A Match of Monsters

Chapter Twenty-Four

Elain could barely breath as the man pulled her towards one of the larger tents, certainly not as big as the Alphas' but still bigger than most of the others in their crude settlement, and just beside the central tent. The werewolf was important to the pack's hierarchy, to have such a tent, but she had already that out by the fact that the Alphas had forced her to marry him.

His lanky build was pure muscle, and the large hands that were holding her against him would shift into paws just as big when the moon rose. With such big feet and a lieth body, the male was built to run. She would not be able to escape or outrun him.

"We are mated and married before the pack." He seemed to mean the words as a comfort, his voice caressing the shell of her ear, but all that changed inside her was an increase in her fear.

She had to get out of here.

Elain tightened her hold on the kit on her arms, thankful that she had not been forced to leave him behind when the Alpha made her marry this monster. What would happen now that she'd had to join the werewolf pack – would he be killed, enslaved? Neither would provide a good lifestyle for him to grow up into, let alone what they might make him do when the pack fought with any other dragons or Skykept such as griffins or phoenixes.

This was a far greater distance than she had ever travelled from the hamlet before, and the only knowledge Elain had of the terrain was from maps her mother and elven tutor had gotten her to memorize to their satisfaction. It had been such a bother back then, learning miles and miles of land that she would probably never travel, but again Elain was ever so grateful now that they had insisted she learn all of those 'pointless' lessons. They were all that would and had been keeping her alive.

As her new husband continued to lead her further into the shadows that the midmorning sun cast down upon their tent, she made no conscious movements to resist. Her mind had sped up until her wild thoughts raced along a mile a minute, each one lasting barely long enough for her to identify before the next once came along. She was desperate to find some sort of solution or escape to the future that the Alphas had designed for her and the silver kit she couldn't force herself to let go.

There had to be some way out of this, if only she could think of it. She would accept no other option. Every memory she had of scanning those maps or speaking with other hunters and gatherers back in her home village flashed through her head – something that she had learned somewhere must be the key to getting out of here.. The territory was scarce of bandits and other mortal criminals, but rife with the night bound Shadowcast. The closest settlement was a week's ride away from here – ant that was to an orc village. They might be allies, but she had grown up surrounded by humans that didn't trust them.

But there was something else that she could just recall seeing on one of her mother's maps, but none of the others. The one her father had used to travel by before he'd married her mother. It was detailed with more markings than anyone but a noble or high merchant could afford, unless the person in question had travelled everywhere there themselves.

Mistress Ronda had only rolled out the parchment once with tears overflowing in the corners of her eyes, and she had not allowed her daughter to touch any of the inked markings while Elain had read it. Amazing levels of detail inscribed in more colours of ink than Elain had known all the names of. A small fortune had been laid out in front of her.

Therre were many symbols that appeared randomly placed to the unsuspecting eye, but each represented something only her father had been able to understand. However, thinking back on it, Elain believed that she would be able to get the gist – she always had been good at languages and symbols. Not the details and fine meanings, but enough of the basic information to get by. Half a dozen represented shelter, a dozen more for dangers, and some again that referred to settlements. Her own hamlet had an array of swirls that nearly matched closely with other markings on the map. Coinciding with the positions of some of the other human villages and cities that had been marked down on her mother's other maps. While others had not been.