Pick Your Path: Book 1

41

" We should get going soon." Kurama leads you into the forest. The two of you spent the next few hours trying to avoid Morphia..

" Where are we going?"

" To a place where we will stay for a while." he responds, " Or at least until Morphia cools down."

" Huh?" what does he mean by that? Does he want to go back and bother her again? He doesn't respond but just continues to pick his way through the sunlit forest. His nine tails swayed, brushing the top of the undergrowth as he came to a clearing. A light brown, tan, and black gazelle looked up as Kurama enters the clearing with you following close behind.

" Kurama." the gazelle takes her human form. " You know Pearl's looking for you, right?" Pearl?

" She is? Oh. Where is she right now?"

" She's back at camp. I'd hurry up and go to her if I were you. She's getting slightly irritated." the gazelle shook her head, her gazelle ears flicking. She seemed nervous about Pearl. Was she a powerful rogue or perhaps a leader?

" Sure. I'm sure it's nothing big." Kurama responds surprisingly calm, in stark contrast to the gazelle's nervousness, " Thanks for telling me, Ellie." he says goodbye to her before picking up the pace, heading towards 'camp'.

" Kurama!" a voice barks as soon as you two step foot into a valley structure with tall walls. A girl comes stalking over, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, her dark eyes burning with a fierce irritation. " You're not allowed to leave camp without permission!" she growls.

" I asked for permission. You said yes, Pearl." Kurama retorts. " You said as long as I return before the sun goes down, I can go."

" You misinterpreted my command  then.." Pearl growled angerly, " I ordered everyone to stay within ten miles from the camp. You went way past that."

" You didn't specify." Kurama shrugged, " Should have given better instructs." Pearl rolls her eyes before walking over to a half-breed near the boulder on the opposite side of the clearing, who was calling her name. " Pearl can be slightly strict at times.." Kurama muttered, guiding you towards a large structure in the wall of the valley, " Why don't we go meet the rest of the rogues." he leads you inside. A ball flies past your face as you step in, smacking the wall beside you.

" Will watch where you're throwing the ball!" a voice yelps, " You almost hit Kurama!!"

" Oops..." a boy stood at the other side of the area, wrestling with a wolf " Sorry, didn't mean to.."

" Kurama?" a light purple and white wolf looks back at you two. " You're back." she swings her staff down, tripping the boy, before running over.

" Ow.. Rose, what was that for?!" the boy, Will, whines, standing up.

" That's payback for what you did earlier." Rose retorts from your side of the room. " You shouldn't have tried to trick me in the first place."

" I didn't try to do that!"

" Face it, Will, she's too good at combat.." a silver eyed half-breed trotted up to you and Kurama. " Who's the new person?"

" He/She's my apprentice. Everyone, this (Y/n). (Y/n), these are some of the other rogues in the camp." they all come over to greet you.

" I'm Cassie. " the first to come up to you is a girl with amber eyes.

" (Y/n), nice to meet you, I'm Ellie. " the silver eyed half-breed pushed Cassie aside, her gazelle ear twitched as she made eye contact.

" I'm Will." Ellie is pushed aside by Will, the boy from earlier, " Want to join us in- Huh?!" Will get's dragged back and out of the way by the purple and white wolf.

" Don't mind Will. He's always looking for people to compete against." she sighs, " I'm Rose, by the way." she gives a small smile before Will interrupts.

" Anyway.. (Y/n), do you want to play a game?" he pushes Rose to the side and grabs your hand, " I know a great game we could play together."

" Hold on, Will. You can't just swoop in and drag (Y/n) away like that!" a blur of brown, tan and black slams into Will forcing him to release his grip and back off. " (Y/n) isn't an object, you know. So dragging him/her away is out of option."

" Says the person who's about to pull him/her away right now." Will walks over and slaps Ellie's hand away. " I though you said that was out of option?" Ellie glares at Will who growls in return.

" Guys, could we not fight, please?" Cassie tries to ease the tension, but stays a good distance away from the two feuding half-breeds. As Ellie and Will continue to argue, a hand taps your shoulder before grabbing it and pulling you out of the way of a swipe from Will. Ellie ducks underneath it before kicking Will.

" Let's leave before they destroy the room.." Rose whispers, placing her index finger on her lips, signaling for you to be quiet. " To the next room." she leads you away into another part of the den area.

" ROSE!!" you hear Ellie and Will yell before Rose snatches your hand and begins to run. You hear Ellie and Will charge into the room just as you and Rose are exiting it. She leads you uphill, trickling water was growing louder and louder.

" Rose, just where are we?" you pant as the two of you stop at the top of the hill. You still heard the voices of the two angry half-breeds as they raced up the hill.

" Go down the hill." Rose commands, pointing to the shiny and slippery looking slope. You couldn't see the end of it.

" What?!" isn't that a little dangerous?! Do you listen to her? The sounds of Ellie and Will are coming closer..

Slide down the slope? Slide to page 60

Ask if there's an alternate route? Go to page 61

They're fighting over the new member.. Again.. When will they stop competing against each other? They treat everything like it's a competition. Whether it's hunting to the battle games to  even who can befriend the members first. I just wish they would stop.. ~C

Alright, (Y/n), we're leaving. Those two are about to explode.. I wouldn't stick around to find out what happens after that. How does Cassie deal with those two every day?! I can hardly tolerate them for less than half of one. ~R