The Omega Eclipse (Book Two of the Omega Game Series)

Chapter 7

Katala

(Katala fifteen years old, Noctis sixteen)

    “Nira we are going to die,” I said with a conviction I rarely felt about anything else, “This is how we end. Covered in sand from head to toes, stranded in the middle of the desert without water and all because of a stupid dog.”

    “For the last time Katala, it is not a stupid dog! It’s a Dogar and he might look like a dog now, but they grow into huge, protective beasts. I’m lucky I found one so small to train.  Besides, can you really blame me for trying to save this cutie?” she asked with her baby voice and then hugged the dog up until the poor puppy had its black eyes threatening to pop out. I gave her an unconvinced glare and then focused my attention on the looming black mountains.

    We were literally in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere between where the first man ever made a pair of sandals and the exact place that nobody cared enough to add in a map. My best educated guest was that if we entered the mountains we would eventually find water, but that could take us even further away from Naccara and I needed to be in Naccara. Like yesterday. Noctis was visiting the capital of Naccanash to complete a mission and he was supposed to pass by the Royal Palace in a day or two. 

    I hadn’t seen Noctis in over a year and before that the last time I’d seen him was when I returned to the City of Leukos for my little sister’s birth. If we had interchanged words then it had been only a fleeting remark while we crossed paths in the halls. I was desperate to see him, to hear his voice and to feel his nearness in any possible way. My childish crush had developed into a real lovesickness that was dangerously obsessive. I tried not to be obvious about it, but the moment I heard his name being mentioned my fluttering heartbeat gave me away. I would blush if I heard his name in a popular song. I would smile every time a general praised Noctis’s for finishing an important military mission or winning another duel. He was fast becoming the hero of every young boy across two nations.

    I couldn’t believe I wasn’t going to see him! Who knew when I would be able to see Noctis again. I was supposed to remain at Naccara until the beginning of summer and then return to  the Dark Desert for a couple of weeks before leaving for the Hidden Library. Nira and I had been accepted under the tutelage of the monks to finish our education in the sacred library. Which was rumored to be located at the heart of the Descer mountains and that only a few knew how to get there. It would be virtually impossible to see Noctis. Not unless he grew wings or could magically find me in the middle of nowhere.

    Speaking of which, that ability could be very handy right now. The sun was setting at our backs, we hadn’t drunk, nor eaten for an entire day since we woke up in the wrong wagon at a village named Farra and with no means to get back to Naccara. Even the dog looked gloomy, or maybe that was just how anybody would look after being pet nonstop by my cousin. I sighed, stopping my pace and eyeing the mountains. I knew I wasn’t going to see Noctis if we walked into the mountains, but what else could we do? By this point we desperately needed water or we would be soon dehydrated. And I really didn’t want to have the death of a dog in my conscience. Regardless of how ugly he was.

    I looked at the dog and as if he knew I was thinking about him he looked back at me and started wagging his long red tail. I had to admit, he was the kind of ugly that was cute. With silver ears and the rest of his body covered by a red furr, he looked more like a very skinny fox than a dog. I pet his head and with another sigh accepted our fate. 

    “We should head into the mountains,” I said to Nira, who shrugged and followed me, not really caring where we were going at all. At times I wished to be as free spirited as my cousin, but then again one of the two of us had to be the responsible one and that task fell on my shoulders. I tried to calculate how long it had passed since we left the Royal Palace and guessed that by now someone, somewhere probably realized we were missing. We just needed to find water and a safe place to pass the night and things will be easier by tomorrow. If we hadn’t found food and nobody had come for us I was totally cooking the dog.

    The closer we moved to the mountains the happier the dog looked, it even started howling and barking, something that made him sound pretty much like a normal dog to me. Nira smiled and put the dog down, watching him run in circles around us while he waggled his red tail in excitement.

    “Look at that! He is happy at the sight of those rocks. I should name him Rockolos,” she turned to me and clicked her fingers, “ that’s it! That’s his name. Rockolos. What you think?”

    “It’s weird but I think it suits him,” I said with a shrug and then tensed when I saw Rockolos stop by a blue cactus that had grown right by the front of the mountainside. The dog sniffed the cactus curiously, making me curse and run to him. I trapped him and caged him down my arm, giving him a serious stare down, “No! You shouldn’t lick, nor eat cactuses! They are probably poisonous! Can you believe this dog, Nira?...Nira what are you doing?!”

    I turned around to see Nira drinking from a red flower that crowned the blue cactus. She just rolled her light eyes at me and gave me a wave of her hand. I could only look in shock from my cousin to the cactus. I’ve stopped supervising her for five seconds! How it was possible for an educated, highly intelligent woman like my cousin to get in trouble in a matter of seconds? Seconds! 

    “Are you feeling alright?” I asked her worriedly and Nira only frowned, looking around us as if she couldn't remember how we had ended by the mountains. Rockolos whimpered and lowered his ears at the sight of my confused cousin. The sight would have been cute if I wasn’t currently worried about Nira’s life.

    “Tally, you heard that?” she asked me, narrowing her blue eyes.

    “What?” 

    “I hear four big puppies running our way,” she said, her words starting to slur. She giggled then and looked back at the red flower, “you need to drink some of this. It makes everyone look so funny. You have Rockolos face and he has your hair! It looks like a dog with a wig on.”

