Chapter III

Something was off I could feel it even in sleep. My body felt a worrisome ache swimming in my gut, and my body even burned. I felt sick, like I had been punched in the gut, and everything had slowed down; it almost felt like I had become feverish with anxiety.

I felt something cold, and shaky slide over my mouth. My eyes groggily opened, and I grabbed at the hand pressed against my mouth. Looking up I saw Petra, she had a finger to her lips, and she was extremely pale. Her ocher eyes were full of intense urgency, and I could feel the pounding rhythm in her chest.

There was a beeping sound that seemed to echo about the cavern, sounding very much robotic. With a shaking hand she pointed outside the cave, beyond the wooden walls and the old door that led out into the chilly woods that closed in on us.

I slowly stood – wincing at every sound my feet made against the cold stone floor – creeping slowly around the wooden walls and slinking up to the cavern door and peering around the bend.

I saw a flash of black legs of iron before they vanished behind the curtain of ivy. I barely caught sight of the thing a moment, and I pulled back into the shadows of the cave with fear.

"What?" Petra asked, and I looked at her, trying to stay calm.

"It's a bot." I whispered, and she closed her eyes, dread taking over her features. I looked back around the bend. I watched as the bot walked around in the small clearing before the cave, and I saw it scanning the ground, and trees.

"It's doing a sweep of the area. Noah was right, they're moving too fast." Petra peered out as well, and I tugged on her arm. "We need to wake my brothers." I whispered in a hushed tone.

Petra nodded, and we scurried back into the cave. I ran over to Faust, and knelt beside him, putting a hand over his mouth, and shaking him. He woke with a start and grabbed my hand. I put a finger to my lips and shook my head.

"Bot; just outside the den." I warned, and he stood.

"Is it coming in?" Faust asked, gripping my hand with vice like strength and stiffness.

I shook my head. "No, but it is scanning the woods. If it detects our heat signatures we're done fore." I hissed – my breath coming out in fog – Faust nodded.

Noah was up before I knew it and I passed everyone a bag from the ground. There would be no time for nostalgia; we'd disappear from this place, just like we had from Lupin.

Swinging a bag over my shoulder I looked to Faust. He made a circular motion with his hand and we nodded. The plan was to get around the bot without it noticing, make for the mountain pass. A bot wouldn't be able to make it up the steep slopes, and sooner be buried in an avalanche than follow us over the steep peaks.

"We'll get away quicker as wolves." Noah argued quietly.

"No, they'll follow us if they know we are wolves. It'll make the crossing dangerous. They have records from Lupin, and if they can get close enough to scan us – which they will – they'll know who we are." Faust explained, and I nodded pulling my jacket around me tighter.

The direness of the situation sunk in as Faust's words sunk in.

Faust picked up a stone, and weighed it in his hands, before pulling back, and chucking it past the bot into the trees. With a blast of plasma into the air the bot followed, scuttling across the frozen forest floor.

Faust, and Noah lead us out, and into the open. We quickly ran in the opposite direction, my heart pounding abnormally fast.

"Hurry, if we can make it to the mountain trail up to the stronghold, we'll be home free." Noah called over the sound of the snow crunching underfoot.

"This is the loudest snow I've heard in my life!" I hissed quietly.

I yelped and fell forward as I halted. A bolt of pale fuchsia energy blasted Noah in the side throwing him into the tree nearest us. The trunk of the birch splintered as Noah's body slammed into the ground with a howl that erupted from his stunned body. Splinters and branches flew everywhere.

I turned to see a large bot, warming up for another blast. Petra, and Faust grabbed Noah, and I followed them up the mountain. We were too slow the bot wad gaining on us, a few more started in on the chase from nowhere.

I ran smack into Faust who had stopped. I looked up to see a ledge up.

Petra leapt to the top and grabbed hold of Noah. The bots were too close; we would never make it out. Hurriedly I pushed Faust up shouting in a panic. Once he was up, he turned to me, but I did not look at him, instead I ran towards the bots.

"Azure!" Petra screamed. I dropped to my side, and slid under the bot.

"Go! I'll meet you at the pass!" I called, and broke a branch off a tree, and threw it like a spear at the bot, it broke the glass on its face, but did no more damage.

I started hollering at the top of my lungs and running. The bots followed. Snow sprayed around my legs as I ran, pushing harder with ever step. My pace grew to be much faster than any humans could become. Everything was a blur and I nearly missed smacking into a pine or a birch tree every five seconds.

Grabbing a tree one the slope I made a turn, towards a sharp cliff. This was either a good or really bad idea.

I ran good and hard; seeing the cliff on the other side of the river that was named as Ravenblud. It was almost fifty feet deep and twenty feet wide.

Skidding to a stop I looked over the drop. The snow on the bank I stood upon crumbled and dropped down into the icy river below. If I fell in the freezing water would kill me if the raging rapids and ice shards didn't. I shook out my legs and looked back as three bots converged on me. There was the sound of trees creaking as their wide bodies pushed through the dense woodlands.

I backed up, breathing shakily. "You can do this." I muttered to myself and closed my eyes.

With a crack off the trees behind me, I ran forward before jumping. My legs generated such force, that I practically flew across the icy river far below. Pumping my arms, and legs, I started to fall. I panicked as my arms lashed out hoping to grab something. I landed hard – hitting my gut against the edge of the cliff. I pulled myself into the snow.

The snow quickly soaked through my sweater and chilled my skin so terribly that I began to shiver violently. I dragged my body a good foot away from the bank that dove into the Ravenblud river below and I panted with my cheek against the snow.

I knew very well that I could be shot at, at any moment. I stood, pushing myself up from my hands and knees to my feet where I wobbled.

