Lost Heir

Chapter 5

The farther we ran the colder it got. It felt like a physical representation of my actions. The farther away that I ran from my people, the more I felt the loss of their warmth inside of me. I wasn't of age yet so I could not feel the bonds of my pack breaking away from me as they died, but I knew it was happening.

It was the middle of December and the snow had already come. Once we reached the end of this endless tunnel we would be exposed to the full force of the winter. Even though we hadn't shifted yet, our inner wolf would be able to keep the full force of the cold away. We may still feel cold, but we wouldn't die from hypothermia. At least there is some sort of silver lining.

As we ran through the tunnels we stayed quiet. There was nothing left to say. I felt bad for fighting Felix as much as I did, but I felt even worse for my decision to run. Even if my Luna told me to. Harlow and Faye stumbled here and there but they were troopers. They may not have understood all that was going on, Goddess I didn't even understand, but they knew that they had to keep going. We may have left our pack behind, but I am grateful to have their presence with me. Excluding my dad, I had the most valuable people with me and they were safe for the time being.

All of a sudden Felix began to slow. I was out of breath from how long we had been running, but I tried to cover it up with a coughing fit. Felix patted my back as his eyes scanned the tunnel ahead. If you concentrated hard enough you could just barely hear the sounds of a fight outside. "We are close" Felix said. "When we get to the end of the tunnel there is going to be some pretty horrible stuff waiting for us. It is our job to keep going. If we stop or slow down it will give them an opportunity to get us. We cannot give them that opportunity." He looked directly at Harlow and Faye before getting on his knees and telling them "No matter what happens you keep a hand on one another. You keep track of one another. If something happens to me you all have to keep going. Harlow and Faye you make sure you are holding onto either Athena or I the whole time."

Faye gave a shy nod and Harlow was trying to be strong and said "We will stick together. We can do this" as if he was assuring himself.

Felix gave Harlow's shoulder a little shake of pride and you could visibly see the encouragement of his idol flow through him. Felix continued his warning to us "there are going to be some really hard things out there. We are going to see our family in a pretty bad position, but they would want us to keep going." He directed the last part to me as if to make sure I wasn't planning any secret mission to help them. All I could do was give a small nod as I started to feel sick. In short, I was being prepared to see all of the people I loved dying. I thought I was going to vomit, but I held my breath to try and keep it down. Now was not the time to be sick. I hadn't even seen anything yet. I needed to pull myself together, if not for myself then for Harlow and Faye. If they saw me crippling in fear then I wouldn't be able to expect anything less from them.

"Okay" I said "let's do this. We move as one." When I got nods from everyone, Felix began to lead us out of the tunnel. He moved hesitantly to make sure that each of our next steps would be as safe as they could be.

We soon stood less that five feet from the end of the tunnel. To get the rest of the way out we would need to crawl. Felix got on his hands and knees and moved forward. He checked out the scene before his head whipped back with an "Oh my Goddess." He looked at me and said "this is going to be hard. There is a lot going on out there and none of it is good."

All I could answer was with a small "okay." We sandwiched Harlow and Faye between Felix and I before we got out. Felix went first with Harlow. Felix scrambled through as fast as he could as he looked as his surroundings before grabbing harlow's outstretched hands and dragging him out. I crawled in front of Faye and said "It's going to be okay. We are going to do exactly what Harlow and Felix did. I am going to go first and make sure the coast is clear before I pull you out. Then we are going to run and meet Felix. He and Harlow are waiting for us right across the way."