RECALIBRATING OUR BEARINGS

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

I knew this would happen. Even as Ki and I first rushed into the maze of tunnels in the cave, I had a feeling we were likely to get lost in this place, but somehow I kind of hoped my lucky sense of direction would just bring us back to the rock column entrance and the straight road home and out of this Warlock land - which I hated. Yes, I still hated it.

Now, with the humans on our backs, Ki and I traversed the cave tunnels in our wolf forms. I ran in front, following my lucky sense of direction because that was all we had to go on. That, and River's stone - which apparently pointed exactly where my feet decided to go.

"Yes! Go this way!" River would exclaim.

I had half a mind to purposely go the wrong way, but I was annoyed, not derailed. I was pretty much done with this cave, these tunnels, and the entire Warlock lands. The Warlock should just come to us, take back his stone, say thank you and let us go home! The faster we got out of here, the better.

So I completely ignored the human conversation and kept following my lucky sense of direction.

"Sam's pretty amazing!" River told everyone, "Its like she knows where I want to turn even before I say anything!"

Shut up, River! If I were relying on your directions, I'd have miss every single turn we passed!

On the side note, should I be worried that my wolf feet were rushing in the exact same direction as River, Prince of misfortune, wanted to go? What did the old lycan say about feet that were quick to run into trouble? I couldn't remember... what was that idiom?

And then lo and behold, there was a bright light at the end of the tunnel, and we were soon bursting out into the sunlit forest of a bright autumn afternoon.

Where the warlock lands were we now?

I led our group off the main path into the shelter of the woods.

"Eh!" River tried to turn me by rudely tugging on my fur, "Not this way, my stone says to go straight!"

I tossed my wolfie head to shake River's hand off my mane, {You're not the boss of me!}

Naturally, he didn't hear me.

Ki seemed to understand though. He let Wilhelm down and shifted back to his human form, "Please give the goddess and I time to change into more appropriate attire."

Speak for yourself, Ki. I'm not the one standing in a strange forest in nothing but his birthday suit.

I already had the fullest and most lux fur coat in the world and I was feeling brilliant in the Autumn breeze. Ahhh... this temperature was really the most comfortable to be outdoors! Crisp and cool and tinged with the sweet smell of autumn leaves. Best season for wolf runs and hunting games.

I lingered in my wolf form until Ki reappeared again. Ki had changed back into his full suit. Why was I not surprised? Haha. Anyway, he had laid out my clothes as well as my warrior jacket behind some trees and then left me to shift and change on my own. I waited for his footsteps to sound far enough, and then I shifted and quickly got dressed.

I even put my boots back on. It was a lot colder here under the trees.

Once again, I was back to my Blue Alpha Warrior Princess clothes, but this time round, I didn't feel particularly triumphant. It was like I started off like a bright and shining troop of soldiers, proudly sent off in a parade. But now, I was like that same troop of soldiers - after getting caught in a downpour, finding myself squatting in flooded mud trenches for days. Now I just want to get this mission over with and go home.

Yes, because we were going to complete this mission. Be impressed by my high level of perseverance.

I mean, I had always intended to complete the mission eventually, but my first plan was to go back to our base camp first and get in contact with my pack, regroup, and try again.

But now we were pretty far from that straight road home. We were in a different zone altogether! We might as well get it all over with, go home, and never have to set foot into this blasted Warlock lands again. (#ihatewarlocklands #newhashtag)

There were just some places in this world that you don't want to visit - at least that's what old warriors liked to say whenever young wolves clamored to go adventuring. I always thought they were just trying to keep us home, but now, I was beginning to see their point. Overall, the warlock land wasn't everything I imagined it to be.

In fact, I had to admit to wishing our packlands could be one filled with magic and adventure like in the legends from the Colored Mountains for as long as I could remember. I used to think the Warlock Lands was this wonderful and exotic, magical forbidden space next door. But maybe too much magic in the air messes with a wolf's head. The wolves I've met at Heller's and certainly at Roy's were all unhinged to different degrees.

And from what I've heard so far about Fount... I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be just a magical madman is all I'm saying.

Anyway, by the time I got dressed, my other companions were studying the map. Ki had used a stick to draw out the non-confidential parts onto the dirt. Wilhelm had helpfully produced a compass - an old fashioned one fashioned with a magnetized needle and all. I hadn't seen one of those since we did some orienteering exercise a few years back. Nowadays, we usually used an app in our phone that relied on GPS... and didn't work in the thick magical fog of enchantments of the Warlock lands.

Anyway, Ki had drawn our original rendezvous point, First Base (Roy's house), and Second Base (Warlock Tower). He also added the wall of cliffs on the top right hand side of the map. Together with the compass, the guys managed to deduced that we had traveled the entire length of the cliff wall and were now somewhere behind the Warlock's Tower - we couldn't say exactly where, but Ki could draw a circle where we were most likely to be.

At least now, we were no longer "lost." We had been promoted to "detouring."

"We must have used another one of those magic paths inside the cave." Keanu said, "This kind of distance, even though your wolves run very swiftly, would be physically impossible to cover in 15 minutes."

"I wonder how these magic paths work..." River said.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "You were the one who broke the first one! Don't you know?"

River shrugged, "Honestly, I had no idea. When you ordered me to take it down, I just... well, it's hard to explain, but if you imagine magic like urm... like string!"

Like what now?

"Like a lot of transparent string in the air and usually the string is straight and relaxed, but when there's a spell, the string is tightened, or twisted, or tangled, so all I do is try to smooth everything out." River explained. He looked rather pleased at his explanation. The rest of us just looked nonplussed.

