Chapter 313

313 Finding the Origin

The journey to the south, following the legends of their origins, proved to be more perilous than the rogue king had initially thought.

The vegetation in this unclaimed land was impossible to deal with. Impenetrable vines that seemed to grow back the moment he cut them. More vicious animals that didn’t pay the king any respect because of the power he emitted.

The man was utterly fed up with it... and yet, he showed no signs of turning back. His trip further south, however, only continued to get worse.

On their way, Beatrice noted how the trees started to grow closer to each other, getting more difficult to walk through. Since the start of their journey, it was the most bizarre thing they were seeing.

Without giving themselves room to grow, these trees were getting dangerously close to each other and the deeper into the woods they went, the closer they got still... almost like they were trying to merge at their trunks.

Soon enough, the light from the sun was completely blocked out, leaving these wolves to travel with the power of their enhanced sight. Their eyes glowed in the dark like ominous torches.

The woods got even more interesting, however, when they offered them different routes through the forest. The king was the first to notice it when they found themselves and a y-junction of trees. Left and right was a thing now... It was either they went left or right...

And the trees only grew closer the more they went in.

Stranded between the closest tree trunks the rogue king had ever thought to squeeze through, the man kept his breaths short for fear of cracking a rib or worse, “Hey, Thane, are you having better progress with getting through?” the man yelled at the top of his voice.

.....

“No, your majesty. Are you sure this is the place?” the beta alpha yelled back.

“Absolutely. Haven’t you noticed how nature itself won’t let us through? We followed that damned river. I had no idea it would take us this long to make it here, but this is definitely the place,” the king sounded delusional as he forced his way even further through the impossibly tiny space.

“Your majesty, you shouldn’t push yourself too far. What happens if you get completely stuck?” Thane yelled, sensing the king’s strain. The large man tried retracing his steps in the maze of tight compact trees, but could barely tell where he’d come from. It was like someone had curved out a confusing labyrinth using trees.

“You won’t be able to make it to the Origin at this rate,” the woman they had brought along for the journey sighed.

“Oh, so now you’re being cooperative. I don’t remember asking you to speak this time. You’ve not even been that much of a help,” Thane yelled at the woman beside him. The king had ordered him to keep a close eye on the woman. Something bothered him though, “Why haven’t you tried to run away?”

“Oh? And what would that get me? The gateway to our goddess is not so far from me and you’re wondering why I’m not running off in the opposite direction?” the woman raised her brow, “Are you dumb or just full of it?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Haven’t you noticed there are pathways that I can’t get through? Why haven’t you tried to escape? I know you’re not stupid. You could have made a break for it the moment I wasn’t paying attention,” the beta alpha countered.

'

“You expect me to believe that when you’ve been ordered by your king to keep me contained. Do I look that dumb to you?” the woman scoffed.

Thane found himself laughing loudly at her reply. His laughter echoed through the maze of trees, “Oh my, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. You’re smarter than I was giving you credit for.”

“Honestly, it’s like you have war for brains,” the woman sighed.

“Let me get this straight. Simply because I was ordered to keep you still, you haven’t tried to get away?” Thane asked for clarity.

“It’s because you were ordered to keep me contained that makes it nearly impossible for me to escape and you’ve kept your guard up since then. It’s almost impressive,” she shrugged.

“The two of you seem to be having a good time,” the king’s groaning voice bounced off many sides of the maze.

“We were just having a short chat, your majesty. Have you been able to make any progress?” Thane asked, dragging the woman with him through the maze and relying on his acute hearing to try and trace where the king was. Eventually, they found him just dislodging from another opening in the maze that was far too small for him.

“Damn it... It’s like the openings visibly get smaller the more I try to get through,” the blue-eyed man cursed.

“Well, it might just be that the moon goddess doesn’t want to see you,” Beatrice shrugged, “You can never know what’s going in a goddess’s mind.”

“On the contrary, I know the goddess would not deny someone with the colour of my eyes a visit,” the rogue king replied, barely noticing the mocking tone in the woman’s voice, “But then again, this maze is getting us nowhere.”

The king was getting angrier at the moment. Seeing the anger in the man’s eyes, Beatrice took a step back. “Damn it, this is getting us nowhere,” the man yelled into at nothing in particular. Out of the blue, he began to punch the tree bark before him, not with as much strength as Beatrice had thought he would... at first, “My Lord, what are we to do now?”

“We’ll get through one way or another, Thane. There is no doubt about that. The Seeker has done more than I could have hoped from her, considering her stubborn attitude.

The woman sighed, “I told you nothing.”

“Deny it all you want, you can’t stop yourself from giving off the subtle signs of an answer. Your powers guided us here and you didn’t even notice it,” the king chuckled, continuing his assault on the tree bark in front of him. The more he did this, the calmer he seemed to become, however, his punches only increased in energy.

“I don’t quite...”

