Whitetooth Mountain (#Book1) The White Wolf Trilogy (Complete #Wattys2014)

Chapter 37; - The Shaking Of The Land

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Chapter 37; - The Shaking Of The Land

The violent trembling and shaking of the earth awoke Samuel from his light lingering slumber. Confused at first, it took him a split moment before he even realised what it was, which had awoken him so indirectly.

In the ten years in which Samuel had lived out within the Canadian arctic peninsular, he had only ever experienced a few small tremors, but never an earthquake as big as the one which had actually hit, awakening him all of a sudden.

Rolling and stumbling unsteadily to his feet, Samuel just about managed to grab his rucksack and dive out of the way; - just as a huge silvered old tree came crashing down, splintering into a thousand flying projectiles. Keeping his head buried, he used his arms to protect himself from the many falling, flying objects.

The earthquake only lasted a short couple of minutes; - the trembling ceasing, Samuel slowly eased himself back up to his feet. A huge pile of fallen snow, tree bark and huge boulders had completely filled and destroyed the tiny little clearing.

The camp fire was completely gone, smothered and buried beneath the snow pile. Samuel's sleeping bag lay trapped and torn beneath the trunk of a huge old silvered fallen tree. Scouting about the mass destruction, Samuel found his rifle and luckily enough it was unscratched.

Not wanting to stick around where he could see that the land was faulted and weak. The new found fears for Skye's safety strengthened Samuel's spirits to set out in search of his niece again.

******

The Inuit descendants sat crouched and crammed closely packed together, within a safe hold in which they had barely been used since the creation of their very existence.

It was a cave, high up and buried deep within the mountains very own solid bedrock. The cavern was fairly spacious within size; - yet, everybody preferred to stick together within their own personal small individual packs.

Half of the Inuit's pack had stayed behind to help in protecting their people's existence and safety, - the other half of the pack was down within the valleys, aiding and helping Chandresh and Jacob upon the humans' ranch.

Everybody was silent or mumbling under hushed breaths to one another about their own trivial problems. None of them; - even the remainder of the pack, weren't expecting their alpha's sudden return.

Everybody's eyes turned swiftly upon Chandresh, as he entered the cavern. Everybody knew immediately that his sudden presence wasn't a good omen, - something terrible must have happened. Jumping to their own feet, the remainder of the pack moved forward quickly in greeting to their alpha.

"Has something happened, alpha; - where is the remainder of the pack?"

"Not here, Warren."

Chandresh glanced around at the many scared, lingering staring eyes. Turning upon his heel, the pack swiftly followed their alpha out of the cave system and out of hearing range of the village people.

"Has either Jacob or his mate returned to here?"

"No, alpha; - why, is there a problem?"

"The ranch was attacked and Zebb has successfully managed to draw Skye away. Jacob went after his mate, but I have a terrible feeling that Skye doesn't want to be found just yet."

"I don't understand, - has her alliances changed?"

"No, not that I believe; - but I do think that Skye does have her own personal reasons, - I believe that she seeks her own revenge against the deaths of her parents."

"So, where's the pack; - are they searching for the bête's Luna or are they still scouting for the poachers?"

"The pack are following and guarding Samuel. The silly beggar went after his niece too, after learning the truth about our heritage through my son."

"Zebb really did his work then."

"Yes, - if dividing us was his initial plan, then Zebb has succeeded."

The ground and the mountains very bedrock began to tremble and shake, as the earthquake hit. Panicked wails and screams arose, channelling up out of the caverns depths. Rushing unsteadily back down the caves passageway, they all had to cling to the sharp jagged walls to steady themselves.

Children cried, - the women's wails subsided, along with the traumatic trembling. Everybody was safe; - the caverns bedrock walls were strong enough to withhold slight cracking.

Picking up an old kerosene lantern and holding it up, so his eyes could adjust to the flickering light; Chandresh could see the spreading cracks in which had snaked out through the bedrock like criss-crossing branches of a tree.

******

The poachers had all the equipment they could carry and had set out in search for the Inuit's secretive village, four days previous. They had crossed many valleys, yet none of them were sure if they were actually heading within the right direction to a place called Whitetooth.

The trek had been precarious from the word go, as danger lurked not just from the wildlife, but from the foreign land too. Moving through the land by torchlight wasn't easy, even with all five of them lighting their path.

The land was so different with all of the snowfall, it erased all of the land markings, which they had used and followed upon their first trek out into the wildness. Exhaustion and hunger tore at them all, yet they knew they were getting close, they could smell the stench of dog within the air.

Moving up a steep eastern mountain ridge, they summated the top; - Whitetooth Mountain was visible, like a giant misted shard upon the distant darkened horizon.

Gasping for their breaths and clinging to the surrounding rocks and boulders for extra support, the snow covered ground beneath of all them, began to literally shake and crumble away.

Forced into a downward sprint; the poachers ran desperately for their lives, as the lose boulders from the ridge above came tumbling down after them. Stumbling and falling into a painfully downward falling spiral, only two out the five poachers managed to actually stay upon their feet.

A scream of pain shattered the frigid air before everything fell silent, - stiffly silent. The trebling ceased, as the scattered poachers scrambled awkwardly back to their feet. Moving around disorientated, it took them all a moment before they even realized that they were one man down.

"What in the hell has just happened; - where's Jonathan?"

"Haven't you ever experienced an earthquake before you idiot?"

They both glanced around searching for the others.

"Hey, - over here!"

The three of them moved towards their leader. They had found Jonathan; - he was dead, crushed beneath a rouge boulder which had fallen during the earthquake.

Regrouping and re-securing their equipment; the poachers moved on, searching for a safe path in which would lead them towards their destination.

-------------------2014--------------------

A/N

Newly edited chapter....

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