Princess in the Rough
Chapter 11

Echo

I wanted to point out that I only knew a few members of the clan, but I didn’t want to risk it, so I scurried after the cruel alpha with the storybook in my hands. I walked out of the dark den of the Night Walker clan and immediately spotted Amber’s mess of red hair hiding behind a bush past the other entrance of the rocky area. Did she really think we couldn’t see her? Her hair was an orange, reddish, amber color, which didn’t make blending in easy, unless there was the unlikely chance of a fire. When she spotted me, she disregarded all safety measures and ran to me.

“Echo!” She cheered and hugged me. She smelled strongly of flowers and when I looked down she had a new outfit of tied together leaves on with a belt of all sorts of colorful flowers.

“Amber, what are you doing here?” I shrugged her off and backed away to see if she brought anyone else.

“Uh, rescuing you! You don’t look like you’ve had the best time of your life and it’s getting dark, so I brought some friends.” She smiled smugly. As if on cue five wolves walked out of the bushes. It didn’t look like much of a rescue party but anything was better than hoping you won’t get eaten alive every second.

“So you’ve returned, and I see you’ve brought company.” The alpha walked out of the rocky den with the rest of his pack.

“We have, and this time, we’re leaving with Echo.” Amber announced bravely.

“Such brave words for a human.” The alpha growled.

“Um, Amber, there’s something you need to know about the alpha. He’s-” I started, but Amber cut me off.

“A werewolf, I know.” She’s smarter than she looks, but she wasn’t completely correct.

“That’s not all, he isn’t-”

“Enough talking! Me and the human haven’t finished our duel.” The alpha cut me off this time. Ugh! Why won’t people listen to me!

“No, we haven’t.” Amber pulled out a hastily made slingshot with a weirdly-shaped rock already loaded. The rock was kind of a grayish, silver color and it looked like she had just pulled it from the earth.

The alpha growled at the sight of the rock. If he was a werewolf, and he was scared of the rock, and it was kind of a silver color, than it must be silver ore! Bam! Another reason I would make a great Batman.

“You have Mud Mane! Give him back and you can have your meat back.” The Alpha snickered.

“Send her over first.”

“Send Mud Mane at the same time.” The alpha arranged. How was I going to tell Amber that the alpha isn’t who he appears to be. Mud Mane brushed shoulders with me as he walked past and when we glanced back at each other, I saw a hint of pleading, but he turned his head and stood next to his alpha. “You have what you came for. Now leave while I’m feeling forgiving.” With that, we left.

“Did they hurt you? What did they tell you? What were your trying to say? Will you still take me to see the city?” Amber rattled on.

“Sure, but we’re not done here.” I answered as we walked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, while I was in there, one of the wolfs told me how that wolf became their alpha.” I began to explain the whole, big werewolf, lightning, and full moon to her and the other wolfs she brought. Amber gaped at me.

“I’m confused.” She shook her head.

“Um, how can I explain? Have you ever heard of a werewolf that merged with another wolf?” I asked.

“That’s the part I’m stuck on.” Amber sighed.

“Apparently, that’s a thing. Maybe the werewolf had magic or something, and he so desperately wanted the pack, he merged with the true alpha. I don’t know, but those wolves need our help. We can’t just leave them to suffer under the reign of the Big Bad Wolf.”

Amber chuckled at my last words. “Wouldn’t it be funny if he was the werewolf from Little Red Riding Hood?”

“Wait, he’s real?” I was shocked. Amber gave me a weird look, so I said, “Nevermind, we’ll talk about that later.”

“So you want to go back to the clan that almost killed us and free their alpha from their alpha?”

“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds impossible. But we got the storybook, maybe it could help?” I said and opened book to page one. Blank. I was really getting tired of that. Instead of going to the next page, I just opened it to the back. This time, the book did have more words, but they weren’t as small as last time.

“I was just about to ask you if the book had more words! What do they say?”

“To free a wolf from a wolf, you’ll need a wolf.” I read. Stupid, useless piece of junk! Can you stop speaking in riddles!

“I guess you have to fill up the book with hints or something? I don’t know. How about we focus on how to get you home, then, once we know how we can help the enemy clan.”

“Maybe. Every fairy tale I read usually has a castle, and every castle usually has a wizard! Maybe he can help!” I just about jumped for joy. We could kill two birds with one stone, helping the wolves, and getting to Forest Majesty.

“Wait, I think I have an idea. Tell me, in short, what fairy tales are.”

“They’re not about fairies, I’ll tell you that. Fairytales are… stories about… witches eating children, wolves eating grandmas, and evil stepmothers, that sort of thing. They’re generally for younger kids, but I’ll read them from time to time.” I tried to explain. Now that I think about it, fairy tales are really messed up, and they’re for kids!

“What if, since the book is called the fairy tail trials, we have to replace the people from it and they help us overcome our trials? It’s just an idea.”

“Maybe. Let’s get going, the sooner we replace the wizard, the sooner we can help those wolves.” I started marching in a random direction, but I kind of ran into a tree. When did it get so dark? “Ooooow. You wouldn’t happen to have wolf vision, ’cause it’s getting dark.”

“Oh, really? I didn’t notice. I don’t have wolf vision but the wolves do. Just hop on Green Paw or Night Cry’s back, and please, please, don’t fall off and go crashing into a mad alpha so we have to risk our lives saving you, again.”

“Fine by me. Which one doesn’t mind being puked on?”