The Moon Goddess' Chosen

438 First Watch

‘You’d be just fine without me. It is I who needed you,’ Crysta replied making the princess chuckle.

‘I’ll let this one go to keep us from arguing. You spoke of her again. Everyone still does… even when she was only around for a few short months. I know what my sister did. And it’s that same unfathomable drive to save the werewolves and everyone else that got her into the mess she’s in today,’ Lina said, not withholding the venom that seeped into her voice.

The princess knew what Katie had done was reckless and had not earned her anything in the end. At the same time, she wouldn’t have held Katie back if she got the chance. It’s what made Katie who she was.

‘And yet you’ve taught yourself to be more like her since the day she left,’ Crysta responded.

It was getting harder and harder to beat Crysta’s reasoning. Just like Honour, this girl provided Lina with a grounded way of thinking. One that would not allow her to blindly follow her instincts. She gave her an anchor that guided her every time she was about to slip.

Crysta was always there to help her, just like she had been back then… before they’d even learnt how to shift. Her reasoning was flawless.

Fighting Wyatt would only make him believe his own deluded words more. It would be the strong picking on the weak and the vicious cycle he was trying to preserve would never end.

The girl turned away from the alpha, breaking her embrace with her friend, ‘Thank you.’ She voiced through the mind link and got to setting up their tents.

There was a long silence as the three of them worked on preparing their supper and setting up camp. Lina set up the tents while Crysta lit the bonfire.

.....

However, when it came to skinning and field dressing the hare, the delta found her abilities somewhat lacking. Chuckling, Lina began instructing her in the art of preparing meat.

With the proper way of holding the knife and the proper technique figured out, Crysta was skinning relatively neatly like the fast learner she was in no time.

“No fair, that took me three whole nights to figure out,” Lina grumbled.

“Well, you were a child when you learnt all this stuff, so I wouldn’t complain about it if I were you,” Crysta chuckled.

“Yeah, but still. Those were three nights of life I could never get back. Now, onto the field dressing. I’m glad you didn’t forget the spices and salt. We’d be in trouble if you forgot that, especially the salt. Then again, we are werewolves. Our predecessors would call us wimps for depending on things like salt,” the princess laughed before beginning her directions and explanations.

The lessons were so detailed that Crysta was almost sure the royal was making up half of it based on her own experience. Especially when it came to cutting up the meat.

Lina specified the different joints and weak points the knife was meant to slice through. They were so many and the instructions were so intricate that Crysta took a stab at doing it randomly.

When the delta tried cutting the meat wherever she felt was best, the knife vibrated upon meeting a very hard bone.

Lina chuckled at her impatience and even let her have a few more tries before the delta gave up and accepted the royal tutor’s lesson. Wyatt didn’t help with cooking supper that night and as soon as he was done eating, he bid them good night and slept quickly.

“What’s his problem?” Lina asked.

Crysta knew the expression on the man’s face all too well. It was one Lina would probably never understand. After all, the girl was nothing like the two of them. She’d been kind even before she was treated horribly, “He’ll be fine.”

Eyeing his tent a little bit more, Lina washed her hands off with water from one of their water cans and walked to her tent as well, lying inside with her head outside and propped against her hands, “Rest Crysta. I’ll take the first watch.”

“No, it’s alright. I’ll do it. You’ve been taking the first watch ever since we started this trip. Let me allow you to rest first,” the delta shrugged.

“I take the first watch because the two of you get far more exhausted than I do. And even when you try to take over for me, you end up sleeping on the job. I would take the whole night, but even I have my limits,” Lina argued.

“Your limits, huh… Doesn’t feel like you were made with one of those,” the delta sighed, “I’ll take the first watch, Lina. If you feel like I need to rest so much, you could let me even rest longer.”

The princess narrowed her eyes at the delta, “That’s very sneaky of you. Alright then. Wake me up after four hours.”

Crysta smiled in relief and watched her friend vanish into her tent, “Good night, princess.”

“Good night, Crysta. I’ll let the title slide, just this…” a loud yawn came from the insides of the tents, “…one time.” With that, everything went silent.

Crysta chuckled after hearing Lina express exhaustion for the first time. She was showing the first signs of getting tired since their trip had begun. Somehow, knowing that Lina was starting to scratch the surface of her limits bothered her more than she cared to admit.

The green-eyed woman watched over the camp until the light of their campfire died down. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the sudden loss of light. Werewolves had incredible eyesight and were capable of seeing in the dark without much problem.

Their bodies also preserved more heat than regular humans which meant the cold would not be a problem for her. For now... Further up, she reckoned it would be a different story. The mountains got colder the higher they climbed and they still had quite the journey ahead of them.

Having no light would not pose the delta any problems with her sight. , but that didn’t help her notice the gathering of yellow eyes that watched them from the steep slopes above.