Wolf at Heart

Chapter Forty Two: Another Perspective

. : Dakota : .

"You what?!" I said, disbelieving.

"I'm not going to repeat myself again," Melody sighed, clearly annoyed.

But not as annoyed as I was with her right now.

"So let me get this straight," I continued, doing my best to tramp down my anger. "You lost the book that we gave you. Might've found the Earth's Chosen, and then lost him too."

The look she gave me could've melted glass.

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth. "That's pretty much what happened."

I glanced around again, making sure no one was paying attention to us. We were in the back room of the inn, having gone to find a place where we could speak without any eavesdroppers. But at the rate things were going, I was probably going to break something soon.

Unbelievable, I thought. She really is more stupid than I thought. All she had to do was keep track of one book, and she failed. And now I have to figure out another plan to account for that. Once this was all over I was going to make her pay. I was going to make all of them pay.

Catching a glance from Sora, I quickly hid my expression. I had a habit of 'looking like I wanted to murder someone,' as she told it. So she warned me whenever I seemed out of it, lest my plan be foiled.

Except that she was just a tool too. The lioness didn't even know an inkling of my true intentions. I guess all you had to do was feed someone a sob story, and, real or not, they would do anything to help you. Nevermind the fact that she probably didn't even have the guts to help me anyway.

Judging from the looks Melody gave me, she was disgusted with the both of us. Oh well. I had to dirty my hands to see my plan through. Sora and I both knew that we were just using each other to meet our own goals. It was a mutual agreement, one that was bound to fall apart sooner or later.

But not before my plan was complete.

With a jolt, I realized Ash was talking. I had to pay attention if I was going to get more information.

"So we'll get it back. We have to keep looking for the Earth's Chosen, that's top priority right now," Ash said. "If we have time later, we can look for the book. I'm not sure how important it is right now, but if it's telling the truth, we can't let it slip. Find the Chosen first."

I made my voice as monotone as possible, though I wanted to strangle each and every one of the people in this room with my bare hands. That book was key to my plan. I needed it back.

"Do you have a plan for that?"

Ash considered for a moment and I forced my fingers to stop twitching. He needed to hurry up if he wanted to keep his life.

"Yeah," He responded slowly. "There's going to be an upcoming festival and competition. The whole tribe will come together, they do it every year. We should be able to find him there."

Sora raised a skeptical question. "How are we going to get in? We're obviously not Serpentine."

Nodding, Ash replied, "I've thought about that. We're going to enter the competition. It's open to any tribe. The goal is basically to prove that the Serpentine are great and powerful and all that pride stuff. Every year, a Serpentine has won the competition. We're going to win it this time."

"Why?" Melody asked.

Can she not figure it out herself, I thought angrily. Grow up.