-HER-

I didn't look at him. I didn't say anything to him. My eyes were focused on what laid ahead of us. I was determined to get to the frozen valley quicker. Others seemed to be feeling the same urgency as me except for one— Ezekiel.

I didn't have to look at him to feel him growing hesitant slowly. I could smell his anxiousness in the air. I could hear the storm blowing inside of him.

Today we were moving faster because we had already wasted a lot of time yesterday. We needed to reach the landmark we decided today otherwise we would be late and I didn't like being late. I was sure that we couldn't afford to be late in this situation.

I felt a sense of relief when the first chilly wind greeted us from the direction we were headed towards. It did the opposite for Ezekiel. As it got darker, the temperature was now starting to drop. The plateau on which we were walking all this time was now stating to slowly go upwards.

It was an indication that we had now stepped into the landmass which joined the woods and the eastern valleys. Ezekiel didn't look happy by this. He'd glance at me every now and then as if he was making sure that I was still beside him. An uneasy look permanently hung from his face now, making me somewhat anxious as well.

I could tell that something was bothering him. He did mention to me about something being in the valley. Was he anxious about that? This deeply puzzled me.

Ezekiel was a brute. He had one of the strongest armies across kingdoms. He was powerful in his own way. He had been powerful for a long time then what could be possibly there that was making him so anxious? And why didn't he deal with this already?

All these questions clouded my head as we proceeded to head further towards the east. We took a sharp turn from the lake of Uranus and just after walking a mile, the temperature dropped even more the trees started to thin out. The vegetation started to change too.

After walking another couple of miles, we were able to spot the mountain tops above the trees. The temperate continued to drop the more we headed straight towards east.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel grew somewhat more anxious. The fact that he had his hand on his sword all the time didn't go missing by me.

"What is it?" I had to ask him after a while because seeing him like that was bothering me as well. If he was anxious about this then we needed to be careful about this as well because if it was making Ezekiel react like this then it has to be something serious.

In response, he glanced at me briefly before declaring, "We set our camp here now. There's no need to go beyond this today. It's dark already,"

"We could hike another mil-"

"No," He growled before he whipped his horse and rode ahead in speed. Tryfon followed him without uttering a single word. Lua gave me a confused look and I shrugged.

"Let's set the camp here," I declared before getting off my horse. The wolves were already unpacking, setting up the tents and chopping woods for making fire. Meanwhile, Lua and I took out the instruments and determined our location in the forest and revised our route for tomorrow.

"We should reach the valleys by noon," She concluded after looking at the map and our location.

"Hmm..." I hummed as I looked at the valley maps, trying to think of something that might be bothering Ezekiel about that place but so far I couldn't come up with anything because as surprising it might sound, I didn't really know a thing about Ezekiel.

My limited knowledge of him included him being the king of lycans and chauvinists, that he had great military power (which was slowly corroding away due to his extravagant wars), his huge ego and that he had a harem.

That's all I knew about him.

I didn't know about his past or how he became what he's today. Well, to start with I couldn't even imagine him being born and growing up slowly. They way he sometimes acted and talked, it felt like he emerged from the ground like this.

Sometimes I believed that he wasn't born like us. He was rather moulded into a furness and later beaten into shape like a piece of Iron.

When I realised that I had been thinking too much about him I shook my head and tried to concentrate on what we were doing currently but the questions still lingered in my head.

I wanted to find out about him more now. I needed to find out more. Though I couldn't go to him asking about his childhood. I simply needed to get it out from him what was bothering him about the frozen valleys.

By the time Lua and I were done working, the wolves had set up the camp completely and the dinner had been prepared. Ezekiel and his second in command were nowhere to be seen yet which was slightly odd but I tried my best to not think too much about this.

The last thing I wanted to do was make him believe that I cared for him which I actually didn't. My wolf snickered at this thought but didn't say anything.

Lua and I sat down together to have dinner. While we ate, I couldn't help but keep looking for Ezekiel. He wasn't back yet. It was quite late at this point.

"Where did you sleep last night?" Lua asked me casually while we were having dinner. Her question somewhat made me uncomfortable.

"I got a free tent last night," I shrugged at her, "I need to go now. Good night," I added after finishing my dinner and leaving before she could ask me more questions.

I'd have slept in Lua's tent any other night but tonight, I found myself heading towards Ezekiel's tent to sleep there.

Well, not exactly. I needed to ask him some very important questions and for that I needed to talk to him alone. Of course, I brought my trustworthy sword with me because I didn't trust that scheming son a of a bastard. Just because he left me alone for the past two nights didn't mean that he wasn't going to bother me tonight.

I stepped inside his tent and waited for him to come but he didn't. I wanted for a long time until I almost fell asleep But still, there was no hint of him in the tent or the camp.

I was awoken sometime in the middle of the night by the sound of light snores coming from behind me. At first, I thought that they were the part of the dream I was seeing but when I turned around, I found him sleeping on the other side of the tent.

I couldn't overlook how he was clutching his sword even in his sleep. I moved slowly and tried to remove his sword gently form his hand. At the slightest of moment, he woke up and growled, ready to kill.

Though he visibly relaxed slightly when he noticed that it was no one other than me.

"What do you want?" He enquired grumpily.

"What's bothering you so much, Ezekiel?" I asked him without beating around the bush. I looked into his glowing brown eyes in the dark and saw hints of uncertainty and anxiousness swirling in them.

"What's bothering me so much? You want to know? Then listen!" He growled before sitting up, "You are bothering me,"

"I am bothering you?" I questioned him pointedly, "How?" I asked, crossing my arms on my chest and giving him a complementary glare.

"I told you to not come here," He told me, "There's still time. You can go back tomorrow. There's no need for you to go to the valleys tomorrow!"

"I am not going back after coming this far, Ezekiel. Wrap your head around it. Now, tell me what's in the valleys that's bothering you so much!" I demanded. The determination that had been previously decorating his face slipped away instantly. His eyes widened slightly but he schooled his features even before I could properly make something out of them.

He laid down and turned his back at me. "I'm sleepy," He declared.

"Ezekiel, don't act like a pup," I told him, giving a good blow to his ego. He returned a growl at me but still continued to gave his back to me and didn't say a thing.

"Ezekiel, if you don't tell me what's out there then how am I supposed to protect myself against it?" I reasoned. A grave silence followed my words.

It stretched long for a few moments, making me slightly agitated. I knew that he wasn't asleep. I knew that he had listened to what I had said to him.

After a long, long silence he finally spoke but whatever he said, it struck a new fear inside of me, "It's better to be oblivious of such things, Celeste. You wouldn't believe it until you see it with your own eyes and even if I tell you about it, it will keep you awake for nights. It will haunt you. Go to sleep, Celeste. You are better off without its knowledge. Something's are better left unknown,"

_

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