The House By The River

Chapter Seven

"My legs hurt."

"I'm hungry."

"I'm tired."

"Can we stop soon?" These were the complaints that were heard multiple times in the hours the group had been searching. More common than this however, was-

"Ugh, will you two get a room already‽" Aoife said for at least the seventh time as Zoe and Blaez giggled at something one of them had thought of. The two had had quite a few 'moments' over the past few hours, with Zoe tripping over her own feet and Blaez catching her just before she hit the ground, as well as several other sickly cute moments that looked like something out of a cheesy romance movie.

"Shut up!" Zoe yelled, hitting Aoife. Aoife didn't flinch, and acted as though she hadn't noticed Zoe hit her.

"Idiot." she muttered, and Kat laughed lightly. Zoe frowned at Aoife, who shrugged in response. The group continued to walk for another few minutes.

"Can we stop now?" Alex asked, and Blaez shook his head.

"If we're where I think we are, it's not much further now." he said gently. "You've done well: it was morning when we came here, and it's getting dark now."

"Will you please just tell us where you think we are?" Nessa asked, annoyed. "You're being all cryptic and annoying and basically like a less hyper version of Zoe!" At that, everyone began laughing. As if to illustrate Nessa's point, Blaez stuck his tongue out at her. Zoe hit him.

"That's my thing!" she exclaimed. "You can't steal it from me!" A moment after she spoke, she felt the side of her head smash into something hard. She groaned and rubbed where she'd been hit as she looked to see what it was that had hurt her. There was nothing there. She saw that Blaez and Nessa had also stopped, Nessa also rubbing her head as though she, too, had crashed. Blaez was just staring straight ahead.

"Împărăția de Lup..." he murmured, and Zoe stamped her foot impatiently.

"You keep saying that, but you won't tell us what it means!" she complained, frowning. She turned to where Aoife, Kat and Alex stood about five metres away. "Did you see what it was that hit me?" The three shook their heads.

"Probably your mind, telling you that it's time to stop walking." Alex said, and Kat shook her head and rolled her eyes. Zoe shrugged and stepped forward. Or tried to, anyway. It was as though there there was an invisible wall keeping her out.

"It won't work. We are where I thought we were. This is Împărăția de Lup." Blaez said, and sighed. "This is where the common land ends, and the grounds of the royal family's home. Werewolves can't enter without being given permission by a royal child."

"Then we'll go and look for a royal child and bring them here so they can let you in." Aoife said, but Blaez shook his head.

"It's not that simple. The royals here have insanely long lives. They have children once or twice every hundred years. They only count people under ten as children." he said, and Zoe rolled her eyes.

"Can't we just go round?" she asked, and Blaez smiled sadly at her.

"It will take days, possibly weeks." he informed her. She shrugged.

"We need to find Alba, Evie, Cana and Hollie, don't we?" she asked. Everyone nodded. "So we'll just have to go round!" Alex groaned.

"Please can we stop and rest?" she asked. Zoe shook her head.

"Evie is waiting for us to save her. We're not wasting any time." she said, and Alex sighed. Zoe smirked: now that she knew she could use the 'it's what Evie would want' card, she could get Alex to do anything. The six continued walking in silence.

When they stopped, the sky was darker than any of them had ever seen. There was no moon and no stars visible. Alex flopped against a tree trunk and rubbed her legs, which were agonisingly sore from hours of walking. Aoife, Nessa and Zoe sat on the ground, all yawning.

"We should collect some wood to make a fire." Kat suggested, and she and Blaez began picking sticks off the ground and from trees. They threw the sticks into a pile by Zoe's feet, and she and Aoife began rubbing sticks to try and get the flames going.

Almost an hour later, they still didn't have a fire. Zoe had given up and was lying on her back, kicking a tree. Aoife was beginning to get frustrated and starting to think it was time to give up and just sleep. She sighed and put the sticks down, flopping backwards against Nessa.

"Let's get some sleep," Kat said, smiling slightly as she saw that Alex was already doing so. "Who wants to take first watch?" Zoe snorted.

"We need people to keep watch? What are we, five?" she asked. Aoife shook her head, resigned to her friend's idiocy, while Nessa threw a twig at the moron.

"I think I'll take first watch," Blaez said, seeing the indignation on Zoe's face and deciding to interrupt before the girl acted on it. "You guys sleep. I'll wake you if anything happens."

"Wake me in an hour or so, when you're done." Nessa said, smiling as she laid down and cushioned her head with her hands. Aoife and Kat both slumped over, while Zoe brought her legs down by her face in a way that Blaez thought must be anything but comfortable. He sighed slightly as he sat up straighter and began to scan the area for anything that could threaten his new friends.