“Don’t cuss,” I told Sage.
My redheaded bestie rolled her eyes, and I couldn’t help but think of Raven in that moment. Raven and Sage would be like two peas in a pod, they were so similar. I hoped she was still safe in the bunker with my parents.
I put on breathable cargo pants and a sports bra, a loose top, and Nike tennis shoes Sage had brought me. My official Dark Woods hiking attire was complete with a bandana around my neck.
“What’s up with you and Walsh?” If she was all over Rab, things couldn’t be good.
She frowned. “Nothing. We’re … nothing. He wants to focus on the war and … it’s whatever.” Her eyes glistened with tears and my heart sank into my stomach. Walsh was such a douchebag. Why did he keep playing hot and cold with her?
“Oh, girl, I’m so sorry.” I opened my arms and went to hug her when she put her hands out.
“No hugs! It makes it worse. Everyone knows that. I’m fine. Let’s feed you.” She turned on her heel and spun out of the room.
I frowned. Watching my best friend go through something painful right when I was about to leave made me sad. Hopefully, when I got back, we could all go into the bunker together with Raven and support each other through this war. I just needed to push everything else out of my mind for the time being and focus on one thing.
The alpha trial.
Astra kept praying and waving smoke around me as I ran a brush through my hair and then tied it into a long, thick braid at my back.
“So two hours and then I meet you across the street?” I asked her.
She nodded, never ceasing her mumbling as she wafted smoke into my face, causing me to cough and sputter.
Twenty minutes later, I felt like I was going to puke I was so full. Apparently Sage had woken up early and cooked me a farewell feast. She’d taken powdered eggs, black beans, rice, and shoved them all into a homemade burrito with fresh corn ground tortillas. I’d eaten two of those and promptly regretted the second one.
After chugging water, I met Rab outside where he waited on the porch watching the sun come up.
“How good of a student are you? Can you retain lots of information fairly quickly?” He pushed off the wall he’d been leaning on and I shrugged.
“Yeah, decent. I mean, can I take notes?” Shit, this was starting to stress me out. Would there be a quiz?
He shook his head. “You can’t bring anything into the Dark Woods but the clothes on your back. No weapons, no food, nothing. You must prove that you can become one with nature and live off the land. You must be strong enough for the magic to choose you so that you can lead our people.”
I gulped. “Okay. Yeah, no biggie. Hit me with knowledge.”
He nodded and started to walk, so I followed him. “The first thing you’ll want to do is locate water. Then you’ll want to make a weapon. Multiple weapons. Spears, small knives, big knives, arrows, everything you can. Using one of the knives you make, you can kill an animal for its meat and later skin the hide to use for a bedroll, or most importantly a water canteen.” He pulled something off of his belt and handed it to me.
It was a suede water bladder sewn with a needle and thread. “Study how it’s made so you can do it again,” he told me.
My eyes bugged out as what he said overwhelmed me. We were thirty freaking seconds into this lesson and I was already on information overload. “I can’t bring a water bottle!?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Well, then I’m screwed,” I declared. “I doubt there will be a needle and thread lying around so—”
“Bone, or even deer antlers. It’s very brittle. If you chisel away at it with your knife you can make a needle. Also some wooden sticks can be used as needles. Thread from your clothes or hemp or intestines of an animal—”
An involuntary whimper escaped my throat and Rab turned to me, placing one hand on each of my shoulders. His hard blue eyes peered deeply into my soul as I felt myself actually disappointing him in that moment. It was the heavy sick feeling of total failure.
“You think I want this to be you?” he snapped, gripping my shoulders tightly. “I wish it could be me. You’re the last person who should be going out into the Dark Woods and asking our ancestors to bless you with magic for our people.” His face looked pained, like he might actually cry. “Alpha children train their entire life for the trials, and unfortunately you missed out on that, but the time for weakness has passed. You need to dig deep inside of yourself and find whatever strength you have left. You have to take this seriously.”
I swallowed hard, yanking myself out of his grasp. “I am! But Astra said it’s only a three-day walk there and back. I can find water, drink it, and be back before I need to make a canteen from the kidney of a cow or whatever.”
He scoffed. “That kind of thinking will get you killed. The second you step foot in the Dark Woods, you need to treat it like your new home, like you could be there forever.”
Forever.
“I refuse to do that.” I crossed my arms in defiance, my wolf coming to the surface to glare at him.
I could hear his teeth clamp shut from here. “Then our land dies, our magic dies, and our women go barren. You kill the magic growing inside of my child.”
I staggered backward as if his words had physically reached out and slapped me.
“Never mind. You’re a lost cause.” He huffed and turned to leave.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
He’d gotten up at the ass crack of dawn to teach me how to survive and here I was being a bitch to him.
“Wait, Rab. I’m sorry.” I ran to catch up with him. “You’re right. I need to learn all of this in case I am there longer than the few days I have planned. I’m just … I’m scared, okay? But I am strong, I am ready for this. Please teach me.”
He stopped, looking back at me behind a mess of brown hair.
With a sigh, he turned and pointed to a familiar white root sticking out of the ground. “That’s Ch—”
“Cholka root. Pain reliever,” I told him.
He appraised me with pride. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet, city girl.”
Over the next two hours he showed me which plants and roots and berries were edible and which ones I could rub on the tip of my dart for poison. He went over basic wound care, such as using sunlight to help heal, always using clean water to wash the wound, and he taught me how to make a paste that involved an antibacterial moss and cholka root.
He told me about how to make homemade sunscreen out of clay, and in the end he even showed me how to skin and gut a rabbit.
I only cried three times and threw up once.
I longed for my iPhone, Range Rover, and Instagram then, but knew those days were long behind me.
At the end of the lesson, with only fifteen minutes left, he taught me how to make fire. I’d been rolling the damn stick between my fingers for what seemed like forever. I leaned forward holding the other stick and kindling with my feet, and did some crazy yoga type pose so that I could also blow softly on the sparks that were coming from the sticks rubbing together.
My palms had heated up more than the sticks at this point. “Ughhh, this is too hard. I’ll figure it out later.” I stopped rubbing my hands and looked up at Rab, my not-so-patient teacher.