Nicolai and Raven docked the boat with slight difficulty. The turbulent waves kept pushing them into the shore. With salt water in their eyes it was slightly hard to get the boat to steady.
Raven first stepped onto the shore and pulled him up.
Nicolai hurriedly grabbed the boat's rope and tied it up to one of the thick branches of the mangroove trees. He touched his chest again. his heart had stopped pounding.
It was still.
It was silent.
It felt ominous.
"hey how are you feeling? Good? better? worse?" raven gently touched his back.
"oh I think I feel better now. Do you think I was home sick?"
Raven let out a small laugh. "You were away from the island for only about an hour,"
"yeah I still think I got home sick," Nicolai and raven both walked through the familiar pathway leading to the hut.
Suddenly Raven paused in front of him. He squatted down and touched the wet mud with a deep frown on his forehead.
"What is it?"
Raven's eyes changed into that of panic. "We have visitors," he took off without explaining much.
Nicolai stood there glancing at the muddy ground. There was two different shoe prints one small and one that of a large person. The footprint had sunk a bit into the mud indicating that person was obviously on the heavier side.
The shoe prints also had small wiggly groves in them. Everyone on the island wore rattan shoes hand woven by Darius to save cost. No one owned fancy shoe like this.
"Fuck!"
He tore a branch off the tree to use as weapon and rushed to their house.
Just by the hut he saw Raven standing there with tear-filled eyes,
"What? where are the intruders....." Nicolai glanced around. he could sniff out only two scent. The strong scent of cedar wood and another person who smelled like smoke. "where... where are the kid.. Matt....."
He ran into the hut. There was no on in there.
"Kiran! Elijah! Avery!! Matt!! Darius!!! Anyone!... a-anyone... it's.. It's safe now.. come out guys...."
Raves grabbed a hold of his shoulders. "They are not here Nico.... they took them,"
Stunned he walked close to him. on the hut there was something written in black charcoal.. "We have your friend. come to pack to find us Nico – alpha king."
"fuck!! Fuck...." Nico kicked the hut in ager. He hurriedly swiped the charcoal. It was definitely fresh. "t-they could not have gotten far. if.. if we row our boat faster we can get hold of them,"
"And then what?" Raven looked defeated. "What can we do.. we have no weapons.. nothing...." he started to sob loudly. "you know.. I was planning on giving up.... I was going to give up on my revenge.. When you came here you gave us hope to live normally..... I loved it.. now... now everything is gone....."
"w-we can find them. I can do it. they want me right. I'll surrender. They probably guessed that I was a elder... they feel threatened by my presence if.. if I surrender they will let you guys go,'
"NO!.... no I'm not ready to lose anyone else.... we stay here... we have to stay here.... it's safe here...." he mumbled wiping away his tear stained face.
"Raven! We have to do something! I can save them you idiot!!"
"You think they will let us go of you surrender? Haha... Nico you are fucking naive. They will kill us all. The wolves hate the vampires they won't let us live...."
Nicolai was in shock. "I don't...they.. they will die if.. if we don't do anything... Raven.. I am ready to die for them,"
"Then what? Your life is worth more than all of them included. I.. I think they are most likely dead by now. we should not do anything stupid.... if we stay here we can plan out our attack well.." Raven pranced around.
Nico just sat there silently crying. 'it was all my fault.. if I hadn't gone out to the villages our location might not have been exposed... they could have lived on peacefully.... it was all because of me.... I never should have been alive....'
He watched Raven walk into the hut calmly.
Nicolai couldn't just ignore his family like that. They were captured only because if him. 'I have to do something... but what can I do.' He ran to the spot they had tied up the boat.
"Nico! Stop!! We can't risk our lives!!! Not yet! Wait!!"
Nicolai untied the boat and jumped onto it. "I can only try.... I can only try Raven. I'm not going to sit here while there is a chance our brothers are alive."
Sobbing raven held his hand. "please... just don't leave me... please..."
"Get on Raven."
Raven gave him a stunned look.
"get on. We are going after our family. They are our brothers. We have to find them.... we are going to kill the alpha king for taking them away....,"
Raven became much calmer. "how?"
"we will figure it on the way there. Just hop in. we can't afford to waste time," he glanced back at the whirlpool. It was already in a very dangerous state.
Raven understood his indication. he swiftly jumped in.
Raven and Nicolai both rowed the boat out of the island. The ocean was much more aggressive than usual. The sky was dark, and the waves were choppy, pushing them directly towards the direction of the whirlpool.
"shit! Row faster!"
Nico put all his strength into it and rowed as fast as he could. The waves were not in their favour. Their boat got dangerously close to the gushing waves of the whirlpool.
"Raven..."'
"We can do it! little but more!!!" he screamed, pulling the oars with all of his strength.
With a small push, the boat slightly escaped the pull of the water. Nicolai and Raven immediately started to row as fast as they can.
Little over two minutes later, their boat had completely escaped the whirlpool, floating on the open ocean.
Nicolai wiped the saltwater from his face. "You okay?"
"yeah..." Raven massaged his shoulders. "We have to stay low. The alpha king might be still afloat in these waters."
"What do you suggest?" Nicolai peered at him.
"little further and we shall abandon our boat. We have to swim to shore." He mumbled softly.
Nicolai shook his head. "They will discover you easily,"
"I don't care anymore. We have to plan something out...."