The Moon Goddess' Chosen

441 Protected By Nature

Lina forced her eyes open, finally realising that the savage noises that she kept hearing weren’t merely part of a dream but actually animals outside of her tent.

The princess quickly opened her tent and stepped out, rising quickly to her full height. Her blue eyes cut through the darkness of night quickly adjusting to allow her to perceive her surroundings clear as day. The first thing she saw was fur unlike that of a wolf.

She was frozen for a while, fear threatening to grip her senses as was the natural reaction to danger. However, before the fear could set in, the girl noticed something odd that pushed her worries to the back and replaced them with curiosity.

The creature in front of her wasn’t bothered by her presence. In fact, the big cat looked somewhat inclined to have her pet its back if she felt like it. Lina decided against it, regardless of how alluring the thought felt. This was still a mountain lion.

Another reason she wasn’t so easily frightened by the big cat was her confidence in her speed and agility. Should it come to it, she was sure she could evade the lion without risking her life.

The girl looked up and noticed far more mountain lions than she’d initially expected. Five of them stood with them in the camp while others stood up on the ledges. If they had been staring at the girl and snarling at her like they currently were, she might have been scared witless, but they had their attention on something else.

Seeing a creature choose something else over herself only meant there was a bigger danger in the vicinity, or at least that’s what she chose to think.

‘I’m surprised I can be this calm around them.’ The feeling these creatures gave her was exactly the same that the jaguar had. Now that she thought back to their run-in with the jaguar, she was more inclined to believe this was a similar situation.

Once the initial fright of being in their presence had passed, all that was replaced was a sense of familiarity and peace around the creatures of the wild.

.....

“Crysta…” the girl stopped, her words vanishing from her mouth upon following the line of sight of every creature surrounding them, including Crysta. Lina was almost shocked at the sight before her.

Three wolves were snarling in response to the lions. The fur on their backs was raised and they bore their fangs menacingly at the lions. In response to this vicious display, the mountain lions were starting to crowd the camp, spreading out and clearly outnumbering the wolves.

The princess had only noticed the wolves’ presence when they turned tails and ran uphill. A loud roar rumbled from the lion at the front before it bounded in the same direction as the rogues. The mountain lions behind them followed suit.

Some chased from the mountain wall, leaping from one inconceivably small ledge to another and making their way uphill in a manner Lina had initially thought impossible… ‘Mountain Lions, huh…’

The chase was on.

Lina could only watch as most of the lions bounded out of their camp in pursuit of the rogues at threatening speed. The sound of their paws against the ground only forced her to freeze in place lest she risk being run over by the large beasts.

The two girls remained quiet for a while trying to understand what had just happened. When the sound of the lions chasing the rogues was far enough, the two girls turned their attention to those that had remained.

Instead of all the lions chasing down the rogues, three had remained in the camp. ‘This reminds me of the lion that saved my big sister at the coronation,’ the princess thought to herself.

“Uh, Lina, is this one of those times when we have to bow to them so they leave us in peace?” Crysta asked, fear in her voice.

“Um…” before the girl could answer her, the lions retreated to the nearly vertical wall that bordered the other side of their camp and began leaping from one ledge to another with extreme precision.

The lions kept climbing until they reached what could be perceived as the top of the mountain wall. Lina assumed there was some sort of path at that altitude. However, getting there was bound to be a completely different story had the wolves decided to try it.

When the lions were out of sight, Lina could now make out just how difficult it was for anything other than these lions to traverse this territory. The lions were strong enough to keep lifting themselves to greater heights and travelling through the mountains without any hindrance.

“I guess we don’t get to do that this time,” the delta smiled at her friend nervously, “What happened, Crysta?”

Crysta scratched the back of her head, “Um… The rogues were going to attack us, but… well, you can tell the rest.”

“You fell asleep, didn’t you?” the nerves coming from the delta were quite clear. Lina pinched the bridge of her nose.

A male voice cut through the air, “So you’re protected by nature. I don’t think I would have seen that coming.” Wyatt’s voice came from the inside of his tent and with it came the man’s intention of not coming out.

“That has come as a shock to me as well,” Lina replied, “We can’t be sure of that though. There are few people that can talk to animals and I’m not one of them.”

“Is there someone else other than Katie?” Crysta asked.

“Yes, there was a woman that could do so back in Lycaon. All the others I’ve heard of are in myths and mysterious sightings made by wolves and hunters,” the girl replied, yawning out loud, “Get some sleep, Crysta. I’ve had my rest.”

Crysta wanted to argue, but couldn’t. Not after she’d been caught sleeping on the job. She looked to the tent containing the alpha and sighed.

There was no way he was going to help.

..........