Quinn
“Mia!” I screamed into the air as I got up on my feet even though I knew that she wasn’t going to hear me.
I blinked back tears as I wondered where she was and what she was likely going through at the hands of those devious creatures. I couldn’t believe that they had disappeared with her. What an unfair fight. I didn’t even think that they could do that but I should have guessed when they had introduced themselves as the guardians of the forest. Disappearing into thin air was a skill needed for their job descriptions.
I winced as I stretched my arm, trying to fix it back into place. The bastards had flung me too hard. I heard groans from my brothers and knew that I wasn’t the only one dealing with pain.
Our arms would heal, in the next few seconds, and we were not worried about that. The real pain was in our hearts. How would we get Mia back? Where did we even know that she had been taken captive to?
I didn’t have to read the minds of my brothers to know they were worried of the same thing that I was. I hoped that the bastards weren’t trying to force her to be their bride. Not that we were worried Mia would be their bride – if at all, we knew she would rather die than do that. It had been hard convincing her to like us who looked like humans. I wished them luck trying to make her theirs but that didn’t mean we weren’t worried about her. The more she protested against their wish, the more she would have to suffer for it and the thought of her in pain of any form ate me up from the inside.
I felt raw with pain, my belly pulsing with heat as if I had swallowed acid and was being eaten alive.
“Damn those bastards!” Jack yelled, throwing his hands into the air and I knew that I was healed. I was too.
What was the point of it though? We were stuck here. We couldn’t leave here without Mia and didn’t know where she was. How would we find people who could disappear as they wished? It felt heartbreaking to know that this was likely how we were going to end our journey.
Mia, lonely and miserable dealing with creatures that were disgusting to her and us as well, heartbroken and would probably die of hunger as stay here hoping that she would find her way back to us.
“If only they hadn’t flung us away so far, we would have have held on to them and disappeared with them.” John sighed.
“They knew that and did what they did.” I sighed. “They only needed Mia.”
I didn’t want to remind my brothers that we would have lost our chance to tap the sap of the Aselia tree if we had all disappeared with the creatures. Then, we would have had to start our journey all over, looking for the Aselia tree and not knowing what other ordeals we would have to face.
It ached to imagine that we would be stuck in a journey of circle and probably here forever. I didn’t want that. I wanted to get home and show Mia to the pack as the Luna.
I heard footsteps and raised my head up, hoping that it was one of the bastards back again. I didn’t sense Mia with him but I wasn’t bothered. This time, I was going to disappear with the bastard to where they had taken Mia to while leaving my brothers to get the sap from the tree. I had the map with me so I could always find them here once I have rescued Mia and then we will go back home.
I smiled at my smart plan until I looked up. The smile vanished from my face as I saw that it wasn’t the mini creatures but a horse. It walked towards us as if it had some business with us.
I didn’t think we had any with him but wasn’t going to be surprised if he attacked us. Everything here hated us just for being here. We weren’t about to wait till he attacked us before we made our moves.
We got ready, squaring our shoulders at him and lifted off our hands clenched in fists.
“I’m not here to fight you.”
I didn’t even blink that the horse could talk. Nothing was surprising here anymore.
He sounded believable but I didn’t relax my defensive stance. “What are you doing here then if you are not here to fight us?”
“I heard the leaves talking that the guardians had taken the mate of some werewolves at the Aselia tree. I guess they were right seeing how angry you are.”
Okay, now leaves talk? I admitted to myself that I was shocked. I had thought that I had seen and heard enough of this place.
I sighed, my shoulders deflating. I couldn’t believe that we had become celebrities here that the leaves now had to gossip about.
“If you are done having your fun and confirming the rumor you heard, you can leave.”
The horse snorted. “You think I came all the way here because of a rumor, boy? I don’t have that much time on my hands.”
I ignored the insult of being called a boy by the horse and instead wondered what he had to do in the forest that he didn’t have much time. If he had time to listen to gossip, then he wasn’t as busy as he was trying to claim.
“Why are you here then?” I asked, curious.
“I know where your girl was taken to.”
We all snapped to attention and moved closer to him. He bared his teeth in a grin, seeing that he had grabbed our attention.
“Please tell us. We will be grateful if you do.”
“I can do better. I will take you there. I came here to help you as soon as I heard what the leaves were saying.”
“Why?” John asked, unable to hide the suspicion in his voice.
“It’s simple.” The horse replied. “I hate the guardians. You don’t have to know the story behind it.”
I nodded. It wasn’t as if I was interested in the story, all that mattered to me was finding Mia.
“When do we go?” I asked.
“As soon as we are done here. Take the sap you came here for. Take as much as you can so you will be on your way after rescuing your girl.”
Hope was such a crazy thing. Looking at the way we tapped the sap with haste into all the containers we had brought with us, I couldn’t believe that we had been tired some minutes ago.
We placed the containers gently into our bags when we were done and picked them. The horse nodded when he saw that we were done and started to move forward. We followed him, waking carefully behind him. We didn’t trust him but we followed him anyway since we had no choice.