The Shifter by Hannah E Carey

Author:Hannah E Carey [Hannah E. Carey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serenity Star Press LLC
Published: 2022-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty-three

Shifting Feelings

Seren

Two more days passed as we followed the Weindio river south, sticking to the western side of the bank to avoid the nearby villages. In another day or so, we would cross the river, leaving it behind and working our way through the dense forests and more gently sloping hills that would lead us to the Dail mountains. Castle Clogwyn lay just on the other side of the southern mountain range. Trekking through the wilderness meant that the journey south was taking longer than usual, but neither Bran nor I were willing to risk the main roads.

Bran was able to easily cover the rugged terrain in his wolf form and while Copar had proved to be a sure-footed mount, I knew he was slowing our progress. Still, it was better time than we would have made if I had been on foot. The days passed in companionable silence with Bran in his wolf form. There were times when I would catch him watching me with his clear, golden eyes and I would wonder if he too felt the invisible pull between us, but I was never brave enough to voice those thoughts.

After a long day of travel, most of it spent fighting thick underbrush after passing through a patch of forest that still bore the scars of an old fire, I was bone weary when we stopped for the night. It had been a physically exhausting day, but seeing the swath of barren land had brought up waves of emotions for me to contend with as well. I couldn’t sit back and let all of Blaidd become such a desolate wasteland; I wouldn’t.

Bran shifted back into his human form and called a stop to our travel a bit earlier than I’d expected, but he looked as tired as I felt, so I didn’t argue with him. The sun was setting over the forest, the strong evening rays causing golden beams of light to filter down through the breaks in the trees. The buds on the trees and little tufts of green grass were such a stark contrast to the dead land we’d passed through earlier.

The two of us set up our camp with what had become practiced ease. Bran made a fire while I pulled together food: a bit of dried vegetables that we still had left and a pheasant Bran had flushed out earlier in the day. It hadn’t been a particularly pleasant experience watching him trap and kill the bird, but he was a far superior hunter than I was at the moment. Without my bow, I knew it was wiser to rely on Bran for such things for now.

He roasted the pheasant over the fire and the two of us soon sat down to eat our meal. It had been a relatively warm day, not surprising since we were headed south, and while the air was still cool, it didn’t feel like it was going to be a particularly chilly evening. It was something I was grateful for, for there was little warmth sleeping under the stars with our meager supplies.

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