Chapter 15 THE MISSING AND THE ACCUSED
Celestia's pov
Morning came and I woke up to my usual routine.
At least that had been my plan.
But somebody was wailing in camp.
So strongly that nobody could console her, of course as a leader I could not just look the other way as such a thing what's happening so I went straight to that person making a beeline to approach and see what the problem was that would make her cry so inconsolably.
When I reached the person weeping I was shocked as recognition flooded my eyes and I saw that it was Cassie.
When she saw me she leaped towards me landing on the dry ground and rolling from side to side, my jaw hung open and I looked up at her consolers.
"What's going on here? Why is she crying like this?"
In my mind, I had already imagined the worst but what I was told exceeded even that.
"Lily went missing last night," one of my camp members said, avoiding my gaze.
I clamped my teeth on my lips.
Then I looked down at Cassie and tried to reach for her to console her as well until she said that we would begin searching for her sister but before I could even touch her she slapped my hand away as if I was infected with some kind of incurable disease.
"Don't touch me! I don't need your fake sympathy, I just want you to give me my sister back!" She cried so hard that her entire body trembled covered with bits of dust and her clothes smeared with dirt but she was so buried in sorrow I doubt she cared or noticed.
A bigger crowd was gathering as I tried to tell Cassie that I had no idea what had happened to her sister and she had to tell me something if I was going to help.
This was when the crane also showed up with the crowd, he must have been coming from an early morning patrol because he didn't come from the direction of his tents.
He saw the boiling disaster and came to my side to ask what was happening.
"Lily has gone missing,"
"She isn't missing you sold her!" Cassie said at the top of her top-of-her-voice.
I wrapped my fingers until they transformed into tight fists. The morning mist was beginning to clear up completely and I would see people's faces more easily. Many of them looked concerned, others turned towards me with suspicion and some seemed blank, devoid of any readable emotion.
But Cassie was a canvas of pain.
She looked so miserable I wish somebody would whisper into my ears the exact words I would need to say to make her tears cease.
"Cassie, what makes you think I'm responsible for your sister's disappearance?" I said still trying to be gentle, "didn't you come to my 10th just yesterday telling me to ignore all the rumors then -"
"That was before I knew they were true!" She said covering her face with her palms.
"Cassie, don't forget that you are speaking to the leader like that," Crane tried to caution her.
"I don't care if she's the leader or not, this isn't a pack…" Cassie finally stood up, "If you are really innocent why is it that after that man showed up yesterday my sister went missing? I traced it back and realized that some people left after the man arrived the first time,"
"That was just a coincidence! And I still have no idea what happened to your sister,"
Cassie looked like her legs were too weak to hold the rest of her.
"They're all right about you! I should have listened but I was amongst those foolishly fighting for you thinking that you were innocent in all of this,"
It became more and more vividly clear that I wasn't going to get through to Cassie. And people would be suspicious of whatever I did now so I turned it to Crane.
"If most of you here don't trust me right now then how about Crane takes over for now and we look for Lily?"
"And why would anyone agree to that convenient arrangement when a crane is practically your lapdog?" smearing comments cut through the crowd.
I looked forward and saw Priscilla, a haughty expression on her face, "complained about there being no evidence and here to not even wait a little before diving into your sick twisted exchanges, there is no choice I will have to step in as temporary leader so that we can get to the bottom of this,"
This was when some of the warriors finally spoke up.
"Did any of your evidence show that Crane was involved in the exchanges?"
Priscilla seemed to lose some of her footing but slammed her leg back down again for support.
"I mean…no, but it goes without saying that he is definitely in cohorts with her being her second in command,"
"But there is no evidence to prove it and we still haven't seen the evidence that our leader is guilty either,"
Priscilla ground her teeth together.
"I'm trying to help all of you here and you are siding with this witch? Does everything need to be spelled out?"
"Priscilla calm down we can come to a compromise, how about this we all work together you follow me side by side in my search for Lily checking to see from doing anything weird or suspicious, if you are actually able to show concrete evidence that I did sell her off then I'll be more than happy to bow to the consequences of those actions if they are true,"
There was a mumble of approval sweeping through the crowd.
Priscilla looked like she was ready to tear off every piece of hair from her body clearly things had not gone the way she had planned them out in her head.
"Fine, but you know what will happen if we can't find her right?"