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Ben smiled too, watching the fox as it turned again and bounded off, sniffing the forest leaves on the ground, tracking the liger and Hunter they were trying to follow.
“I wonder how Ere and Sorin are,” Ben murmured to himself, talking out loud to hear his own voice.
The silence and desertedness of the woods were strangely oppressive. Ben had always been surrounded by family and friends; he’d never really been alone.
Here, in this time and place, he was very much alone. He didn’t know where he was supposed to go or what he was supposed to do. Seventh Sister’s instructions had been extremely vague.
Ben felt rudderless in this mission. And he didn’t even have his best friend Annie to talk it out with.
Hearing his own voice helped some. It kept him from more convoluted thoughts ping-ponging around in his head. Kept him from wallowing in worry and despair over things he couldn’t do anything about—like rescuing or resurrecting his “uncle” and Sorin.
“I wonder what will happen here that could have an impact on the future,” he continued his one-way conversation.
“I thought that the Jade Emperor’s rules forbade us from changing the past when we traveled there. But rules are meant to be broken, as Ere tells me. So, what part of the past am I supposed to change?”
“And if I’m here to change the past, does that mean that I was always meant to travel back in time for this purpose?”
Ben huffed a breath, looking up at the canopy of leaves. It was almost dawn now, but the forest was still wreathed in shadowy darkness.
“It boggles the mind,” he murmured. “The endless loop. Like a circular track you can’t get off of. A Destiny you can’t avoid.”
“Does that mean we have no free will? Doomed to follow the same path, no matter what? Fated to make the same mistakes? Or is this a window of opportunity to make a different choice? To alter the course of Destiny?”
He closed his eyes and sighed.
“What am I supposed to do? How can I make everything right?”
Suddenly, the fox barked sharply, running back toward Ben. When it was within a few yards, it turned to look back into the dark recesses of the forest, braced itself until its thick fur stood on end—
And bared its sharp little teeth in a low, threatening growl.
Ben tensed as well, tightening his thighs around his horse’s flanks, bringing both steeds to a halt.
There, in the shadows of the forest, a pair of red eyes glowed.
And then another. And another.
Until six pairs of eyes stared back at them, and the fox’s growls were drowned out by deeper, louder snarls, as white fangs glowed in the dark along with the bloodred eyes.
“Shit,” Ben muttered, his hands tightening around the reins of both horses.
They sensed the danger as well, their muscles tensing, ears flattening back. But they were well-trained, so they didn’t bolt. They awaited Ben’s instruction in statue-like stillness.
A pair of red eyes grew closer, until the owner’s face showed. They belonged to a massive black wolf. The other eyes came forth as well, revealing five other black wolves just as big.
Just as threatening.
Ben was surrounded on all sides. He could hear a couple of wolves behind him as well. They didn’t bother to hide their snarls.
The horses were strong and fast. He wondered whether he’d be able to leap past the barricade and outrun the beasts.
But what about the fox?
These wolves were bigger than any wolves Ben had seen before. They were thrice the size of the white fox, their teeth thrice as big and long.
But the small fox held its ground, snarling back at the predators that slowly closed in on them. It looked fearless somehow, its body tensed for fighting.
Defending.
