The next few days passed in a blur of travel.
First, we managed to successfully gather the Cuthrals—a burly, dark-toned tribe—along with two other packs. Once he had these three additions, Bastien suggested to Sergius that we had enough groups to split ways and gather the rest faster. Sergius agreed to his suggestion, since it was far more efficient than all of us traveling together. Each pack was allotted groups to gather over the next few days. Our fellow travelers also agreed that we would only have time to gather the strongest packs, at least for now. They decided to gather fifty in total. With fifty, Bastien seemed to be convinced that they would be strong enough to move onto the next step: taking on the hunters.
But first, of course, everybody had to meet to discuss what their strategy should be. This was something that I was still scratching my head about, and Bastien had not offered any further clarification as to his thoughts either.
Thus, we all split ways, promising to meet our quota of recruited packs within five days, after which we would all gather in Rock Hall—another suggestion that was posed by Sergius as his own idea, rather than Bastien’s, since they were far more likely to accept it from him.
Bastien and I did not have much of a role to play in gathering the packs, given that most of them we stopped by were either unknown or enemies to him. We relied on the others to go in and do the recruiting. For us, it was a lot of waiting around, followed by more travel. Though I could not say that I got bored at all. Bastien was too interesting a man for me to feel bored around. We talked a lot, and I dug deeper into his childhood—like what it was like to grow up as a wolf in The Woodlands—and his culture. He also introduced me to his family in more detail, particularly his siblings: how they used to pass their time, how they would hunt, play, fight, and do everything together. It sounded like his siblings had been his best friends.
I also told him more about The Shade, as well as the current state of affairs on Earth. He seemed impressed when I described the role that The Shade had come to play in everything, the protectors and fighters we had become. I also told him everything that I knew about the hunters—something that he, understandably, took particular interest in.
We lived mostly on a diet of either river or lake weed, since there did not seem to be any shortage of fresh water in The Woodlands, and it was quick and convenient. I guessed that some of the more courteous wolf tribes we visited would’ve invited us inside for a hot meal, but there were just so many of us. It would have been a huge undertaking to accommodate all of us.
Bastien was again unaware of most of the locations we were heading to, so we could not travel up in the trees… which left us on the ground, enduring Brucella’s constant glares. I was not sure if it was just my imagination, but I couldn’t help but think she was spending more time watching us now than she had before Dane had spotted Bastien holding me in the lake. At least we had parted ways with the Bonereavers for the time being.
But once the pack stopped to rest for the night, Bastien always escaped with me to the trees. As time went by, I found myself looking forward to the end of the day when we could get away from the crowd of dangerous strangers and be alone. It was during these stolen hours that we had our best conversations. We could both feel much freer around one another. But often, we did not talk. Often, we just sat together, enjoying the silence and each other’s presence.
Over the next four days, the Northstones worked hard, even cutting down on resting times to meet our quota. Fortunately, we reached an area that seemed to be far more populated with wolves and there was less distance to travel between each den. By the fourth evening, we’d gathered every pack allotted to us except for one. We had to hope that the other tribes had been as successful as we had been.