Nomad {Editing}

::Chapter 21:: Peace amidst Chaos

Silence broke out across the gathered men and women, no one seemed to know what to say.

Most seemed shocked, a few were angry and one or two didn't seem capable of caring less.

Yet there was one common theme, no one could look away from the King and his youngest son.

It was a rare moment when the King wore his emotions on his sleeve. Yet now he was all but trembling with the fury running through his veins. The distance between them was closed in the space of a second. 2

The King growled, his finger pointed and accusing. "No." The world bellowed from his lungs, and seemed to ricochet across every crevice of the tent. The sound was filled with every emotion, ranging between anger and pain.

"Your mother is dead and it is no one's fault but your own." The King was whispering now, as though the pain crippled him so badly that he couldn't raise his voice to anything louder then a strained murmur. "Don't you dare blame anyone but yourself."

Eyes narrowing until they rivalled that of a cat's instead of a wolf's, Charlie snarled.

Unable to remember slipping into a crouch, Charlie straightened up. Tail bolt upright behind him, more then prepared to fight should his father move to try and stop him. Or even attack him as a consequence.

"Her blood is on your hands."

Without another word, Charlie was gone from the tent and into the open air again.

Gasping for breath as everything seemed to come crashing down on his head. Tearing him apart inside. He didn't remember ordering his feet to move, but before he realised it he was running as fast as his paws would take him.

Branches whipping at his fur as he went, Charlie forgot about his pain and the fact that he was still bleeding heavily. He needed to get himself as far from camp as he could, he needed to breathe.

As much as he now hated his father, he had no intention of killing every innocent man as well.

Even if the guilty vastly outweighed the innocent at this point.

Skidding to a stop when his paws felt like they would buckle from beneath him were he to push himself too much further. Charlie collapsed onto his side with a heavy sigh, he shook with the effort of holding himself together after everything that had happened.

Had he been honest, or capable of being honest with himself in that moment, he wanted nothing more then to lose it just as a way to release all the pent up anger inside of him. But he knew he couldn't.

Resting his head on his paws, panting from the excursion of running here and the weight of everything else that had happened that day. The interrogation, the belief he was going to die, it all crushed him under its weight.

Charlie had almost allowed sleep to take him, when the sound of footsteps made him stiffen and growl. Ears flat to his head, he couldn't see the source of it for a moment.

At first all he could see was the golden eyes peering through the trees, and he snarled. I'm an idiot, they'll still be looking for me, he forced himself to his paws. More than willing to kill whatever danger would come from the shadows.

Then he caught a scent which forced him to calm down, if only a little bit.

Briar.

She stepped from the trees and bushes, and looked at him questioningly. For a moment, neither said anything, uncertain. Charlie twitched his ears at her, trying to find something to say, anything.

"Thank you for saving my life," he said in a quiet voice.

Apparently this had not been the response she had been expecting, taken aback. She grinned.