William wondered why the signal was necessary. They were following her what did they need signals for? Aceso diverted from her course and crashed into a separation between two buildings. William would have stopped and helped if he could have made his mind and body react faster. As it was before he had time to even bark out a cry of alarm, Aceso sprang from the wall of the building to the adjacent structure. She pivoted upon impact and jumped back to the original building, all the while climbing higher and higher. In four bounds she cleared the top of the buildings and was shadowing the rest of her pack from the rooftops.
William was impressed. He stumbled in the four heartbeats it took for Aceso to reach her new track on top of the buildings. William recovered from his surprise and was running at full speed several body lengths ahead of his closest pack mate. Charles was laboriously moving along as fast as he could but William knew that he was getting tired. William turned his attention back to the street and drove ahead, while bleeding speed to allow the rest of his pack to catch up.
The pack, without its alpha to lead, began to move freely. William felt like that was what Aceso wanted. The buildings here were built with separation between them that wasn’t present in the heart of the city near the tower. He tore off in between the buildings and felt his way back around to rejoin his pack. He pushed himself to the limit of his speeds, but when he wound his way back to the main body of the pack his speed was still increasing. He had to slow down to match the rest of them. Achelois was next to break away from the pack. She darted around a small corner and met up with them again without ever losing any of her speed. The pack began to move as a fluid entity. Charles would break away and Katherine would mirror the movement as they raced around buildings and through alleyways to rejoin William and the rest of the pack. William had to slow down a step or two when his pack mates disappeared. On more than one occasion he found himself three or four body lengths ahead of the pack and he felt like he wasn’t even trying.
The exertion alone should have been enough to wind him or at the very least make him not want to play around and concentrate on just the run. But instead of becoming more tired he felt like he was getting stronger, as if he kept catching a second wind. That runner’s high that he had so often heard of, was coursing through his body and he felt neither fatigue, burning lungs, or muscles. He looked around behind him and he saw that Katherine was smiling as she bounded off a building to his left, cut back across the wake of the pack and disappeared in between two buildings. She reemerged seconds later farther down the street, losing only a few body lengths from the rest of the pack.
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William remembered this feeling from when he had been running with Aceso in their escape from those agents or whoever they were. The lack of fatigue and growing strength inside of him was amazing. He didn’t know why he felt this way. He looked around him and spared a glance to each of his pack mates. They were all showing signs of heavy fatigue. Nicolas’ tongue was hanging out of his mouth as he gulped in air, in short rapid heaves. Charles was staring hard in front of him, concentrating on running only. It had been a long time since he had seen Charles break away from the rest of the pack. Achelois seemed to be holding up fairly well under the strain but she was losing a fraction of a step from the rest of the pack with every stride. Katherine was pacing Achelois at the rear of the group. He began to wonder why it was that he seemed to be the only one who still had the energy and stamina to move at the speeds that they had moved at when they first entered the city. He didn’t have time to fully contemplate the thought.
He ducked his head as a black blur dropped in on them from the sky. He skidded to halt as the pack pulled up short in front of the sudden obstacle. Aceso stood in front of them as she raised herself up on her hind legs.
William took the interruption to glance around his surroundings. He was in an unexplored part of the city. He could almost feel the age here, it seemed newer than the heart of the city and yet it was here that was the most dilapidated. He could smell the neglect that this part of the city wore on itself and it made him scrunch up his snout in distaste. He turned his attention back toward Aceso.
Their alpha stood. She looked at each of them in turn. William didn’t know what was going on.
“Where are we?” Katherine asked.
“One of the youngest parts of the City under the Mountain,” Aceso answered, unmoving from her rigid stance in the middle of the street.
“Young?” Nicolas scoffed. “Every one of us has got to be able to smell that. And it aint exactly that new car smell, you know what I’m saying?”
Aceso nodded. “I said it was the youngest part of the city.” Aceso slowly turned around and took in the whole of the area around her. “It’s only about three or four hundred years old.” William eyes widened in shock and he heard a surprised gasp from Achelois.
“Why have you brought us here?” Charles’ deep voice asked.
Aceso turned back around and faced her pack. “There is no special lesson to be learned here if that’s what you are asking.” She stepped forward and took a place among her pack mates. “I knew that we wouldn’t be disturbed out here.”
She knelt on the cold stone of the street. Katherine joined her. Charles and William sat down. Nicolas was the last one left standing. He took a moment looking down at everyone else. William was positive that he was going to say something and he readied himself for any harsh comment Nicolas might make. The preparation was unnecessary. Nicolas dropped to the floor as well, without a single word of derision or protest.