Chapter 422

422 Fear and Panic

The steep sides of the mountain corridor had ceased their indecisive groaning and were now letting loose rocks of all sizes, including boulders down upon anything that dared to cross the gap between them.

This, unfortunately, included Drake. The wolf dashed back in the direction he came, fear coursing through his body, ‘This mountain pass is more than ten times my father’s age. Why now? I should have run as soon as the gorge started grumbling... What was I thinking standing around?’ the prince mentally yelled. His wolf took the reins and got a hold of his muscles completely against the prince’s permission.

This wasn’t to make him run faster as he’d thought though... The black wolf suddenly jerked to the left and at the last possible moment as well.

For a giant boulder the size of a bison crushed in the position, he would have been had it not been for his wolf’s agile reaction. Drake allowed himself a second of shock before resuming his mad dash. The gorge wasn’t letting down mere pebbles anymore and the distraction and rumblings of the crumbling wall were now exponentially louder.

“I guess you’re done bluffing, huh, Sirius mountains... How dare you try to kill your namesake!’ another bison-sized boulder hushed the prince’s rambling thoughts. He had to focus on saving his hide.

Drake dashed across the stone floor of the gorge, disregarding the aching pain in his paws each time he struck the hard ground. He thought for sure the bones in his paws would shatter at the sheer continuous impact, but thankfully, his paws held firm, despite the throbbing pain as he dashed for the exit.

Without his consent, his muscles tightened once more, ruining his fluid running. The black and white wolf planted his paws firmly on the ground in a desperate effort to bring himself to a stop.

When he had just stopped, he quickly darted to the right, dodging another falling rock that had nearly crushed him. This one was nearly the size of a house and he understood that simply weaving to the right while at top speed wouldn’t have gotten him clear of the boulder. ‘How does my wolf know when to dodge... Never mind, I’m barely alive as it is...’ this time his thoughts sounded more like a desperate cry for help...

‘If it was Little Sister in this situation, she would have made it to the other side by now... but no, it had to me getting stuck in the middle of a crumbling gorge, not that I would want Little Sister to get trapped in a crumbling gorge... Why did this have to happen to me anyway? I used this pass the last time without any problem...’

.....

'

Drake was almost sure he heard his wolf growl within his head... but dismissed it as effects of the fear of death that was currently ensnaring his entire being.

The prince felt like retreating to the back of his mind and letting his wolf handle everything. He had dodged two boulders... Two boulders that were large enough to kill him, but he wasn’t nearly as close to getting out of the Mountain pass either.

A loud deafening crash stopped his thoughts and sent shivers down his wolf spine. A boulder the size of a house had just crushed far in front of him, completely closing off the path he was headed in. Now he was sure of what his wolf had actually been trying to dodge when he stopped abruptly.

This sudden development, however, only put him in more danger. The prince shifted into his human form and searched for a spot on the large boulder to act as a foothold for him to climb.

Turning back was not an option and staying put would be a sure way of committing suicide. The instinctual fear within him was slowly turning into panic Drake took hold of the side of the rock before him and began to climb. He feared so much for his life that he didn’t notice he cracked the rock under the pressure of his grip.

Surprisingly quickly, he made it to the other side of the large boulder and shifted into his wolf form even before hitting the ground and as soon as he did, he was bolting as fast as his Royal paws could manage. This time, his wolf worked in his favour and quickly supplied the prince’s limbs with all the support it could from the extra divine energy Royals possessed.

Drake didn’t have the time or focus to notice how fast he was running. He simply wanted to get out of danger. Without realising it, the white and black wolf darted out of the corridor at a high speed that gradually turned him into a blur, leaving a divine blue streak in his path.

The moment he was out of the corridor, he collapsed, rolling several times on the moist loam bordering the forest at the gorge’s exit. Without putting much thought into properly braking, he tripped the moment he tried and violently rolled towards the trees, crashing right through the first tree he rammed into at the forest tree line with a massive force. He went right through it and slammed into another under the cover of the forest.

This crash, however, was nothing in comparison to the loud roar that came from the collapsing gorge. Drake, feeling sore, raised his head in time to see everything he’d staked his hopes on winning, crumbling before his eyes.

The whole Mountain pass was getting destroyed right before his eyes and there was nothing he could do about it. Soon, it would be nothing but rubble... the result of a Calamity.

The blue shimmer about him had not yet vanished and he only caught a glimpse of it in his peripheral vision. His curiosity vanished when he took a look at his paws and body, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The black and white wolf stood up stretching his legs in search of the bruises and broken bones he was sure to have.

After fully stretching all his previously sore muscles, Drake froze in place, his heart racing even more.

There wasn’t a scratch on him.

Not even his aching paws retained the bruises he was sure to have felt when he was running through the gorge. ‘I’m glad I’m fine... and there is no use worrying about that now... but wait, what happened just now? No... I need to find another way across this mountain.

Little Sister has already made enough progress to nearly catch up to me by now,’ steeling his resolve, Drake decided against thinking about the oddities of his situation. Nothing made sense, but worrying about it would only make him lose the Trials and he wasn’t willing to do that.