[GRANT]
The walk to the central forest felt like goodbye, as the trio found their way through the bushes and the lonely roads. Nothing was ever going to be the same and mornings were never going to be as happy as they all knew it to be.
The sun would rise, but that wouldn't matter, especially when they had already been forced into the darkness.
The desire for vengeance and control of the avenged was keeping them same, but that very desire also kept them thinking and overthinking through the different blows of winds, as they tried to think of the possibilities.
The cruel possibility that Criselda of Greroth had already felt her connection to her husband, or worse, that the young Wynter had already felt the nudge of his dying adoptive father.
The desperation in the air made them claw themselves as they walked side by side, their horses next to them with simple supplies that could only keep them sane for three days.
Two days. That was all they had before hell actually broke loose and heavens be damned, the midlands was in its worst state ever.
"It will be okay," Zelina tried to assure her mate and the werewolf enforcer, but even she didn't believe the words coming out of her mouth.
It was almost like she was hoping to live in the illusion, only that this time, there was no illusion because just before they reached the central forest of the midlands, the skies opened, and the mourning began that morning.
They had slept the night near Asteta, considering they needed the rest, but that morning, they had been woken up by a series of thunderstorms.
"Great, just great," Zelina said, not even bothering to cover herself.
Rain in the morning was an anomaly, especially in summer, but maybe this had something to do with the young Wynter. The magic that linked them to Alanor was driving them insane, because they were getting even more paranoid with time.
"What do we do now?" Grant asked and Ulrike looked at his drenched mate. He wanted to cover her up, but he could see the determination in her face. Maybe just this once, he would let his mate be the warrior she was.
If anything, Zelina never needed his protection, but fate had linked them, which meant they lived for each other. They survived for each other and if ever the choice came between life and death, then they would die for each other.
That was their mantra, because together, they were unstoppable.
"We go on as planned," Ulrike said, even though their plan was to irritate the wolves in the forest and try to find a way of getting through the goddamn barrier.
They had hope that there was a way through the barrier, even though their worry for the safety of the young Wynter kept them sane and insane at the same time.
That was simply because if the young Wynter was harmed, then his friends would be turned into monsters, who would be out for blood and vengeance, and with the goddamn prophecy standing between them, they had to be careful not to be monsters.
Oh, the things they did because of the young Wynter.
"Hey look at them," Grant said and the two mates stared in the direction of the first. Of course, they had already reached there, but the sight before them made them curious, even though there was rain and a series of lightning strikes that morning.
"They're getting desperate. That is good. That is really good," Ulrike said, as he wiped the rainwater from his face. Sure, it was pointless considering how heavy the rain was, but it wasn't like he could do anything else to stop the rain.
Sometimes, nature intervened well, and this was no coincidence. At least Ulrike and Zelina knew that, they just needed to figure out why the fuck it was raining and storming in the morning of the summer season.
"Or dangerous, but there's been so much today, I choose to be happy," Zelina said, like she even believed in happy thoughts. There was nothing happy about their current predicament, just frustrations upon frustrations.
"Let's go," Ulrike said and they tied their horses to the nearest trees, hoping the tree branches would shield the horses. Maybe they would, but that didn't even matter right now. They just needed to make things right. It was all long overdue anyway.
"Where's the warlock!" Zelina said in the rain, but the storms were getting louder, making it hard for the wolves to even hear her. Or maybe the rogues just didn't give two shits. Their desperation was so obvious, but it seemed like their ego was still intact.
"Let's do it together," Zelina suggested, and together, the trio asked for the high priest of Greroth, the land of no mercy.
"Where's the warlock?!" they chanted, like a mantra that would save lives.
They chanted through the rains, and even when the rains stopped, they didn't stop. The rogues were watching them like they were some fucked up trio, but this was them trying to make life better for them all.
Maybe they would give in, but the longer the trio called for Heide, the longer the desperate rogues looked at them.
"They're bringing him," Zelina said, when she saw the rogues create a pathway for someone from behind. It seems like the uncouth creatures actually had a leader. They should have started with that, but then a win was a win.
"You want him? Bring down the barrier!" the leader of the rogues said, as he dragged Heide to the barrier's border.
The high priest of Greroth had been knocked out by Alanor's potent magic.
It shouldn't have been this easy, but Heide was tired, and fatigued by the time he had made it to the Wynter grave. It was his only option anyway, and right now, the rogues were growing anxious, because they had no clue what they had just walked into.
"We need to know that he's okay," Ulrike said as the trio got closer to the barrier. When the rains stopped that guy knew that there was no way for them to get into the forest and there was no way for the rogues to come out.
This was their chance to go closer, and they did, though carefully, like the barrier would magically bring itself down. Well, that could have solved their problems, but if the barrier came down, they would just be three individual factions against over five hundred rogue wolves.
They would definitely be in Heide's state. Oh, how twisted the universe was at the moment.
"He is. He's just sleeping and will wake up soon. Now tell us how to bring down the barrier, or better yet, tell him to bring the barrier down," the rogue leader said, and Zelina looked at him like he was stupid.
The leader had just said that Heide was sleeping, so why the fuck wasn't he able to wake up the high priest of Greroth?
What the hell was he hiding?
"Wake him up, then we can negotiate," Ulrike said with a smirk, even though he was worried sick about Heide. However, they couldn't make a deal with the rogues, if they didn't know how hard the hit was on Heide.
"He'll wake up on his own," the rogue leader said and Zelina let out a scoff.
Now that her morning was already ruined, the pesky rogue wolf couldn't ruin her day even worse. So she technically was a pissed Vampire with a great urge to choke the life of the rogue leader, but she was holding back, because as long as Heide was with the rogues, the stupid ferals had a hold on them.
'But not for long,' Zelina thought to herself as she glared daggers at the rogues beyond the magical barrier. She was tempted to turn her humanity off, but that would alter so many things. However, if Alanor came, then she would turn it off, probably.
Zelina looked at Heide, the bruises on his body nowhere close to healing. The fact that he had been rained on, and he had no idea, made Zelina angrier. She wanted to strike the rogues down, and her patience was clearly on its way out.
When the bargain with an unconscious Heide failed, the rogues dragged Heide back to where they had found him, hoping that he would be able to undo what he had done.
They assumed that it was Heide who had trapped them. So they would wait it out for when Heide woke up. But that was the problem. The only way Heide would wake up this time, was if Alanor himself came and freed him from the bonds of the spell.
The trio knew that.
The rogues knew nothing of the sort.
And that was the tipping point.