Lycan Alpha's Witch

9) A bit of peace and quiet

Footsteps came and stopped close to me: “Hello, princess! I’m Iana. You might feel like you are in a pitch but trust me, we need to get out of here asap. And, just for the record, the other people in the group have no idea who you are…” I could feel her bothered gaze digging into my bent back as I was struggling on all fours. She was definitely not happy with getting an inexperienced person under her. Even more so, a noble. And to top it off, a royal.

“And I wish for it to remain that way.” I finally coughed out. My lungs were being crushed by the heavy mana-less air the same as if a boulder was on top of my back. The metal rotting taste in my mouth wasn’t helping, either.

I finally lifted my face from the ground to look at who I was even talking to. I could recognize her burning orange hair in the hazy image in front of me. She was standing tall, her hands at her hips. She didn’t have any problem breathing. In fact, she looked like she was completely fine. And here I was on my all fours, gasping for air like crazy.

“Understood. Valencia?”

“Rose.”

“Excuse me? I didn’t hear you right.” She didn’t need to raise her voice to make me respond right away. “ROSE!” I yelled out with the leftover air in my lungs. My heart was beating like crazy while I was wheezing for more air.

“I see.” She snapped her fingers. Suddenly, all the heaviness and panic that was enveloping my whole body disappeared as I could take a deep breath easily for the first time. She dragged me back to my legs. The gentleness of my maids was a faraway dream compared to the roughness of her fingers which were digging into my skin like crazy.

She pushed a bag into my arms. “Here, Rose, this is your war rations. I advise you to not lose it. Now, let’s go, we are needed.” Iana already turned around and started heading deeper into the forest, keeping a safe distance from the looming fires. I was thankful for the easy breathing spell she put on me. And no matter how much my ears were ringing and I was dizzy from the influx of oxygen, I knew I had to keep up. There was no other choice for me at the moment. If I wanted to live, I had to follow her disappearing silhouette in the darkness of the night forest. She was my only safe point. I couldn’t go back. Even if I tried, I would be kicked back out. My mother would make sure of it.

An inhuman shriek filled the air around me, making hairs all over my body stand up. I gripped the bag she had given me and quickly followed after her running, closer and closer to the flames and suffering that was happening around us.

How long has it been since I was sent to the front? Days felt like months and weeks like hours. My group’s loud giggling brought me back from my thoughts to the cold reality of a dangerous forest with too many werewolves in it. It was almost a miracle I had managed to survive for this long without any grave injuries. A few scratches here and there, cut hair and a few close-to-death situations weren't that bad as long as I was still breathing with my body intact. I sighed and rested my head against the tree as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Iana told you to shut it! Do you want them to find us?” I yelled at the girls that were getting too noisy just loud enough for them to hear. It wouldn’t pass the thin barrier Iana had put up around the camp.The girls around the fire finally shut up. The loud voices finally turned into tiny whispers.

I was searching for Iana among them. But the orange hair and green eyes that had saved my butt so many times were nowhere around. She should have been with us, so where was she? I was quickly taking in the whole camping area we quickly set up to rest.

The tall girl with long wavy orange hair was tending to one of the younger members in the back. The tension that had built up within those few seconds finally left my body as I sighed in relief.

Sadly, werewolf scratches and bite marks were healing very slowly for us. As long as they kept eating dill or fennel, the wounds inflicted by them would heal slowly and would leave nasty scars even if we tried healing them. One small green weed and how much damage it caused to us witches. They were even using dill or fennel seed powder to spray us, so we would be unable to use mana for the time being. If nobody used a wind spell to get the powder away from us, we were doomed. Quite a few witches had already left this world to our ancestors because of that.

I shuddered at the thought of anything bad happening to our group.