Chapter 420

420 The Challenge of Calamity

Drake Sirius had made quick progress and made it to the mountains early the next morning. It was faster than the average pace and he’d considered taking it easy on his sister, but something kept him from doing so. He’d seen the princess during her training for the past several months. Lina wasn’t the same ‘Little Sister’ he was used to coddling.

The Great Sirius mountains loomed over him, challenging him to take a step closer. The great slopes were almost too steep to climb and barren with no sign of life.

Shifting back into his human form, Drake retrieved the map he was carrying and began studying it. He was sure the Mountain pass was somewhere among the ranges, but without knowing which part of the mountains he’d escaped the forest from, he couldn’t know which direction to find it.

The last time he’d made this trip had been four years ago, during the last Royal games... ‘I can’t believe that trip alone was not enough for me to learn the layout of these mountains,’ he cursed. Taking in a deep breath, the prince relaxed. It was important to keep a levelled head when in a situation as harrowing as the Trials.

Drake felt watchful eyes at his back, but shook off the feeling, ‘The creatures of the wild are really active today,’ he thought to himself, rolling the map and placing it back in his bag before shifting into his large white and black wolf.

‘I’ll try my right first and if I go a long way without finding the pass, I’ll know it’s a dead end. Besides, after running for a bit, I should be able to make out the shape of the ranges and match it with the shapes on the map. That will give me a better idea of which direction the Mountain pass is located,’ he thought to himself before dashing along the mountain slope.

While running, thoughts assaulted the prince’s mind. Thoughts he kept to himself... thoughts that not even his family knew about. And when they got too heavy, he would shake them off and focus on the positive side to all this... The Trials and the Royal games were a competition that was meant to bring unity and camaraderie between the two empires.

It was an event of peace and celebration... and he was part of the entertainment. ‘It would not be princely of me to bore the audience to death, now would it?’ he encouraged himself. ‘Just imagine I reached the Great Arena first and with no help whatsoever... What spells great King other than... Oh right, I stepped down... Well, I’m still a prince of the Sirius Empire.’

Drake was running for an hour before he had got a decent idea of the traceable shape to look for on the map. The prince stopped running, no longer feeling the eyes that were following him and retrieved his map.

.....

His eyes hovered over the map for a moment before he found a side of the mountains identical to the side he’d been running on. Staring at the map in disbelief, “Ugh, come on...” the prince yelled in frustration. Drake was now certain he’d been running in the wrong direction this entire time. The sun was rapidly climbing high in the sky and signalling how late the prince really was and sending shivers down his spine.

“Knowing how fast that devil is, she’ll be able to make it here and screw up my headstart no problem, but then again, there is the fact that she’s awful at telling directions,” the man thought to himself before taking a few swigs of water from his tin can.

“I won’t be out of water soon, so I should be fine with the trip through the mountains. I have to make it through them fast if I’m to hunt for something. Mountain creatures aren’t exactly delectable,” he spoke out loud, shuddering at the thought of having to survive on the creatures that lived within the barren ranges.

‘I’m talking to myself again...’ a thought crossed his mind.

‘Have you ever experienced what it’s like to be cut off from the pack link? Do you know the pain a wolf goes through when this happens?’ another thought rumbled past his mind.

The prince looked up at the towering ranges, “Yeah, I used to know what that felt like... But now... Well, I’ll have my answers soon enough. That’s if I can gather enough courage,” he spoke to himself once more.

Unlike the rest of the werewolf community, this odd Royal seemed to be operating fine without the pack link, despite his minimal questionable tendencies... ‘After all, I’m not alone. I can talk to the wind... and the trees, right?’

'

Tendencies like that...

When Drake was done refreshing himself, he changed course and started the run to the mountain pass. It was an hour and a half by the time he made it to the large opening that tore through the mountain pass like a knife had sliced through the ranges.

The wind whistled loudly through the mountains notifying everyone close enough to hear of the break in the towering mountain’s natural defence. The royal stood at the entrance to the gully that went straight through the mountains. The black hairs atop his white coat stood up on high alert... something was wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

His nose picked up nothing and neither did his ears. But he couldn’t shake the feeling, ‘I wonder if my Lost Warrior Sister used to feel like this every time her enemies were close by,’ he thought to himself.

Two steep cliffs shot up on both sides of the path, providing one option only, straight through or not at all. It was like a god had taken a hot knife through the mountain like butter. The prince took a hesitant step through and entered the path only to have his nerves spike.

For some reason, he could feel the eyes that had been watching him before, but this time with more intensity... more ferocity... He turned his eyes to the woods behind him, but there was nothing to confirm.

That large black and white wolf stepped into the pass and started jogging through it, trying to shake the heavy feeling of danger that descended upon him.

If he had simply looked up and paid attention to the top of the mountain, he would have noticed what was indeed watching him, but he had no idea of that either.

Shaking the fears that plagued him, the prince struck the ground with more ferocity, ‘The sooner I’m out of these mountains, the sooner I can do away with these jitters,’ he thought to himself, shooting through the mountain pass with all the energy that his royal paws could muster.

The hard stone floor of the pass hurt his paws, but that was nothing in comparison to the feeling of danger that kept following him. At some point, he felt as though a colossal bird of prey was trying to scoop him up from the ground, but one look at the sky confirmed that it wasn’t the case.

‘Come on, Drake. Get a grip. There is nothing watching you. You’re probably afraid of how this mountain looks like it could swallow you at any... Drake, that’s not helping...’

Tendencies like these indeed...

When he was about to relax, he heard a deafening cracking sound from the top of the cliffs. The prince’s eyes darted above him and that’s when he saw it, cracks riddling the steep walls of the mountain pass above him. He looked ahead of him... miles of the path stretched out ahead of him with the exit nowhere near and the cracks riddling the cliffs around him were travelling faster than he could run.

The prince skidded to a stop and watched the cracks continue to spread to the entire length of the steep escarpments. Suddenly his fears flashed before him. The cliffs weren’t going to hold... ‘Why now... why, after centuries of existence would the Mountain pass collapse now?’

The black and white wolf growled at the deafening mountain that shrieked back in challenge, threatening to cave in on him. Then everything went quiet all at once. The prince stood still at the centre of the mountain pass... The cracks had spread along the steep escarpments and rendered the rest of his path... dangerous.

It was almost like his arrival had triggered this reaction... The feeling of eyes watching him returned. Something was definitely watching him... and now that he had stopped moving forward, the mountain had stopped crumbling as well. ‘Something very wrong here...’ he thought to himself, narrowing his eyes at the sides of the Mountain Pass.

The white wolf took one step back... and in response to that minuscule action, a few pebbles and sand leaked out of the cracks and fell to the ground with clacking sounds.

The mountain groaned loudly... and all hell broke loose.