Chapter 4

-Lucas-

I haven’t been able to rest, despite being heavily sedated. Whenever I doze off for a few minutes, it

takes me back to that nightmare; a nightmare I’m still struggling to ce in the real world. I can’t ept

what I saw, I’m not even sure of what I saw.

When Eli, Noah and I got to the campsite by the border, they were all dead; all our brothers were dead.

There must have been at least 40 of them lying on the ground, some even missing their limbs. What

could possible cause such carnage?! This had been a clear attack on the camp, but all the dead were

lycan! Where were the bodies of the enemies? The warriors stationed here were elite, but they

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managed not to kill a single enemy?

All three of us stood over their bodies for many minutes, at a loss for what to say or think. Eli was the

first to speak, advising we look for clues rather than returning to the Council without any leads. We all

agreed but, as we came to inspect many of our brothers’ bodies, we realized that no beast known to us

could’ve caused this type of damage. Eli was first to voice his opinion,

“It was wolves,” he scowled and affirmed with absolute certainty.

“I have never met any wolf that could cause this, Eli, not against a lycan.” Noah does not share the

deep-rooted hate for werewolves that Eli has.

“We are right by their border, kid! If not them, whom?!”

“Eli, look around you! Not a single dead wolf? Not a single surviving lycan? And more importantly, no

smell of wolf!” Eli grimaced, he knew Noah was right, but even I found myself wanting to believe the

wolves were to me if only to make some sense of this. The alternative that this beast was something

unknown, far more powerful than us, was sending waves of fear throughout my body.

“We have to give them proper burial,” Noah said and we all agreed, even if it would take us all day.

It took us hours to gather enough firewood for the funeral pyre. A proper send-off would’ve been done

at the main castle, with all of our brothers and sisters present and mourning. At dawn, we would’ve lit

up the fire, sending our brothers into the afterlife. But we had no time, and we knew that the Council

would not bother on transporting them for any proper ceremony. We had to do it ourselves.

As we set the bodies, picking them up one by one, my stomach started to churn and my eyes to sting.

Picking them up grounded me to what had happened. I contained my need to cry, as we ced them

on the pyre.

Once we were done, Eli set it all on fire and we all bowed our heads in respect. I looked to Noah, and

he had a solemn look on his face. The fire had engulfed all of them, and it was a matter of time before it

would all turn to ash. We remained silent for the rest of our makeshift ceremony.

Once the fire had consumed itself, the sun was about to go down. Lycans have very good vision in the

dark, so the walk back was not my concern, but what we might encounter was. Noah was the first to

move, heading towards the camp-site, no doubt looking for clues. Clearly it had been a surprise attack,

everything was in disarray. The beds were not even made, which indicated that the warriors got up in a

hurry to fight. This had happened very early in the morning.

Just as we were gathering some evidence for the council, a noise was heard deep within the forest and

birds were flying away in a hurry. A chill imed my spine. I was ready to shift any moment but Eli put a

hand on my shoulder, looking into the forest. Noah stepped in front of us. Cautiously walking towards

the sound. We didn’t move, we didn’t breathe, we didn’t dare utter a sound in expectation of what could

be out there. It was very close to wolf territory, but not quite there. This was still lycan territory.

We heard the sound again, closer, and I almost jumped out of my skin. My lycan was on high alert, with

the hairs on my nape standing up. Eli’s eyes had turned ck, indicating that his lycan was also just

below the surface. The sound was something like a big thud, almost like arge tree had fallen over,

but we knew better.

Suddenly, Noah shifted a few meters in front of us andunched himself in the air, fangs and ws out.

Not needing any indication of what he had seen, Eli and I shifted and went after it too. Noahtched

onto something, in the middle of the air! We both attacked, but missed. As Noah was furiously biting

whatever it was that hade our way, Eli and I both kept jumping and missing. When I finally felt like I

hadtched onto something, it caught my leg, painfully crushing my ankle, and crushing me against the

ground. I whimpered in pain, but mostly confusion. I noticed Noah was also on the ground, looking far

worse than I felt.

Eli came to stand in front of us to protect us though we couldn’t see the enemy. At first, I thought it was

simply too fast for me to see, but in reality, this thing was invisible. Invisible! Noah and I exchanged a

look, and he made the signal. A paw to his shoulder meant retreat. Before we could signal Eli, it was

pinning him violently to the ground. The old lycan whimpered as both Noah and Iunched ourselves to

the air,tching on to the beast. It wiggled us around until it released Eli, then he grabbed me by my

middle and crushed me too. Noah saw this and deepened its fangs into it, forcing it to release me.

I helped Eli up and assessed his wounds; the old man wasn’t looking so good. Noah came to us and

we started to retreat, but the beast was already waiting and in our way. This time, I paid more attention

and could see a very faint silhouette. It was too big for me to gauge before, but now, I understood and

panic gripped my mind.

Quite simply, if we didn’t manage to escape, we would die.