Moana
"Kat?" I called out.
My bodyguard was nowhere to be found. One minute she was right beside me, and the next she was just... gone. She just took off running and didn't look back.
Maybe she found the valerian roots, I thought to myself, although I think I knew deep down that it wasn't the case. She had left me; although I didn't know why.
"Hello?"
I started to jog in the direction that she ran off to. Over my head, the wind began howling more aggressively and the sky darkened as a horrible thunderstorm began to form in the sky. No matter which way I turned, I couldn't see the mansion anywhere.
And we had taken so many turns that I didn't even know where I should go to find it now.
"Okay..." I stopped and shut my eyes for a moment, thinking. We hadn't been walking for that long... Maybe if I just got my bearings, I could find my way back to the mansion. When I opened my eyes again, I resolved to start off by heading upwards, since I remembered walking down a gradual slope.
But from here, I couldn't even see where the slope began. The only marker I had nearby was the stream that we crossed, but I didn't know where to go from there. If only I had been paying attention to all of the winding twists and turns that Kat took me on.
Suddenly, I heard a soft voice calling over the wind.
"Moana!" it called. It was Kat.
I let out a sigh of relief. "Kat?! Where are you?!" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth in order to be heard better over the sound of the whistling wind.
There was a silence, and then the little voice rang out again.
"This way! Follow my voice!"
I felt immensely relieved as I began to jog in the direction of Kat's voice. I guessed that she really did find the valerian roots, or maybe she got a little lost herself when she ran off. I trusted Kat, and Edrick did a thorough background check on her; it was silly of me to think that she would just leave me in the woods like that.
"Kat?!" I called out again, still jogging. "Say something!"
Another silence.
"This way!"
I froze. Her voice was coming from the opposite direction now. Did I somehow run past her? I whirled around and strained my eyes to see in that direction, but I couldn't see anything through the thick mist that was beginning to settle in the forest around me.
"Shit..." I whispered to myself. "Kat?! I can't see anything!"
I waited again for a few moments, but heard nothing except for the sound of the wind. More rain began to fall, even harder than before, and I shivered in my thin coat as I started to get soaked.
"I have a bad feeling," Mina suddenly said, her voice echoing in my mind. "I think we should just try to get home without her."
I nodded to myself. Even if Kat wasn't intentionally leading me on a wild goose chase, I needed to prioritize my baby's safety. If I stayed out here for too long, anything could happen in this weather.
Sighing, I pulled my hood up and began to trudge forward.
But I only made it a few steps before I realized that I didn't know where I was. I cursed again under my breath as I looked around, but everything looked the same.
"Okay... I have to just decide on a direction," I whispered, half to myself and half to my wolf. "At the very least, I'll wind up on a road and maybe someone driving past will find me."
I swallowed and decided to go with my gut. I began walking, keeping my arms folded across my chest to hold my jacket tight against me. It was already almost entirely soaked through, though. At least I had the trees to cover me a bit, but the rain was so heavy that the trees weren't able to help much.
"Mina, can you pick up a scent to get us home?" I asked out loud.
My wolf fell silent for a few moments. I could sense that she was trying to pick up a trail to get home, but it wasn't working. Finally, she seemed to give up.
"No, I can't," she replied. "I'm sorry, Moana. The rain is dampening my sense of smell, and since I haven't shifted yet it wasn't very strong to begin with."
"It's alright." I sighed, louder this time, and kept going.
I didn't know how long I was walking for, but eventually the trees seemed to be thinning out a bit, which was promising. Maybe I was reaching the edge of the forest. The mist was too heavy to see the mansion, but I figured that maybe it was lying ahead of me and I just couldn't see it until I got closer.
The trees thinned out a little more.
"Edrick?!" I called into the mist as loud as I could, just hoping that he was nearby and could hear me. But there was no answer.
I stopped then, and turned around in a full circle as I strained my eyes to see through the mist. I didn't see the mansion anywhere.
In fact...
Suddenly, I clapped my hand over my mouth and let out a terrified shriek as I realized where I was.
"I've seen this place!" I cried out loud, turning around more frantically now. The wind blew some of the mist away, revealing exactly what I feared.
A sheer drop below a cliff, just a few feet away from where I stood. If I hadn't stopped instinctively, I might have walked right over the edge.
This was the cliff from my dreams.
"How?" I whispered, my voice and my hands shaking. How did this happen? Kat was supposed to be my bodyguard; she was supposed to protect me, and yet for some reason, she led me straight to the spot where I died over and over again in my visions.
I didn't know what to do. "Edrick?!" I called out again, but my voice was drowned out by the wind. No matter how many times I screamed his name, even until my throat became hoarse, there was no answer.
And there wouldn't be any answer, because somehow I knew that no one was nearby. I was all alone.
"Mina, we have to do something," I said, whirling around frantically as I expected the horrifying visage of Michael to come floating out of the mist with that goddamn golden knife in his hand.
"Isn't there anything you can do?!"
"I can release my scent," Mina replied, sounding just as panicked as I felt. "But I'll need to use some of the baby's strength. Are you willing to take that risk?"
At my wolf's words, I felt my heart drop into the pits of my stomach. But I had no choice; it was either allow Mina to release her scent and potentially hurt the baby, or don't let her release her scent and potentially kill both of us.
Finally, I nodded.
"The baby's strength has proven to be incredible before," I finally said, clenching my fists tightly next to my sides. "Try it now."