Chapter 5 - DARK WITCH

Earlier, a great pack of wolves had arrived at the edge of the dome and couldn't see what was happening in the dome. They had formerly left in an hurry to attend to an emergency in their territory but it appeared to be a false alarm. After waiting for hours with nothing happening, the Alpha King had ordered them to search thoroughly, putting most wolves on the border to patrol.

Natalie Quinn, who was a female alpha and the only child of Duke and Duchess Quinn, was the first in the whole Kingdom of Lycanthrope to singlehandedly train many wolves into deadly warriors. A formidable pack was what she led and she was aware of how the Alpha King had been eyeing her pack and how other nobles at the same time, saw her as a threat. She could understand the envy and insecurity of other nobles, but couldn't understand why the Alpha King would set his sight on her pack when he had the royal army. In her opinion, her pack warriors hadn't even grown to their full potential yet.

Nobody knew why Natalie had really involved herself in the dragon's misfortunes as she had set off with her deadly pack at the moment she got the news, only to return suddenly after some days in battle. Then she went against the nobles and defied the Alpha king's order by going back to help in the dragon's war after seeing that contrary to the royal summon she had received, there was actually no threat to Lycanthrope, the werewolves territory.

On getting to the dome, they couldn't see anything but could only hear the monstrous sounds coming from within. One could not see what was going on inside the dome from outside, and vice versa. That is, anyone inside the dome couldn't see what was happening outside and anyone outside couldn't see what was happening inside the dome.

A male in a dark hood was busy pouring some dark powdery substance round the whole edge of the dome. The pack laid low and watched as the witch chanted something and started swaying to the chants, jumping like he was possessed. He took a crooked knife and stabbed his palm, pouring his blood over the powdery substance as he chanted loudly.

"What are you doing?" Natalie's beta asked as he appeared like a phantom, yanking the male witcher off the ground.

"If it isn't Liam, Natalie's lackey." The male witch said, cackling after recovering from his state of shock.

"What, how..?" Liam started to ask but Natalie's voice sounded in his mind. "Bring him to me."

"Yes, alpha." Liam mind linked back, taking the man who kept cackling hysterically to Natalie.

"Speak." Natalie who was staring at the dark powdery substance commanded.

"Of course, of course, I will gladly tell you." The male witch rubbed his hands, snorting and spitting out phlegm. He wiped his mouth with the dirty black rag he was wearing as it couldn't even be called a robe anymore. The pack members were disgusted by his piglike behavior. He looked extremely dirty from head to toe."Why are you all looking at me like that? Hehe, keep looking then, you won't be able to keep that look on your faces for long anymore though, hehehe."

"What do you mean?" Liam interjected.

"What do I mean? This is why you all don't deserve to be in power. You only run the world with brawls but not brain. But of course, because I'm so happy tonight, I will gladly tell you what I meant, hehe. You see that stuff I just finished pouring?" The witch asked, pointing his fingers with long, dark, dirty nails backward to the powder circumferencing the base of the dome. He turned to face the dome leaving the wolves with his back view. "It signifies your doom! All of you! Hahaha. Nothing can be changed again. We witches have always stayed low. Always been in hiding! Always been untrusted and mistreated. So, we decided to take power into our own hands, and rise above all races!" He finished with a fanatical look on his face.

"What?" Someone expressed his surprise. When have they ever oppressed the witches?

"So, you're behind this catastrophe?" Liam interrogated, obviously discarding the whole maltreatment statement.

"What do you think?" The witch replied, raising his thick, dirty eyebrow disdainfully. "Tell me, if you want to be really powerful, in order to rule over your oppressors, would you go for something weak to help you gain that power you need? Of course not. The most fine and powerful specimen has to be used. Which is why..."

Natalie's attention on the words of the witch was cut by the voice of the wolf she had secretly sent into the dome. "Reporting to Alpha, the situation within the dome seems to be strange."

"Give me the details." Natalie mind-linked back.

"The monsters are much more than they normally are with so many giants. There's a strange case of two giants killing other monsters rampantly and right now, they're facing off with several giants. Also, I can't find any of the dragonkins or the witches. None of them seem to be in sight except one dragon far off in the distance. And there seems to be someone in a white robe with the dragon." The reporting wolf finished.

"Hmmm." Natalie's green orbs looked back at the witch still apprehended by them.He seemed to be a garrulous one as saliva kept flying from his mouth as he spoke non-stop. The mind-link was still active. "Is the person in white a male or female?" Natalie asked.

"I'm not sure, Alpha, since they're too far off in the distance, but this white-robed person seems to be carrying a bright red staff."

"A bright red staff?", Natalie's eyes which were still on the ragged witch, drew together in suspicion. "Visual connection."

"Yes, alpha." The reporting wolf in the dome responded, closing his eyes. His black orbs were replaced by Natalie's green ones as he opened them again.

Natalie was able to visually connect to any of her pack warriors through mind-link. She sends part of her consciousness to the receiving end and would be able to see whatever it was they were seeing. It was one of the many special attributes they shared as a formidable pack.

"Sarabi!" Natalie growled on recognizing the identity of the person in white robe. Green flames burst out of her body that was still with the pack outside the dome.

Almost as if the person in question could sense Natalie's presence, she turned towards the wolf's direction. Her white robe fluttered in the air as she paused for a while before turning back to keep battling.

"She has sensed you. Come back outside. We'll be entering through another side of the dome." Natalie instructed before cutting the mind-link.

Her pack had already surrounded her when she opened her eyes. "Alpha," They all bowed. Their alpha had been quiet until the sudden outburst of flames from her body. She was enraged and they could feel it. Currently, her eyes were spitting flames as she stretched her hand and the crazy male witch flew into her grasp. "Where are the dragon warriors left?"

"They're in a battle. If you can't find them, of course that would only mean one of two things. They either ran away or they're dead." The crazy witch replied. The flashing scales on his body however shows how he was trying not to be subdued by the intense Alpha pressure Natalie emitted. Though he was a witch and not a werewolf, that pressure made him want to totally go limp, and ended up invoking his fight-or-flight mode.

"You're right. But the dragon warriors I know would neither run, nor die so easily. So let me ask you two more questions. Where then, are your fellow witches who were helping them? Finally, what did you guys do.....to the dragon warriors?" Natalie's grip tightened on the witch's neck. Her flames burst forth again making the witch scream, finally going into fight mode, transforming into an ugly scaled being with dark long nails and a long split tongue. He tried scratching Natalie's arm but the flames wouldn't allow it. Anyone who knew his identity would know how poisonous those nails were.

Some of the pack members gasped on seeing this.

"Dark witch???"

"Wait! Wait, I'll tell you everything! But first, promise to let me go after telling you." The witch said, his words slithering due to his snake-like tongue.

A slight uproar started amongst the pack members since the witch had already said so much initially, blatantly admitting that they were responsible for the catastrophe befalling the dragonkins. Adding to the fact that he wasn't just some normal witch, but the evilest of the witches, the dark witch...then in no way does he deserve to be let go of.

Natalie answered, contrary to everyone's expectation, including the male witch himself. "I promise."