Chapter 3

Bolt’s Pov

The storm behind us was fierce, we had thankfully gotten through it, all of us were still intact. I shivered from how cold it still was, even though the storm was gone and behind us.

Axel shook remaining bits of snow off his fur, making it fall onto Mhina. Mhina growled, shaking her fur off. Lupus watched, glaring at Axel. Axel chuckled and kept walking, I just watched with amusement, I knew this was going to be a long, long journey. Axel looked up and sighed, the sun was barely rising, I had my fur soaked to the skin, it was uncomfortable and heavy. Axel sighed again "We best pick up the pace in case another storm comes" he suggested to us. I looked at everyone, Inferno was exhausted from carrying Romulus, Mhina and Sheila were both quite tired as well, and so was Lupus and I, the only one that seemed fine was my uncle, after all, he was a grown wolf. "Look, I know you're all tired, but I don’t think any of us fancy another attack from Nemesis". We all nodded as we kept moving forward.

I looked back at Inferno and Romulus with a worried look, they were the most tired among us, being the second oldest and the youngest in the group seemed to take a toll on their bodies. Axel then stood back a bit and offered to carry Romulus for Inferno. Inferno shook his head gently, not to hurt Romulus. Axel sighed and looked at me with worry in his eyes, I shook my head and kept walking.

We soon came upon a larger looking forest. As I was next to my uncle, I could see what was ahead of us, unfortunately, uncle wasn't paying much attention and looked to be distracted by his thoughts, I, however, managed to notice the vine hanging from a nearby tree, which Axel was going to walk by, the vine seemed to be in a loop on the floor, I didn't quite know why..... though I was soon to find out when Axel put his paw into the loop and got hoisted up into the air. That was when we heard laughter coming from up in the treetops.

A wolf around my size jumped out from the trees, he was slimmer and looked more agile than all of us, though his fur would've been shiny and sleek if he had been careful, it was full of leaves and dirt, making him look more like a rogue than anything else! He kept laughing at the upside down Axel who was growling in annoyance "Let me down, kid!!" he shouted, or at least tried to since he seemed to be having trouble speaking with all the blood rushing to his head from being upside down. I growled "Who are you and what do you want with us!?" The wolf smirked then in a blink of an eye was in front of Oracle, who screamed bloody murder when she saw him in front of her so suddenly. Oracle growled at him, she wasn't too fond of having the newcomer invade her personal space. Romulus snarled and tried to attack him but he moved out of the way, letting Romulus fall to the ground and huff in annoyance.
"The name is Lucas. Nice to meet ya!" he smirked. I glared at him, not too fond of his attitude, "what are you doing here?!" I asked again, i was beginning to get annoyed, "Im only here to help" he said innocently, or at least trying to sound innocent, with the smirk on his face, you would think otherwise. "Well, nice to know you are 'Helpful!" Axel snarled sarcastically. Lucas laughed until he was laying on the floor, Inferno sighed and cut the vine that Axel was stuck on. Axel fell to the ground with a loud thud, Lucas obviously heard that and started laughing a lot more. I rolled my eyes "let's keep moving guys, ignore the hyena over there". "Hey!" Lucas suddenly got up, offended "Who are YOU calling Hyena?!" he called out. "You, mouse brains!" Oracle called to him as the group moved forward. Lucas' ears flattened at the insult...I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "If you're going to stand there all day waiting for your next victim, you might as well come with us!" Bolt called out, they were nearing the edge of the thicker forest now.Lucas' eyes brightened as he ran after them, easily keeping up. I heard Oracle huff but she never said anything.
I looked back at Romulus and Inferno, who seemed to be muttering. I shook my head, I knew it was rude to eavesdrop but apparently Lucas didn't think that... Lucas' ears flicked as he listened in on the little conversation "So.... what are ya guys talkin' about?". Romulus jumped at Lucas' voice "Hey! Keep your nose out of OUR conversation!" he yelped. Lucas laughed. Inferno rolled his eyes and huffed. Romulus growled quietly while Axel snorted at Lucas. I sighed deeply, these guys would never get along, would they, i thought to myself. I soon noticed that Lucas had kept looking at Oracle strangely, this wolf was very weird indeed. I was starting to doubt that he was even a wolf, he looked a lot like a dog....

I suddenly bumped into Axel, who had suddenly stopped at what seemed to be a very large river. I heard rustling behind us. Axel growled and turned around to the rustling, I did the same, but jumped in surprise when a small rabbit came jumping out of the bushes and scampered off.

Axel grumbled and shook his head, before looking at Oracle "Will you be able to see how deep this river is?" he asked, concerned. I saw Oracle hesitate slightly before nodding and jumping into the river. I watched as Oracle swam through the river, my ears flattened with fear that the strong current might take her, Oracle then popped back up "It's not that deep, i think w can swim through it but we have to hold onto each other's tails, i'll go at the back and Axel can go at the front, this should provide strength and stability in the line" she explained. Axel nodded "Brilliant idea, Oracle" and with that said, I grabbed onto my uncles tail while the others did the same in a straight line. and so we crossed the river...

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