There weren’t any clothes lying on the ground. There wasn’t anything at all. No shoes, shirt, not even a ripped pair of pants. He looked up at Ansuya and suddenly he knew what had happened. Derceto must have shown Katherine how to do the trick with the clothes that everybody in the City under the Mountain seemed to be able to do. He almost wanted to shift back into human form just to see if his clothes would still be there. He didn’t need to, Nicolas had already done that.
“This is so cool!” The scout almost yelled into the silence. William looked over to see the scout changing back and forth between werewolf and human form, his clothes disappearing and reappearing with every change.
Ansuya arched an eye brow at him, “I’m glad you’re so amused, Nicolas.” The scout immediately turned to face the elder in werewolf form, he didn’t change again. Ansuya addressed them. “I will pull us all into the Whyte Plain. When that happens stay together and stay with me.” She turned her full attention toward Nicolas as she said that last part. “You all know what waits for us once we are there.” She took in all of them as she uttered, “with any luck, we will get where we need to be before our presence is noticed.” She glanced beside her toward Alexiares, “If not, pull us out immediately. We don’t have the numbers or the strength for a fight.” The massive elder nodded in agreement. Ansuya looked back at William and Aceso, “Any questions?”
William had just one, “How long will it take us in the Whyte Plain to travel the roughly six hundred miles to Fullerton?”
Ansuya replied, “It should take us no longer than twenty minutes, faster if we move quickly.” William nodded. “Anything else?” Ansuya asked again. She was met with silence. She nodded and suddenly the world was gone.
William was stretched and pulled, as the stars overhead moved and was blotted out by pure white mist. The forest smells around him disappeared and the soft dirt underfoot was gone. In its place was the strange surface of the all too familiar Whyte Plain. William looked around at the remembered place. There was nothing to orient himself to. He had no idea which direction was north or south. He turned halfway around trying to see anything in the still white mist that floated around them. There was nothing there…at the moment. William knew, as they all did by now, that those shadows could be just out of eyesight. Those things seemed to have no problem seeing in this muck, but he couldn’t even smell anything to warm him of any danger. All he could do was follow Ansuya and Aceso and trust that the elder knew where she was going.
Silently Ansuya and Alexiares moved into the mist. Alexiares was on all fours while Ansuya followed close behind. The five of their pack stayed in a tight knit circle just behind the two elders. Aceso took up a rear guard and was constantly lifting her nose to the air and doing full three hundred sixty degree turns to make sure no one was following them.
Ansuya started to increase her speed, slowly at first. William was walking behind her and at first it seemed that he was just walking too slowly and he had to put a little jump in his step if he was ever going to keep up with the elder. It became apparent to William what was happening and soon the seven shape shifters were in a full run.
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Nicolas was not stupid and even he pushed himself to keep up with the members of his pack. He was breathing hard after a awhile, but he pushed forward, seemingly determined to not slow the group down. William was a little taken aback by the effort from him. He mentally scolded himself though. Nicolas had displayed traits that were not common for his stereotype. Maybe the City under the Mountain had impressed upon him some discipline and self respect. Or, it could be that even this place scared him and he didn’t want to be here any longer than he absolutely had to be. William hoped it was the former, but as long as the scout was moving, he was happy.
William didn’t know how long they had been there. They could have spent minutes there, or only mere seconds, this place distorted more than just his sense of direction. Then he heard it. That familiar buzzing sound that had assaulted him and his pack the last time he was here. It was only a minor annoyance at this point. He knew what it meant though and they were quickly running out of time.
He knew that Ansuya heard it too, because she pushed forward faster. Aceso had turned around and given up on the rear guard. William didn’t know how long they still had to go but they were in pure speed mode. Alexiares skidded to a halt suddenly. William wondered what the elder enforcer was thinking. A moment later the massive werewolf scooped Nicolas off of the ground as he tried to run past the elder. Alexiares then turned and sprinted forward to rejoin with Ansuya. The four pack mates also increased their speed. Now that they were unencumbered with the lack of speed and endurance from their scout, they could open up and really sprint.
William’s legs started pumping so fast he couldn’t feel the ground underneath him. In the Whyte Plain the ground was soft and unnoticeable anyway, but now he was shooting over the land and didn’t have the time or the inclination to give the ground any more thought than he needed to. He glanced over his shoulder and he forced himself to gather more speed. He knew that just outside of his vision they were being hunted by those shadows. The shadows moved faster than they did and he knew that at any moment they would come tearing through the mist to fall upon them. The pack bond he shared with his pack gave him reserves of stamina and endurance and speed to draw upon but he knew that it was only a matter of time before they were overtaken.
That buzzing in his ears had reached a fever pitch. He wanted to reach up and grab at his head to stop the buzzing. He flattened his ears as best he could against his head. He didn’t need to hear anything anyway. It didn’t help. The buzzing was coming from inside his ears. It was impossible to escape it and it was impossible to close it out of his consciousness. It really would drive him crazy this time. That was ok too. He didn’t need to be sane to run. He just needed to get where Ansuya was leading them.
He had to throw himself to the ground to avoid running into a tree. The insanity inducing buzzing was gone from his ears and he was able to hear the marks of people and civilization around him. William felt the dirt under his claws and he inhaled deeply the smog-tinged air around him. He looked up at the stars in the sky. They were exactly the way they had been when he left. There were a lot fewer of them now but the ones he could see were the same.