Story Beyond Worlds

CHAPTER 4

"Nothing works on this," Sapphire's father sighed.

He had been trying to figure out a way to remove the metal band since daybreak, and the sun already reached halfway above the horizon, but he failed to find any way of dismantling the accursed object. According to his understanding, it was a mechanical apparatus that resisted magic and most forms of energy, quite strongly so, and was extremely tough, just tough enough for it be unbreakable without breaking the wearer's neck. Not only was it impossible to remove it with magic, it also interrupted the flow of energy in the body of the creature it was on.

"There are three major purposes of this as far as I can tell. First to disrupt the energy flow in the body, making the wearer several times weaker," her father explained. "Second, to force the wearer in their humanoid form. It is alright for Sapphire since she usually stays in her humanoid form, but for most wolves it would have made it near impossible to resist capture. I am not certain of the last, but I feel like it also helps in tracking in some way." Her father sighed after closely inspecting the metal band for a while.

"Does that mean?" The wolf closest to them gasped. He was a trusted friend of Sapphire's father, and the smartest wolf in the pack, after her father of course.

Sapphire's father nodded. "We need to hurry, no sleep till we reach the borders of the tundra, then we will enter the Winter wolf territory after half a day's rest. Understood?" Her father ordered. "And do not let news of the tracker get out, it will cause unnecessary chaos."

The wolf nodded and left to rally the pack together. They were on the move again as soon as the sun reached completely above the horizon. They exited the rainforest when the sun was still fairly low, having been near the boundaries of it when they stopped yesterday. Since Sapphire was incapable of keeping up with the pack's running speed in her humanoid form she was being carried by her father.

Since the transformation spell only changed the form of the body, they weighed the same in both wolf and humanoid form. Because of this, Sapphire was much lighter than any human that size would be, not like she was big or even average from human standards either. The two people that tried to capture her were around average height, one slightly shorter and one slightly taller, from what Sapphire knew at the least. She still only reached barely above the waist of the shorter and bulkier person while she didn't even reach that high for the taller person.

As they got farther and farther from the rainforest, the forest cover turned into a grassland with some trees here and there. A river flowed in the distance and every now and then small animals jumped away in fright as they noticed the wolves approaching. Sapphire was glad she got to enjoy the view peacefully, the only sound belonging to the wind, the wolf pack causing close to no sound.

The grass was tall and all sorts of small animals were hiding in there, ones she has never seen before. Some of the adults went slightly away from the pack to catch some prey for the younger ones, and to help them catch their own, though they were careful not to lag behind or stray too far.

As they passed a thick bush Sapphire reached out her hand and ripped off some berries from it. They were red in color, and from their scent it was obvious they were safe to eat. She slowly ate the berries and kept an eye out to grab any other fruits or berries that passed by, hoping to satisfy her hunger in this way.

"A wolf eating berries, just what else is left for me to see in my life?" Her father sighed.

Sapphire and her mother exchanged a glance before bursting into giggles. Her father just shook his head, but she still got a glimpse of the smile on his face and couldn't help smiling back. She was aware that he only meant it as a joke this time, afterall he was the one who taught her how to differentiate between edible and poisonous plants from scent.