The Wolf's Bride

Chapter XII: Us, travelling.

"Narnia," I'm sure, "those trees were the freaking passageway to Narnia!"

Ethan made a disbelieving whine, stomping a cute indignant paw, making me lovingly pat his head from where I sat on his back, fluffing his fine silky fur...

...much like Aslan's mane but colored grey.

"Okay.... not narnia, maybe just some other weird named dimension through some other vague passageway." I acquiesced distractedly.

But by goddess, I swear infront of me was a kingdom.

After going through a maze of trees and trunks in a rush, Ethan had stopped on the peak of the mountain that we were hiking up to, going further would have been some hundred foot drop onto large jagged rocks but that was the least of my concern.

High up the cliff that we were on, I could see the vast area that the surrounding wall had taken up.

They actually had a wall...

For a moment, I considered the possibility of having travelled to china... But then again, my pack waged wars against this clan, going back and forth.

What the hell made them think they could take this place on.

Despite the fact that my former pack always trained everyone, that could shift, to their limits, in preparation for a war.

I don't see any fighting chance against this kingdom.

And by kingom, I mean, there's a palace, it had columns that reminded me a lot of some Greek structure I only saw on TV documentaries but infused with a modern twist, white and neat with tall roofs and big spaces, the whole thing was too large for a normal pack itself, but then it was surrounded by houses that I could only think of as a wealthy community with parking spaces of their own, all of them looked unique but still uniform, arranged in a manner that a street divided them, branching out from the palace up until the surrounding ..large garden?... or... Farm-- that was obviously tended upon, they looked particularly organized, plants that looked categorized into their kinds, my mind was boggled by the utopia-like place, the view was spectacular and a few kilometers away was the tall and thick wall that circled it all, making it all seem like rounded layers of well placed structures.

I could see microscopic movement from the few people on the wall, guards, I presume, looking out into the clearing that stretched on for miles around the ...kingdom.

They had patrol guards.

"So....uh-- how does this surprise go, again?"

*****************

Ethan was making a detour, going away from his..pack house? I have no idea what to call it, but he wasn't going towards it.

The sun was out, but while I was panicking at the thought of walking through a ...town with a throng of werewolves doing their daily routines, fully awake and me going to the palace in the middle of the day, on top of their alpha.

Ethan was taking his sweet time trotting towards his mysterious destination.

"Where are we going?" My voice was laced with undeniable worry, yet it bothered Ethan like still air, "I don't know how you think surprises are supposed to go, but I don't think it's the same as mine!" I tried wringing his neck in growing panic but the process barely even made him budge, it just made me tip to one side, hanging on his back, almost falling.

"Ethan!!" I was frustrated, mostly because it's been the longest time I've talked without his reply, albeit, the reason might be because I couldn't understand the wolf noises he made, but I was accustomed to him being fully attuned to me.