They were inside the Whyte Plain and Aiman and Asclepius were already running. Acharya led the rest of the pack as they silently stalked north in the unnatural quiet of the Whyte Plain. They were only there for a minute or two before Acharya stopped them and pulled them all back out again.
They found themselves back in the cool night air of the African desert. There was no wind and everything was just as they left it. Except that now they had no real idea of where they were.
Acharya looked to Asclepius to lead them. The wolf snorted as he put his nose to the ground, and then into the air, and then back to the ground again. He moved slowly around in a tight circle around the pack. His head jerked up suddenly as he took off at a trot in a straight line. The rest of the pack followed.
There were no lights here in the desert. They could however see the light from bon fires in the distance. The soft orange light they gave off made visible domes of light on the distant horizons. Acharya stopped all of them with a hand upon Aiman’s shoulder and the soft puff of a bark to Asclepius.
Having gotten the general direction again from Asclepius, Acharya was confident that they could make another Whyte Plain ‘jump.’ He moved into the center of them as they gathered and he found the membrane and pushed.
Aiman led the group this time. Asclepius growled low in his throat and he shifted into werewolf form. Aiman dropped his back pack and shifted as well. Acharya also shifted but kept his pack in hand. “Everyone, pick up your gear.”
The darkness around them swirled and began coalescing around them. Aiman was facing outward watching the shadows move just outside of being able to be seen clearly. Acharya said it again as he too was focused on what the Shadows were up to, “pick up your gear,” he said slowly and deliberately.
Aiman knelt slowly while keeping the majority of his focus outward from the pack. He grasped his pack in one huge werewolf claw. Acharya looked and saw that the entire pack had shifted but they had their back packs with them. He slowly moved north of them and said in a harsh quick whisper, “Run!”
The pack moved as one cohesive group; they pushed north. Asclepius made first contact with a wide claw swipe that forced the Shadow in their path to back away. Aiman pushed out to the left of the group as they moved. They were in a full-on sprint. A shadow billowed out of the darkness and just as Aiman was about to rake a claw through its gaseous form, they were back in the African desert.
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Aiman recovered quickly from his shock and dropping his back pack he shifted back into human form, as did the rest of the pack.
“Well, I was hoping to get a little farther along than that,” Acharya said calmly. “We have to walk from here.” Asclepius, back in his natural wolf form, found their previous trail and led the group back north.
They moved quietly through the night. They bypassed any village they came across and they didn’t see any other signs of humanity. As the night wore on the air around them grew colder and the light from the distant fires dimmed as they burned themselves out.
The horizon brightened in the east as they continued. When the sun finally rose, they took shelter near the lake shore. They scurried their way into a deep crevice between two hills. They covered themselves with mosquito nets for some form of protection and camouflage and some shade.
The group had made some progress. As far as they could tell they were well north of the village from yesterday. And they would soon be on the north side of the lake. They had to be cautious. But they couldn’t do anything if they were exhausted. As the sun slowly rose in the sky, they rested. The uneasy rest of the hunted, as they took turns watching over each other as they slept.
That night they moved again. Using the moonlight and Asclepius to guide them. They used the hills to their advantage, using the natural cover of the landscape as best they could. Since the Whyte Plain was not an option, they used their double back techniques to cover their trails and create false ones. Malikah was laying down false scents and covering their own as they traveled.
Acharya found himself looking up into the night sky. It was on a night very much like this one actually. The stars may be in different locations, but it was the moon that he was focused on. The quarter moon hung in the sky like the smile of the Cheshire cat, almost foreboding in this hostile environment. But it was under this moon that he had first changed. The blinding pain of the transformation. He felt like his body would rip itself apart and without the help of the Elder Jacob healing him as he changed, he may have died. He felt every part of himself on fire. And afterwards, when he finally awoke and could breathe again, he was another being. He didn’t quite understand the full weight of what had happened, but Egaiarasu Acharya had died that day and he had become something else entirely.
As he looked up, he wondered what he would be doing if he wasn’t here risking his life. Would he have become a lawyer as his family so desperately wanted him to become? Would he be just another aimless college kid, saddled with debt and no real purpose? He had purpose here. His pack looked to him to guide them and he would not fail them. The lives of six, depended on his decisions. He looked up into the moon and asked Shiva silently if what he was doing was the right thing, and to give him the wisdom to continue on the path they traveled if it was.
Through the night they traced the east, north east, and finally the north shore of the lake. The going was slow and arduous. They climbed more vertically than they traveled laterally. But they kept going throughout the night.