Thank the gods only the seemingly “alpha” wolf attacked. He was the biggest one of the pack and he stood at the front, his nostrils flaring and sniffling the air. 

The rest stood their place. Pandora wasn’t sure whether they were waiting for orders from their leader or they simply weren’t sure if they should attack. 

Pandora immediately reached for Inge’s hand. Her eyes found the only spot where none of the wolves stood. It was the space where the alpha wolf stood. Pandora grabbed the leather bag they had all their supplies in and pulled Inge with her. She tried her best to leave the circle as fast as she could, avoiding the snarling wolves. Her blonde companion squeezed her hand when they ran out of the circle. They sprinted among the trees, through which sun rays streamed in and down at the pair of girls. 

She could hear the growls of the wolves behind them and she could tell they weren’t far away. 

“Inge, we have to -” She panted heavily. “- get out of here.”

She kept on holding Inge’s hand, not intending to let go as they ran towards the blotch of light in the distance. The forest and the territory of the wolves ended there. All they had to do was get out of this maze of trees.

Just when she was about to celebrate in her head, she felt something sharp dig into the back of her thigh. The pain went through her whole leg instantly. The blood began running down. She glanced over her shoulder to see what had hurt her. The alpha wolf was just a few feet behind her. It seemed that the effort to scratch her slowed him down a bit. 

She put all of her effort and energy into the running, but it wasn’t enough. Not with an injured leg. Thankfully, Inge, who wasn’t hurt, took the lead. It was almost as if they exchanged their roles when the blonde girl sped up, dragging Pandora behind her.

As the blood kept coming out of the wound, the next couple of minutes were a complete blur of heavy breathing and tripping. 

When she opened her eyes again, she was on her back in the tall grass of the field. The sun shone high above their heads. Pandora guessed it was noon. 

She felt something trying to turn her sideways. It took her a second to focus on the freckled face of her friend. Inge was attempting to get to the back of Pandora’s thigh to heal it. Pandora didn’t hesitate and rolled onto her side to give Inge easier access. 

“The wolves don’t dare step out of the shadows of the trees,” Inge spoke as she worked. “That’s why father adores them so much. They’re dark and hide in the shadows. They love the darkness more than anything. Maybe they reminded him of himself.”

Inge shuddered but continued healing.

“They also cast a blue glow, if you noticed,” Pandora continued. “It brightens whenever someone lies or is making excuses. That may be the reason the Erebeans keep them in their castle. Especially at meetings.” 

The Erebean people lived in a kingdom nearby - Erebea. Pandora used to live there with her father, in their family mansion. Then he kicked her out for not wanting to continue the family tradition of being a fighter for the kingdom. That’s when she met Inge. The blonde girl told her she was on her way to becoming a huntress of Artemis. Pandora joined as soon as leaving the kingdom was mentioned.

They stayed quiet after that. 

When Pandora’s leg healed completely, they decided to continue on their quest. They were getting further and further from the forest and the howls died out already.

“Two days …” Pandora muttered to herself. Ing heard her and tilted her head from the ground to look at the brunette. “Awful isn’t it?” She smiled bitterly. “How we’re supposed to find the lair of a giant which could be basically anywhere in five days and prove ourselves worthy on the way, I have no idea,” she sighed. Pandora didn’t know what exactly to say. There wasn’t anything that could motivate either of them. After a minute of silence, she finally thought of something to say.

“Remember, we’re doing it for our lady. We’ll be able to join the hunters of Artemis once we’re done with this!” She said, her voice sounding more confident than usual. 

“Hmph,” Inge didn’t sound convinced. 

Pandora decided to drop it and continued walking in silence. Inge seemed to appreciate her not talking. 

The sun was now slowly making its way towards the horizon behind their heads. They wandered through the tall grass of the fields until they saw a mountain amongst the clouds in the distance. 

“Is that it?” Inge spoke up, her voice hoarse from not speaking for hours. Pandora followed her gaze until it lay on the large piece of rock. Her throat immediately went dry upon the sight, and she reached into the leather bag over her shoulder to take a sip of water from the flask they kept around. She couldn’t believe they were so close already. She wasn’t ready to fight a giant yet.

“I think so,” Pandora nodded grimly. Inge held out her hand for the other girl to take. They intertwined their fingers. A warm aura filled Pandora the moment she felt Inge’s skin on hers. “Thank you,” she mumbled. Inge simply smiled and squeezed her hand. “We’ll make it. You swore, mi amor.” Pandora’s heart fluttered at the nickname. Inge had made it a daily occurrence to use nicknames as such, but Pandora couldn’t help feeling flustered at every single one of them. Still, she had no idea why. There was no reason for her cheeks to burn up from that.

“I know I did,” she finally spoke up when she realized she didn’t say anything and caused an awkward silence between them.

“We will find a way. We will make our lady proud.”

At that moment, Pandora wasn’t so sure she even wanted to make the moon goddess proud. But she kept those thoughts in her head, unsure of what her companion would say in response. 

They decided to rest for the night. Inge pulled a thin blanket out of their bag and spread it over the grass. “That’ll have to do.”

When Pandora lay down, she felt the grass beneath the blanket brushing against it. The sound of crickets came from everywhere around them. As much as she thought the sound was annoying, it helped her fall asleep. Her eyelids immediately fell.

The last thing she knew before falling asleep was Inge wrapping her arms around Pandora’s waist and pulling herself closer to her. 

Pandora woke when the sun was already high up in the sky. She rubbed her eyes before sitting up. Her gaze darted around before it settled on Inge. Her skin looked a bit red. Pandora suspected her friend got sunburnt the day before. The girl was sitting next to her, braiding her beautiful blonde curls into a long braid. Her wispy bangs fell into her hazelnut eyes. They were slightly puffy, and a bit of sleep crust sat in their corners. It was quite clear she woke up not much earlier than Pandora. She was wearing cargo shorts and a deep green tank top. A picture of two little serpents who were intertwined together was in the middle of the front of the top. 

“Mornin’, beautiful,” Inge said when she noticed her friend woke up. Her lips curled into a smile, revealing her crooked teeth. “Thought you wouldn’t wake up.” She finished braiding her hair and was now looking around for a hair tie. 

“Good morning,” Pandora mumbled, her cheeks heating up. She turned her head away from Inge and pretended to search for the hair tie. She fished around in their leather bag and finally pulled out a simple black one. “Here.” She handed it to Inge who took it with a bright smile and a “thank you”. 

Pandora quietly watched.

Inge interrupted the silence between them. “We should carry on with our quest. This is the last day, after all,” she spoke. Her gaze traced the mountain in the clouds. 

Together they folded the blanket, stuffed it back into the bag, and headed towards the mass of rock.