CHAPTER 4

"Nothing works on this." Sapphire's father sighed.

He had been trying to figure out a way to remove the metal band since daybreak, and it the sun was halfway above the horizon already, but he failed to find any way of dismantling the accursed object. According to his understanding, it was a mechanical apparatus that resisted magic and most forms of energy, quite strongly so, and was extremely tough, just tough enough for it be unbreakable without breaking the wearer's neck. Not only was it impossible to remove it with magic, it also interrupted the flow of energy in the body of the creature it was on.

"There are three major purposes of this as far as I can tell. First to disrupt the energy flow in the body, making the wearer several times weaker," her father explained, "and second, to force the wearer in their humanoid form. It is alright for Sapphire since she usually stays in her humanoid form, but for most wolves it would have made it near impossible to resist capture. I am not certain of the last, but I feel like it also helps in tracking." Her father sighed after closely inspecting the metal band for a while.

"Does that mean?" The wolf closest to them gasped. He was a trusted friend of Sapphire's father, and the smartest wolf in the pack, after her father of course.

Sapphire's father nodded. "We need to hurry, no sleep till we reach the borders of the tundra, then we will enter the Winter wolf territory after half a day's rest. Understood?" Her father ordered. "And do not let news of the tracker get out, it will cause unnecessary chaos."

The wolf nodded and left to rally the pack together. They were on the move again as soon as the sun reached completely above the horizon. They exited the rainforest when the sun was still fairly low, having been near the boundaries of it when they stopped yesterday. Since Sapphire was incapable of keeping up with the pack's running speed in her humanoid form she was being carried by her father.

Since the transformation spell only changed the form of the body, they weighed the same in both wolf and humanoid form. Because of this, Sapphire was much lighter than any human that size would be, not like she was big or even average from human standards either. The two people that tried to capture her were around average height, one slightly shorter and one slightly taller, from what Sapphire knew at the least. She still only reached barely above the waist of the shorter and bulkier person while she didn't even reach that high for the taller person.

As they got farther and farther from the rainforest, the forest cover turned into a grassland with some trees here and there. A river flowed in the distance and every now and then small animals jumped away in fright as they noticed the wolves approaching. Sapphire was glad she got to enjoy the view peacefully, the only sound belonging to the wind, the wolf pack causing close to no sound.

The grass was tall and all sorts of small animals were hiding in there, ones she had never seen before. Some of the adults went slightly away from the pack to catch some prey for the younger ones, and to help them catch their own, though they were careful not to lag behind or stray too far.

As they passed a thick bush Sapphire reached out her hand and ripped off some berries from the bush. They were red in color, and from their scent it was obvious they were safe to eat. She slowly ate the berries and kept an eye out to grab any other fruits or berries that passed by, hoping to satisfy her hunger in this way.

"A wolf eating berries, just what else is left for me to see in my life?" Her father sighed.

Sapphire and her mother exchanged a glance before bursting into giggles. Her father just shook his head, but she still got a glimpse of the smile on his face and couldn't help smiling back. She was aware that he only meant it as a joke this time, afterall he was the one who taught her how to differentiate between edible and poisonous plants from scent.

Having lived in the rainforest for many generations, the Midnight Wolves adapted to suit their environment in some ways. The most notable of the adaptations were the fact they turned from obligate carnivores to facultative carnivores. Which meant while they preferred a carnivorous diet, they could survive off of plants if need be, and even ate plants many times simply for nutrients which were harder to obtain otherwise.

The wolf pack ran the entire day and night through the grasslands, some other adults also carrying the younger ones that got tired in the long journey. All wolves possessed great stamina, but for young wolves to run for this long was tiring. They did take two breaks to hunt and eat, but they were kept as short as possible. It wasn't easy to feed a pack of 87 wolves, and was time consuming, but it was still done in little time due to her father also hunting. Luckily, there weren't many predators in these grasslands and prey was abundant, most even being fearless enough to just walk right to the wolves in curiosity.

One deer with completely white fur and golden antlers even walked right in the middle of the wolf pack while they were feasting on another similar deer, very possibly from his herd, and yet he showed no fear. He was luckily spared though on Sapphire's request, her excuse being "such bravery should be awarded", an excuse to which everyone laughed but still allowed, after all they already hunted all that they needed, there was no requirement to kill more than they needed to.

