Chapter 49
After making contact with a very freaked out Anna's dad, Amaris also contacted Anna's mother and now they were all in the loop. "I am not sure this whole mind linking instataneous communication with my parents thing will be working in my favor as a teenager." Anna laughed. Marco chuckled. "You will have to ask Amaris if there is a way that she can shut it off, like a cell phone. No calls after midnight." At that thought, Anna's face lit up. She mind linked Amaris. "He is right! we can not be told to get off the phone by 10pm any more. Or even have the whole 'we are taking your phone away' as a punishment! Oh I love this!! Too bad that you did not discover this sooner." Anna and Amaris laughed. She could see that Marco was mind linking someone from the look on his face.
“What is the plan Marco? I can see that you have one.” Amaris asked. Marco raised an eyebrow at her. He did not say anything for a minute, and then looked over at her. “So Lyle says I need to start running everything through you since you are technically the leader of the pack now. “
Amaris turned and looked straight at Marco “ I maybe leader of the pack now by blood, but I have no idea what needs to be done, where everything is, or what resources are at hand. I need you and Lyle to be advisors." Amaris looked at Marco expectantly. "Since I know the two of you already have a plan in place. Tell me.”
Anna looked at Amaris with a look of awe. Amaris had always been rather shy and quiet. She was not one to take the role of leader in anything. Anna had always been the one to give orders and make the plans. She was proud of her best friend, but also afraid for her. This was now much more serious than some of the goofy stuff they used to do. Amaris felt funny pulling the rank card but she felt like she was being left out of the planning, and wanted more details, mainly because everything that was going on was directly affecting the course of her life.
“We are going to meet up with Lyle after he gets what he needs. We will need to lay low for a little while.” Marco drove for a while longer and then turned off on an old logging road. He parked the truck. “Are you girls hungry?” Marco asked. They all climbed out of the truck and Marco pulled out the packs from the back of the truck. Amaris noticed that the sides of the bed of the truck were thicker than a normal truck bed. Marco climbed into the back of the truck and pulled on one of the inside of the bed panels which pulled out to reveal tool drawers. One of them had bottled water and she noticed that it had condensation on it. It was chilled when he handed it to her. The truck actually had a chilled compartment, like a mini fridge. The next drawer that he opened had MRE packages lined up. “what would you ladies like, Beef stroganoff, lasagna, chicken casserole, Chilli, pepperoni pizza, BBQ beef, Soft beef tacos?” Both girls looked astounded. They did not imagine that they would be able to get a pepperoni pizza and tacos in the middle of the woods. Anna laughed and said “Pizza Party!” Marco smiled and pulled out three MREs and handed one to each of them.
They sat down on the tail gate of the truck and Marco showed them how to use the heater in the MRE to heat their pizza. He also handed out beef jerky to each of the girls. “You need to eat a higher protein diet now that your wolf is with you. “ Marco also handed them each a protein bar out of their packets. While they sat and ate, Marco watched the woods nearby. He was never far from them, but he was paying attention to their surroundings since they were so close to the town.
“So Mari, what else can you do? Besides talk to peoples’ minds and glow like a light bulb.” Anna wanted to know everything. Amaris got the impression that Anna was not taking their situation as seriously as she should, even though she and her family had been attacked twice and kidnapped once.
“Nothing else that I know of. It’s not like I have had a whole lot of time to explore anything. The only times I became a wolf I was running for my life or trying to save yours.” Anna sat forward she placed her empty MRE packet on the ground. Placing her hands on her knees, she sounded excited, “But the legend says that you are supposed to be able to do amazing stuff.” Amaris set down her own MRE package. “Well I don’t know what amazing stuff I am supposed to be able to do, but how many people do you know that can talk to you with their mind?” Amaris said raising one eyebrow at Anna. Both girls burst out laughing.
"She is right. We need to find out what else you can do. That is part of the reason for our trip. The other part is that it is also said in our legends that Ageli Lykon is the seat of your power. Bringing you there will make you even more powerful. The prophecies held there should tell us more about you." Marco says looking back at the road. He was clearly still scanning the area to make sure that the coast was clear. "Let's get everything packed up and put away so we can go when Lyle gets here." Marco stood and started putting the back packs in the back of the pick up again. He went to the pull outs on the other side of the truck bed, and pulled out what looked like a large sleeping bag. He also pulled out a jumpsuit like the ones that they got from the underground tunnel. He placed the jumpsuit in the truck bed behind the cab. He then picked up the sleeping bag. Once it was unrolled, it was evident that it was not a sleeping bag but a cover for the truck bed. It velcroed and hooked in over the whole bed of the truck. He had the girls get in the cab and get down kneeling on the floor like before. Marco started the truck and then sat there like he was waiting for something. The girls looked at each other and then at Marco waiting for him to say or do something. After a minute of silence he got out of the truck, leaving the door open and opened the tail gate to the truck. Peaking up over the back of the seat Amaris and Anna could see a wolf come running full tilt out of the woods. It dove into the truck bed with a screech of claws on metal and a thud. Marco shut the tail gate and hurried into the truck cab. As soon as he got in he put the truck in drive and drove off.