Selection (Book 2 of P.O.E. chronicles)

Chapter 19 Chances

“Who is Owen?” Emily asked suspiciously as she looked from Tom to me and I realized everyone was looking at us. “I knew you two must have known each other before this.” She added with her hands on her hips, as if she just caught a cheating couple.

Tom and I shared a look with each other and turned back to Emily, unsure of how to handle the situation. Luckily, or rather unluckily the Lupas were getting close enough to be heard now.

“We need to get going.” I said, and Emily threw me a this-is-not-finished look. Amelia threw a concerned look behind us.

“I thought you said you are communicating with them.” She asked, as we broke into a brisk walk. That’s not technically running away.

“Yeah, but now they are ignoring me.” I said, and everyone automatically sped up.

“Wait.” Tom suddenly said and came to a halt. Everyone turned back to look at him. “There is no way we could outrun them, we might as well wait for them to come and let Gwen communicate with them. This way even if we fight we are not as exhausted.”

Despite the fact that his suggestion made sense, we were still a little hesitant. I guessed it’s in our nature to make a run whenever there is a danger, whether it is the best solution or not.

“Come on, they are nearly here.” Tom said, reaching his hand towards me and I took hold of it and stepped forward towards the rustling sounds. Breath in, breath out, I instructed myself, taking deep breaths to calm myself down and distract myself from wanting to run away. You can’t run away forever.

It felt like time was slowing down the moment the first Lupa began to appear amidst the vegetation; its glistering red eyes that seemed so much more intelligent to me than I remembered. I held my breath as the entire pack made their way towards us, the whole fifty-odd of them. I could feel everyone tensed behind me and I knew it was taking all they could to just stay put where they were and not fight or runaway.

The same could be said for the wolves Legres as well. Aside from the few at the front those at the pack were breathing uneasily and some were plowing the ground in front of them and growling lowly. They didn’t want to be here either.

Human. the Lupa at the front began to address me, stopping an unnerving ten meter away from us, which could be closed with just a single stride. This was not the Legre that I communicated with and appeared to be the alpha of the pack, the one that I talked to was to its right and it bowed a little at me in acknowledgement. I was surprised at how humanized they were, and how communicating with them seemed to grow easier and easier.

You said you come in peace. The alpha said, staring me straight in the eyes as I contemplated over our communications. It wasn’t like the normal telepathic conversations that I had with other POEs before, this was strange; it was almost like I was eavesdropping on their channel, their frequency. That was how they communicate. But your kind and us had never known peace. How do we believe you?

The fact that we are here now, face to face instead of chasing each other is the prove. I replied, trying to sound as confident and calm as possible. The Lupa tilted its head at me as if considering my words.

This only means you wish to communicate with us, or to stall time. The Legre continued and I could hear the approving growls from his pack behind him, even some snippets of thoughts from them. None of them were pretty.

We have never started a fight on our journey here, we had only acted in defense. I continued to reason with the alpha, taking the fact that we were still unharmed as a sign that they didn’t want to fight either.