"I cannot believe I'm coming with you, Ivy," Ruth said for the nth time. "What am I doing? The alpha will kill me. We're not supposed to go into the woods! What if there are rogues—"
"Ruth, calm down." I turned to her. Her ranting is slowly deteriorating all the courage I built up before setting off here.
"Calm down? You expect me to calm down when our pack is out there fighting rogues and we're here going into the woods to cause more trouble? This is not safe, Ivy. You don't know what rogues are capable of—"
I closed my eyes before I cut her off. "Ruth, if you can't remember well, I'd like to remind you that I was a rogue myself before I joined this pack. And they—" I pointed my finger at the woods. "-aren't rogues. They are hunters. I was captured by those monsters in the past and that's why I'm hellbound on rescuing those kids. You don't want me to tell you the things I've seen. If you're scared, you can go back. But I will not come until I find them. I will not be able to stay at home comfortably and do nothing when I know what those kids could be going through right now," I breathed out. My words came out a little harsher than I meant it. I pursed my lips in disappointment. I didn't mean to speak to her like that…
I won't be surprised if Ruth never talked to me after this. I always mess up things.
"I'm sorry…." I was surprised to hear Ruth apologizing. "I didn't mean to kill your spirit, man…. I was–I was just scared." She raked a hand through her wet hair. "I swear I'm not like this… I've always liked to do daring things but…rogues…." She looked at me with an expression that made me realize that she has seen some things that made her hate them.
"I know you were a rogue before but our experience with rogues was extremely…traumatizing. I cannot think of them as normal wolves because of what we went through…I–I didn't mean to offend you…"
"I know, Ruth." I gave her a small smile. "I don't blame you for feeling that way. I want you to know hunters are way worse. Rogues are werewolves and they mostly attack if they want resources or if they have an issue with the packs but hunters aren't like that. They attack for money, pleasure, or just for the mere need of entertainment. They have members from different species and they are clever. The most important thing is that they do not feel remorse. They don't care who they hurt or kill. They are psychopaths." I looked at Ruth, searching for any signs of fear.
"You can go back if you want, Ruth. You don't have to come with me just because I asked you. I'm already glad to have you as a friend. You've done enough to help me," My cold hands found hers and I gave her a reassuring grip.
"Maybe," She shrugged. "But I haven't done anything to help my pack. I think this is my chance." She gave me a smile.
"But Ruth—"
"Shut up," She cut me off before walking ahead. "I want to be a warrior. I'll take this as a training session from our Luna. How about that?" She wiggled her brows.
I laughed and shook my head. "You're insane,"
"And you're not?" She scoffed. "You're walking into the woods to find the people who gave you trauma. Doesn't seem like something a sane person would do. What if they attack? You gotta protect me 'cause all the experience I've got in fighting is wrestling with my brother and I always lose."
"Don't worry. We won't need to fight. If my guess is correct, we'd only need to look out for the animals in the woods."
"What are you saying?" Ruth looked at me with a frown. "You're telling me we won't need to fight them?"
"Yes," I gave her a smile. "If I had to fight them, I would've never taken you with me. And going alone to fight them would be a suicide." I laughed.
"So, what's your plan?"
"Look, when I talked to Cassian's father, he told me that Cassian and the warriors already found the hunters, but they couldn't find the pups. Cassian is fighting them and his team is well prepared. He said that they'll be able to defeat them. But the thing is, they cannot figure out where the kids are." I looked into the woods. "I think I could help. You see, hunters have a pattern of doing things. When I was caught by them, they never kept us close to where they stayed. They had places where they kept the people they captured. It would be hidden well and finding it would be very hard."
"So you're saying that the kids are somewhere in the woods hidden away from us?" Ruth looked in the direction of the woods.
"Yes," I nodded. "and since Cassian is fighting them, there's a big chance that there's no one guarding the pups. This is the best chance for us to rescue them! We just have to find where they are!" I smiled.
"But how? The forest…. It's vast, Ivy."
"I know. I've lived there all my life and that's the reason I'm confident. If you look closely, nature will help you find them."
Ruth took a deep breath before smiling. "Let's go then and find those pups to bring them home,"
"Let's go!"
____
"Is this the place where they went missing?" Ruth asked as we both stopped at the place where the farmer's family told us the kids were last seen.
It was an open area but there was a small pond and a few meters away the tree lines started, leading into the woods.
