Page 14 of Tangled Fates

“Not my first choice,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

“I mean it's either him or that carnivorous plant and I’m sure you’ve had enough plants to last you a lifetime,” he chuckled.

I shuddered again thinking about that damn plant.

“I’ll take Ryder then,” I grunted.

Silence enveloped us as I kept watch and Gray worked. Ryder moved to his back as he started to snore softly. The sky lightened to a light blue as I slid off the rock to walk around. My body was a little stiff from sitting there too long.

“We should get ready to cover some ground today,” Gray said, getting up to stretch. “It’s your turn to wake him.”

I groaned, hating the job of waking Ryder. He was so grumpy when he woke up and he had been in a foul mood since we hadn’t been able to escape. Poking the bear, I ran away before he could snap at me. It took him a solid ten minutes to finally get up and when he did, he looked like a wild man with his hair all messed up. His beard had a few leaves in it and he had a scowl that could make a grown man shit himself.

“Are we any closer to getting out of this hellhole?” he grumbled, sitting down grabbing a protein bar and some jerky.

It’s the fourth day in a row he’s had to ration his food and I know the lack of calories was getting to him. Realization hit me that if he didn’t eat, we wouldn’t be able to drink from him. We might just fucking die out here.

“I don’t know, I’ve been mapping where we’ve been going and I feel like we’ve been going in circles,” Gray said, running his hand through his hair. “There is no way we could be here for so long and not at least get to the end. This place can’t be that massive for it not to be on a map.”

My lips thinned at the information, adding to my stress of us not living through this. We would have failed Serena. We would have failed Katarina. And now we were paying the price of being overconfident. Also, if we ever got out of here, Joseph would get ripped limb from limb and die the slowest death possible.

“What if this is the biggest kept secret?” I played devil’s advocate. “Something is hiding here, and someone has been keeping it secret for centuries.

“Then, let's keep looking. If something is down here, maybe finding it is the only way out?” Gray looked thoughtful.

“Well, let's hurry up because we’ve been dark for over two weeks. I know Serena is probably worried and I can only imagine how Katarina is feeling,” Ryder said, stuffing his face.

“Our supplies are also dwindling,” I stated, knowing it was obvious.

“I know, I need food to keep you guys fed,” he said, like he had heard our earlier conversation.

I nodded, knowing Gray was thinking the same thing.

“It’s not over guys, we still have a chance to get the hell out of here and get what we need,” he said, before securing his vest on himself and grabbing his backpack.

I followed suit, tightening my boots, checking my knives and artifacts before we started our jog through this dreadful place. Gray and I had to keep pace with Ryder since he was just a slow shifter, but he was faster than a human so there were some small miracles.

Midday came quickly and our environment hadn’t changed much. The afternoon was passing us by, and it seemed like we hadn’t gone too far from where we started this morning. The surroundings quickly changed into mostly big trees—which made it harder to run through—with the occasional deadly plant life from the desert-like environment we had first fallen into. It all looked the same, but I didn’t know how we’d been going in circles. Every day it felt different. We were always seeing new fucked-up shit in this unusual gorge.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up before I was tackled to the ground by my twin. A loud snarl passed us as an enormous lynx jumped over us. At least that's what I think I had seen because another snarl sounded before we took off running.

“Ryder!” I yelled because I hadn't seen him in a minute.

We ran at full speed, rounding back to look for Ryder. Gray and I were so in sync that we didn't have to voice our plans, we just did it. A fucking huge lynx thing jumped toward Gray, but he slid down as I jumped up wrapping my arms around its neck and jerking it to the side.

“Fuuuck!” Gray yelled.

Looking around frantically for him, I saw him wrestle with one cat, while another one tried swiping at him. Their claws were huge as I tackled one, staying away from their paws. I broke its leg before he tried to bite me, but I caught its upper and lower teeth ripping its jaw right off.

“Ryder!” I yelled, getting worried that we hadn’t heard from him, while Gray killed the other cat.

My mind immediately pictured a broken Ryder being pulled apart. Another cat jumped on my back while I was distracted. I snarled, getting ready to punch them when a familiar scent invaded my senses.

“You asshole,” I snapped, seeing a large wolf looking at me with his tongue and blood running down his mouth onto the fur on his chest.

He shifted while he chuckled, standing in his birthday suit walking away from us, pulling his backpack out of some hole in a tree.

“What the hell were those things?” He chugged some water, then rinsed the blood off his face and chest.

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