Awakening (2 book series)
Awakening – Rejected Mate Chapter 71

Who knows? I don't think I ever will. I don't think I will ever replace the ability to forgive him for it either, even if it was all in the fate's crazy masterplan.

Maybe I'm trying to replace a reason to justify all of this because I was always taught that the fates are never wrong. They always have a purpose for everything they do, even if we can't see it. Even leaving lonely little girls as unseen shadows in homes for unwanteds, and then showing her a light of hope before crushing it in her face and throwing it far away.

I don't dwell for long. I know if I do, the bitterness, the sadness, and anger, it starts to consume me and destroy my mood. I have to move and replace somewhere to settle tonight, before the dark moves in, and I want some hours of daylight to properly set up my bed, replace leaves and dried grass to pad it first. It's become a ritual daily to help keep me sane. One thing I'm replaceing is instrumental to my mental wellbeing, is taking the time to make my camp comfortable and a little homely and have some down time before dusk. I sleep better, which helps my overall emotional state.

I get up and gaze around, slightly disorientated from walking in circles and going off to replace water and decide to check my directional progress before I keep moving. I've covered some distance and want to keep that huge dark mountain in the far distance as my central point to aim for. If I have a plan that I don't sway from it helps me stay focused.

I look up at the trees, walking clockwise in my clearing to replace the tallest and thickest of them to climb. It's better to have one with a substantial trunk right up to the top so I can get above the canopy and peruse my land. It's not hard to climb when you have claws and super strength to aid you, and a complete lack of aversion to heights, that I didn't know I possessed.

I pick one and waste no time kicking off my shoes to turn hands and feet into sharp climbing accessories and scale all the way to the top in the blink of an eye. Lycanthrope have many skills that natural wolves don't, and this is one of them.

I push my head up through the leaves, breaking through easily, and even with this beast swaying as I scale to its terrifying height, I cling on and look out over what I can now see. The trees up here form an almost solid carpet surface that looks like you should be able to step out and walk across. All swaying in waves and dips on the wind up here, like a mass moving green surface on water, with more texture.

It's definitely not as gentle when you're this high and it's almost mesmerizing to watch. The lay of many shades of greens, moving to browns, and some yellows, the peeks of the odd rock formation or small hill and the sporadic clearing. It's a sight that's not comparable to anything else and I revel in its beauty for a moment, the sun fully warming my head and face.

The mountains in the distance are so faint they almost look light grey, and as I turn to see where I came from it's weird to note my own mountain is now also of a similar color and distance away, but also surrounded by a fog that makes it almost invisible across the large expanse. I get that same aching quench of gut twist when I look at it and shake my head, bringing my focus back to my new destination in a bid to combat those feelings. No time to dwell on where I've been, when I should only focus on where I'm going. Gazing back at my new mountain thoughtfully, something catches the corner of my eye and makes me turn instinctively.

The sun dazzles a little speck, a tiny flicker of white spark which seems to bounce at me across to the right, but when I turn to look properly, I can't see where it came from. The trees sway, covering any chance of seeing it at first. I wait with held breath for the sway back again, wondering if I imagined it, but there it is, a little flicker of reaction in a pop of clearing, almost like a light, shining Morse code sparkles at me, and then it's gone as the trees sway back again. The organic flow of their movement closing and opening the gap where it peeks out.

I focus on it, waiting for the movement of wind to show me it again and this time I hone my eyesight on what it might be. Holding myself as steady as I can on my own moving perch. I catch the tip of what looks like some sort of pole or mast, and when the wind kicks a bit harder, the leaves part wider for a second and I catch the top of something flat and dark grey, just below whatever is catching the light, and then it's covered again. No matter how long I perch here watching it's the most I can see, and I start to wonder what it is.

It's manmade for sure, but I don't know if it's a mast, a building, or some sort of rural construction used by power companies, or maybe something else. Curiosity is peaked for sure, as it's not far from the path I plan on taking and now I want to know if I'm straying into human territory, in a place that seemed idyllic and people free.

I sigh in exasperation, looking towards the mountain then back to my little flashing light, head forming so many questions and doubts and try to see something I just can't. It might be a supply post, seeing as we are well off the beaten track and people do that. I've heard of it, seen it on Tv, and saw them in the books in the school library. Rural buildings sat lone and open, filled with survival kits for lost hikers, injured campers, especially in winter. I mean this place is nestled in a real dense part of the forest, absolutely miles into the center of a massive overgrown part of the area. It could be a supply hut, with dried foods, supplies, maybe even shoes and water bottles.

I look down at the ground far below me as though thinking about the possibility of what I might salvage there, something in my gut urging me to go investigate. It wouldn't be a bad thing to pick up items I could use if that is what it is. I can't imagine it would be anything other than a hut, or a mast.

It couldn't hurt, I mean, I'm not exactly on a schedule and if I get close and it's not occupied, or not a supply hut, and just a mast or something pointless, it'll remove any suspicion of people running into me. It might be nothing more than an unmanned power plant building, and I might gain nothing more than a few hours wasted on a detour. If it's manned, then I get the hell away from it, change path and head for the mountain at a faster pace and hope they never venture the way I'm going. It might still be a source to swipe some essentials though.

My gut says go, and without stopping to debate it any longer, something inside of me egging me on, I slide down the tree to go recover my things and see what is out there in my new discovery.