The Howl of the Wolf | ✓

Chapter 13- Cinnamon powder, anyone?

I woke up a couple hours later to the sounds of the search team bickering.

"This mission is trash! How are we going to find the Queen in this hell of a forest?" I heard the redhead guard say.

"We'll find her." Replied the even voice of Dylan.

"This is a stupid mission anyway-"

I didn't bother listening to the rest of the sentence and barged out of the tent. The group were huddled around the fireplace and looked up at me sheepishly.

"Right. Anyone who has a problem with the mission can go back now. I will not accept any human burdens on this mission. Wait....half of you are pigs anyway. But I guess you're still human pigs. If you deem this journey to be useless, please turn back now. And to the people complaining," I said, sticking my middle fingers up, "I have nothing to offer you but my middle phalanges. Now, any questions or concerns that need to be addressed?"

Nobody dared to say anything. Crickets chirped. Cashew could be heard crunching nuts on a nearby tree.

"That's what I thought." I said coldly, grabbing a piece of damper from the fireplace.

"Gee, who knew the princess was feisty?" I heard a guard mumble to another. They sniggered quietly.

"Would you like to share something funny? I'm glad that my personality amuses you." I retorted sarcastically. No response. Good.

Finishing the damper in a couple of bites, I crouched down to hang the food supplies on a branch. It was common sense to do so, but I was surprised that nobody had thought of doing it yet. Noticing some ants crawling about, I turned to my useless companions.

"Does anybody have cinnamon powder?" I asked.

"Nope."

"None on me here."

"Cinnamon powder? What's cinnamon?"

"Why do you need it anyway?"

"If you haven't noticed, our food supply has managed to attract some ants. You know what? I'll do it myself." I sighed. Looking in my duffel bag, I finally found a small package of cinnamon. Grounding it to pieces, I gently sprinkled it on the food supply bag. What? I'm prepared!

Ignoring the groups stunned gazes, I retreated back to my tent to see an anxious Cashew pacing around.

"Are you ok?" I asked, squatting down.

"There are few nuts left in this forest. This is not good, NOT GOOD! YOU HEAR ME!?!?!" He squeaked.

"Yes, yes I can hear you. Geezus."

"Good, now as I was saying. There is barely any food left, for me anyway. You hoomans can just go around with a big socking axe and kill a wild boar or something." The squirrel continued, his nose twitching a lot.

"Actually, I don't eat mea-" I corrected, but was soon disrupted by Cashew, who was bouncing around energetically.

"Quiet! I need to think! Do you know how hard it is for me to remember where I hide all my nuts? Under the hollow tree? No, too mouldy. Ummm...did I sneak it under the massive rock? No....too much spiders under there..."

"The average squirrel only remembers half of it's hidden food." I said, thinking back to my tutoring lessons.

"Oh! I AM DEEPLY OFFENDED! Do I look like an average squirrel to you? Does an average squirrel have have bright eyes and bushy tails like MINE? Do you know how much effort I put into my appearance? Do you? DO YOU!?!?! HUH!?! HUH!?!?!?" Cashew squeaked.

"Uh....I, er....um....no?" I mustered, slowly moving back.

"GOOD! That's what I thought! Now don't you dare mention such tragic topics! It breaks my heart to see people compare me to other hideous squirrels!" He said, smoothening out his already smooth tail.

"Uhhh....sure." I said uncertainly.

"Now as I was originally saying, before I was RUDELY interrupted. The sign of less food means that Shadow Pack is growing stronger! You must hurry! Yes, hurry! ALL OF US must hurry! Am I right or am I left?" The grey squirrel lectured.

"It's right or wrong, not right or left. And yes, we really need to make faster progress." I corrected.

"Don't you lecture me with your stupid hooman rubbish! The world was perfectly fine until you imbecile homo sapiens ruined the whole system! We used to have a perfectly balanced yinyang system! And that's when it started going wrong...." he sighed, his nose twitching rapidly. As cute as cashew may be, I was starting to get annoyed.

"Look, furball. I'm sorry that your precious forest is crumbling down but listen the hell up! It's not my fault that the Shadow Clan is killing everything! I only knew about my so-called powers very recently! Now if you weren't an obnoxious ass, you'd realise that I'm actually trying to solve the main issue here. So if you would please cooperate and stop being so mad, we might actually succeed." I ranted.

"Alright, alright. Hold your pine nuts. I'm sorry, alright?" The squirrel sighed in resignation. Before I could say anything else, I heard the team struggling outside. Just as I was about to look outside, the tent burst open. A man my age with black hair and emerald green eyes had RIPPED open the tent.

"Who in Arcadia do you think you are?!" I yelled angrily, hiding Cashew in my pocket. The man smirked evilly.

"I'm Romano, alpha of Shadow Pack." He said, before throwing a punch at my face. Unfortunately for him, my 14 years of martial arts training had paid off.

"Cheesy name. Did your mummy run out of names in her book of baby names?" I mocked, swiftly ducking out of the tent. I only say a glimpse of the struggle outside before my attention was diverted to Romano again. Luckily, Cashew had jumped out of my pocket and leapt on his face.

"ARGHHH!!! GET THIS DAFT RODENT OFF ME!" Romano screeched in panic, shaking the poor squirrel off. But by that time, I had already climbed up a tree. He looked around stupidly, trying to see where I was. Taking the opportunity, I leapt off the tree kicking him in the face on the way down. I heard a terrible crack as his nose broke and scarlet dyed the grass.

"Hey! PACIFIER GREYSON! TUG ON HIS HAIR!" Greyson followed obligingly. "Wes Awelia!" I actually liked him better when he's in little space. A lot less of a handful. And he would actually shut up.

"Take that!" I said, kicking him where the sun doesn't shine as Romano doubled back at Greyson's 65kg weight.

"Fine. You win this time. And this time only. MEN! RETREAT!" Romano growled, crawling away pitifully.

"Toodles! Please tell me when you're coming back! I'll be sure to poison the tea!" I called sarcastically.

*************************************
[John Luchesse's POV]

"GODDAMMIT!" I roared, swiping everything off my table. I was beyond angry. My right hand man Lukas came running.

"Are you ok, sir? Is your leg still hurting? The queen did stab you quite har-"

"SHUT UP! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! I SPENT AGES COMING BACK FROM THE 'DEAD' TO KIDNAP THE QUEEN AND WHEN I FINALLY SUCCEED IN DOING SO, SHE STABS ME AND RUNS AWAY. LUKAS, YOU USELESS KNUCKLEHEAD! YOU SHOULD'VE CAUGHT HER! YOU KNOW WHAT?!? GO FIND HER!"

"But sir-"

"GO!!!! I WANT THAT BLOODY QUEEN BACK HERE!" I yelled, slamming the rickety wooden table. It fell apart. Lukas gulped and ran away, leaving me to reassemble the bloody table.