Survival Instincts - Witherlore werewolf Academy series

Chapter 9

The smell of sea water filled our nostrils and made us stand still as we couldn't stop our minds from trying to figure the strange mixture of odors. Khail didn't seem to mind our stiffness for the first minute, but after two minutes, he sighed and said:

"I understand you all find it strange with the smell being new and all, but could we please continue I'm getting thirsty, and I would really like to get to the waterfall."

We all seemed to regain our senses and we all mumbled a yes under our breath. My gaze still circled around the tunnel to try to find the source of the odd odor, it instead landed on Masov who's gaze had apparently also wandered, as I followed it I found myself looking at Nila. He looked at her as if she was the full moon that had just risen from the sky and that replaced light with its reflection, as if its white glimmer broke into the complete darkness and gave him back his ability to see again. Nila didn't seem to realize he was looking at her, or maybe she just didn't want to make the awkward eye contact that would certainly come after their eyes would meet.

He continued to look at her for a few seconds, but then realized that I saw what he was doing and turned red, his mouth opened slightly and closed. Geros looked over his shoulder and smirked at Masov, apparently, I wasn't the only one that had seen him. Geros and I made an eye contact, and both nodded our head in agreement, they would end up together before the end of the simulation. I needed to remember asking Nila if she found anyone attractive in the group, even if she wasn't ready to tell me I'm pretty sure her eyes are going to slip and tell me the truth if her mouth doesn't want to.

As we approached the waterfall, the sound of water rushing down the rocks, falling and slipping down the dark wall of the small cave resembled the sound of wild Flaims running in the forest, when some had to climb over rocks and fallen trees to get to their destination or when they were trying to catch their preys. Their hoofs resonating on the moss and the died leaves as they ran and climbed through the forest. The mix between the familiar sound, the unfamiliar smell and the breath-taking sight was simply astonishing. The dark walls of the cave were glimmering with turquoise like reflections that emanated from the water, there seemed to be gems in the bottom of the lake that extended on the opposite side of the shore on which we had crawled out of. The gems were either inactive, as to explain why none of us were falling to the ground in pain, or their effects were blocked because of the large amount of water that flowed in a circular like motion upon arriving from the waterfall into the lake at the bottom.

The cave followed the water more than the water followed the cave; it looked as if it was constructed for the water to fall endlessly. There were small mounts of rocks across the lake, and it looked like it led to the other side of the cave, but even the turquoise reflections couldn't reach that particular part of the cavern. Rya proposed that we come back to explore it another day as we still had to try to find a Skisla plant before the end of the week and that we only had five days left. The mystical cavern that Vreia had told us about, was supposed to be in the same network of tunnels if we trusted what the stories told us. After all, every myth and story is based after some truth even if its only the smallest part of it, something will always be true.

Nila and I advanced towards the water and started filling out our bottles, we had finished them earlier that day and wanted to assure that we would be able to drink after our long day of travel. After a few seconds, everyone followed our example and started filling their bottle, the water wasn't the same as the one we normally drank, it had an after taste that seemed salty, it probably came from the rocks or something like that, but I wasn't sure. The water I normally had at home didn't take anything, it sure was refreshing when the weather was getting hot, but I couldn't quite associate a taste to it. This water on the contrary tasted a little like the roasted skin of , especially when they were just plucked from the river. The Gesls lived in the small rivers near our village and were reported to eat small Laizs, but I didn't really trust the rumors, because if there was truly Laizs in the river, no one would let another animal eat it, they would hunt every last one of them until there was not even one standing. They were far to precious to be wasted to the cycle of life.

As we crawled back outside the tunnel, I could swear I saw another reflection on the other side of the cavern and it wasn't turquoise, it was a purple like color and disappeared before I could even be sure of what I had seen. While crawling back to the entrance, I checked to see if anyone looked as if they had seen anything, but no one looked surprised or intrigued, I might have hallucinated it or gotten mixed up while seeing the turquoises reflections after all the scene was breath taking and could've made me mix up some details.

The entrance cave seemed bland compared to the scene we had just seen; it was a brown like cave where we had put some dried leaves on the ground to be able to sleep on something other than the hard ground. The leaves didn't do much of a difference, but it was still better than sleeping directly on rocks and dirt.

We had split the cavern in four separate areas, the left was where the guy's slept, the right where the girl's slept, the middle was used to make a fire as to keep us warm during the night, and the front was where we guarded the entrance. We had earlier determined the shifts to guard the entrance and so far, everything had worked out perfectly, well if we exclude the failed attempt of Khail at making a fire that is. Nila and I packed our adaptable coat, a long, curved, and slim knife, and our water bottles and headed out to hunt Duakns. We didn't expect to find them as easily as we did but it was quite practical for us to bring them back to camp after killing them. We also grabbed a few fruits that seemed strange, but that didn't have any spots on them, the spots were usually found only on poisonous fruits, and since these ones didn't have any, we expected them to be safe. During that time Helaena and Geros went to collect more lichen to make the fire last longer, and Khail and Vreia went to collect more water. Rya and Masov stayed to guard the cavern as everyone went to occupy their task. As we returned to the cavern, we crossed Reain and Eisma that were trying to find the cavern with all the supposed herbs, they told us that they hadn't found anything yet but that they would tell us they would resume searching and return before night fall. As we turned our back to continue our berry hunt, I saw Eisma looking at Reain, but not the passing type of gaze, the searching in your soul type of look, and I don't know why, but I couldn't see them becoming an item, she looked a little to hot headed for him, but who was I to judge. If they actually liked each other, we might end up with two new couples before the simulation ended. Reain didn't look at her though, he seemed lost in his thoughts and didn't answer us when we told them we would resume our berry picking.

This part of the Kuja mountains where we walked to after going back to put the meat we had hunted, was constituted mostly of trees and bushes. The mountains themselves, were situated a bit at the north of where we where now, it was a perfect spot to try to find berries and at the same occasion see if we could find some Skisla flowers. They were harder than other flowers to find, since they were rarer, but. On each Skisla plant, there was approximately ten flowers, some would never hatch, but their beauty remained the same.

The field in which we arrived was covered in butches and plant, as we proceeded to try to find berries we could eat without any danger for our health, Nila and I looked to see if we could spot any Skisla flower, unfortunately, we couldn't find any, but we still manage to find about twenty ish berry bushes that seemed edible. We also found the pumpkin like flower that seemed to be even more defensive in the wild, we wouldn't have realized it was there if it wasn't for the purple ish light that started reflecting on the metal like exterior, it started hatching and the pink steam started falling and sliding down as if it was lava following the mountain's print to arrive to the ground. Nila's eyes looked as if they had been covered by a screen of smoke, and I guess mine's also looked like that.

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