Chapter 413

413 Accepting Help

‘Why... why won’t I reach it?’ Lina’s thoughts roared as she tried to reach something out of reach. Striking the ground with as much force as she could muster, the snow-white wolf propelled itself even further through the forest, zipping through the greenery at astonishing speed.

“Lina, wait... please, would you slow down for a second?” Crysta’s voice painfully invaded the princess’s mind interfering with her thoughts. Her paws itched to strike the ground harder and propel her even faster through the trees.

She had only started to feel herself slip into her untapped reserves of speed. The feeling was all too tempting.

It hadn’t been long after Katie’s disappearance that Lina discovered how fast she was really capable of going. When she ran unrestrained, she didn’t know her limits... and yet, her friend was asking her to do the opposite of that.

'

Groaning in frustration, the princess planted her paws on the soft forest floor and brought herself to an infuriating skidding halt.

The white wolf took a look at her padded paw and was, yet again surprised by how resilient they were.

Given her speed, she had thought her paws would receive blistering bruises when she let loose, but till this moment, her paws still remained undamaged. Her healing was also getting faster which had proved to be very useful to her in the past months.

Lina had been pacing for about ten minutes by the time Crysta and Wyatt made it to her. The green-eyed wolf was panting heavily from having to keep up with the alpha. Wyatt, on the other hand, was only slightly winded.

“Lina, we can’t blow through our energy like that,” Wyatt rushed to speak. Crysta leaned against a tree and dropped to the ground to catch her breath.

.....

“Why not? My ridiculous brother should already be halfway across the continent by now,” Lina yelled back.

Wyatt took a step back from the furious royal, dangerously reminded of how much Lina had changed. The princess wasn’t frightened by him anymore, ‘She’s grown so much it’s painful,’ the man thought to himself.

Crysta noticed he’d already been overwhelmed and stepped in, “Because Drake isn’t already halfway across the continent. He’s not even that as far ahead of us as you might think.”

“He had a headstart. Of course, he is far ahead. This is a race of speed and if he makes it there before me, that will be the end of all this. I’ll lose to him at this rate.”

“But that’s where you’re wrong, Lina. This race is not a test of speed. These are the Trials, Lina. There is more to this than simply speed. This is about survival in the wilderness. It’s about who can handle themselves best in the wilderness and make progress fastest and that can’t be done by speed alone.

We must run at a pace that won’t expend too much energy but keep us making good progress at the same time. On average, it takes about four days to make it to the Great Arena and that’s when we’ve done really well. I know you’re fast, Lina, but you can’t run for four days either... Let’s say you ran faster than the average wolf, it would still take you about two days to make the journey. You’ll get hungry in two days and you’ll need to hunt.

And if you’re running at the pace, you won’t have the energy to...,” Crysta tried explaining.

“I get it, Crysta...” the white wolf stopped her friend there and dropped to the forest floor, “I can’t just run blindly for days...”

Lina wanted to argue with Crysta, but there was no real reason behind her frustration other than impatience. On the other hand, she could tell Crysta wasn’t done with her lecture. Crysta had thought it all through and Lina trusted her judgement, “That was impulsive of me... Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re with us again,” the delta got up and looked to a stunning black alpha with an expectant look.

Wyatt looked between the two females, amazed by what he’d just seen. It wasn’t every day someone got to witness a delta scolding a royal.

“The map, Wyatt.”

“Oh right,” the alpha shifted into his human form and an old roll of parchment from one of the bags he was holding. Just as he’d explained, he still had the bags with him when he shifted back into his human form.

Lina lifted her head and watched her two companions. Wyatt brought the map to her and spread out the map, tracing a path with his finger while Crysta explained. Since the delta wouldn’t retain her clothes when she shifted back into her human form, she had to explain this way.

“From what we can see on this map, we have to cross the...” she paused at the name that was written on the map, “I’m starting to believe the old kings were either vain or too lazy... We shall have to make our way to the... Sirius mountains... Beyond that is a large marshland that eventually leads us to the Great Valley that holds the Great Arena.

The way there is mainly forest, which will at least provide protection from the sun. The rules of the Trials suggest we don’t cross any pack territories which means we’ll have to go around every human settlement we find...

Lina shifted back into her human form and studied the map herself. Looking at the sun in the sky and the direction she had been running toward, the girl’s shoulders slumped and she placed her head in her hands.

Crysta hadn’t dared to say it, but it was clear she was going completely off course and from the looks of her margin of error, she could have continued further south and ended up heading into ‘unexplored’ territory.

“Why did big brother choose to do this alone?” the girl mumbled to herself, finally realising the error in her misguided frustration at the two of her friends. They had just saved her from ruining the Trials. “Thank you, Crysta and... I’m sorry I yelled at you, Wyatt.”

“It’s no problem, Lina. We all have our moments,” the alpha smiled in reply.

The white wolf shuddered...