Degree - The Warrior |Book 2|

Chapter 7

ROXANE, LAVENDER, AND the Teller all stood in a clearing. Lavender was kneeling down over something and sobbing. Roxane looked down at the lifeless body of Violet that Lavender was leaning over, her head down as she paid her respects. They had just discovered Violet’s death.
“Are you sure it was Julius? I mean, it could have been anything out here!” Roxane protested. The Teller looked at her with a grim expression on his face. “I’m sure. Those cuts on her were obviously from Julius’s knife, no doubt. But the large stab mark through her body… that could have been anyone’s doing,” he responded. Lavender looked up at them. “But I made him promise not to kill Violet! How dare he break my promise?” She cried. “Unless…” Roxane’s said. Her mind wandered off for a minute. The Teller and Violet looked at her, thirsty for answers to this large puzzle.
“No, that can’t be…” She finished. “What?” Lavender urged, standing up to face Roxane. “I was thinking that Violet could have killed him, but then someone else would have had to be involved. Plus, Fletch and Indy say that they saw him,” she answered. “Well,” the Teller started, “we can probably get closer to the answer if we keep moving.” Lavender whirled around to face Violet’s limp body. “I’m taking Violet’s body. I can’t just leave her here!” She said. The Teller nodded his agreement as Lavender vigorously picked up the heavy body and threw it over her shoulders.
“Can you handle that?” Roxane asked. Lavender nodded. The three of them began to move forward. Roxane could barely make out footprints under the newly-laid snow as they found themselves farther into the woods. “Look,” she said, stopping to examine them. She breathed a sigh of relief as she identified them as Julius’s. “So he’s not dead,” the Teller said. Roxane nodded. Lavender just nervously glanced at the ground.
They kept moving, looking out for any signs of Julius and having to stop every now and then for Lavender as she took a small break from carrying Violet’s body. Soon, they reached the canyon. “How can we get across?” Lavender asked. Her face went pale as she realized that the Teller and Roxane were staring at Violet’s body. She sighed. “Fine,” she sniffled before setting down the body. “But we have to come back for it later.” The others nodded. “It will take too long if we go around. You two transform into your animals, and Lavender, you hop on my back as a cat,” the Teller said. They nodded and did as they were told. The Teller, with Lavender on his back, picked up Roxane with his feet and they flew across.
They landed safely on the other side, only to be greeted by a pack of wolves with Thomas at their lead. “Roxane!” he yelled as the pack neared them. The three didn’t run; they instead waited for the royalty to reach them, as every normal animal here would do. “Roxane!” Thomas yelled again, stopping in front of her. “What is it?” Roxane asked curiously. “It’s Julius! He was here… a-and…” he stopped to mourn for the loss of his brother.
“Spit it out!” Lavender said. Thomas shrank back and instead simply said, “Just come and look.” The group ran to the mountain base. As they made their way up it, Roxane could smell the retched scent of blood and ran to the head of the group.
She couldn’t speak at the sight in front of her. One of the husky guards was lying on the ground, dead, with blood splattered around him, staining the snow red. A tear welled up in her eye as she thought of what could have done this. She ran through the stone gate and into the village, only to see the village animals huddled in their dens in fear. She walked up to the Palace doors, taking in a deep breath as she saw the dead carcass of Joel, Thomas’s brother, laying on the ground.
Thomas slowly padded over to her. “It was Julius,” he said sadly. The color in Roxane’s face quickly drained at those words. Thomas continued, “He walked right into here and killed Joel after I ordered them to attack. He was stubborn, and…” Roxane interrupted him quickly and yelled, “You ordered your guards to attack him?!” Before Thomas could say anything, the second husky guard stepped into the room. “That’s not all. Julius wasn’t innocent at all,” he said. Roxane and Thomas whipped their heads around to face him. “What do you mean?” Roxane asked.
The husky guard continued, “He walked up to the gate and demanded entry. The other guard told him no, and that humans were vile… sorry. He responded quickly by agreeing to his comment and killing him.” A tear fell from Roxane’s face. “B-but Julius would never do that…” she mustered. The guard shook his head. “I’m sorry, but it was all true,” he said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
Before Roxane could say anything, something caught her eye. Julius’s key item was laying on the ground, growing colder by the second. She ran up to it and picked it up. She wasn’t surprised that she didn’t transform into his transformation animal; in Degree, only the original wielders of a key item could transform into that animal. “But he also called himself by something else,” Thomas said, walking up by her. He hesitated before finishing, “He called himself Justin.”