To say that Reece wasn't happy about our sudden disappearance was a grave understatement. He'd been barking mad with rage.

Well, he still was.

We all swore to each other for a reason that we would stick together. What in all the gods' names made you two think that promise did not apply to you?

My brother growled, his tongue flicking over his bared canines.

I will say this only once. If you ever, and I mean ever, disappear like that again, I will not hold back with your punishment.

Reece growled again, still baring his teeth dangerously. And believe me, you do not want to be tangled into a violent backlash with your alpha, because you will lose.

Kendra and I were quiet with shame. Even fear trickled through me as his harsh words sank in, albeit he was right. On a journey like ours it was vital we all stick together. Reece had seldom been so mad at me. I'd seen him furious with other pack members on multiple occasions, but the fury behind the red streaked eyes had never been directed at me. It only made it worse that Kendra and I couldn't explain ourselves, even if we would have been allowed to. Reece didn't want to hear any excuses either way, but if he would have listened, he wouldn't have believed. He was one of the few people I knew that believed in the old ways. He never spoke much about it because he knew I had more liberal thoughts like Emmet did, though I had never been certain about anything really. Youngers were expected to respect their elders and not talk back in any setting, no matter the explanations. Reece was not always like that, but in situations in which he carried responsibility, there was no arguing about his decisions.

At least now, however, I had an inkling about why Kendra had been so off about the quakes. Kendra had spoken shortly with Dante before we left Everett Forest when Protector Thorn had been escorting us to Keinarnin, Everett Valley's prison or whatever it was. I had a suspicion that her motivation to come along had something to do with Dante himself or something he'd said to her. She'd probably counted on him showing up here.

It also made me wonder what Dante told her. I had never even given Reagan that chance.

But I wasn't ready to deal with that yet. Reagan and I... There was just too much holding me back.

Reece, who was standing in front of us now with his mouth closed but his eyes still a fiery red blaze of anger, turned around with a feral growl. The rest of the pack was in close proximity, turning around as Reece had. His display of utter disapproval brought me back to reality and out of my thoughts.

We better leave now. We still don't know where these tremors have been coming from. We should get to the Denhid Forest as soon as possible and hurry like Emmet said, Jarred sent through the link.

I almost told him that he needn't worry, but Kendra threw me a warning look before I could utter them.

Rolling my eyes, Kendra and I followed the rest in front of us.

At the same time Reece and Jarred fell into a trot, everyone else did too. We trotted for only a few moments until familiar vibrations passed from the beginning of our hierarchy to the last wolf in the back that closed our formation. It was a soft, warm, tingling sensation that pulsated in our blood. I shut my eyes briefly, concentrated on my ocean, and reopened them to find a glowing blanket of white hovering around us.

It was magic. And the Rukhs', the perfect sync of a run, generated that magic.

We didn't know how exactly, but I realized at that moment that the white glow that had hovered around the Thrakos men, the first time I'd seen them at the Iarhus, must have been pure magic. The same aura surrounded us, now. I could have smacked myself for not realizing this much sooner.

It also made me wonder if we could heal Espheros by passing through all the parts that were dying away. Then again, I doubted the Thrakos men hadn't thought that through. Unless they knew nothing of a Rukhs', in which case... Well, either way, we could not help each other if we could not be open. Considering the Thrakos men were those that held the answers, it was on them to spill the beans if they needed us. And something told me that they weren't only following us to protect us. They needed something.

I just couldn't quite tell yet what it was they had to have. Or maybe it was something they had to know...

Thinking back to everything that had happened since they showed up, I wondered what sight those dying acres of land would give that Ryker had mentioned, back in the mansion. What did a dead forest even look like? As far as they had revealed, they were trying to find a way to restore the magical balance that ran through the vines of our earth, feeding the lands we plowed, the food we harvested and the waters we bathed and soaked in. Maybe they were here for that sole purpose, finding out how to restore the magic that was dying away in the rest of Espheros. Why they assumed that Everett Valley could even remotely be a possibility to find out how, I couldn't figure out. Could the Rukhs' actually be a possibility?

My thoughts circled back to the dead forests. Would they look dark and cold, like the body in the cave had? Surrounded by a cold that chilled the bones... Even if the Rukhs' could heal those parts in the woods, I doubted that a pack of ten wolves would make that big of a difference in an army of... dragons.

