Page 106 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
I made sure to tell her that I believe her, so she knows that at least one adult does. In general, it seems like most of the adults here failed the kids. It’s not like I can’t understand, but it’s upsetting that we have a whole group of witnesses, and everyone brushed them off because they are kids.
No one believes the children. No one believed me.
My head is hurting from all the thoughts running through it, and the worst part is that Ita and Tynan still haven’t returned. I have no one to talk to, no one to comfort me. I just want Ita to return and smile at me like she usually does. She is such a fierce warrior, strong and beautiful. She has that beautiful long brown hair, always tying it back, full lips and deep brown eyes. And she is fun and kind. She is the whole package.
“Princess Alana?” Alpha Blaine approaches me, successfully pulling me out of my thoughts. “One of my men told me you might have some news.”
“I do,” I say. “Is there anywhere we can talk in private?”
Blaine leads me to his office where we can talk without being interrupted. His future luna, Caitlin, joins us too, and I tell them everything I found out from the kids, minus the little secret Caitlin’s sister told me. They won’t believe in dragons, and I certainly don’t need to out the little girl like that. Not if I can’t back her up in any way, yet.
To say Blaine is shocked is the understatement of the century. “The children knew all the time,” he manages.
“They did,” I confirm. “A child’s eye is innocent; their mind is innocent. They will see things us adults can’t see, before they grow up and lose the ability to see what’s hidden; the wonders of our world.”
“We didn’t believe them,” Caitlin says sadly. “I had a feeling they weren’t lying, but I thought that maybe they just had a bad dream, or their vivid imagination was trying to help them cope with everything that happened.”
“Not all they told me will be true,” I tell her. “As you said, some things they said were clearly their imagination, but the underlying message is clear. Someone enchanted the werebears and probably gave them more power.”
“They must be a bigger group than expected,” Blaine says. “It’s impossible for the bears to attack so ruthlessly without having enough backup. Enchanted or not. Do we know of any bear sleuths?”
“There are no werebear sleuths in this land,” I tell him. It’s a fact I always felt conflicted about. While I’m not a fan of the bears, I’m also against condemning a whole species. It just leads to more resentment.
“Aren’t there some residing in Darkmont Town?”
“The town at the eastern border?” I ask.
“It’s only rumors I’ve heard,” Caitlin says. “It’s said that there are werebear rogues in the no-man's land around the town. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were hiding there.”
I frown. That’s the place Royan and General Shayan wanted to check on. Hopefully, they were successful and will have news when we meet them.
“At least we now know what we are up against,” Blaine points out.
“That might be true, but how are we going to defend ourselves against enchanted werebears with enhanced powers?” Caitlin asks.
“True, it’s a problem,” I agree. Before we can discuss further, there is a knock at the door. Blaine’s eyes gloss over.
“That’s my beta,” he says, as he gets up to open the door. “He said, Tynan is back on the pack grounds.” He turns to his beta and talks to him quietly, telling him to send Tynan to the office, so that we can catch up with each other.
For a few minutes, the three of us wait in silence, before Tynan barges in. He is in his usual good mood, and just seems to bring fresh air with him. He is loud and brash, but he always means well. Sometimes I get annoyed at his laid-back attitude, but now I really appreciate him being here. Blaine and I fill him in with everything I found out from the kids.
“The children, huh?” Tynan leans back and stretches his legs. “No one ever believes the children.”
That’s what I love him for. In his heart, he is a child himself, just like me.
“I’ve certainly learned from this,” Blaine says seriously.
“But now that we know, how will we react?” Caitlin asks. “How do we fight against an enemy whose powers we don’t know?”
“We can only prepare to the best of our abilities,” I say. “We have good warriors, and we have witches in this country who can support us. Furthermore, we need to dig and dig until we find out who is behind all of this. Knowledge is power.”
“Princess Alana is right,” Tynan confirms. “We don’t know much yet, which is our biggest disadvantage. But, we do have resources and witches we can counter them with. For now, we have to rely on our warriors and prepare them as well as we can. We will send notice to King Gillean for him to inform the other towns and regions of the kingdom.”
Caitlin sighs. “You are right, of course. Thank you for your help. I’m just terrified something bad is going to happen now, while we are still vulnerable and not prepared.”
Her uncertainty is contagious. I’m a fairly positive and happy-go-lucky person normally, but something about the fear in Caitlin’s eyes strikes a chord in me. This pack has just been attacked, then, their neighbor pack was. There is so much lingering trauma, so many losses. The only good thing that came out of it is that the two packs joined forces, and Caitlin and Blaine found each other through their pain.
“We are not leaving you alone,” I say to Caitlin. “We are not just leaving.”
