Peaceful days came but the longer the peace lasted, the more that everyone in Ceurian became tense. They were not comfortable with how silent their surroundings were and even on Mayor Mykel's side, there were no more commotion.
It was one of the days where Zael was reporting to Amber when he suddenly got serious and faced the woman. "It's been a few days already but you are not speaking about that week when you disappeared."
The sudden statement caught Amber off guard so she lifted her head to look Zael and what she saw was not the normally cheerful Zael. She took a deep breathe before stopping what she was doing, "And here I was thinking that nobody was interested about that incident since no one was asking me about it."
"Well, we were not supposed to ask and wait for you to tell us yourself but you chose to remain silentso I had to ask now," Zael raised an eyebrow and waited for her to speak.
"Okay, okay, I understand. Why don't we seat on the couch and talk about this face to face," she stood up and went to the small sitting area for visitors inside her office. Zael followed and sat in front of her.
"I'm all ears," he nodded towards the alpha and Amber could not help but shook her head in resignation.
"I entered the Lurea Woods," she saw that Zael was about to react but she raised her hand to stop him from speaking. "I know, it was dangerous but it still happened and before you speak, please hear me out first."
Zael shut his mouth and crossed both of his hands in front of him to listen to his Alpha's story. Amber could tell that Zael was controlling himself from bursting out and reprimanding her for what she did but she needed him to listen to her.
"After the battle, I passed by the Lurea Woods when a sudden urge to enter it came over me and so following my instincts, I entered the forest and experience the danger hidden in it first-hand." She started to recounted how it all started. "That forest is the home of 'darkness' and that 'darkness' is alive that it was able to attack me, luckily, I managed to stay alive against its onslaught. I also discovered that the woods were covered in magical traps until I reached a black castle which I guessed as the center of the forest."
Zael had a frown on his face while listening to the alpha's story. It sounded ridiculous and impossible but the alpha seemed to not be joking. What's more baffling for him was the existence of a castle in the woods because if there was indeed a castle there then the story about the Vampire King's essence was most likely true.
Amber continued with her recount while she was observing Zael's reaction at the same time, "That castle was guarded by voices. I don't know if they are vampires or mages or any other supernatural being because all I could hear were their voices. They thought of killing me but because of my family heirloom they let me go. That place was a mystery that I even used my own blood to try and open the castle but it did not work. Then after I was spared, I was already out of the forest and was shocked that I was actually gone for a week when I thought that I was only there for a couple of hours."
It took a couple of minutes before Zael was finally able to say something, "Then the Vampire King's essence must be inside that castle and you were very lucky that you were able to get out from that place unscathed." He sighed and rubbed his temples, "Alpha I suggest that we keep these details to ourselves for the time being, our enemies might become more interested in this matter if they got wind of it."
"That's why I did not tell any of you not until you asked of course. That place is truly dangerous and it is better for it to stay as the forbidden forest." Amber fully agreed with her Beta, knowing what's inside the forest was an information they cannot just divulge to anyone.
Zael stood up and sighed for the second time, "I should not have asked," he mumbled before giving the Alpha another look, "I'll leave you to your work then." As she had expected that talk between them remained between the both of them.
And just like that, the peaceful days ended as news of another pack being annihilated reached Ceurian. It was actually Alpha Reuben's pack and though she did not have a good relationship with the man, it still came as a shock to them since the Alpha's pack was not weak. Amber sent some of her warriors to investigate and assist on the assessment of the destruction.
It was then confirmed that the pack was indeed destroyed and all of it's occupants dead, even Alpha Reuben was found dead. It was a gruesome scene even for the warriors who were used to battle shivered at the sight that greeted them when they reached the pack. Most of the bodies were ripped to pieces and the Alpha did not escape that fate. The place also showed signs of fighting which only confirmed that they tried to defend the pack. What was most concerning was that, the safe house that should have been well guarded did not escape the destruction.
Several warriors entered the scene to check and fought the urge to leave. The house was suffocating with the smell of death and blood then a slight movement caught one of the warrior's eyes. "There's someone there," he looked back at their captain and pointed at a certain direction. It was at the far corner of the house where a group of werewolves died. "I saw something move in there."
Through the mind link he instructed the other warriors to slowly approach the area. "Let's hope that it is a survivor."
The warrior who noticed the movement was the first to make his way towards the corner and what he saw made him sigh a breath of relief. 'It's a child,' he informed them through the mind link. He squatted down and checked if the child was alright. The child was about the age of ten and there was no doubt in the warrior's mind that the child was scared because he flinched at his touch. He needed to coax the child a couple of times before he became comfortable with him. The other warriors who were supposed to approach them stopped on their tracks and waited patiently for the child to calm down.
Once he was in the warrior's arms, they left the place to give clean him from the bloody clothes he was wearing. Judging from the position of the child, the adults around him hid him and protected him from the attacked and he might have been instructed by them to remain silent.
The news of a survivor reached Alpha Amber and Ceurian. The joy of hearing that someone survived the brutal attack was felt and concerns regarding the child's state was asked. He was fine but he might have suffered trauma which needed to be addressed. With the agreement of the different packs, Ceurian was given the custody of the child so the warriors left with him.
"They're really planning to destroy all packs and they succeeded at destroying Alpha Reuben's pack." One of the elders spoke amidst the silence. "And Ceurian is one of their targets, what do you plan on doing Alpha Amber?"
"Defend our border and I am expecting you Elders to defend it with your lives because I have a feeling that they are upon us," Amber looked at them with her golden eyes and without qualms the Elders agreed. "Exercise your responsibility to its utmost because Ceurian might disappear if we don't remain vigilant. I'll also be letting the werewolves with families outside the pack to leave as a precaution." Normally the Elders will argue about the matter but right now they remained silent because the Alpha has a point and the survival rate would increase.
The meeting was done with only the Alpha's commands and expectation. The Elders did not remain any longer and left to their corresponding areas. "May the Moon Goddess watch over us in this fight." Elder Leonides left those words before he also left for his territory. Even Elder Zita patted her on the shoulder before she also left. Ceurian was not a small pack because its territory spans the whole of Baryo Madlaw except for the parts that were owned by several people and Amber can't manage it all so some parts were managed and protected by the Elders.
"How's Xander and his family?" she asked Zael as they watched the Elder's one by one leave.
"According to Edrei he is doing fine and there was nothing suspicious around him," Zael answered.
"I hope that he doesn't get swept with this war."