Chapter 117

"You told him!?" Cara exclaimed at Morris who looked really guilty. Stevin had gone straight to Cara's room after Morris had told him what he knew.

"I couldn't hide it anymore, he talked to Rose about the beasts and he knew we went to the top level, I couldn't keep the secret anymore," Morris explained. Cara was still very much angry at the breach of trust.

"It's not his fault I would have found out anyways, you can't lie to me Cara," said Stevin.

"Oh, I am not talking to you, get out of my room, both of you," she said.

"Has Mom and Dad permitted you yet? Did you ask them?" asked Stevin.

"It's none of your business," she hissed.

"Ah, which means, they have given you permission indeed, I told you, you can't lie to me," said Stevin.

"Ah get out!" she screamed. Stevin and Morris left her room and she slammed the door closed. 

"I didn't think she would get this angry," said Morris, he was looking very upset.

"it's fine, she gets like this sometimes, it's not new, and she is mostly angry at me not at you, don't worry just give her some time, I know how to calm her down, you'll see, by tomorrow she'll forget everything, you should leave for now, I'll try again after some time," said Stevin.

Cara didn't know who she was angrier at, Stevin or Morris, she pictured both their faces, no of course, it was Stevin, she knew what he was like, Morris didn't stand a chance against his stubbornness, but she was more upset because she didn't want Stevin or her family to know anything about this, from Elder Shadow's warning she wanted to keep them away from whatever this was, but now Stevin knew and he wasn't going to let it go. 

Stevin waited until it was night and, by the excuse of bringing her dinner, knocked on Cara's door.

"Who is it?" she called.

"It's me, brought you dinner, mom said to eat up, I told them you were tired from today's festival and wanted to eat in your room," he said.

"Get lost, I am not hungry," she called back.

Stevin however sensing less anger in her voice than before opened the door and entered. 

"I said leave," she said.

"I will, just after putting the plate on the table," he said. Cara was on her bed cleaning her hammer not looking at him. 

"So, what have you decided?" she asked as he was about to leave.

"About what?" he asked.

"Will you tell mom and dad?" she asked.

"No, why, honestly I don't know what you are so worked up about, I was expecting a much bigger secret, so you want to try to catch some unique creatures that probably don't exist, people have done much stupider things before," he said.

"So you won't tell them anything?" she asked.

"As long as you keep out of trouble and tell me before doing anything that normal people won't do," he said.

"So you have got permission, Morris will get too, what about this guy Rit, from what Morris said about him, he sounds like a piece of work," said Stevin.

"Don't say that about someone you don't know, he looks intimidating but I think he is a good person, Elder Shadow wouldn't have kept him so close otherwise, he is just an outcast, I kind of feel sad for him after hearing his story," she said.

"Still, the question remains how will you get him out?" he asked.

"I don't want to think about that today, Morris said we can ask some of the elders," she said.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to work," he said.

"Yeah, I realize that now, especially if Mom finds out," said Cara.

"I'll try to think of something too," he said.

No matter how much trust Ron had in Derek, he couldn't get the fear out of his head of getting caught while trying to sneak through a large kingdom if it was the human nation maybe they could stick to the outskirts, only go near the smaller villages where there were only civilians, but in the half-breed kingdom it wasn't like that, even in the smaller cities, every living being was a threat, and they all head the heightened senses of animals which were tuned to hunt for their preys or look out for other predators, in any case, he was sure it was inevitable that they will get spotted again and another encounter like before will happen.

Right now they were on a hill at the edge of the forest looking out at a small settlement in the distance. It had been two days since they had fought Thane and his group. 

"Why are we risking this again?" asked Fiona. 

"I know it might seem like the best idea to stay in the forests the whole time, and it would be a perfectly fine choice if your journey is only a few days long, but for longer journeys like ours it is important to stay aware of the atmosphere around you, we need to go into this small town and see what the atmosphere is like, do they know that there are humans loose in their kingdom, how much serious is the capital about catching us, and near the border there are no forests so we will eventually have to get out of the cover anyway," said Derek.

"Don't worry, it will just be Derek who will be going, I would have liked to go too, but we decided it would be better to not leave you guys alone, the trees in the half-breed kingdom are just as dangerous as the cities for us right now," said Isanna.

"Couldn't I just take over a rat like before and see what's happening?" asked Fiona.

"it would be our best choice, but you are not listening in a meeting right now, you have to listen to the whole chatter of the city, which isn't always so easy, to know where you will find what you are looking for, it comes with experience so Derek will have to go," said Isanna. 

Derek's disguise was going to be a heavy black robe covering his head too, he bent from his waist to look like an old man under that robe. Ron could see a character like that passing through their village, people would stay away from someone like that but they might not be too suspicious to stop him, but he had no idea how his appearance would go among the half-breeds especially if people were looking for some runaways.

But Derek seemed fairly confident that it would work and so he slowly walked towards the town keeping his character up from far just in case someone was looking at him.

Back in Quesselve Vanessa and Emily were having a hard time as well. After the capital had found out that they had let the humans slip from their hands, there had been rumors of an official inquiry against the Duke only it had been put on hold for now due to the matter with the humans. Vanessa had been waiting to leave for the capital but Emily had barely managed to hold her back.

"Just wait for a couple of days, once I am sure nothing is happening here then I'll come with you too, " she had said when Vanessa had come to tell her that she was leaving the next day.

The day they had let Ron go, in the night four visitors had come into the city, they were still in the castle right now, from what she had heard they had fought with Ron's group in the forest near the city and lost. They weren't happy especially the Chimera she had seen.

Vanessa's patience had broken finally and she had with Emily in toe finally barged into the dorm where these four were staying which also used to be the tower in which Ron had been staying.

"Which one of you is in charge?" Vanessa had asked the four half-breeds. Cormac was on the ground stretching his muscles, Freya a lynx type was perched on a high ledge looking down at them, Thane was looking out the window thinking something hard and Lysandra was sprawled on the sofa in her hybrid form.

"And what's it to you?" Cormac asked from the ground looking annoyed. Thane came and hit him on the head.

"Speak properly Cormac, this is the princess," Thane bowed, he was the only one who did. Vanessa wasn't surprised among the nobles it was your actions and power by which you got respect and not just because you were born a princess, and the Royal guards were no less than nobles in terms of power may it be physical or economical, and these Royal guards weren't of her family's section so she couldn't rely on them much, but still she was the princess and it would be a requirement for them to follow her orders.

"I am in charge of this lot, Thane Blackwood, Senior Captain, " said Thane.

"Well, Captain, can I ask you what your orders were when you came here? " Vanessa was relieved that someone had finally acknowledged that she was a princess and had given her the answer she had demanded for once.

"Well, we were tasked to capture the humans and bring them back, " he said.

"And who gave you those orders?" she asked.

"Of course the majesty, only the king can move the Royal guards or his direct link, " Thane answered.

"Did he order you directly?" she asked.

"No, we were given a written order by Minister Djorn, but it had the Royal stamp on it, " said Thane.

Vanessa had suspected so.