23 • LARICE

LARICE HASTED THROUGH THE LONG TUNNEL to go after the scout. She must not let him reach the left tower.

“Those stupid beasts!” Larice whispered, panting. What was he thinking? Or was it his father who had told him to attack? After all, as what she had noticed so far; he was like a puppet, following whatever his father would tell him to do. Dependence was only for the weak. Those who could not stand on their own should’ve stayed as babies, sucking their mother’s teats.

Larice chased the hunter, entering the left archway at the end, then through a dark, narrow tunnel, then a few turns of left and right, until she reached the spiral staircases leading up to the top of the tower. But the scout wasn’t there anymore when she searched around. He could’ve not been that fast enough to reach the top.

Larice listened carefully. The piercing clangs of steels echoed from the gatehouse. Other than that, she could hear nothing else except her strong p