"I think so," I walked closer to the pond. "The older brother said they were picking flowers and rocks…"
There wasn't anything to give us a hint about what happened. All this place had was a fleeting scent of the pups that I only got whenever a soft breeze passed by. I could understand why the kids were collecting rocks. This place has a lot of odd-shaped rocks.
"There are no footprints…" Ruth shook her head. "Nothing," She said disappointedly.
"It rained non-stop last night and now it's almost evening…" I sighed. "We waited too long."
"What do we do now?" Ruth stared at me, waiting for an answer.
"We go into the woods,"
____
"I missed this…" I softly whispered as I let my hands caress the trees on our way. "Feels like I just came back home,"
"I love the forest too except for the muddy floors," Ruth scrunched up her face as she walked behind me cautiously.
"Shhh!" I hushed her before I pulled her down to hide behind a bush. Ruth looked at me confused but I told her to stay still and watch where I was pointing at. A few moments later, a panther walked by calmly. Calm because it didn't see us.
Ruth had her eyes wide open as she watched. Panthers are a rare sight to see so no wonder why she's shocked. I've only seen a few in my lifetime of living in the forest.
It was a female panther and it looked like it gave birth recently. We waited for her to go before I talked. "We need to be careful. It seems like she has cubs nearby. She might see us as a threat and attack us if we make too much noise."
"You could take it down, right? You know how to fight," Ruth looked at me.
"I could….but why would I do that? We're not here to attack her. We're just passing by." I shrugged it off.
"Hmm…but how did you know there was a panther? I didn't even see it,"
"This is why it's important to pay attention to the noises around you. When the panther came, the noises around us dimmed a bit. Preys go silent when they spot a predator." I explained. "When the whole forest goes silent then that means there's an apex predator nearby,"
"Whoa…" Ruth nodded. "Interesting…"
We walked forward aimlessly for a few minutes after that before we came across something.
"Do you see that?" I pointed at the ground.
"See what? Puddles?" Ruth crouched down to take a look at the little puddles on the ground. "Oh, my god…" She whispered as her eyes examined them. "They look like footprints…"
"Yes," I smiled. The ground must've been mushy when they walked because their footprints were deep enough to form small puddles from the rain. "I told you. Nature always leaves clues,"
"This is crazy," Ruth laughed. "We've got a big lead!"
"Yes," I smiled. "Now, let's go before it's too late,"
The puddles helped a lot. They weren't consistent but they appeared here and there, telling us which direction to go. There were other clues too.
The most important ones were small rocks, similar to the ones we saw at the pond.
"Those kids are smart," Ruth stated. "They dropped the rocks at all the places where they took a turn."
I nodded. "They sure are. I just hope they're okay,"
We found cut-down plants and small trees in our way. Evidence of people passing by. We knew we were heading in the right direction and that made my heartbeat rise. Hundreds of thoughts were passing through my mind every minute.
Are they all right? Are we too late? Are there hunters?
We stopped at a place. "Do you see anything?" Ruth whispered.
"No, but they must be here." I looked around. It was a rocky place. Lots of big rocks and trees. We didn't know where to look.
"They're close," I looked at the ground and found one of the shiny small rocks that led us here. "Come on, look!"
Ruth and I began to search every small crevice of the rocky place to find the kids.
"Ivy!" Ruth called my name. I was beside her in a second. She showed me five rocks that she had picked up from the ground. "I found them here."
I looked up. There was a giant boulder in front of us. A boulder that was covering something. A cave opening to be specific.
"Oh my god, they're inside," Ruth whispered. "We found them!"
"We've got to move this," I stepped forward.
"Yes, sure," Ruth was on my side in a second. "Come on, push–ughhhh!!" We both pushed at the same time with all the strength we've got. The boulder moved enough for a person to squeeze through. "That's enough," Ruth said as we both were panting to catch our breath. "God, that felt like I just gave birth," She stated, causing me to laugh.
We both didn't waste any time squeezing inside. "Do you have any lighter or something?" I asked because it was pitch black inside except for the stream of light that came through the way we came in.
"No, but I've got my smartphone," Ruth smiled as she waved her phone in my face. She turned the torch on and we finally got illumination in the dark cave we were in.
Our eyes went straight to a corner in the cave where three small figures were perched, trembling like they saw a ghost.
"Christy…?"