The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 258: A night journey

The shift in the atmosphere was instantaneous.

"Beast style it is," Noah said. "Since we won’t be able to communicate once we transform, everyone will have to follow me closely," he added, and then turned to me. "Who will you ride?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but then closed it; no words came out.

I’d love to be on Damar’s back, but with the speed we were about to embark on, I was scared I would roll off his smooth back.

And so, I needed to be on the back of a furry beast.

"Fenric," Damar suddenly said and I flinched. I looked at him and saw him looking at Fenric. "You carry Ari,"

I was speechless for a moment. I didn’t think Damar would suddenly nominate Fenric.

It was as if he knew his own limitations... Or rather, he knew what I was thinking and didn’t want to burden me too much with choice.

And it seems like even now, he trusts me with Fenric more than he would with Noah. Well, that’s a given.

"Then, Arinya, you’re with me," Fenric said.

"You two, hide the stuff," Damar added, giving orders that they couldn’t even grumble about.

After all, at the moment, he was doing the heavy lifting and making sure the rain didn’t fall on the cubs and me.

He had to stay still until we were ready to move and we were wrapped in enough layers to keep us warm despite the heavy downpour.

Noah and Fenric went to hide the troller and the goods inside. Noah cut the heads of both bears and then staked them, using them as a warning sign for whoever planned to come to this area.

If they saw that two bears were taken out like this, they would exercise some sort of caution and not think of messing with our stuff.

Once they were done, they came back, taking off their clothes.

I watched each of them take off their skirts and tunic and then standing before me, naked, with their limp dicks staring at me so closely.

Ahem.

"Shall we get going?" I asked, trying not to make my thoughts too obvious.

"Hold on," Fenric said, coming closer with the neatly folded clothes wrapped in a bundle, and then the last of the blanket that looked intact.

He wrapped one over my shoulder, and then held up the other, saying to Noah.

"Here, wrap this above her head so she doesn’t get rain on her face."

Noah accepted it, nodding.

"Alright then,"

Fenric transformed first and then Damar lifted me, carrying me in his arms. He let the last of the rock shelter fall as soon as he withdrew his tail.

Then, he took me to Fenric’s back, making sure I was tied carefully with a vine so I wouldn’t slip off his wet fur by mistake, and then looked at the cubs in my chest.

"I think this should be enough," he kissed my forehead, and then Noah came to drape my head with the blanket. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He patted my head over the fabric and said,

"Hang on tight, little tiger."

I watched them transforming with that little ’poof’ and then buried my head in Fenric’s fur.

It was going to be a hard journey so I had to brace myself.

Noah let out a long and loud howl, signalling our departure and we moved.

We moved like a blur. Without the weight of the carts and the limitations of human legs, the ’shortcut’ was a brutal, vertical climb.

I clung to Fenric as hard as I could—not putting my full trust in the vines—the rain lashing at the fur over my head, feeling the wind whip past us.

Above the sound of the storm, I could hear the heavy, rhythmic thuds of their paws and Damar’s body moving like a very flexible whip, whooshing between trees and the like, everyone keeping pace on either side.

My heart hammered against my ribs. I looked down into the cubs at one point, wondering how they were faring—Raiden was actually looking out through a gap in the furs, his little ears pinned back by the wind, but his eyes weren’t full of fear. They were full of wonder.

Phina was the same and of course, Lyra was still snoozing peacefully. This kid, really.

After what felt like a few hours, though probably not even two hours, I began to feel drowsy as well.

I wanted to fall asleep but it would only spell danger to me.

"How much longer?" I mumbled even though I knew I wouldn’t get an answer. ’We’re moving too fast for the rain to catch us,’ I thought dizzily.

But the more I told myself to hang on, the more the minutes bled into more hours, and the crushing, heavy fatigue built up even more.

The cold that had seeped into my boots and the hem of my skirt started to gnaw at my bones. My grip on Fenric’s fur loosened just a fraction as my eyelids grew heavier.

’I can’t sleep. If I sleep, I might shift... I might fall.’

I tried to focus and looked up to see the silver-white blur to our left—Damar—gliding through the underbrush with terrifying efficiency.

He didn’t have to worry about the mud; he simply flowed over it.

Then, his eyes met mine. He was probably checking up on me from time to time to make sure I was doing well.

I looked to our right, and Noah was a black streak, like a shadow, his powerful feline muscles propelling him forward in long, graceful bounds. He was the scout, his ears swiveling to catch any sound that wasn’t the storm.

Suddenly, the angle of our travel changed. Fenric tilted upward, his claws digging deep into the earth as he began to climb a near-vertical ridge.

I gasped, pressing my face into his fur.

"Just a little longer," I whispered to myself, or maybe to the cubs. "Just stay awake, Arinya."

I felt Fenric’s body heat radiating through the rain, a furnace of life-force that kept the chill from reaching the babies. Then, Noah let out a short, sharp bark. It felt like a signal of our arrival and I felt Fenric’s movement slow down.

I raised my head once more and looked ahead of us, and then I spotted it.

A wooden pillar with a roof. That was the watchtower.