The road on which we were first headed turned out to be leading us to a chasm, I personally knew I just couldn't jump that far, but Khail on the other had seemed quite confident he could do it easily. We all looked at him while he changed forms and with little to no effort made the jump, he arrived perfectly on the other side of the chasm.

He changed back to look back at us and yelled "its fine, it just looks deep its not that big, we have some chasms that are way bigger than that near my hometown." He jumped back in his wolf form, on our side and kneeled as if he wanted to take someone with him. Eisma advanced and climbed on his back, she looked wary of the whole situation but after seeing Khail do it so easily the first time, she seemed to have relaxed a bit. Khail repeated the same thing until we were all across the chasm, it had been a strange feeling, the sensation of the wind flowing across my hair and the muscles of Khail's wolf form moving as he jumped, I wondered in what context he could've tried this before since he said there were a lot of these where he lived, but what he said earlier, about the waterfalls, also pointed towards the fact that he live close to the Yual kingdom. I guess there might be some chasms next to the sea or one of the waterfalls might actually flow there, anyhow, he seemed to be totally in his element as he jumped and landed gracefully.

As everybody was on the other side, we continued our route towards a place to sleep for tonight. We came across multiple caves, but we wanted to advance further to be able to arrive to our destination tomorrow, some were smaller than other, but some seemed to have been actually built for someone to live there as it was almost as big as a normal house. The road seemed to become better as we advanced, we didn't have to watch our steps anymore as the roots and the random rocks disappeared from this part of the road. We could see the sun melting gradually in the sky, leaving a trail of color in the sky, it turned from orange to red, to end up with a dark blue that covered the sky, some little white spots started appearing as the moon raised. The stars followed the moon just like the king was being followed by the Church of Tryia, they seemed inseparable one created a magnificent view, the other showing the flaws of our system.

We continued walking until we couldn't see more than two meters in front of us, we stopped in front of a cave that looked big enough for all of us. Those who could change forms did as the other started a small fire to stay warm. We were all exhausted by the journey we had made until know, and so, it wasn't difficult to let ourselves be lulled away by the warm embrace of sleep. Waking up the next morning, we split the rations we had left and enjoyed a few berries and a piece of meat each. I helped the meat pass down my throat by drinking a little of what was left of my water, we would have to find some more water soon as I didn't look to be the only one that was going to need more water. I saw Masov giving what he had left of his water to Nila and smiled, he seemed to genuinely like her, and if he was messing with her feeling I would make him regret the day he was born into this world. But it didn't seem the case so he would probably be fine.

The cave resembled the old one except there wasn't a hidden access or anything, I looked over to the other and asked, "Should we leave know or try to hunt a little first?" Geros answered and said, "I think we should hunt on the way; we would just need to make a fire when we think we had enough meat." All agreed to his proposition, and we left the cave. We also agreed to go back to the said cave to be able to continue our journey for the rest of the day after we had finished hunting and collecting berries. We entered a part of the road which seemed to be parallel to the forest, and so as we walked, we could see wild animals running in the woods, we saw a pack of Flaims and those who were comfortable with changing forms did and ran after the said pack. The others, me included, went into the forest to see if we could hunt some Duakns.

Watching the others transform was as if I was looking at a spectacle of wild animals that had been retained for months being set free. I found it amusing how well it described our true nature, animals trapped in a futile yet essential body, as we weren't totally wolf, we couldn't survive without our human half, but Ioas knows, it would give us so much freedom to be able to lose our humanity to replace it with pure liberty. 

Our civilization chose to mix those two things to permit us to last and thrive, but sometimes it felt as if half our body was just there to slow us down, or rather keep us captive. I realized later on that it was that very part of us, that gave our lives a meaning, as we would need to think rationally to survive as a society. Looking at them transforming just made the ache worst then it already was, most people would need to transform at least once every two weeks, otherwise it became insufferable. I did change forms not to long ago, but still found it difficult to see others do so when I knew I couldn't. I could feel the longing of the others that had also stayed as they probably hadn't transformed since we had arrived to the Kuja mountains. 

We continued walking discreetly towards a pond that reflected the golden rays of the sun as to make it impossible to miss it, I realized that Masov and I were the only ones to actually walk discreetly, his feet seemed to never truly touch the ground and to slide over it slightly as if he was levitating above the ground. He had probably hunted more than once in his lifetime to be able to attain that level of mastery, it looked almost surreal, it had taken me four years to obtain that level of decency. 

Although I was surprised with Masov, I wasn't with the others as they walked loudly and slowly, they seemed to be able to control their aura better than I thought they would, since every time I left my house, the first thing I would see was aura spreading everywhere while the person releasing it was walking proudly as if it was an achievement. 

