What?"

"You need to do whatever you have to do.  If the king really is planning to kill us all and he really does have heavy artillery at his disposal - which I'm assuming he does - then you need to do whatever you can to get him out of power.  If that means asking my grandfather or father - or both - to do whatever it is you want them to, then you should go ask them for help.  I'll help you with the rebellion and all, but I'm not going with you to ask them for help.  But just to be clear, what are you going to ask them to do?"

I cringed. "You're not gonna like it."

She shrugged. "I already don't like this."

"I was going to ask if they could control us with their magic.  Like, make us run and attack and stuff.  I don't know if that's even possible."

She turned away from me and back to the stream. "We've got a month to find out."

She continued to sit there and stare, making it clear that our conversation was over.  I stood up and turned around to find a very disgusted-looking Syl coming out of the woods.

"I hate hunting," He grumbled.  "Remind me why I agreed to do this again?"

I shrugged, laughing a little. "I don't know.  You volunteered, remember?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," He replied, setting down what appeared to be a small bear.  I looked down at it then back up at him.

"You killed a baby bear?  Are you trying to get us all killed?"  I didn't know what he had been thinking, but I didn't exactly feel like being a big mama bear's dinner.

He gave me an easy smile. "Relax. It's a wolverine, not a bear."

I gave him a dubious look.  "Those still exist?"

He laughed. "Yeah, they do. Now help me make a fire. This isn't gonna cook itself."

I smiled.  This was probably why I trusted him so quickly.  He was easy to talk to, always making me laugh.  It was a nice change from the horribleness that had become the norm for me.

We got to work quickly.  I was hungrier than I had been in a while, so I wanted to get this fire started quickly, which seemed to be his mindset as well.  We talked as we worked. "I saw that you were talking to Lena when I got back?" I think it was supposed to be a statement, but it came out more like a question.

"Yeah," I replied. I figured he wouldn't be happy with me for asking her if we could ask her psycho relatives for help, so I wasn't giving him answers until he asked the questions.

"What were you talking about?" His tone was too casual to actually be casual.

"Oh, you know, nothing in particular."

"Mmm-hmm, you definitely weren't talking to her about rebellion stuff, right?"

"Well..."

"Lucia!" He stopped what he was doing to look at me. "I'm guessing based on the fact that your father's a psycho king that you know what it's like to have wounds like that!  You know they don't heal!"

"I also know that we have about a month until the next full moon which is probably when we're going to rebel, so we don't have time to sit around and wonder if we're going to recruit Lena's relatives to help us or not!  We need to act now!  You know that, I know that, and Lena knows that too!"  I retorted.

Syl sighed, dropping to the ground. He set his pile of tinder down at his feet, his head in his hands. "I just don't want her getting hurt, y'know?" He said softly, dropping his hands back down to his lap.

"Yeah," I said, plopping down across from him. "I know."

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Hello! I was actually prepared to update this time!  Most of the update today was from stuff I wrote last weekend.  I'm much to tired today to actually write anything of good quality (it took me way to long to write the last two paragraphs).  Anyways, I hope you all are having a good day.  It means the world to me that someone's actually reading this.

Shoutout to @Athena_daughterr for voting on every part of my story!  That means so much to me!

Thanks again for reading!

Ravenclaw567

P.S. In case you're wondering, I'm never putting my real name on the internet.