Before I could let myself sink beneath the weight of all those unanswered questions, I drove away the cold that threatened to grip my heart, and instead closed my eyes. When I opened them again, the glow of magic was gone, but I knew it was still there.

Letting my mind delve into a blanket free of emotions, my concentration was set on the Rukhs' and the vibrations that buzzed calmingly through my entire body.

We ran like that for hours. The scenery seemed to never change, with each kilometer we passed, the same trees stretched into the star scattered sky. Darkness slowly distinguished the sunlight of the early evening, signaling the beginning of a long night.

We still had countless hours ahead of us, in which constant running was our only objective. Tonight was another hunt-less and therefore dinner-less night, in which another large part of my concentration was needed in calming down my stomach. It had grumbled more than once for the whole pack to hear. But fortunately, my stomach wasn't the only thing screaming for some food. All my pack mates were, too.

We ran without stopping until the first rays of sunlight overlapped the night sky. While I registered the change in light, I refrained from looking up to be certain. Judging by the amount of hours we had behind us, daylight was drawing in.

Breathing through deeply, smelling the wet fragrance of rain in the air, something in my mind clicked.

No, not the voices again!

Loud chants echoed through my mind and my concentration wavered. I tried to block them out, but my attempts at doing so were futile.

Loud and painfully they blared.

Suddenly, something cold prickled across my skin and I felt someone's presence close to me. It was dark and eerie and it reminded me of the attack, when the shadowed figure had knocked me out. It felt like the touch of death.

And when I turned my head to the right, where Kendra should have been, I stared into the white, boney face of an immortal.

And the voices were gone.

"Found you," it hissed and showed me his two centimeter long fangs protruding from his blood soaked mouth. It was a gruesome sight, one I would have gladly burned from my memory. Was that my blood?

The Rukhs' instantly broke, dread rising within me as imminent fear coursed through my body. It made my heart stop and my stomach turn into a painful, twisted knot. A cold flow of dread instantly washed through my entire system, freezing the blood in my veins. I registered the rest of the wolves coming to an abrupt halt while I lost my balance with the immortal clinging onto me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders.

I barked and snarled, snapping into thin air as the immortal who I recognised as Jonathan, sank his teeth into the base of my neck. I howled in pain as his venom stained my bloodstream, paralyzing me. I tore my eyes open when Reece popped up in my failing vision, flying towards me. He tackled me and threw me to the ground, but I couldn't feel the impact. The second his body was supposed to collide into mine, darkness obscured my vision and everything turned black.

I always knew that Jonathan bastard couldn't be trusted. Now...

Now... he's going to murder me...

The fear of dying made my body go rigid, though it paralyzed me just as much and blocked all of my senses. I couldn't hear, smell or see. It was probably a fate worse than death and it caused me to panic, another brutal wave of ice flushing through me. I didn't even know whether I was moving or not. Thrashing around me, trying everything in my power to shake off the filthy blood sucking monster, I wasn't even sure if I moved a single muscle. I couldn't feel myself. Everything was drowned in utter darkness. Everything felt numb.

What the hell is going on? Will I....

Will I die like this?

I remained in a state of anguish, panicking myself to the brink of death, until finally, what seemed like an eternity later, my hearing turned back on and sounds blared so loud my ears hurt and my mind began to spin. What's going on? What's happening to me?

Whilst a lot of barking and howling made my mind vibrate with a pounding intensity, there was one voice in my head that slipped into my mind so casually, I barely questioned it. And it was the only one that didn't cause my head to throb.

Are you alright, leiirin? It asked, and my heart warmed up.

I sent confirmation through the link and found myself appreciating the connection. It made me want to see Reagan in person. It also made me wonder if they had seen Jonathan approach and if they had, why they didn't react. Maybe Jonathan had cloaked himself somehow, since we hadn't sensed him either.

I withdrew myself from the connection before my doubts could fester.

Once I looked down at myself, I saw that sometime during it all, I must have changed back into my human skin. So had Reece, because he was sitting beside me with his eyes large and his face drained of blood. He was almost as pale as the blood sucker who'd attacked me.

Thinking of him, I slowly looked around, feeling slight pain in my neck as I moved it. There was a decapitated head laying a few meters away from Reece which almost made me vomit. It was laying in a pool of blood.

