บท 35: The golden eyes
I and Hailey reached the border of winterwells, there was no fence on our side, unlike the Waterwoods who had thick steel fencing. But there was a warning board on our side of the border which was repeated at a certain distance, written in Deep Red -
'Here starts the No Man's Land. Only entry in human form is permitted keeping peace in mind. If an entry of werewolf is detected it can be taken as an offence by the neighbouring village! Winterwells court will not take any responsibility for your breach of the law'
I looked in confusion as it clearly meant if someone were to be dragged here on purpose, the laws of the village won't apply to their death?
Getting down I walked closer to the board and then the invisible line that represented the start of No Man's Land. The warning on the board meant only I could enter and Hailey would have to stay behind. But the main problem was, there was nothing like a key there!
I saw Suzan's wolf come from a distance followed by our teammates. Suzan was from the blue team so nearly every team had caught up here, the team black was already here in a dilemma of how to enter since all of them had turned into werewolves together.
"What are you waiting for?" Communicated Hailey. The impatience was evident in her voice and so was it in my head.
"How do we find the key?" I asked, still trying to figure out whether there was a trick here, or was the orb easy to open just wasn't supposed to be done before the start of the competition.
Hailey growled at me, "You go inside first, I don't want to lose because of your lousy questions"
I was a little scared of Hailey even if I was an Alpha unlike her, who was an Omega of the pack. I just hoped she did not try anything funny that would cost us our time and my life.
The red ball twisted and turned in my hand, but it was fixed tight. Maybe it did have a key, I stopped my efforts as I didn't want to open it by force and then see my task destroyed due to an inbuilt destruction mechanism.
Taking a deep breath I finally stepped outside Winterwells border, into the No man's Land.
There were just dry leaves on the ground and nothing else, I looked at the red ball I got and tried to check if there was any change. "There is nothing here Hailey!"
"Don't waste your time finding the lock, find the key. Search everything that is in there", grunted Hailey. Although she was oddly calm her words were filled with emotions
I sighed and looked around as my fingers tapped impatiently on the ball. It was a plain land and beyond the Waterwoods border, some wolves already came around to patrol their boundary. It was like stepping into a minefield, one wrong move and they can attack in a group.
"Selene!", telecommunicated Hailey.
"What?" My tongue clicked almost immediately at her constant nagging.
She pointed somewhere using her head and I didn't get what she was trying to do, so I shrugged in a taunting way.
But she was unphased by my actions and communicated, "look there, something is shining below the leaves"
Although she was cooperating right now, Hailey looked like the kind of person who could have been able to do everything on her own. She wouldn't bother going on her own but we forced her to team up and I am glad I was the one she teamed up with.
I looked at where she pointed earlier, bending down my palm moved the leaves aside and a small thin metal rod was there which had minute groves at one end. I immediately remembered the small hole on the ball we had observed yesterday.
"Found it!" I exclaimed silently and pushed the rod inside the small hole on the ball. The ball clicked and popped open, I jumped a bit startled by the sudden movement.
It opened and a small cloth roll was kept inside it, I undid it and tried to detach it but it was stitched inside.
"Did it open?", asked Hailey. Her voice was utterly sensual and calm even in her werewolf state.
"It did look!" I said, taking the open task to her. Diana and Sam also reached with the other two.
"IT OPENED!", shouted Arina looking at the popped open red ball in my hand, which I was making sure to hide properly from the other teams.
Everyone's head turned in my direction and then at the open ball in my hand, a flood of werewolf communicative thoughts rushed through the air.
"She found the key!"
"It's there, I saw her searching below the leaves!"
"Let's go inside! Hurry!"
And everyone rushed in to search below the leaves. My teammates looked at Arina for shouting out loud and giving it away so easily.
"Sorry", her head hung low as a colour of guilt washed on her face.
"Okay let it be, use the key to open other tasks as well", I said trying to kill the tension build-up against her.
I turned the ball to where I had inserted the rod, but it was pulled inside with no way to remove it. My finger pulled it with great effort but it was stuck inside.
"I can't get it out, we need to find 5 more keys. Only Arina and Connie come inside with me, we don't want to aggravate the already salivating werewolves", my eyes looked at the Waterwood border where their number of werewolves was increasing to patrol around this region. Their golden eyes gave out a bone-chilling warning.
We had to be fast, anyone's mistake could turn this competition into unwanted bloodshed. And I doubted we would have enough time to get help.
"Let's hurry", I said, taking my eyes away from those threatening golden ones. The sooner we find the keys and leave this site, the better.
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