"The moon has already risen, why is she not here till now?" Sima muttered restlessly, staggering time again thinking about the possibilities.
"Mom don't worry, she is lucky. She will come before midnight. Yeah, she is lucky she should be able to find her way out." Julia herself was barely able to hold on, she clutched her mother's cold hand tightly while she tried to maintain her composure.
"It's about to be midnight..." Both Julia and her mother kept standing at the entrance watching the way Gloria had disappeared, in the hopes of her returning back. The bloody color of the moon was getting darker as the night was getting dark too. Julia's clutch on her mother's hand became tighter as she tried to fend off the little muffled scream of help in Gloria's voice started to get louder and louder.
"Ma'am!" some event organizers came by them while they were doing the last night's patrol around the area.
"Ma'am, I suggest you both return back for now. It's dangerous around here." one of them spoke.
Julia was not even conscious of someone else's presence as she was trying her best to think in her heart that it wasn't real and she shouldn't believe it but panic started to rise in her as she contemplated the possibility of the voice calling out for help being that of her real sister who was in trouble. She was tempted, and so she let go of her mother's usually warm hand that had turned stiff and cold with worry she started to run off to the gate as she screamed.
"Mom! I think Gloria's calling me. She is asking for my help. I will go and help her." Julia almost ran directly into the Mist forest but she was stopped by the organizers as they forcefully closed the entrance.
'sigh' the organizers sighed with relief holding down the trembling Julia.
"Ma'am that could have been really dangerous. Please go back." the same previous organizer spoke looking at pained Sima, knowing who had failed to come today she spoke nothing more than that afraid of touching the softest sore part of the family right now.
"Ma'am we will escort you back. Please come with us now." as the organizer suggested Sima walked off slowly while holding down the frantically trembling Julia in her arms. They walked as if they had lost their souls already. All the way back Sima could see nothing as her vision got blurry with all the tears she refused to let go just like her now lost daughter.
The next morning, the disappearance of Gloria had already become the topic of gossip among people, some sighed with pity, and some were more interested in who will be the new pack leader now as people who had disappeared from Mist Forest had never returned so everyone had almost same thought 'who will be their leader now?'
The mourning family stayed silent, no one knew how were they doing as everyone was restricted by them for visits.
"To get everything in order we need someone to lead us so we need to instigate a new leader as soon as possible." Herd one of the influential elder of the MIST pack spoke his opinion which was dissolved by Kent quickly, "We can not do that. As per our rule, we must wait for the return of the leader for at least one week."
"Kent are you getting too much old that you are forgetting another important rule of ours?" Osa said sarcastically to Kent, as she probed again retelling everyone of the one exception rule, " If the case involves that of missing from Mist Forest the leader will be cast away within three days and the elders will be responsible for introducing a new leader to the pack."
"So that is why we still need to wait. Even if it's just three days now is not when we should rush in these three days we should carefully start looking for someone new and if she fails to come back then we will think about that, how's that? sounds good to everyone?" when Roma finally spoke everyone quieted down as she held the final says, always.
"As if she would be able to return. What is she trying to do stalling time for nothing, everyone knows Gloria won't come back... ever." Osa mumbled furiously to Sui, who softly and cautiously said, "We still need to follow the formality.."
Osa abruptly stopped, looked at Sui gloomily, and started to walk again, after Osa parted her way Sui sighed audibly.