The Forgotten Child

Chapter 23

Alyson's drive wasn't all that exciting. She thought about how he's going to react to her just showing up. She spent most of the time overthinking about her dad and his pack. 

Would his pack accept her? Would she be an outsider? Would they reject her being there since she couldn't shift? 

Alyson's stomach flipped and flopped even more as she got closer and closer. When she was only about half an hour away, she stopped to let Kai out to use the restroom. 

Alyson let out a loud yelp as her foot sank into the snow. The snow reached all the way to her knees. She yanked her leg out from the snow heap. She's lucky her car even made it this far. She was surprised that she didn't need to switch her wheels out for skies yet.

Kai hopped across the snow, unbothered by its presence. Alyson glared at him, how dare he be able to just ignore the snow like this? She yanked trotted her way back to her car and read over the directions she'd gotten from someone at the gas station she stopped at about a mile away. 

Turn left at the fork, keep on that street until it turns into gravel. Once it's gravel take the first right and keep going until she sees the sign for the city. It's a small wooden plack on a tree. It's easy to miss so the dude told her to drive slow there. If she got to the next fork she missed it. And to turn around. 

Thank god the guy knew where this place was or else Alyson would never be able to find it. The towns name was Illortalik. She had no idea what it meant or how to say it. She was glad the guy knew what she was talking about.

The hair's on the back of Alyson's neck stood up on end. She felt eyes watching her.

"Kai!" Alyson yelled frantically for her pup. When he didn't respond instantly her heart rate spiked. 

"Kai! It's time to come back! Kai!" Alyson said hoping her pup would come bounding through the snow. Nothing. Alyson's heart started to sink.

She ran into the knee-deep snow. There was no way she could fight Skinwalkers in snow this deep, but she'd sure as hell try.

She ploughed through the snow following Kai's footprints. Panic made her senses heighten. Her hearing listening to any sound of snow crunching. She pulled out her hunting knife from her backpack. 

"Kai! I swear to god if you are tracking a rabbit or something right now. I'm going to fucking skin you!" Alyson said desperately as she trudged through the snow. She heard low growling coming from where Kai's paw prints led.

"Kai!" Alyson screamed as she moved faster through the snow. She groaned in frustration she lept up and grab hold of a tree branch. It was coated in ice but it was better than trudging in the snow.

She heard more growls as she got into the tree.

"I'm coming! Don't do anything Kai! Just stay there!" Alyson said jumping from frozen branch to frozen branch using her slippery surface to leap from one tree to the next faster. 

She saw Kai's tail up high in alert. She jumped down from the tree next to him.

Alyson looked around and listened. Nothing moved, no sound. Alyson shivered it was eerie that there was no sound that usually means there are Skinwalkers around and the animals have fled from the area.

"Kai, we are in no position to fight. Right now. I can't move properly because of the snow and you still haven't learned how to fight without your eyes. We need to just go," Alyson said petting Kai lightly on his neck. He stood there growling lowly as if not hearing her.

"Kai, please. We need to go," Alyson begged, "We are disadvantaged here. Let's. go. right. now." Alyson said putting emphasis on every word. He finally looked up at her and whined softly.