Chereads / At War With My Luna / Chapter 4 - Clash Of Claws

Chapter 4 - Clash Of Claws

RACHEL'S POV.

I finally found the strength to get up from the mat in the tent and walk outside. What I saw was a group of travelers, each dressed in ancient desert attires. The kind old man introduced me to many people, I also learnt that they called themselves the desert claw. The group had one thousand people mixed between men and women in it. All they travel with was the tents, pans of salted and dried meats. Then they had about hundred gallons of water. They also had grains with them. We were always moving, the only time we stopped was to eat or sleep, and their leader was a young man called Aragon. The group always do everything together, they cook together, eat together, sing together, they rarely hard any disagreements. Even though I've been with them for three days, I haven't gotten the chance to see nor meet this Aragon.

"Out here if you wander off from your group, you are dead meat." The old man said to me as we had a meal one night.

"Where are you people going to?" I replied the old man, because the group was always on the move.

"We are heading to the moon,"

"The moon? Is that even possible? How are you going to get there?"

"You will be surprised how easy it is to get to the moon. Now tell me young one, how did you arrive here, where are you from?" The old man stared deeply into my eyes, it was as if he was trying to find something in my soul.

"I do not know how I got here myself"

"Where are your people?" His question brought back memories I tried to suppress, "I have no one" I said trying hard to hold back tears.

"Then who exactly are you?"

"My name is Rachel…"

"No, I didn't ask for your name, what I asked is who you are."

Who am I? I pretended to be thinking, but deep down I knew I didn't have the answers to that question anymore. My train thoughts was disrupted by a loud howls from outside, I knew exactly what that mean, a battle cry. The old man stood up to his feet instantly, "Go nowhere," he said to me before he paced out of the tent.

I walked out of the room after he left, the outside became a battlefield, werewolves fighting werewolves, it was utter chaos. Clash of claws, and screams of agony filled the air. One of the werewolves sighted me and rushed towards me, but before it could reach me another werewolf pounced on it, and the two started fighting.

I sneaked into tents after tents to find someone that might tell me what was happening, but I couldn't find a single soul anywhere. The kids, the women, it was like everyone vanished into thin air.

Terrified, I immediately walked back into my tent and coiled up into a corner, I listened to the battle unfold the whole night praying a werewolf doesn't enter the room and attack me.

As soon as the sun rose up into the sky, I went out of the tent to see; dead bodies lying everywhere, and the people of the group that I couldn't find last night walking around picking up said dead bodies on the ground and dumping them together in piles.

"What happened last night? Where did everyone go to?" I asked the old man immediately I saw him.

"What did you see?" The old man glanced at me, and then he walked away without waiting for my answer. I walked around to find someone free that could answer my question, but they all were so busy.

"Are you looking for someone?" A voice said from behind me, I turned around to see; a man not more than 24, his hair is charcoal black, and he has dark circles around his eye. And his cloth was all black to the footwear he wore.

"No… Yes, I am looking for someone I could ask some questions" I said while nervously rubbing my hand against the other.

"What do you want to know?" His voice was soothing to hear, it was so smooth.

"I want to know what happened last night"

"The werewolf attack?"

"No. Not just that, I want to know where you all went to during the attack, I couldn't find anyone last night during the attack."

"You did not find anyone during the attack because we were all fighting."

"Against werewolves? You? How are you still breathing? There is no way a human will go against a werewolf and survive." I looked at the person right in front of me, the person claiming that they fought a werewolf. He was so slim, if you gave him a sword, the sword will carry him. If I fight him even in my human form, all it would take was three punches and he is gone.

The man looked at me as I measured him, he tilted his head, then he said, "You haven't noticed?" he took a step towards me, "This is not just a regular group of people, everyone here is a werewolf."

My jaws dropped, not in shock but in utter disappointment in myself. How could I let something so obvious elude me, this was a pack of werewolves. I just stared at the man, lost of words I would reply him with.

"I hope that answers your question" The man said, he then turned and added, "You should remain at your tent, if you keep walking around aimlessly, others might mistake you for a spy." The man left.

The old man returned to the tent at night time, bringing food for me. "I am sorry, today has been hectic." He said as he handed me the food, the room was lit with candles.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth?" I said with a frown.

"What truth?" The old man said confused.

"That this is a werewolf pack."

"I thought you knew already." The old man pulled a chair closer and sat on it.

"I had no idea," The old man stared at me surprised, "Then, you were not paying any attention to anything."

"I know!' I exclaimed looking more disappointed in myself than he is. "So, why, were you attacked by other werewolves yesterday night, there must be a reason right?"

"Yes, there was a reason for it, but before I tell you, I have to tell you the history of our people first, so you will understand more."

"Okay."

"In this part of the world, there are four packs controlling the territories. The desert claw pack, us, the Dark sand pack, the Storm claw pack, and the moon fang pack, the desert claw lived in the far north, the dark sand in the south, storm claws west and moon fang in the east. We've always lived in harmony, there were no problems. We got rain once a month in our part of the desert, so did everyone." The old man smiled, then he continued, "Once it starts to rain, there was always massive joy, kids singing and playing under the rain, and the older ones storing up the water because we know it comes once every thirty days. It was like this for the other packs, we all had rains once a month in our respective regions. The rain water we store was what we drank, cooked with and bathed with for thirty days till the next rain arrived. This was the routine until two years ago, we waited for rain for come after thirty days, the days turned to months and we didn't see a single drop of rain. Our reserves ran out, we could barely survive without water, then a year passed, still there was no rain. The children started to die first of dehydration and hunger, and then the older ones started dying too. We had to find the source of this problem or we would all die."