Fated is overrated
Chapter 47

Lola POV

I have been on the run for 2 full weeks now, and not a day has gone by without incident. I have said it before - but holy goddess there are so many rogues out here! It has been utterly exhausting these last 2 weeks in trying to either avoid or fight off all the rogues I come across, try to manage food and water and replace shelter. Not to even mention freshening up somewhere, I feel repulsed by myself at the moment.

No wonder rogues reek this badly. I am not sure how far along I have come, I should be approaching the human town up north in the next few days somewhere at least.

Not that this alone will be my rescue. I'll have to replace a job and place to stay, which will be hard with the undeniable homeless look I am sporting right now.

But - worries for later, right now I have to replace myself some food and water again. I have been living off small game in the woods for a while now, I haven't come across anything bigger to catch unfortunately and my energy is starting to diminish day by day due to the lack of nutrition.

I have been sleeping in the trees every night as it is the safest place to be at night. Needless to say this also doesn't do wonders for my energy levels.

I look around carefully, sniffing the air, to make sure no one is around before I start to descend. The coast is looking clear, so I thump my bag down to the ground and start going down.

Once I have reached down, I start making my way further up the direction I have been heading in (which I am hoping is still north - where I was intending to go). I replace some small game in the traps I have built and toss them in my bag to cook later on, along with the traps which I will be setting up at my new camp in the evening.

After about 1,5 hour of walking I hear a water stream up ahead. By the sounds of it it'll be quite a big stream with a lot of current, and I probably won't be able to freshen up. But as long as I have water to drink it'll be fine.

As I am approaching the tree line, I pause to look around thoroughly and sniff my surroundings, to check if I am alone. 'I don't smell anything, the coast seems clear' Liberty confirms what I was thinking, so I get up and approach the stream. As I suspected the current is violent, it must be leading to a big waterfall by the looks of it.

For sure it is not a place to freshen up at least. Grabbing my water bottles from my bag I start filling them up one by one. When I am almost half way through, I suddenly catch a rogue scent, sh*t 'be ready Lola. It smells like just one, but still.

I turn around to watch my surroundings more carefully, searching through all the tree lines to see if I can catch any sight or scent of the rogue. But then, I see a human form approaching. He is definitely a rogue though. As I start speeding back in the other direction he calls out to me "please, wait up, I won't harm you! We met 2 weeks ago remember, when you hurt your leg?".

I freeze and turn to look back, it is indeed the same rogue I encountered 2 weeks ago. Even though he didn't harm me back then, even when I was in a vulnerable state, I'm still wary. "I know what you are thinking but trust me I won't harm you. My name is Nick. I have been trying to replace you to warn you, but you always seem to elude me". Contemplating my response for a moment, I decide to ask what is so important to warn me for, to be following me around for 2 weeks. "What is it you want to warn me for, Nick? I have been doing fine in the past 2 weeks as you can see".

He closes the distance between us while I instinctively take a few steps backwards. "Look, I'd rather not say this out in the open like this, but you are in real danger. The rogue King has been looking for you and has intensified the search party further. Trust me, you do not want to be captured... hmmmm. Now how would he know what the rogue King is up to? I narrow my eyes at him and ask what it on my mind "and how would you happen to know about all of this?".

I notice he scratches his neck uncomfortably before answering, "Look. As a rogue you are either part of his army, or you are dead. So, technically, I belong to his army.

But that doesn't mean I have to agree with him, and I certainly won't participate in bringing you to him. I know what he does to she wolves that are captured and it will not rest on my conscience".

I can't help but snort "well look at that, a rogue with a conscience". I immediately regret saying that when I see the hurt and sadness in his eyes. "You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Besides, let's not forget you are a rogue yourself as well". Sigh.

"I'm sorry that was uncalled for. But to be fair, I have met countless rogues by now and so far you have been the only one not trying to capture me and spew sh*t at me". "Well, I never said I'm not the only one with a conscience out here.

But please, let's head back towards the tree line where we have some cover, we are too out in the open" "ok, let me quickly finish filling my water bottles then".

But before I can even so much as finish my sentence, I catch more rogue scents 'Lola this isn't good! I'm catching numerous rogue scents! Head towards the tree line now'.

Nick must have noticed too as he is ducking down like me. But we are too late. As I look back I see an army of rogues coming out from the tree lines from all directions, effectively surrounding us. "F*ck! Get behind me" Nick yells. "There's no point Nick, look at their numbers..."