Chapter Sixty One: The Thorns

The Kingdom gates for the Witch Kingdom has been crowded but hundreds of eager witches, awaiting the arrival of the supplies that will Carry on their families for the next several weeks.

Royal guards make their way down the street, moving any and all civilians that could block the main road leading to the castle entrance.

Once a path has been cleared, Aurora arrives, motioning for the guards to open the gates to recieve the supply carts. As the gates open however, Aurora notices something is already off about them. None of the drivers were witches that she could recognize. On top of that, despite their covers, she could tell that they were up to something. Their body demeanor displayed a sense of anxiousness that to her, alerted her to there being a possible attack on the kingdom within the next several minutes. And that meant she had very little time to prepare a way to deal with this issue in a very Covert way.

Aurora motions for the wagons to be go down an isolated, narrow street leading to the west end of the castle. The Royal guards looked on in confused as she motioned the carts through. However, As the last cart made the turn down the street, Aurora noticed some strangers within the crowd.

Men, dressed in rags, almost foaming at the mouth, looking as though they hadn't eaten in days. Though despite their appearance, it was the tattoo on their hands that caught her interest the most. Two small thorn tattoos, which almost looked like small mountains. These were the Thornbloods. A group of radical Lycans who had felt wronged and grown impatient with the Kingdom of Witches. And that is when Aurora knew what was taking place.

Though the Thornbloods had their issues with the Witches, they had never attacked directly before and this concerned Aurora. Whilst she knew there numbers were small, averaged around 10- 15 adult Lycans, they could still prove a threat and danger to her people.

Aurora turned and followed the wagons and began thinking of ways to damage control the situation as best as she could. And that is when she realized she would have no other choice than to act with violence. But she would have to be as quick as possible.

And with that, Aurora suddenly began sinking into the ground, turning herself into what resembled a puddle of green, glowing goo. The mysterious liquid traveled up to the first cart and slithered up a Thornbloods legs before sliding up to his face, covering it completely so that his screams could not be heard. This ended him quietly as possible. Aurora then proceeded to repeat the same steps with the other two drivers before turning her attention back to the crowd where the other Thornbloods had vanished.

" Shit" Aurora growled as she ordered some guards to dispose of the bodies whilst she tried to locate the remaining thornbloods. It was only after searching for several minutes that she realized there was several guards missing from the castle gates. " They made it through.." She thought to herself as she rushed inside the castle in hopes that she could stop them Thornbloods in time. However, when she walked in, what she witnessed was her father, fighting off several thornbloods by himself.

Though she had never properly seen her father in conflict, what she witnessed was a slaughtering of these Lycans as though they were nothing. However, this now presented a bigger problem. Because despite his victory, he was surely going to take issue with the Lycans over this squabble.

And of course, as he stood there, covered in the blood of the Thorns..his face said a thousand words. It was anger. It was pain. It was the expression of a man who felt like he had been betrayed by the world itself. And that he didn't know what else to do except respond with anger.

" The Lycans will pay for this. They will pay I tell you" He barked as he stormed off down the hall to his room which Aurora assumed was to clean himself up.

All the while, her mother stood in front of the bodies and sighed with discontent. " I knew this would happen. I knew we needed peace. And I knew we needed a deal to make that happen. And I knew that these..mutts would come after us at some point" She scoffed. Aurora decided to try and ease some of the tension. " These are thornbloods and they don't represent the Lycan Kingdom. Thornbloods are radicals and they have been just as much of a nuisance for them as they have been for us" Aurora tried to reason though her mother seemed oddly calm.

" Do you think I don't know that? I could smell these mutts from a mile away" Her mother spat on the ground, almost to get the taste of the oder that had snuck into her mouth, away from her.

" But that doesn't change things. We need peace, Aurora. And we have to find ways to make that happen. The Lycans..." her mother pauses for a moment and then almost seems to cut herself off to change her answer. " I will speak with your father. The truce is still on, I can assure you of that. But do not think for one second that I didn't know about you trying to reroute the supplies" her mother scowls at the now shocked Aurora.

" The only reason I'm not going to tell your father is because if your plan had worked, this probably could have been prevented. But make no mistake about it, there will have to be peace within the next year. And you will have to give birth soon.." This caught Aurora off guard a little..

" I mean it's not that simple Mother.." Aurora loved Khalivare but to be pushed to have child by her own mother made Aurora uncomfortable to say the least.

" I'm not joking. This, has to happen soon. Or we are going to be in serious trouble Aurora. I'll make preparations for the wedding to be done as soon as possible"

And with that, Auroras mother dissapears down the hall to her father's room and Aurora is left to question what had just taken place.