Violet

Bei paused, pulling the worn map from her pack and spreading it out in front of her. Her brow furrowed as she eyed our route and compared it to our landscape.

"We are here," she said slowly.

I murmured. "I noticed..." Then I looked at her, noting the tension in her shoulders. "You’re uncomfortable."

"A little," she admitted. She folded the map carefully, but didn’t put it away. "You should be too. Unclaimed lands are unclaimed for a reason, and last I checked, most are toxic. It could be the air we breathe, the water, or forestry." She sniffed. "The air feels different here. It’s hard to explain."

I understood what she meant, though I didn’t feel the same discomfort. If anything, I felt lighter here. More alert. Like something in this place was waking up a part of me I hadn’t known was sleeping.

"I think it’s still relatively safe," I whispered, looking around.

Bei looked worried.

I lightly smiled. "I promise... if I notice anything off, I will let you know... At the very least, I can’t smell anything toxic in the air."

Bei sighed, holding the map as we walked, but she still didn’t fully relax.

The pull in my chest shifted, and it made me pause.

It wasn’t exactly stronger, but it felt a little closer. The steady hum that had guided me for weeks had suddenly changed pitch, settling into something deeper and more resonant.

"Violet?" Bei was watching me, concern flickering in her eyes. "What is it?"

"The pull I’m feeling," I said quietly. "It’s different now. I don’t know how else to put it or why I am so sure, but I believe we are almost there."

Her eyes widened with anticipation and she quickly darted looks around before unfurling the map again. "Really?!"

I looked out across the pink dunes, toward the horizon where the sand met a sky painted in shades of coral and gold.

"I think so, but I don’t know yet," I admitted, glancing at the map.

"I mean... I understand," Bei commented, eyeing the map. "If something out of place was here, I think other wolves would have noticed especially during the documentation of the maps..."

As if struck by a sudden realisation, Bei’s words faltered and she came to an abrupt stop, shock written all over her face.

I turned to face her. "What’s wrong?"

Bei’s eyes darted between the map and the landscape, her expression shifting from confusion to something deeper.

"The distances are wrong," she said slowly.

"What do you mean?"

She pointed at the map, tracing a line with her finger. "I’ve been tracking our progress carefully. Marking landmarks, counting the miles between points." She shook her head. "According to my notes, we should have reached this ridge two days ago. But according to the map’s scale, we still have another week of travel."

I looked at the ridge she was pointing to, clearly visible in the distance.

"Maybe we’ve been moving faster than you thought?"

"No." Bei’s voice was firm. "I’ve been doing this for weeks. I know our pace." She turned the map over, examining the faded text in the corner. "Our maps were last updated seventy years ago. The unclaimed lands are marked, but..." She trailed off, her brow furrowing deeper.

"But what?"

"The territory is smaller than it should be." She looked up at me, something unsettled in her gaze. "On paper, this region spans hundreds of miles. But based on our actual travel, it’s barely half that. Either every cartographer for the past seventy years has been wrong, or..."

She didn’t finish the sentence.

I watched her work through it, seeing the pieces click together in her mind.

"If there was something hidden in these lands," Bei said quietly, almost to herself, "something valuable... the unclaimed territory would have been the first place wolves searched during the hunts. It’s isolated, difficult to reach, and hostile to most. The perfect hiding place."

"But they didn’t find anything," I murmured.

I remembered as much. The wolves did search these places, but not for long.

"They didn’t." Bei looked at me, and I saw the question forming in her eyes. "Which means either there was nothing to find... or they couldn’t get far enough in to find it."

The mineral scent on the breeze grew stronger, and somewhere in my chest, the pull hummed in agreement.

And for the first time, I had a concerning thought.

Maybe Bei shouldn’t be here. Her senses alone were making her uncomfortable, even if I couldn’t sense anything out of place.

I turned to face Bei fully, studying her more carefully than I had before.

Now that I was looking, I could see she looked clearly uncomfortable... and her breathing was a little rushed.

"Bei," I said slowly. "How are you actually feeling?"

She blinked at the question, then waved a hand dismissively. "I told you. Just unnerved. It’s strange terrain, that’s all. I have never particularly been to an unclaimed land, so all I must have heard about has me disturbed."

"That’s not what I’m asking." I stepped closer to her. "The air here. The mineral scent. Is it affecting you?"

Bei hesitated, and that hesitation told me more than her words would have.

"It’s... a bit strange if I am being honest," she admitted after a moment. "But it’s not dangerous. I’m not in pain or anything like that, and I don’t sense any slow acting poison or agent in my body."

I lightly frowned. "I don’t know... You said it yourself. Unclaimed lands are unclaimed for a reason. Toxic air, toxic water, something that prevents wolves from living here." I gestured at the pink dunes around us. "What if this is it? What if the deeper we go, the worse it gets for you?"

"I’m fine."

"You’re not fine. You’ve been tense since we crossed into this region, and it’s getting worse the further we travel." I held her gaze.

Bei shook her head and sighed. "Violet, it’s not every place. And like I said before, food is another reason some wolves don’t stay in certain unclaimed lands. Maybe the food here is what is toxic, and we have enough here."

I didn’t say anything. The reason we still had a lot of food now was because I barely ate and had mostly been taking energy from the sun mostly.

But I couldn’t help but worry.

Bei sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.

"The mineral smell is strange," she said finally. "But I don’t feel sick. Neither am I having trouble breathing." She looked at me, determination settling into her features. "I can keep going."

"Bei—"

"I’m not turning back now." Her voice was firm. "We’ve come too far. You’re close to finding whatever this pull is leading you to. I’m not leaving you to face it alone."

I stared at her, torn between gratitude and worry.

She must have seen it on my face, because her expression softened slightly.

"I promise," she said. "If I start feeling genuinely unwell, I’ll tell you. I am not stubborn about things like this. You should know that by now."

I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I could see she wasn’t going to back down.

"Fine," I said slowly. "But we should be stopping soon for the night."

Bei frowned. "It’s still early. We could cover more ground before getting tired. And aren’t you excited to quickly find what we’re looking for?"

"Please, let’s stop here," I gently said. "You need rest, and I want to see how you feel in the morning before we go any deeper."

She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. Something in my expression must have told her I wasn’t going to budge on this.

"Alright," she conceded. "One night. But if I’m fine tomorrow, we keep moving."

I nodded, but privately I had already made my decision.

If Bei showed any signs of worsening by morning, if her discomfort deepened or something about her body had changed, I would take her back to the edge of the unclaimed lands myself. I would carry her if I had to.

I wasn’t going to let her die for my answers.