I looked around the space, "Like there are strings everywhere? Like here?" I pointed randomly ahead.

River nodded, "It's everywhere. And here in the warlock lands, everything is twisted."

You could say that again.

"It's twisted here?" I pointed randomly at another direction, "What about there?"

"Sam, its twisted everywhere!" River said.

Hmmm... I tried sniffing the air, I've always felt like I could smell magic although the other wolves never seemed to notice it. Then I pointed where I could distinctly smell the magic coming from, "How about there? What do the strings look like over there?"

"Oh." River seemed to suddenly notice it too, "That's weird, it's like there's a knot further up in that direction - all the strings look like they're being pulled together."

It wasn't just all the strings, River's stone had slipped out from his shirt and was now tugging on his chain towards it too.

"We need to go there! Towards that knot of magic!" River pointed.

Hmmm...

"Yeah, okay." I agreed, "But let's not run straight into it. We'll flank around and approach from the side."

"Ah, is that possible?" River pulled back his stone. It was still stubbornly pointing forwards. Not too long ago, I would have just run straight into it too. I wonder when I had changed?

"Approaching from the side would be ideal." Wilhelm agreed, "But we do not know the terrain in this area."

Ki checked his map on his phone, "The map doesn't say here either."

I hoped it was because Roy just hadn't found anything notable to draw in this space. It would be troublesome if this area was unmarked if it were too dangerous for Roy to explore, or if it were out of bounds - but my lucky sense of direction, despite my earlier doubts, had proven itself reliable so far, and even my ability to "smell magic" had been affirmed. My confidence was on an all time high, "Don't worry! Just follow me!"

"I can't help but worry every time you say that." Keanu sighed.

Tut, tut, Keanu. Oh you of little faith!

"Would you rather follow him?" I pointed at River.

"Hey!" River protested.

"Ah, no, no... we'll follow you." Keanu immediately changed his tune.

"Hey!" River protested again.

"Don't worry. Goddess had never led us wrong." Ki boasted.

Excuse me, did Ki already forget about how we all ran straight into the rogues' trap and chased their stupid truck and got scattered randomly across the Warlock Lands? I totally messed up there!

"True." Wilhelm agreed, "Even just now, it was the Alpha Princess who sensed trouble and ordered the enchantments to be dismantled. If the magic path was still intact when the rogues shot at us, we would have been trapped with our horses and bikes in that narrow passage."

"Oh yeah, what happened to your horses?" I asked.

"Oh." River shrugged, "That's kind of a secret, but they're okay."

I nodded, "Okay. As long as they're fine. Our bike exploded."

I started walking as my lucky sense of direction led me. Instead of returning to the nearest path, I chose to make my way through the forest. It should be fine. I smelled more magic a little up ahead, maybe with any luck it would be a hidden path. Too bad all warlock magic smelled the same, so it could be anything really.

"Your bike...exploded?" River asked.

"Yeah, when we got off the magic path, we immediately fell off from the top of that cliff wall." I said.

"What???" Keanu and River yelled.

"How did you survive that?" Keanu asked.

I laughed it off, "I'm just lucky. Ki was a little less lucky."

"But I was blessed by goddess." Ki beamed, "I was only a little injured."

River looked back to the cliffs, we could just make it out through the gaps in the trees, "Wow, I'd have died for sure."

That was when they told us about how their horses had jumped off the magic path and they had found themselves in a pond. The horses were upset and both boys were thrown. Wilhelm dismounted to pull them out of the water.

"Luckily it wasn't very deep." Keanu said, indicating with his hand how the pond only came up to his chest.

"Yeah, I'm not very good at swimming." River said.

Anyway, by the time Wilhelm got both boys safely to shore, the horses had bolted on them.

"How could the both of you be such dead weight?" I felt upset at them on Wilhelm's behalf, "If the water was only so deep, why didn't you just get up and take your horses to shore?"

"Ah, well, we panicked." Keanu admitted.

"Hahahaha." River laughed, "Sam! You sound just like Wolfgang!"

"What? Me?" I spun around somewhat surprised at that.

"Yeah." River grinned, "That's exactly what Wolfgang would say."

Yeah? Well, sorry, but Wolfgang was right.

River was still amused, "But for some reason when you say it, I'm not angry at all."

"Why should you be angry?" I asked, "You were the one in the wrong after all."

The guys laughed all over again like I had just made a clever joke.

"You're doing it again, Sam!" Keanu informed me.

"That's okay." River rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Somehow it doesn't bother me when its Sam."

Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?

Keanu smiled and nodded, "I guess its true. Cute girls can get away with saying anything."

I flared now, "Don't go around calling people cute! And reflect more on your own actions!"

Which just made the two boys laugh even harder. Even Wilhelm chuckled.

"Yes, that's Wolfgang alright!" Keanu exclaimed.

"Sam, stop! I'm dying!" River grabbed his stomach. They were laughing too hard to even walk properly and we had to stop. What? Did they think I was joking with them? It wasn't even funny at all.

"So you guys lost your horses, huh?" I asked, "In what way are they okay now?"

"Ah..." River stopped laughing now and looked panicked, "I really can't tell you, but since we lost them here, they'd go to a safe place."

Which didn't explain anything to me, but Wilhelm decided to help, "Please do not worry about it Alpha Princess. These horses have a special constitution and should be able to return somewhere safe."

Oh right. Like Silver Lighting. Maybe Wilhelm meant their horses were magic talking horses too. Did that mean the magic horses knew the way to Heller's from the Warlock Lands? Interesting.

I nodded, "Okay, as long as they're fine."

That's another thing about horses, unlike motorbikes, if it were the horses that had exploded, I think I would have been upset.