The next morning we were standing on a bridge overlooking the Giants Causeway. Nova had shown us where to go, now it was Luke's turn to get us there. We brought Luke because of his gift for teleportation could come in handy in a jam, not to mention it made it easier to get there. We also brought Rasheed due to his combat skills and his... persistence... From the looks of it, he had imprinted on Nova, and it seemed as if she had noticed it.
"Come on people." Nova called.
"Nova!" Luke whined, "It's bleedin' 1am!"
"If you want to rest then get a move on!" She snapped.
We made our way along the cliffs and back down into the tunnels. This time however, instead of continuing straight, we turned left down a smaller corridor. As we strode silently through the tunnels we were met by the sound of quiet snoring.
"Nova?" Liam asked, "Where are we?"
"Down these tunnels," She explained, "are the sleeping quarters. This main tunnel branches off into four more. Three that end in small caverns and one that branches into another four tunnels. There are labyrinths like these all over the the mountains."
"Incredible." I whispered.
"So where are we going?" Rasheed cut-in."
"Your homes for the next week."
We followed Nova down the into the seemingly endless maze of tunnels until we finally reached a cavern.
"Luke," She said, pointing to a tunnel, "your den is just down there. Rasheed, yours is there. Liam and Ari, here's yours." She announced, pointing to the tunnels as she called them off.
"If you follow this tunnel," She said pointing to the last one, "you'll hit the meeting hall. Three days from now, you'll head there. Your packs name will be on a marker by your seats. Luke, Rasheed, unfortunately, you two will not be permitted inside the cavern once the meeting has started."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Rasheed asked impatiently.
"Well... the meeting should take all day so why not enjoy yourselves and get to know the other guards?"
The guys seemed to like that a idea very much.
"OK Nova. One more question." Rasheed said.
Nova raised an eyebrow, "Only one?"
"For now."
"OK, shoot."
"Why the hell are we here so early?"
"Simple. There's going to be two reps from every country plus two guards. Do you really want nearly four hundred people all showing up at the same time?" Rasheed shook his head, "People have been showing up for weeks. It's two in the morning on Friday. In the next forty-eight hourse we're expecting two hundred people arriving." I yawned, "Why don't you all get some sleep? Later you can look around and introduce yourselves to the other packs."
She turned on her heels, shifted, and ran off into the blackness of the tunnels.
"Come on, Love." Liam whispered.
He led me into our "den" cough cough cave, and I was asleep almost instantly.
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I woke up a few hours later with a jolt. It was dark. That was as far as I'd gotten before I began panicking. After a few minutes, my eyes adjusted and I looked around curiously. It was still dark, there was no doubt about that. But there where small blue crystals mounted on the wall that gave off enough light, that combined with our enhanced sight, made it possible to see around the small cavern. I stared at the crystals intently, mesmerized by the pale blue glow. I was about to reach up and touch one.