    “Oh no Nira, you are drunk,” I groaned and took her by her arm, guiding her inside the mountains. I was too mad at the entire situation to look around us but the first thing I noticed was the relief of walking out of the sun. It felt amazing to escape the punishing heat.  The black mountains were hollow, creating a passage of stones and tall columns that formed small caves. By night this place would be too dark if we didn’t make a fire. Our only options were to try to gain as much distance as we could before resting and hopefully finding some water. Or we could return to the desert and admit defeat.

    While we walked Nira laughed. She laughed out of the shape of the columns, the sound of our steps and even of the way her own voice sounded in her ears. All along I found enough strength on me to guide us through the caverns trying to hear the murmur of water. I was finally able to find a small stream which sprouted from rocks that collided with a cliff. I wasn’t brave enough to step by the edge of the cliff but I made Nira drink as much water as she could and then put Rockolos down so he could also drink. I was watching him lick the wet stones on the floor when I heard the sound of a deep snarl above me.

    I tensed and looked up. Standing above us were four huge beasts. All of them red with silver, pointy ears. I could tell they resembled Rockolos, but when the ugly dog looked inoffensive and cute his bigger counterparts were more into the ferociously aggressive kind. Nira moved closer to me and nodded.

    “I told you I’ve heard four puppies coming our way,” she whispered, her eyelashes fluttered while she fought to keep her eyes open. I hushed her and looked back at the four huge beasts. They were now growling, their snouts wrinkled while they showed their fangs at us. They were mad. Like murderous mad and I had an idea why.

    Slowly I took Rockolos under my arm and placed the Dogar closer to his family, but not so close that they could bite my arm off. The puppy moved his silver ears up and tilted his head to a side, staring at me in confusion. Rockolos whimpered, the sound so sweet that Nira made an aww sound by my back. The four Dogars started howling and stomping over the rocks, calling Rockolos closer to them. One of the huge beasts, the one that looked the angrier and the hungrier for little Omegas, jumped over the stone making me scream and push Nira back with me. 

    I lost my footing at the last moment and we both hugged each other while we screamed on our way down the cliff. Nira screamed something that sounded like idonawidetodie in my ear while I hugged her tighter and then we were falling faster and faster until we hit cold water. At the impact I grew lax. Apparently, hitting water while falling down very fast made the collision extremely painful. I lost sight of Nira while I traded water on my way up and when I finally reached the surface found my cousin floating happily by the other side of the river. Groaning I started swimming to the shallow side of the body of water and took Nira by her skirts, making her laugh out of her mind while I pulled her closer to the shore.

    It was about then when I looked to the front and froze.

    We were surrounded by Alphas. Scarcely dressed Alphas. And they were all looking at us with rounded eyes that denoted their shock. I stood straight right away, forcing Nira to step by my side while the men looked around them not knowing what to say. Never in my entire life I’d been so embarrassed. I felt myself blush when Nira started laughing out of her damn mind.

    “Tally we are in Heaven!” she screamed from the top of her lungs and then turned to me, nudging my shoulder, “you know I’d never seen a naked man before today?”

    “I know Nira,” I whispered, trying to make her speak lower even if I knew they could hear us clearly, “can you please shut up?”

    “Have you?”

    “What?" I hissed back at her and she giggled.

    “Seen a naked man?” she hissed too, making me roll my eyes.

    “No! Now, shut up!” I jumped and got her head in a lock under my arm, finally covering her mouth with a hand. I turned to the Alphas, gave them a quick smile and then proceeded to spit out everything that had happened while my entire face flushed and I looked up to not see the nakedness surrounding us, “ My name is Katala and this one here is Valnira, my cousin. She found out some evil men were trying to sell a Dogar pup by the illegal market of Rimash. We went to the illegal market, she won a drinking contest and we got Rockolos. She was so drunk that I made a deal with this man to get into his wagon because I thought he was saying he was on his way to Naccara,” I snorted, shaking my head at myself, “ Fascinating thing, how Naccara sounds exactly like Farra in the Naccanash tongue. So we ended in Farra with no money and this other man offered money for our services. I have no idea what he meant but this other man fought him for whatever reason, we escaped in the middle of the confusion and walked into the desert. Then Nira drank water out of a blue cactus with a red flower, we found Rockolos’s family, fell from a cliff and found you all. Charming day, right?”

    There was a deadly silence after my rushed speech and then a deep, masculine voice raised over the entire mountainside, shaking the foundations of the rocks. It was an angry voice, a very angry voice that I happened to recognize.

    “Up,” growled the ultra powerful voice and all the Alphas moved up at once, standing in attention, “Turn around. Close your eyes. Stop hearing. Katala, come here, now.” 

    I swallowed nervously. I walked three steps to the shore of the river before stopping with my heart ramming against my heart. Standing over a rock, with his body tensed in fury and his black eyes burning with violence was Noctis. He was fully dressed, his black hair shorter than the last time I’d seen him and looking even stronger and taller than any other Alpha around us. At his back were his brothers Aros and Kun. One looked as murderous as Noctis, the other one was smiling goofily.

    “Hi everyone,” I waved my hand and at the same time Nira managed to push me away and started talking at the same time. 

    “Tally, I’m telling you we are in Heaven,” she clapped her hands together and wiggled her eyebrows at me, “forget about returning to Naccara. We are throwing a party. I will go and get that amazing blue cactus juice and you keep the Alphas entertained. Deal?”

    I groaned and whimpered in irritation. Embarrassed, I pushed myself down the water. Not even with my head submerged  I could stop feeling Noctis’s angry glare focused on me. This was going to be impossible to fix and even if I did, Nira owed me for life.