Chapter 354

354 Living Forest

“What about you? Did you detect it?” Thorrin asked, worry laced in his voice.

“Yes, I did, but I would not be surprised if you took it to be your worry for Katie. Let’s leave that to Micah. He should be able to get it done,” Evelyn flashed a forced smile. The Perfect Warrior put aside his worries and proceeded to the cars that had come to pick them up.

Their state of urgency didn’t allow them to visit the Hunter’s Agency. Instead, they drove to the road that would get closest to the place where Katie and Cole had met the moon goddess. The more they got there, the more the sound of the girl’s heartbeat grew erratic. Cole noticed and held her hand. The small gesture was enough to calm the unconscious Luna. This sudden reaction to the place they were going gave Cole some form of hope, “Will it hurt her?” he asked the old woman that had chosen to ride with him.

“I’m not sure about that. This has never happened before, you know,” Fauna replied. The prince didn’t notice, but the woman was watching these two with calculating eyes, almost as if she was having her own mental argument, trying to make out the meaning of all this before her.

“Then how do you know how to treat her?” Cole wasn’t done asking.

“I don’t, your Majesty. That’s why I know this might be the only way you have to get her better. Wasting time looking for a cure for something that has never existed before wouldn’t help,” the woman sighed... ‘What royal is capable of this much worry? Something’s wrong with them... all of them.’

It wasn’t just Cole she’d noticed acting this way. It was the other royals as well. Particularly King Davin towards his Queen. The man was always aware of her presence and spent almost all his time by her side. ‘Maybe they hit their heads on boulders or something.’

The ambulance finally came to a stop. “All we have to do now is...”

“I will be proceeding through the forest with you and Katie from this point on,” Fauna interrupted.

.....

“What do you mean by that? I am coming with all of them. That is final,” Cole argued.

When the woman saw the look in his eye, she chose to rephrase her words, “Very well then, but the moment the forest starts to bar our way actively, they stop walking, is that clear?”

Cole didn’t know what she meant, but nodded all the same.

.............

Cole carried his mate in his arms as they traversed the forest. Memories of their encounters in these woods would flash through his mind every now and then. He wasn’t alone though. Many others were accompanying him. Jason and Caden had stayed behind in Lycaon to run the empire... With the help of his stepmother, they wouldn’t have much trouble as long as nothing too drastic happened.

The cool cloudy weather forced most of the people around him to rub their arms in the cold, but no one complained. As they walked further into the forest, Cole’s eyes began to glow brighter and Fauna took note of the change. “The goddess can only come down once every fifty years on her own, but the reason for that is to allow the earth contain the divine energy that comes with her arrival. That also means nothing is stopping her from returning to the same place she landed in soon after... The effect would not be felt that way,” the woman muttered to herself.

Cole nodded in understanding, but he was now getting uncomfortable with the woman’s constant staring, “Is something the matter?”

“Oh, no. I was just wondering how bright your eyes will be by the time we make it,” the woman smiled. Almost immediately, the old woman bumped her head into a low-lying branch and yelped in pain.

“Are you okay?” Cole asked her.

“Yes, I’m fine. That branch came out of no...”

A scream could be heard from someone else. Looking back, Sandra had tripped on a root and fallen on Samantha. Another painful grunt was heard, this time from Anthony. The boisterous hunter looked up at the branch he’d also bumped into, “You think you’ve seen it all, then that happens,” his raised voice boomed as he pointed at something in the trees.

The whole party turned to where he was pointing. Vines were moving along the trees, merging into great sturdy branches while other branches were splitting into vines that reformed into different shaped branches. The roots were also moving in a similar manner, shifting the very positions of the trees slowly. It was a freakish process that seemed to speed up the deeper they walked into the forest.

'

“This is what I was afraid of. The forest will try to stop us from proceeding. It would be better for everyone to stop here except Cole, Katie and I since I’m sort of a guardian. It’s only until we’ve made it to the centre,” Fauna explained.

“How will we know you have made it to the centre? Cell phones don’t work within this place,” Anthony asked.

“Wait, seriously... That’s important. How did it slip your mind?” Thorrin yelled, pulling out his phone and staring bluntly at the lack of bars on his phone.

“Well, we were all so determined to get the girl there that it just slipped my mind,” the man laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head, exposing the scar of a wolf bite on his forearm.

“You’ll know we have reached when the forest stops moving about. For now, just stay put,” Fauna replied before taking more steps into the forest. Cole bowed slightly to the rest of the party and left, following the Voice of the Wild with Katie in his arms.

Samantha took a seat on a root with an exasperated sigh, only to stand when the creeping buttress root wouldn’t stop moving, “That’s so creepy,” she shuddered.

“And I thought you’d remain seated,” Evelyn chuckled, having watched the whole spectacle in high definition.