Lycan Alpha's Witch

10 - Infiltration

Feeling drowsy and tired, I closed my eyes, deeply inhaling the humid air from the forest. This quietness and peace was so fleeting as quickly as it usually came. The tiny flame that Iana made was enough to keep all of us comfortably warm, to conserve and replenish our mana as much as we could. I wanted to rest, for days, weeks, without any danger present. But that was just a wish that wasn’t going to be fulfilled anytime soon. Not at least while these fights were still going on. I tightly wrapped myself in the rough fabric of my cloak and turned a bit away from the camping site. I groaned in pain. My arm had to be bruised as I heavily fell on the rock in the fight today. But even so, I prepared myself to sleep. It was the best way to forget about any pain right now. Since everyone was present in the camp, I could afford to sleep for a few minutes.

“Are you sleeping?” Iana’s voice woke me up only a few minutes later.

“Was.”

“The wolves aren’t far. We should slowly get moving to a different place. We aren’t fit to fight. It’s enough we had escaped their majority in the last fight without anyone dying. But we used too much of our powers. Even if there are fewer of those stinky dogs, we won’t be able to save everyone.” Iana was reporting the state of our group to me, her second in command, not bothered that I was trying to get at least a tiny bit of sleep. Her calm stoic voice wasn’t making anything sound urgent but Iana’s frown was clearly showing how dire the situation for our group was. We were wounded, tired, hungry… We couldn’t call for reinforcements as we didn’t have any. Other groups were engaged in battles of their own. The rear with supplies was too far. There was no backup for us. The only backup we had was just us, about a dozen of tired and worn-out witches.

“How is Sanne doing? Is her leg better or we’ll have to carry her?” I pulled the hood more into my face, hoping I could get a few more minutes of rest by asking Iana this question even though I knew the answer to it. Or maybe she would take the clue and leave me alone to sleep a bit more.

“We’ll have to carry her. I will let the stronger ones know that they have to help out, we’ll take turns. How’s your cut?” Iana touched my face to see if the cut I had on my face was healing. It wasn’t too deep, it just didn’t want to close because of the stupid dill. One touch of her finger with her superior healing magic made the blood stop and the cut to close. Iana faintly smiled. She had to conserve her mana to heal others with more serious injuries, not a stupid cut on my cheek. But I couldn’t protest. It was her decision how she used her powers, not mine.

As our eyes locked, her faint smile disappeared and her stoic face came back. “Hopefully the scar won’t be too visible.”

I was silent. I didn’t want to speak to her any longer, I just wanted to close my eyes even if it was only for a split of a second. Iana finally got the hint and turned back to the fire without saying a word.

I stretched my wrists and got up. We had to get moving any second now. There wasn’t much time for us to get away from here safely before the werewolves would eventually sniff us out. I bent down to get my dwindling rations bag. I smirked, feeling the sarcasm of it. When I first got it, it was quite heavy. Now, it felt like it was just an empty pouch useless to carry. I suddenly heard screams and a heavy loud thud. Growling. Snarling.

I quickly picked my eyes up to see that a huge wolf jumped out of nowhere to the middle of our camp. The hairs on my body stood up as I threw the bag flying over my shoulder. They knew we were here. My teeth were grinding against each other as my hands quickly picked up to the air.

The girls were screaming, scattering away from the wolf which was trying to figure out where we were hidden. His pack was getting closer. We had only a little time left.

I had to use this chance, however tiny and short, to give us time to escape.