While she was also a wolf, she felt less inclined to kill and eat something clearly much weaker than her, though she doubted she could win a fair and square fight against even a rabbit, not like she had ever seen one. In her humanoid form she felt even more inclined to feast on fruits and berries, eating meat having left a bad taste in her mouth everytime she did.

Just as it was about to be sunrise, the light of the sun slightly visible above the horizon, they reached the edge of the tundra. Leafless trees marked the start of the tundra and it was evidently much colder around it. The wind blowing was cold and dry, causing Sapphire to shiver and try to bury herself in her father's fur for warmth.

"We will rest here till it is dusk again, then we depart for our final destination," Her father announced turning to the pack.

There were signs of relief as many of the wolves collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. Her father sighed and Sapphire knew exactly why, afterall he worded this problem to her once before. The Midnight Wolves, having been in the desert of so long, also were weaker, slower, and lazier than the ones from long ago. Her father told her even he would have barely been considered a fighter in that time, being an alpha would have been nothing but a dream.

While Sapphire did not know why her father was so much more powerful as compared to other Midnight Wolves, but she did not question it. She did not mind him being stronger, though she did sometimes question why she was so much weaker than average when he was the strongest, to which he never gave an answer which satisfied her. His closest to satisfying answer was that most of her strength went into her charm.

It was always hot in the rainforest so the entire pack needed some time to adapt to the cold, all of them being huddled in groups to let their bodies adjust. Sapphire was quite sure her smart and calculated father decided on half a day's break on the edge of the tundra just so everyone could adapt to the cold to some extent.

Once her father was done assigning the watching duty to some of the wolves and the guard rotations he returned and lied down beside Sapphire and her mother. Sapphire lied down comfortably on both her parents to keep herself warm through the night, the clothes providing less protection from the weather as compared to a fur covered body. Her head was on the comparatively softer fur of her mother while her legs were over her father, which the two did not mind in the slightest.

She woke up some time after midday, the sun being already halfway down. Her parents were already up and away for hunting with many of the other adults, having laid her down beside an oddly warm bush, most likely an adaptation of the plant. Around one-fourth of the adults stayed behind to keep an eye on the younger ones, and mainly Sapphire, to make sure she doesn't get hurt in any way.

She could feel the eyes of at least 4 wolves following her every movement, though she still disregarded them and looked around for berries and other fruits. She found some green colored juicy berries all over a tree not far from where they were. They were barely bigger than an eyeball and her filled with what tasted like sweet water. She ate her fill before stuffing one inside-pocket of her coat full with them, just to make sure she doesn't need anymore.

She could only use her coat for storage while in humanoid form as everything in her coat just disappeared when she turned to her wolf form, and returned back when she turned back to humanoid form. It was some complicated spell she possessed no understanding of, nor did anyone else in the pack, they all simply accepted it as it was. Sapphire's best guess was that it aided in carrying weapons and equipment for the humanoid form even while in wolf form, something which would have been necessary in the time of the war.

From what was known, and was told to Sapphire by her mother, phoenixes were the ones who made the first transformation spells, and they shared it to the dragons. Certain other species received these as rewards for helping dragons and phoenixes. The Midnight Wolves received it for slaying a mighty and evil dragon who destroyed many lands, seeking to destroy the whole world, though his dream was left unfulfilled.

Sapphire found many other berries in the bushes around, of all sorts of colors. Orange, red, purple, and yellow, and thus, she stuffed five of her pockets full of berries, being confident she won't run out anytime soon. One of her other pockets still carried the Midnight Bloom, which was still in perfect condition surprisingly, while four others carried other useful things from the rainforest. There were two which were still empty on the inside and all three of the outside being empty. There were also the two pockets in her pants but she thought it made movement hard, so, she didn't store anything in those pockets.

After she was done she waited for the rest of the pack to return. She was offered a part of a big woolly mammal with two horns when they returned but she passed on the offer, already having eaten her fill of berries, which she found a lot more appetising than what was being offered. The other reason being it was terribly hard for her to eat flesh with a humanoid jaw, the mouths were simply not made for ripping and tearing flesh, though her bite force barely changed.

Once the pack was done eating they waited for dusk before moving out, hoping to reach their destination in the cover of the night. It didn't take long for the sun to dive below the horizon after the return of the rest of the pack, and the nights in the tundra were colder than the days. They were on the move as soon as the sun was down and it got evidently colder the further ahead they went.