Something inside me was almost glad to see the immortal was dead. That Jonathan was dead.

Are you really alright? a worried voice asked, sliding into my mind again with such light, comfortable ease.

I sent confirmation through the link to Reagan again, not replying with words.

I couldn't think and talk at the same time.

"What happened?" I asked incredulously, turning my head back to Reece. Behind him, the rest of the pack stood, silently watching as they remained in their wolf forms. My eyes found Holden and for a brief moment, I thought I saw worry in his pale blue irises. Strangely enough, he turned his head away. A pang of pain swept through me at his coldness, but I tried pushing it away. It didn't matter anymore. None of it did.

Reece cleared his throat but his voice came out raspy anyway, "The venom knocked you out almost instantly. When I saw Jonathan on you I came to you as quickly as I could but I was too late to prevent the venom from entering your system. While you were thrashing around yourself, I managed to tear him off of you. The force of my rage detached his head from his body quicker than I could have even attempted to control myself. As soon as he was off of you, you managed to shift. I saw your veins turn black and I shifted too so I could try and suck out the venom."

"Emmet's idea," he added. As if on queue, the light brown wolf behind Reece, who stood several meters taller than him, let out a self-appreciative growl, bobbing his head. If I were a human and had no clue about shifters, I would have thought that wolf was mad. Or terribly sick. Probably both.

I knew what those growls sounded like because Emmet did them all the time when he was pleased with himself and his intelligence.

I rolled my eyes, looking back to Reece. "Are you okay?"

A chuckle-like sound came from his throat, "Am I okay? Question is, are you?"

"I feel sore. Other than that, I feel extraordinarily okay. You must have sucked out every last drop of venom. You sure look like it," I answered, feeling sympathetic and grateful. I made sure I let him feel those two emotions.

"We better get going."

Howling followed that statement. Reece sighed. "Why not?"

Whenever in our human skin, we didn't have a link, so we couldn't hear their answers. The only thing we heard were a pair of wolves barking angrily.

"Probably because we both need some rest. And all of us are hungry," I said for them and to my surprise, Reece didn't need all that much talking-into to agree with me.

It was when we were about to change back into our wolves that I heard the voices again.

Basilears, rustikus em prodithor—the king, the peasant and the traitor

inflareh sanguine eiin sun lacrime—blood will flow as tears are spilled

It was a language I shouldn't have been able to understand. The words sounded the same as they had on the first day of class. Strange accents, words I couldn't even begin to fathom, floating around in my head.

My head spun when I realized that this time, I had understood what they were saying. And although it made no apparent sense, something about it caused the hair on my neck to stand up.

A cold, piercing chill ran down my spine like a small water drop trickling down a window. Slowly, and then its speed increased.

It stopped me from shifting altogether. I grabbed my Shrinking-Bag and pulled out an oversized shirt. I handed my brother a pair of shorts.

"Wh—Why don't we eat some human food for a change?" I suggested, my voice cracking as my impending sense of doom grew stronger.

Reece, who had his back turned to me, nodded. The rest of the pack shifted shortly after.

We split into four groups. I went with Kendra, Emmet and Darren. Although Darren was friendly and innocent, he was also a complacent person. The endless suggestions of where to go next and what we could and could not harvest off of the bushes was infuriating.

Especially because I was trying to concentrate on figuring out why the hell I had voices in my head like a crazy person.

"What's going on?" Kendra asked me, ramming her elbow into my sides. She threw me a concerned look.

"I don't know," I said vaguely, too lost in thought to care about what she felt at my response and that she didn't seem satisfied with my answer.

I dodged a thick branch that lazily hung from a tree and blocked my path. Its bark was moldy and smelled like the death of nature usually did.

Glancing down to my naked, dirty, human feet, I noticed that the leaves were brown and torn. In several of the leaves there were countless holes, like they'd been fed on by vermin. The entire thicket was caked in dead, rotting leaves.

I heard Derran mumble something along the lines of, "Well, this place is really weird."

Annoyed and disgusted, I felt the urge to leave instantly. "Guys," I said, my eyes still focused on the death we were standing on. It made me want to run the other way and wipe my feet from the rot. Another chill ran down my spine. "Guys!"

