Chapter 17
Shocked and devastated, Veronica did not know who to call for help. Even if she did call for help, no one would hear her and she doubted if anyone would want to help her. Besides, she will only be attracting trouble because the trap was possibly set by rogue wolves.
She knew she had no one to call but herself, hence, she had to do something and she had to do it fast.
“Scott? Scott? Can you hear me?” She began to call him but got no response.
“Please if you can hear me, answer me, please, Scott. You're scaring me. Scott!!!!” She screamed as she spoke, not caring if her voice was loud enough to attract anything dangerous.
Seeing as he wasn't responsive, hot tears welled up in her eyes and she began to cry. This was the only person she has met since she was trapped in that forest and now it seemed like she had lost him too. She sat on the bare ground and cried so much until her eyes began to hurt.
As she cried, her eyes caught a glimpse of a rope tied to a branch and immediately, a thought popped in her heart,
“I can use that rope to get to him, can't I?” She said to herself as stopped crying and wiped her tears with her cloth.
She swiftly got up and untied the rope but as she tried to lower it into the pit, she realized it wasn't long enough. She hurriedly searched around and luckily found another rope which she tied to the first one she found, making it longer. She tried once again and this time, it got to the end of the pit. She was so happy that she jumped for joy.
She then picked one end of the rope and tied it to the base of a massive tree. After ensuring it was tight and firm enough, she lowered the other end into the pit and tried to call out to Scott once again but he was still unresponsive. She then decided to go into the pit to get him.
She gradually lowered herself into the pit, while holding the rope firmly.
After a few minutes, she got to the bottom of the pit safely and she immediately rushed to Scott.
“Scott? Scott? If you can hear me, please say something.” She said, panicking.
She knelt to the ground, leaned towards him and moved close to his nostrils and fortunately, he was breathing. This made her glad because she knew it was only a matter of time before he would wake up. She then sat and placed his head on her lap and held his hands as she waited, with fingers crossed, for him to wake up.
.
.
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**ON THE OTHER END OF THE FOREST**
The warriors from the Fire Dawn Pack who had been sent to find Scott finally arrived in the forest and immediately, they assembled in front of their leader.
“We all know why we are here.” The leader began, “Or is there any one here who doesn't know the purpose of our being here?” He asked as his eyes travelled from one warrior to the other, searching for an answer, but instead, silence filled the air.
“That's good. So, it's safe to assume that we all know why we are here, right?”
“Yes, sir.” They all chorused.
“Now, we'll split into two groups. The first half will go in that direction,” He instructed as he pointed in a particular direction, “and the other half will go in the opposite direction.”
They immediately splited into two groups according to his instruction, and he assigned the other group, a leader, while he led the first one.
“Beta Richard said this was the last place they were all together, that's why we are going to start our search from here and we'll search the environs too. He shouldn't have gone too far from here.” The leader said, looking around.
“Okay sir.” They all said.
“Look out for any possible clue that can lead us to him. Clothes, shoes, foot prints, anything at all. No matter how small it looks or how strange it looks, make sure to call my attention to it. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir!” They all answered with one accord.
“We can all leave now.” He said on a final note and both groups dispersed in their assigned directions immediately.
As they searched for hours, they could barely find anything tangible or meaningful because the rain which fell after Scott got lost, had washed off any footprint that could have been on the forest grounds, so it was so difficult for the warriors to find anything that could link them to where he was but nonetheless, they kept searching frantically for him.
They searched for more hours until it looked like it was about to get dark. The leader decided to stop the search since they didn't find anything.
He made a sound to alert the other group to come together.
“Gather round, all of you.” He ordered his group as they waited for the other group to join them.
Suddenly, one of the warriors in the other group shouted, “Leader!!! You need to see this!”
“What is it?” The leader asked as they all raced to where the warrior shouted from.
“Look.” He cried out as he pointed to the floor which had the shredded part of Scott's cloth, stained with blood.
“Oh no!” They all exclaimed.
“Are you sure it's his? I mean, it doesn't look fresh to me.” One of the warriors asked, voicing out his doubts.
“Exactly, I think we need to confirm if it's his or not. It could have been for anyone.” Another one concurred.
The leader crouched to pick the stained cloth, he smelt it and indeed it was Scott's blood.
He paused for a moment and got up, “It's his.” He announced with disappointment, and they all exclaimed.
“What does that mean? Does this mean he is dead?” One of the warriors asked, trying not to believe what was going on right before his very eyes, but no one said anything.
Everyone remained silent except him because he wasn't quite convinced, “But what about his body? Is it possible to-” He tried to talk again.
“Just keep quiet, will you? Can't you just be quiet?” One of them silenced him.
“Can't you see the blood stain and the paw mark on the floor?” The other warrior asked him.
“The paw mark could have been left by any animal, don't you think?” The doubting warrior asked.
“If that doesn't tell you that THAT animal must have hurt him, I don't know what to say to you anymore.” The other one replied and hissed.
“That means he must be out there somewhere, maybe hurt but-” He wanted to speak again but the other warrior cut him off, rudely.
“What the hell is wrong with you! Why are you acting like a kid? Can't you see that since we can't find his body here, he must be seriously hurt or dead somewhere?”
They kept going on and on until the leader got tired of their bickering and shut them up, himself.
“ENOUGH!” The leader yelled at them, angrily. “Enough with the back and forth! Is this the right time to have useless arguments? We should be talking about the way forward, not having endless arguments.” He scolded them.
“We're sorry, leader.” They both apologized.
He turned to the warrior who was certain that Scott must have been dead, “And you, do you just jump into conclusions when there are no concrete evidences to backup your claim? How can you be so sure that he is dead just by seeing a blood-stained piece of cloth? You don't even want to find his body at all? Really? Is that how quick you want to get out of here? Is this how you will lead when you become a Leader some day?” He spoke angrily. “Such a coward!” He spat.
“I expected better and I'm so disappointed.” He added.
“I'm so sorry, Leader.” He apologized with his head bowed.
He then turned to the rest of the warriors who were now quiet, “NEVER be in a hurry to conclude any search, especially when a life is involved. Never make such mistakes! Search until you find every single piece of information that will lead you to the right conclusion because you never can tell if you've missed the most important piece of information if you're so quick to round it all up! Is that clear?” He thundered.
“YES, LEADER.” They all roared in response.
“We'll search one more time to see if we can find any more clues, but if we do not find anything, we'll head home and give them an update on THIS.” He said, holding up the piece of stained cloth.
They all nodded and got to work but as much as they combed the whole place, they couldn't find anything.
“It's getting dark, we have to go back now and update the Alpha. Depending on what he says, we might have to come back to expand our search range once the day breaks tomorrow.” With this being said, they all had to head back to the pack before it got completely dark.
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