Into The Mountains(COMPLETED)

Chapter Eight

Lisa POV

"It's done." I told Jennie, crouching down next to her, pushing my head against her. I desperately wanted her not to reject me.  She was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees. She turned her face from me, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. Her breathing was unsteady. She took one arm and hand off her knees though and put it around me, rubbing a bit tentatively at my fur. Jen cleared her throat a little. "Did you get the information?"  I wanted to lick her face, normally a comforting gesture, but I didn't want to touch her with the tongue I'd just used for other things. I pushed my head against hers. "No, she can't tell me your information without you there, and I just needed to be away from her for a moment. My first thought was you as soon as I could get away. We have to go see her when you're ready."  Jennie cursed quietly, a long string of bizarre curses at least half of which I'd never heard before.

"Fine." She finally said, a moment after she was done with all her cursing. She took a deep breath, letting it out in a sharp breath, her face agitated again. "Fine." Then she turned and started heading back for the cave.  I sighed. She had every right to be angry. I just hoped it wouldn't eventually drive us apart. I was beginning to wonder if my guilt would. I got up and followed after her, back into the cave. When we got inside it was exactly as it had been when we'd first entered. The Seer was sitting on the same spot on the carpet like what had happened was just some piece of an imaginary thread of reality that could be snuffed out.  "There are three paths ahead of you. You can stay and try to live beneath the Alpha, you can leave and try to find a new place for yourselves, or you can fight and try to take the Alpha." The Seer leapt directly into things this time.  "Should you choose to stay and try to live beneath the Alpha, he will come one month after your pups are born and take Jennie for his own, but not before he kills each of your pups in front of you. You will try to fight him back, but it is uncertain whether you will live or die. Jennie will be killed trying to help you."

"Should you choose to flee, your babies will die, and Jennie will be injured to the point that she will need constant care, and never be able to give birth again, but you both will live, though it will be far on the outskirts of wolven lands, and you will live in constant fear. The Alpha will never stop searching for you."  "Should you choose to fight, there will be a great war in your pack. Lines will be drawn, many will die, and when the smoke clears the winner is uncertain. Jennie will live, and at least one of your children. Your fate is less certain, Lalisa. In some strands you are gravely injured and die shortly after battle. Jennie becomes the first human Alpha, and raises a male heir who becomes the next wolven Alpha. In some you come out strong, and are later betrayed and killed. There is one strand where you survive and win the battle, the clear victor, and the pack submits entirely to you. It's impossible to see an exact outcome to this. There are still too many variables."  She looked to my wife next.

"Jennie, there is a glade next to a large mossy stone with water running swiftly nearby. Your brother is there. His horse broke it's leg while he was searching for you, he's alone and lost, and he will be dead in a few days if he does not get help. Even now a kodiak male stalks his trail."  "Is that everything?" Jen asked, her face a bit like the mask she wore for visitors we didn't know well but without the smile, though her voice remained pleasant.  "That is everything." The white wolf said.  I got up and turned to leave, waiting for Jeannie to join me. I knew where this glade was. I'd been there before. It was a long way from where we were now, almost in the opposite direction that we'd come from the village. We'd have to move fast. He might die of exposure in a day, but a kodiak bear would take his life much faster. The rest of what she'd said could wait to be considered more closely. 

Jen walked past me out of the cave, posture stiff, and when we got outside I could see her eyes were narrow as she chewed over what the Seer had said. "I wonder which fool of a brother of mine it is, my guess would be Hanbin or Bobby." Ava sighed. "I hope it's not Bobby, I'd feel obligated to help him but he'd do something terribly stupid I'm sure. Hanbin is at least charming when he's stupid."  "It's almost a full day's trek moving at normal pace to the clearing." I told her. "If you get on my back I can run on all fours and we can be there in six or seven hours."  Jennie went around to climb onto my back. She had yet to look me in the face. "Oh good, you know the place. I had no idea, of course."  It hurt to feel the rejection, but I supposed I deserved that. Obviously what I'd done at hurt her, so it was only fair that she be allowed to hurt me as well. Still, the information was worth it. I now knew how to save my wife and most of, if not all of, my pups. I'd have to fight HyunSuk. That was clear. Whatever outcome came from that, Jennie would survive.