Chapter 17 AND THEN I SMELLED THE SMOKE
Celestia's pov
Five days had passed by since we started searching for Lily, Cassie had insisted on being part of the search and I had not refused her but she was still acting cold towards me and only taking instructions from Priscilla.
I didn't put it to mind too much because in high head she thought that I had taken away the most precious family member to her and I could imagine how heartbreaking that was.
Because of this I was making regular trips over to Priscilla's camp, of course, I was escorted from the border by her guards and they treated me more like a condemned prisoner rather than somebody who was trying to find a little girl.
Priscilla's camp members all lived in dreary camps it was a different atmosphere from my own not to toot my own horn or anything, while everyone else seem to be struggling to get by she lived in a cozy cabin nearby which I had not even so much as gone close to but I had only heard of from mouth but I had not seen it with my own eyes Priscilla had gone out of how to tell me that I was not invited there for any reason.
She even planted a new tent just so that I would not have to go to her own personal cabin.
And you she didn't like me in the first place but she was taking this a little too far none of it mattered anyways the only thing was finding Lily and proving that I was not involved in selling pack members but things gradually got worst more pack members went missing without explanation without warning they were gone like they had disappeared into the air just like Lily.
Cassie became more and more agitated towards me as if she had personally witnessed me taking those people away and handing them off to park wolves.
As for Priscilla that had insisted on being a part of this search she wasn't helping one bit which made me even more confused as to why Cassie was following her wagging her tail like a blind dog, perhaps she had already placed all hope that the only way to find her sister was with priscilla's help but anyone could see from a mile away that's Priscilla hardly cared about talking about the missing people unless it was to bash me and make me look bad.
I arrived at the tent that she had prepared, there was a wobbly table with a map stretched across it on the map where places circled that we had searched in the rogue camp territories, many of the other camps is in the welcomed us as long as they knew that we were searching for a little girl but Priscilla only took it as an opportunity to spread the false rooms about me selling my own camp people.
Of course not with that so good evidence that she claimed so strongly to have but people would believe what they wanted to believe and sometimes nastier things like this were easier to swallow.
"You finally arrived, sure took your sweet precious time didn't you?" Priscilla immediately shot at me the moment she saw me Cassie who looked like she was counting down the moment until she could quickly rush over to Priscilla's side left mine and quickly moved to Priscilla.
I sighed allowing my shoulders to fall, it was clear where her loyalty was right now but I had bigger fish to fry and more on my plate to worry about so I directed my thoughts towards that I went over to the map for I finally gave Priscilla a response.
"I came 25 minutes earlier than the time we scheduled and I would have even come earlier than that if it wasn't for your guards searching me,"
"Better for us to be safe than sorry right? I don't know why you would be so offended by that unless you have something to hide do you, Celestia?"
I could feel Crane literally boiling behind me but I had told him not to lose his temper or else I would not even involve him in the search at all he had agreed but I knew it was taking everything inside of him not to snap right now.
"I don't have anything to hide," I said again, then I glanced at Cassie briefly before looking back at the map, "I'm just trying to find all these missing people, whether you choose to believe it or not,"
But the days were passing by and we did not even manage together a spec of evidence all fingers were now pointing to me well not all of them if you count still stood by my side but how long would they remain like that until they eventually caved in?
I started training more wolves so that they could be able to act as guards given them simple roles so that the more trained wolves would have someone else to beef security with them.
After a while, no one else wins missing but this was not enough to completely clear my name, the places in rogue camp territory were gradually getting more filled up, and yet no sign of even a single person that we were supposed to find I was beginning to lose hope.
Then one evening when I was having my meal there was a note under my plate on the tray.
"Have you had enough yet?"
I read out what was written there, and I almost snapped.
There was no doubt that it had been sent to me by Raphael but who amongst those in my camp had worked together with him to have this sent to me? The thought drilled through my mind and robbed me of sleep.
This made me begin to think who was really working for him and who could be thwarting my plans to find those missing people, I kept thinking about it over and over again and when I thought I could finally fall asleep I smelled the smoke.