It happens that I am in my room anxiously waiting for the spies to come back. I am trying so hard not to show my agitation but it is really not working. I pick up my pencil and my sketchpad and start to draw abstract stuff from my mind. You see, drawing has always been therapeutic for me because it helps me relax when I am stressed out.
After drawing for about an hour, I hear a knock on the door and wonder who it is. I have asked that I be left alone in the solitude of my room so who could it be?
"Who is there?" I ask, and Kiara announces her presence.
"I am so sorry, Alpha Kalista, but I have got some very important news for you." She says.
Immediately I hear her words, I jump out of my bed and open the door. "Tell me." I instruct her with eagerness in her eyes and that is when she tells me that the spies that we sent out have come back. I freeze in shock and then squeal quietly in utmost excitement.
Immediately, I race out of the room and Kiara follows me. When we get into the meeting hall, I am relieved to see that all the spies I sent out are back in one piece. Although they look tired, exhausted and drained, they are all here. I congratulate them on the success of their mission and ask them to sit in their respective seats. The maids bring them water and milk to help them relax.
When I see that they can now speak well, I ask the group of spies who went to spy on the Lichen Pack for their report. They tell me that the Lichen Pack is still at peace and that all through the mission, the pack never showed any sign of agitation. I am surprised to hear this because I have been thinking that the Blizzard has spread. I thank the two soldiers and ask that they remove themselves from the closed-door meeting.
Next, I ask the other four spies for their report and this is where things get really interesting. They tell me that the Black Fur Pack is at peace, but that they are also being affected by the Blizzard. At this point, I am really shocked as to how this is possible.
"I really don't understand what the four of you are trying to tell me." I confess.
The soldiers go on to tell me that the Black Fur Pack has a definite and potent cure to the Blizzard disease. Kiara looks at me in shock and I myself am dumbfounded. I thank the spies for their services and instruct them to go back to their families and rest for the next one week. After they leave, Kiara and I discuss for a long time, and we agree that the best thing for us to do is to ask the Alpha of the Black Fur for the cure.
But there is one little problem. Actually, two.
One, Alpha Gray is not a good man at all. He is known by everyone in the entire Wereforest to be very heartless. His pack is the strongest among all of us, and this is because of his very mean personality. Why would I want to go to such a person for help? I do not like his personalty at all and I am really upset that he has the solution to my current problem in his palm.
Secondly, I have actually had an encounter with this same man. It happened about four years ago after I had just celebrated my twentieth birthday. I was in a very good mood and Juliana was in my room. Out of the blues, she suggested that we went into the woods to have some fun outside the pack. As usual, we went with six guards for our protection. We wandered through the woods while we were on our horses, and I asked Juliana if she would like to join me for a swim in one of the creeks that decorated the woods.
Of course, Juliana agreed and we went into the creek and started swimming and splashing water on each other. Suddenly, we heard a very weird sound behind us in the water, and before we both could figure out what was going on, a pair of strong arms grabbed Juliana and started to pull her out of the creek. She screamed for help and I was dizzy with rage, so I swam to the bank of the creek and pulled out my sword from its sheath. I hid it behind me and raced after the man who was dragging my friend away. I was able to catch up with him and without warning, I plunged my sword into his back, delivering what would have been a fatal blow if I had not been trained by my father to stab without hitting any major blood vessels.
As expected, the man let go of Juliana and fell weakly to the ground. I was in my bra and shorts, and so was Juliana. She was still shaking and I tried to comfort her. Just as I was about to question the unlucky man, a group of up to eight men surrounded us and I immediately held on tighter to Juliana. At that point, I was ready to kill anyone of them who tried to touch her…or me.
"Well, well, well…what do we have here?" One of the men says and at a closer look, I recognized him immediately. He was the Alpha of the Black Fur Pack.
"Alpha Gray?" I blurted out.
"That's me. May I know why one of my soldiers is bleeding at your feet?" He asked with a look of amusement on his face.
"He tried to hurt my friend and I taught him a lesson. Next time, he will learn not to interfere in my swimming." I answered defiantly.
Alpha Gray's eyes traveled up and down my body and although I was self-conscious, I chose not to show it. However, what he did next shocked me to my bones.
He ordered one of the other soldiers to kill the bleeding soldier.
Right in front of us.