Capítulo 497: Shadow
All of a sudden in the middle of what should have been a dense patch of forest, an impossibly large clearing greeted the Guardian and brown wolf. Trees as ancient as time itself were cleared to make space for a camp that clearly did not belong.
From the wood, many buildings had been constructed alongside countless tents. Like ants, beings went in and out of all the places carrying out tasks which they had been assigned. Some of the creatures were lizards, some wolves, but a number of them were still human, or at least it appeared that way.
Seeing the people and creatures intermixed like that made Renat's skin crawl. He remembered the ladies who had helped him escape the camp in the mountains. They had been held captive to provide test subjects and manual labor.
These people did not have the same fear of the abominations that he has seen back then. One or two might have been wary of their strange counterparts, but their was no unpleasant interactions between them. It seemed these humans, at least on the surface, wanted to be here.
'Have they just not decided to turn or are they waiting for another batch of whatever Taran has cooked up for them?' Renat wondered.
For indeed, something was cooking. Amid all the curiosities, the most notable thing in the camp was actually the closest thing to them. Along the edge of the trench, a wolf was pumping a handle up and down feverishly, only stopping occasionally to wipe off his brow.
The handle was attached to the end of the pipe and was pulling the water up from the ground and placing it into one of many large metal cauldrons which lined the edge of the trench.
Each cauldron, which was taller than even the wolves, was sitting on top of a roaring fire--another use for the trees which had been chopped down. Steam poured out of the top of the tall metal vessels almost as quickly as the water could enter the one which was being filled.
Seeing the water finally drip over the side of the pot he was filling, the striped wolf collapsed in a heap over the pump, panting heavily. He looked around, but in his exhaustion he missed the two spies watching him work.
In an attempt to stand, the wolf laid his paw-like hand against the fiery cauldron only to pull his palm back with a yelp. His eyes went dark as he snarled in pain.
"You have to stop doing that!" Another wolf, slender with tints of white mixed in with her tan fur, yelled to her companion.
When he continued to howl, she marched over and pressed his muzzle into the cool water surrounding the pipe on the ground.
The striped wolf sputtered, pulling himself from the she-wolf's grasp. "What did you do that for?!"
"Idiot…you burned yourself again on that hot metal. Don't go pumping until you fall over. Give someone else a turn." Shoving the striped wolf, the slender abomination maneuvered the pump to the next cauldron using a process Renat could not quite understand.
Then she began filling the next large basin, moving the handle up and down just like her predecessor.
"I'll take a rest," the first wolf said. "Then I'll come back and get up there to stir."
"You would be better off taking a sample to Taran than taking a nap," the feminine wolf scolded. "He doesn't like to be kept waiting."
"Ludlow can do that…" The striped wolf brushed off his hands of the problem.
"When Ludlow gets the credit, don't come crying to me, Belsay." The slender wolf held up her nose in the air.
Belsay shook his head. "Fine, fine. You don't have to twist my arm, Frina. Give me five minutes and I'll do it. I just need to catch my breath and tend to my hand."
The pair continued to bicker, but the Guardian and scientist backed away while the fight was still ongoing. They had a couple of things to discuss before moving forward.
Alaron moved to where he could barely hear the two wolves talking and lowered his voice to where even Renat had trouble understanding it. If the wolf could barely make it out, there was no way the other abominations would be able to pick up on the sound from this distance.
"Even if that striped wolf doesn't go to Taran, someone else will very soon. One of us needs to follow him, but probably not both."
"Where Taran is, most likely Dania is as well. I cannot imagine that man letting his prize get too far away from him." Renat's low growl was as soft as he could make it, but it did not seem to alert anyone.
"Indeed. Do you want to go?" Alaron knew that Renat was the only one of the two of them that knew what Dania looked like. Although finding a woman being held against her will out here would indicate that he had found his mark. It would not take a scientist to make that deduction.
The brown wolf sighed. "I think you should follow the wolf. You are far better at hiding than I am, and we do not want to tip our hand that we are here. Your ghosting will be more effective right now than me lumbering through trying not to look suspicious."
Alaron looked at him, somewhat surprised. He knew how much the other young man wanted to be a hero. Giving over control like that was exceptionally hard. The Guardian respected him for it.
"Very well, you take the perimeter and see exactly what we are up against. Even if someone sees you going around the outside, they are unlikely to be bothered enough to investigate. You look like them and you are most likely just going to relieve yourself." Alaron smirked beneath his hood.
It was an excuse that always made people back off. He had used it more than once both when living at the palace and with his shadow named Justum when he needed some privacy.
Renat nodded, happy to have a task he felt that he could complete. "Meet back here in an hour. No excuses!"
Alaron placed his hand across his chest. "An hour. Understood. We don't want your wife mad at the both of us. Even if she doesn't come herself, we both know she will still send Eira after us if we don't return in a reasonable time. Or get even more 'creative'..."
Both men shuddered. "I shall see you in an hour." Renat gave an affirmative action with his thumb. The brown wolf watched as the Guardian ducked slightly and disappeared in a blur of motion. "Show off," Renat muttered, but inwardly he was thankful for his brother-in-law's inhuman speed.
It gave them a fighting chance. 'Which way first?' Renat decided that going away from the numerous cauldrons toward his left would give Alaron a better chance of not being seen. He walked casually, but not too casually along the camp's edge.
Alaron himself returned to the pots of boiling water just in time to have the bickering duo broken up by a human. The man was tall, but much shorter than the wolves he was interrupting, yet he didn't seem perturbed by their bulk.
His shrewd face and high arching eyebrows reminded Alaron of something, but the Guardian could not quite place it. "What are you two fools blabbering about this time?"
The wolves immediately stopped and stood straight. "Belsay was supposed to be bringing a water sample to Sir Taran," the female wolf spoke before the other could.
"You don't get to order me about, Frina!" Belsay turned on his comrade with a snarl.
The human man rubbed his fingers around his chestnut eyes. "You both are being insufferable as usual. Taran is tired of waiting for the sample, so I have come to get it myself. You are supposed to have a small army of help right here. Where is everyone?"
The two wolves looked down. "They went to eat. We were ordered to stay behind."
The man's creamy face turned a shade of red. "I will take care of it. If they ever do that again, I will make sure that they never have such an easy job again."
The two wolves trembled slightly, hoping not to receive any of the punishment which they knew would come to the others who did not do their job. Alaron watched as the human found a small ladder and ascended to the top of the furthest pot.
He lowered a cup on a string and dipped out some of the liquid. Alaron could see it shimmer through the container before the man wrapped a cloth around it to protect his hands from the heat.
"The others will be back in a moment and you can get your food. Next time, inform Taran immediately. We cannot have our operations thwarted due to laziness."
The man set the ladder aside and began to walk into camp with his precious cargo in tow. What he didn't realize is that in addition to the water, the man had also gained something else: a shadow.
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder