Chapter 36

Isabella's POV.
"I'm really not comfortable with Liam like that just now." I used the blanket to wipe the water droplets from my hair while looking over at Elijah.
There are still a lot of White Birch Pack members on his side who could cause a lot of trouble within the Green Creek Pack. Just like my "good friend" did earlier.
"Trust your Pack, there are strong enough warriors here." He answered me and handed me the other blanket. While doing so again, he gave me a kiss on my forehead.
I think I'm much calmer.
Yes, I should have trusted my Pack. there are the best warriors here, and if they are not able to stop Liam, then the whole werewolf race is finished.
"Yes, that's right. We should go and think about what we're going to do next." I plucked up the courage to look at him.
"Excuse me, alpha, luna. now that the temperature has dropped here, you should go back to your rooms and continue discussing these things there." Oliver's voice came from behind me. It was then I realized that Elijah was stepping on one of his shoelaces while he was balancing in a bizarre position.
I looked at the two of them and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Oh, it looks like our luna is in a much better mood now." Oliver bent down and tied his shoelaces back up. Immediately afterwards, he stood up with an incredibly serious expression.
"A good mood is the most important part of physical recovery. Based on past experience, the hardest part of this test is on this last hurdle. I sincerely hope that in five days you two will recover to your most excellent state."
I had heard something about this one, but it was from my orphanage days. The women there used to tell stories about the elders to kids like me, and in those stories Liam was usually the best candidate to be the next elder. They thought he was good enough to last through those tests.
I wonder what they would think if they heard what Liam had to say about the test. I thought to myself with malice.
"Then I'll trouble you for the next few days inside the Pack." I heard Elijah say to Oliver.
It does fit the rules, but I sense something else in the emotions coming from Elijah. If we both fail to stick around, then he expects Oliver to take care of Pack instead.
"Of course, I'll take good care of the place, and then I'll give it back to you after. I won't give you any chance to spit on me." Oliver put his arm around Elijah's shoulders.
"The moon goddess will always bless us."
I think he should understand what I mean, otherwise he wouldn't have said that.
On my way back to my room with Elijah, a huge crow landed exactly on my shoulder. It was so big that I had to tilt my head to get it to stand still. But no matter how much I shook it, it refused to get off my shoulder.
I stuffed a piece of jerky into its big mouth so that it would greet me in its raspy voice.
"Hello, Isabella. it's been a really dangerous ride."
Its wings can barely be retracted, and I guess it's not incomprehensible to be so spiteful.
"You look like you've hurt your neck with that look." Elijah looked at me with wide eyes.
"Will this be too heavy?"
"I know, but it ......" I put my arm in front of the crow. This made it go off my shoulder rather reluctantly.
It needs someone to hold it up! I thought with chagrin. It had only been away for a few days and it had been injured to this extent, so obviously this must be the work of Liam's men.
But it just looked at me calmly like that, and I couldn't get any answers from its expression.
I took a look at its anklet. This one was much larger than the one I was wearing on its leg, which meant it held more information. I ran back to my place as fast as I could, no one wanted to read those messages on it sooner than I did.
"Give me this and I'll take you to the infirmary." I pointed to its anklet.
"When you fix my wings later, please use anesthetic."
I don't know why, but I could see the seriousness in its expression.
That must have hurt. I suddenly felt a bit of pain for it.
"Sure." We both happily agreed.
The good thing is that the crow's wing was only dislocated, so it wasn't as bad as it thought it would be. After settling it down, Elijah and I went back to the residence. I soaked that anklet in the potion and solemnly recited the incantation.
Soon the anklet was transformed into a letter in front of me. The writing on it was only visible to the owner of the raven, so I had to read the contents to Elijah. He was also looking forward to the contents, so he just sat beside me like that.
The situation on the wizards' side was very positive, so I was relieved.
"How's it going?" He looked at my expression.
"Are they helping us to explore that jungle?"
"It's not quite what we thought it would be. They said they had gotten into the dwelling, but not because we alerted them. After the elders left, the girls found a way to set the furniture on fire while the witches went to help put out the fire." I looked at him naggingly.
I can probably imagine what that would be like. Thanks for those past White Birch Pack experiences.
Wizards live in the middle of the forest, and once they see a fire they will rush over as fast as they can. Even if those werewolf guards try to stop it again, it won't do any good. Instead, they spotted the girls who looked particularly pitiful.
The girls' injuries may have been obvious, or at the very least, they could not be ignored. Otherwise these wizards would not have taken them away.
Witches are good at healing. They must have taken the girls away. And the girls must have mustered up the courage to ask them to leave them behind.
The witches were not good people, but before they drove the girls away, they received a letter from me. So now those girls are being well cared for in the witches' colony.
Some of the girls also had serious psychological problems, but most of them also recovered to the extent that they were able to return to our Pack. As for the guards who were guarding the girls, they had long been captured by the wizard.
"The witches will bring them over, because it just so happens that the elders are with us now." I looked to Elijah and tried to ask his opinion.
"The guardian wizards also agreed to hand over to us, but asked that we provide enough warriors for the handover."
On this point I can very much understand, after all, the werewolf warrior is certainly more powerful than those wizards. The sorcerer's physical ability is to be a little worse.
"Of course. We have them to thank in this matter." Elijah replied with exceptional alacrity. Immediately afterwards, he took me into his arms again.
"These girls deserve to be free, not imprisoned there."
I felt incomparably relieved, and my heart, which was beating like crazy, calmed down. I knew that no matter what result we got from our examination, whether we ended up alive or not, this matter should get a proper result. And now it seems that it is already arranged.
"Actually, I don't think we can lose, the moon goddess must see the truth." Elijah's warm breath was right next to my ear, and I could just feel the tips of my ears flush from his words.
"Yes, I believe you." I buried my face in his arms.
Early the next morning, Elijah and I got up as promised and prepared to head to the test area set by the elders.
"Make sure you come back, son. There is nothing more important than your own life." Joanna greased my face.
"I know, Joanna. i'll be back tonight for your mushroom soup." I smiled and gave her a hug.
I think she probably really thought of me as her own child, and I felt like she was like a mother to me. If my mother were still here, I think she would be such a gentle person like Joanna.
"Go on, kid." She escorted me out the door.
"How did you get ...... on your shoulder," Elijah asked me in the companion link.
"It's a sign that someone loves me." I replied.
It was Joanna who couldn't stop crying just now.
This time it wasn't near our Pack, but in a cave further away. On the map, this is is consecrated as a holy place and forbidden to the general public.
"There are many legends about this cave, they all say it's the gateway to hell." Elijah trolled with me in the companion link.
"But I don't believe there really are those creatures. It's just that from time to time I wonder if it's because there's something else here."
This is a very reasonable observation, and it's how Liam intimidated us when we were at White Birch Pack before. As long as we thought from the inside that leaving White Birch Pack was something that was going to kill us, then there was actually no need for him to have any strict control over us at all.
"But maybe it's just because it's so deep and looks a little scary." I continued on my way.
But the closer I got to that hole, the more I felt something was wrong.
The temperature here is getting warmer and warmer, and there is hardly any life around. Even if there is, it's just birds flying by and very small rats.
"Maybe there's a volcano here, or something scarier." Mia marveled inside my head.
"No wonder it's so hard. But as long as it's not a dragon, I guess it's not even a big deal."
Dragon?
I thought about the stories I had heard as a child in the orphanage. Dragons were the absolute top creatures, but then for some reason they too went extinct.
"But dragons are really powerful, and they can completely burn a city to the ground in a matter of minutes." I struck up a conversation with Mia. "If I do meet them, what should I do?"
"Put away this bad feeling of yours, there are hardly any 'ifs'. But if we do meet, then I'm afraid we'll have to wait for others to offer us flowers next year today." Mia's voice was still calm, but with a little bit of panic that was hard to detect.