There was an odd silence that fell over the woods. I turned my head slowly to face the opposite cliff, staring in shock.

Three large bots stood in a row on the cliff side; all of them were staring at me, their rounded bodies scratched and dented from the trees they had so carelessly charged through, but none of them made any move to scuttle away or fire at me.

I stared in shock for a moment, taking in the fact that I had jumped twenty feet in a single bound with barely any room to run. I knew that the farthest any wolf shifter had jumped was forty feet. I was a little over sixteen and I had made a thirty-foot leap with relative ease.

I didn't waste any time after coming to my senses before I staggered backwards – tripping over my shoes – before I turned and ran; kicking up snow as I legged it into the mix of spruce and birch trees that stretched out over the taiga.

My body ached as I traveled twice as far as I would have if I had stayed with Noah, Faust, and Petra. I remembered the fear in Petra's eyes as she saw me turn, and I worried she or Faust had doubled back for me.

I reminded myself that Noah was hurt, and they wouldn't have left him. I knew Faust couldn't have carried Noah, and he would sooner abandon us than let Petra go out alone.

My feet dragged in the snow as I staggered and gripped onto trees for support. I didn't see any bots around this side of Ravenblud, so I traveled in peace for a little while.

The next part of my trek seamed colder, and I felt so alone. But before the sun touched the west horizon, I had made it to the strong hold. I sighed in relief as I trudged through the stone hall – leaving snow powder tracks behind me.

"Faust? Petra?" I called as I emerged into the cavern. The first thing I saw was Noah laying his head on Petra's legs as Faust pressed something to Noah's side as he hissed.

Faust and Petra's heads shot up at the sound of my arrival and Faust held Noah's head so Petra could get up. She ran over towards me and threw her arms about me in a tight embrace. "I'm so glad you're safe!" She said, gripping me around my shoulders and she pulled back to look into my lapis-colored eyes.

When she finished interrogating me with silly questions, such as "are you hurt?" and "great moons, you can barely walk." or "what the heck is wrong with you?!".

I didn't have a good answer for that last question, and Petra relented before she pulled me over to Noah, I looked down at him, and his eyes flitted to my face.

Noah could barely hold his eyes open and he didn't register my presence until Faust mumbled my name to show me Noah's wound. I winced as Faust rolled up the hem of Noah's black long-sleeved shirt to show me the wound.

It was only a graze, but his skin was torn and oozing blood. I could see his white layer of tissue and the blisters that were forming around the wound. It was serious and his body devoted all his energy into healing it. You could see the pulsing in his veins as his body tensed and relaxed in waves of agony and peace. It was a terribly beautiful cycle.

"You've got more guts than those puffy princesses." Noah smirked as I pet a hand on his shoulder. I scoffed with a roll of my eyes and patted his shoulder. He did not look good; his eyes were barely open, and his breathing was heavy as his face remained a ghostly shade of white.

"He'll be fine, but he can't walk for a while, he broke his ankle, and a few of his ribs are now the consistency of sawdust." I winced as Faust strung out this information before me, and Noah grumbled.

"Not to mention the fact that your side looks like ground beef." I added as Petra knelt on his other side and took his hand in hers.

"I feel fine. What happened to that oversized coffee maker? I'll use his core possessing unit as a squeaky toy." Noah growled.

Faust shook his head as he tied a bandage around Noah's chest. I looked at my second eldest brother and guilt flooded my features. Faust noticed this and he frowned. He turned my head, so I was forced to look into his eyes.

"Azure, what happened?" he asked in an urgent whisper. Petra looked up at me and examined my face as well.

"I lead the bots to the Ravenblud river." I said looking down shamefully as I wrung my hands in my lap.

"What do you mean?" Faust asked. "Did you do something?" I looked up at him and nodded.

"I was in a tight spot; I jumped the erosion of Ravenblud river." I admitted, remembering the feeling of leaping though the air. "I was hoping they'd fall in and we wouldn't have to worry about the crossing, but they were smarter than I thought – for machines anyway –."

My stomach dropped even thinking about it. Faust ran a hand over his face and sighed. "It doesn't matter, I'm glad you're okay." He mumbled and patted my shoulder.

"It will be dark now; we can move easily without being seen. It'd be easier to go by our wolf skins." Petra said, and Faust nodded in agreement.

"I'll carry Noah." I said, and Faust nodded before he stood and walked across the room to the ring of water – where the orb had recently hovered – and filled our canteens with the clear water.

"You really jumped Ravenblud?" Noah asked with a smirk, and I nodded with a half-smile. "That's cool Azzy." He said squeezing my hand.

"I'm sorry you got hurt." I said, switching subjects, and Noah waved it off.

"I don't give a rats tail what happens to me. You live or you die, Cosmo told me that." He replied brazenly, before looking away.

My throat tightened, and I felt my chest pulse before I nodded. "Cosmo also said: Sleep tonight, live tomorrow." I said laying down and using my pack as a pillow.

"Goodnight Azzy." Noah said reaching for my hand. I took his hand gently and gave it a squeeze.

"Night Noah." I whispered just before he passed out.

I watched him while he slept; making sure nothing took a wrong turn during the night. He would moan, and try to turn over, but the pain in his ribs was too much, and he lay still. Finally, after a few hours of peaceful sleeping he did not wake again.

Not being able to sleep myself; I stared up at the volcanic tube, the two moons peered down at me through the opening, and I could only imagine the next day.

The Horde would be looking for us now, and I could not help but feel guilty, and it grew inside my chest. I soon drifted off to sleep, my eyes dropping from the exhaustion that caught up with me after the sleepless hours of the night, and perils of the day.

We had only made it eight miles today, and tomorrow we would have to pick up the pace...