They had probably told their children not to show off here to preserve their anonymity, the only thing they didn't think of was that even their way of walking would betray their origins. We wouldn't be able to able to find any prey if we continued to make that much noise and so, I told them to stop. I think Masov realized why, because when I told them that we would need to change our ways of walking, I saw his eyes open a bit wider from surprise, he then frowned and nodded as if he understood what I was talking about. We separated the group in two rows and told them to try to walk without making the leaves below them crunch. 

The first two times were hilarious, Helaena and Reain both tried to tiptoe, but they didn't realize that it just made them put more pressure on the leaves, therefore making the leaves crack even more. I had to suppress a laugh that was about to leave my throat as I saw Reain tiptoe like a child that tried to leave their room without their parents finding out. Helaena saw it to, but failed to repress her laughter, Reain's head turned as to look at us, he scowled and said "well if you all think I'm that bad, why don't you try" he looked at me while saying that next to me, Helaena lifted her arms in the air as if to say; I already did it your turn. I shrugged and advanced toward the path of leaves we had put there. 

I removed my jacket and rolled my leaves up until they reached my elbow, I removed my weapons that were tied to my waist, while doing that I saw a Duakn landing next to an tree in diagonal from us. I walked towards Helaena and asked looking at her bow; "May I?", she nodded with a confused look on her face, she probably hadn't seen the Duakn that had just landed. I went back to the path and started advancing, I didn't need to think about my steps, they had become a second nature for me, just like the songs that guided the dancers of king, nature was my guide, my muse. It permitted me to walk like this without having to think about it, it had became like breathing to me.

As I walked, I prepared the bow and raised it when I could finally see the eyes of the Duakn, the arrow whistled through the trees and turned on itself as it reached it target. I looked back behind my shoulder and said, "let's go, there might be others close to her.", I handed Helaena her bow and picked up my jacket and my weapons, in the bewildered silence that had followed that moment, I placed my daggers back on my hips, and my spear on my back as I rose back up. 

I started walking towards my prey and felt the others following slowly behind me, on the contrary of earlier, I almost couldn't hear their footsteps, they had learned quickly, and it would have to suffice for now. I started running toward the Duakn, it had been touched in the heart meaning it probably hadn't suffered, I closed its eyes and took the arrow out of it, I took a leaf nearby and wiped the point of the arrow, normally I would take a piece of tissue to wipe it clean, but in those conditions, a leaf was the best I could do. I folded it and put it in one of my pockets, I couldn't just leave it here as it might attract other dangerous animals. As for the Duakn, I wiped the blood surrounding its wound and took one of its feathers as to honor the life it had lived and the food it had given us to survive. I placed the feather on the ground next to where I had taken the Duakn's life just like my sister had shown me when we were younger.

I never truly got to know why I needed to do that, but at the same time it just felt right.

We continued to advance in the forest and ended up finding three other Duakns, most of them had been near a pond not to far from where we had found the first one. We had also found a few berries along the way, Helaena insisted on tasting some of them first, she appeared to have a sweet tooth or maybe she just wanted to taste them to know if they would be Geros's taste, based on what she had told me, he liked fruits that were both sweet and sour, and only a few berries actually corresponded to that description. 

She smiled while eating them, probably reminiscing her past conversation with him, she appeared pleased while eating a green and yellow berry, it probably had the texture and the taste she was looking for since she picked up a handful of it and put it in her bag. 

She got up, removed the dust of her pants, and continued advancing as if noting important had happened, but her eyes were still smiling. I approached the bush she was in front of a few seconds ago, and tasted one of green and yellow berries, they did indeed have that sweet but sour taste that Geros seemed to appreciate. We continued walking around to try to find some other berries and ended up with a bag full of a mix of them, some sour, some sweet, and even some that had a surprisingly salty taste. 

We headed back to the cave as we had finished finding everything we needed for the road. As we walked in the forest, I could hear the birds singing and the Flaims running in the distance, I could see the others in the cave, they were still in their wolf form as they approached us, a wolf with dark brown fur approached Helaena, I could only guess it was Geros, he grunted softly as he dropped a branch with small flowers blooming on it. She smiled tenderly at him and petted his head, she bent down to pick up the branch and looked at it as if it was incrusted with diamonds, she placed it carefully in her bag. 

She then reached further inside her bag and pulled out some of the yellow and green berries she had picked up earlier, he transformed before her and asked, "Is it for me?", she murmured timidly "yes." A smile appeared in his face for a few seconds before he coughed and mumbled "thanks". He ate a few and looked back at Helaena with a puzzled look on his face "are those..." she answered before he could even finish his sentence "they are". She started blushing as she answered and quickly said "I just happened to stumble across them and thought you might like them."

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Thank you so much for reading my book! I hope you like what you read until now and don't hesitate to comment and vote to show some support!