“It’s your eyes,” Thane cut her off, “They glow brighter the closer we get to the Origin. I’m sure you could feel it yourself and each time we took a turn in the right direction, your heart would skip a beat. You didn’t even have to say a word.”

The woman was stunned by the observation they’d kept from her. After having taught her granddaughter to change the colour of her eyes to keep from being discovered, it felt somewhat ironic that she would be the one that needed the ability more in the end.

Beatrice went silent and watched the king spend all his frustration on something that wouldn’t feel pain, ‘For someone that’s meant to be killing everything in sight, you think quite a bit.’

Thane leaned against the tree beside her, “Does he always get like this when he’s frustrated?” Beatrice asked him.

“I don’t always know what’s happening in the mind of the king. Sometimes, it’s like he’s not even here. That is just one of the things he does when he needs to think,” Thane sighed, half wishing he could read more into the king’s mind sometimes. The king’s punches began to take on a much stronger tone, the vibrations of each one shaking the tree-maze as a whole.

“That’s insane strength,” Beatrice mused.

“Yeah... I guess you could say that. I don’t even understand the hunters praising their puny gifts when royals are capable of matching them and surpassing them in a much shorter time,” the man spoke. Beatrice simply took this to be his way of showing off the power the rogue king possessed.

Not long after silence had taken over them, the rogue king stopped his tantrum and took a look at his knuckles. His face bore a smile that only made Beatrice’s stomach churn in fear, something was wrong, “Have you figured out something, my Lord?” Thane asked expectantly.

“It’s just like I thought. There is divine energy keeping us from going through to the Origin,” the king replied.

“What? How shall we get through if...”

“Not to worry, Thane. I’ve taken care of it,” as soon as the king said it, the ground began to rumble even more vigorously than it had when he was punching the wall of trees. Beatrice stumbled in search of something to hold onto but found nothing. Everything was trembling and the closest branches were high up creating a canopy that sealed them in the natural somewhat unnatural maze.

Watching in shock, the woman watched the great trees slowly shift against their groaning complaints. They moved away from each other, those that had merged splitting in half and unravelling until the forest was spread out normally. Enough for a full-grown bear to walk through unrestricted. “At this point, we could just as well as bid the world farewell,” Beatrice sighed.

“Any idea what the rogue king gets to do here?” Thane asked.

“No clue... this place has never been found since the beginning of our race. I never thought it would look like this though,” the woman commented, taking in the clearing the woods had appeared before them. The rogue king walked through the clearing. The sun was setting far over the horizon, the first sign of light they were seeing since entering the maze.

“Thane, we shall wait for the moon to come up. The moon goddess can be summoned in a field of glowing moon lotuses such as this one,” the rogue said absentmindedly.

“How do you know that?” Beatrice asked him, “Information about the ways of communicating with the moon goddess has long been forgotten.”

“You should really stop thinking of me as an ordinary werewolf. I am the rogue king... The true king of the werewolves and I know everything to do with our history,” the man replied, sitting cross-legged at the centre of the field of moon lotuses, “Now... we wait.”

...........

Nightfall came quicker than Beatrice would have liked. She’d hoped time would stand still and deny the rogue king a meeting with the moon goddess. She wondered what a meeting with the goddess could get him considering she was the one that had created the special wolves meant to bring about his end.

It didn’t make sense one bit for him to be so hopeful about meeting her, “You make it sound like the goddess favours you. The rogues don’t even get the chance to have mates. You know... I could help you find yours if you let me...”

“I’m not falling for that, Seeker. If the goddess is to choose someone for me, it will be in the future after I’ve purged this world of all humanity,” the man replied strongly.

“Your obsession amuses me. What do you hope to achieve by killing the humans?” the woman asked him.

“You don’t get it and you probably never will. I will speak to the one that gave me the mission to bring them to an end,” the man replied without sparing her a glance.

He’d been seated since they’d arrived and the woman was starting to wonder if he never felt the muscle pains that were already starting to get a hold of her back muscles. Getting up, she started the walk to the edge of the clearing.

However, her gait was cut short by a rather sudden rush of blood. Her breath went erratic and she found herself in need of much more air just to say conscious. A calm serene breeze blew past the clearing before all the air went completely still. It was like someone had exhaled.

Her wolf was more active than she’d ever felt it in her entire life. As if on cue, the dull flowers that littered the clearing began to glow a dim blue that got stronger with time. They all bloomed and grew in number, springing to life and lighting up the entire clearing in a dazzling azure hue. “It’s been forever... Rana,” a soft beautiful voice reached Beatrice’s ears. She turned ever so slowly and came face to face with the most beautiful woman she’d ever laid her eyes on. Her actions were not her own anymore as she bowed to the goddess before her.

The rogue king was not shaken by her sudden appearance or if he was, he didn’t show it, “It’s been very long indeed, dear Celeste.” His tone was friendly and so was hers... ‘What’s going on right now?’ Beatrice couldn’t help but ask herself as she watched the two beings greet each other like old friends instead of rivals.