When I spotted several, little, white worms crawl out from beneath the leaves, I completely lost my cool.

"Guys we should leave, now, something is not right!" I screeched when a worm landed on my feet and I instantly looked up.

All the trees stretched not into the sky like they were supposed to, but rather towards each other as if, in their dying moments, they'd wanted to hug one another. The branches leaned towards each other, intertwining like vines, forming a roof-like embrace that cut off so much light, there were only very few sun-rays peeking through the tiny spaces.

It would have been an interesting sight to behold, but the fact that everything beneath it was dying made it grotesque.

"This place is really weird!" Derran commented, annoying me further.

"Everything around here is dead. The trees are starting to die too," Emmet said with his typically over-calm voice. It was void of any emotions—something Emmet did automatically. He turned into a teacher, addressing the situation at hand as if he were reading out of a book. At least, that was what it always sounded like to me.

A branch cracked close by and I spun around, not seeing anything but a gray veil that loomed over the dead forest. My heart instantly began to race.

"Guys did you hear that?" I asked with a small, hushed voice. The rest of the group stopped walking and turned around, aimlessly looking about.

"Probably just another forest animal," Emmet commented, albeit I could feel everyone's nervousness start to rise.

Derran shuffled and sighed. "I really think we should leave. This place is beyond weird."

I sighed even deeper and rolled my eyes at the guy. "If I hear 'weird' one more time, I'll punch you."

Derran chuckled disbelievingly and shrugged it off, otherwise not reacting to my warning.

Still weary, I turned back around to where the forest stretched out before us, more death staring back. At least behind us, the largest section of the forest was still healthy with nature. Something cold tingled through me when I set my sight forward, albeit all I wanted to do was turn around.

The atmosphere was static with a tension that wrapped itself around each of us, lulling us in a blanket of apprehension. I wanted to shake it off and leave, but there was a force inside of me that made me walk towards the ashen graveyard of nature. Something made me want to see it, to feel it. And to fight against everything that made tears sting in my eyes because all of it was so endlessly sad.

Nature was supposed to be lush. Vibrant with colors. Here, a devastating chill ran through the very air we breathed, making everything inside of us run so icy cold.

"Well, this is weird."

Derran's interruption of feeling all of those dark feelings quickly made the gray inside of me turn into a fiery red shade of annoyance that mashed together with anger like salt and sugar. Indistinguishable.

I'd had just about enough of him!

As my fist connected with his rather square face I said cooly, "Shut up."

And, to my utmost surprise, he actually did shut up after that.

And then my heart leapt out of my chest. "That's what you get when you grow up with brothers rather than sisters," Reece's voice piped up, shocking me out of my pants as he stepped through the dead, rotting leaves.

"I knew someone was there!" I screeched.

Reece's eyes scanned the area. "What's happened here?"

"It seems this section of the forest is withering away. I reckon it's the lack of sunlight the plants are getting," Emmet answered, not turning around. He stood next to Darren, walking past a few dark, moldy barks of trees that looked like they weren't going to be standing upright for much longer. Half of the trees here were already lying on the ground.

"You have a good punch for a girl," Derran commented then, rubbing his jaw while a small smile lined his lips.

Instead of pissing me off, I rolled my eyes and remembered the times when he and Emmet were younglings and just became friends. Derran had been one of the few kids that had welcomed Emmet without judgment, since all three of us siblings hadn't been allowed into society until Emmet was around 6 years old.

I rolled my eyes at him again and playfully punched his shoulder. "I didn't put in nearly as much effort if you weren't Emmet's best friend."

Derran chuckled. "Sorry. I get annoying when I'm nervous. No hard feelings."

There was not much I understood about Emmet and Derran's friendship, but what I could feel was the genuinity of it.

"I don't think we'll find any berries here," Reece said, staying next to me and Kendra. Emmet finally turned around, his face sunken.

He looked almost sick.

"I want to see where it ends."

"You might be walking for days, Emmet. Are you okay?" I took a few steps towards him, extending my hand to touch his shoulders.

As soon as his skin touched mine, a wave of shock ran through me. My veins felt like the blood coursing through them slowly started to freeze. A kind of darkness began to set over me, drowning me in a sea of blackness, pressure building in my head.

It all felt like what I imagined death to be like. 

Hi guys, quick question: 

Are the chapters too long?