Changing Lines

1. Changing it up

She was training with Grandpa Henry today, like she did three times a week, since her sixteenth birthday. She was now seventeen for ten months and she still appeared to be very much human. It was a sore spot for her that she refused to speak about any more, despite Mom and Dad trying to get her to.

Apparently, they had either spoken to Grandpa Henry or they had figured it out for themselves, but she refused to have any discussion about it. She was still feeling like the odd one out and nothing they said could change that. Even her brothers and other grandparents had tried to have the discussion with her, but she refused. The only one who seemed unbothered by her normal status was Grandpa Henry, though he pushed her hard to train, she was thankful for it.

He taught her to fight dirty, because she would have no real chance in a fair fight with any Supernatural. Her Dad was banned from her training sessions, since Rip took over and nearly went psycho the first time he’d seen her fighting. Mom made a point of keeping him busy on the other side of the territory whenever she had training. She didn’t think Dad had figured it out, yet.

Her Mom had told her that he hadn’t taken her training any better when she had started and that was when he knew she was a sprite. Turns out Rip was very protective of them and insisted that he would take care of them all and that they did not need to get hurt in training.

Of course, he did not handle her showing up bruised any better, so her Mom had made the rule that she would either have to visit the sprite tree to heal or she had to visit Uncle Logan or Edan to cast a healing spell to keep the peace. She apparently convinced Dad that she had given up training, somehow.

She had just shown up to where she and Grandpa Henry always met to start training, in a clearing, hidden from the others so her father could not see her from the pack house or training ground. It didn’t look like Grandpa was here yet, so she started by warming up.

Grandpa didn’t work too much on stamina training since she was pretty fit from the swimming team and he said she couldn’t be worse than her mother who had only recently reached the three mile run that they had intended to start when she was eighteen. Apparently, Dad felt sorry for her and kept picking her up and carrying her the rest of the way. Of course, it didn’t help that her mother hated running.

Grandpa quietly appeared without making a sound; he’d taught her his methods of stealth, since he’d said that hiding was a useful method of self-preservation when you were outclassed and outnumbered. She was the only one he’d really taught it to and she was pretty proud that it was the one thing Camden and Aaron did not know.

Grandpa Henry pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “We’re working on running today.” He said without preamble, like he always did. She’d learned long ago that his lack of words did not mean a lack of love.

“Running?” She asked in confusion.

“You’ve got fighting and stealth down, now it’s escaping.” He answered and she frowned in displeasure. She already knew what was coming, the best training for escaping an enemy was playing Hunter and Prey, and she sucked at it.

Camden came into the clearing with a smile. “Hello, Minnow. I’m your hunter today.” He seemed to be excited about it and she – was not.

“Grandpa, he’s the fastest runner in human form.”

Grandpa shrugged casually, clearly not going to allow her to protest her training, so she huffed in annoyance. “You have thirty seconds.” Grandpa smiled at her.

River scowled, but sprinted away, knowing that she would need all the time she could get. She was trying to move as fast as she could, but she knew the moment Camden came after her, she could sense him and her need to get away made her push herself faster.

She was pretty proud of herself – until she tripped on a root and went down like a sack of sand, somehow managing to trip up Camden that fell over her and knocked the wind out of her in the process.

Camden was laughing his very rare belly laugh while he rolled off her, unable to make words while she was gasping for breath. Grandpa showed up and grinned at her. “It only works to trip your hunter if you do not incapacitate yourself, River.”

She rolled onto her back and finally managed to take in a deep breath of fresh air, while Camden was still laughing. He came to his feet and helped her up. “You put that tree root there, didn’t you?” She accused with breathless annoyance and he grinned.

“That was the tree, I did nothing of the sort, sis. You don’t need help being a danger to yourself.”

“I really suck at this, Grandpa…” She whined with annoyance.

“We work on our weaknesses to make us stronger, Minnow.” Grandpa smiled kindly at her and she huffed, while they went back to the clearing to start again. She knew he wouldn’t stop because she tripped.

“You can use everything I’ve taught you to get away, River. It’s not just running.” Grandpa tried to soothe her ire as he handed her a bottle of water so she could catch her breath for a moment.

“Maybe try other things so you don’t have to run so fast. You’re fast, but you get overly tense and then don’t pay attention to your surroundings enough to escape.” Camden offered his wisdom.

He’d helped her before with training; he seemed to enjoy it. Whereas Aaron seemed to agree with Dad on the stance that they would protect her and Mom and they didn’t need to get hurt in training.

Finally, she handed back the water when she felt she could breathe properly. Grandpa smiled gently at her and then started the countdown again. River sprinted into the woods again, but this time she was not going to try to outrun Camden, he had longer legs than her and he was faster, so she would have to work smarter, like Grandpa taught her.

Finding a tree branch that stuck into her way she pulled it with her when she sensed Camden catching up on her. She released it and heard him groan when the branch smacked him in the stomach.

She took that moment to run again. She found loose rocks and bent to pick them up and then hid on the small rock outcrop in front of her. She watched Camden approach and she started pelting him with rocks; her aim was pretty good, so he ducked behind a tree to escape the flying objects.

She took that moment to leap down from her hiding place and start running again, sliding down the gravel hillock towards the little hidden wash out near the river. She could cover herself with mud to hide her scent and make some mud missiles too. She knotted some of the longer grass, hidden behind the rest, before she headed in the direction of the river.

She heard Camden hit the ground with a loud thud and swear under his breath, while she giggled and started running again. She reached the river with a nice flexible stick that she’d harvested from the nearby tree in passing.

Then she covered herself in mud to hide her scent and made a mud torpedo, while she slipped into the hidden wash out. According to the game rules, she only had to keep out of his reach for two more minutes. She forced her breathing to calm down when she sensed Camden approach a little slower this time, obviously expecting another trap.

Smart brother.

He sniffed the air, raising his head like a wolf and glanced around. He spotted her footprint in the wet mud and approached it slowly, still glancing around for traps and any other clue of where she could be.

Quietly, she aimed her missile to somewhere behind him and she flung it with precision. Camden spun round towards the sound and she took that moment to rush forward and shove him into the deep water.

Unfortunately, her clumsiness ensured that she slipped and fell into the water with him. They both broke through the water at the same time and Camden was laughing his belly laugh again.

“You did it, little sis. You beat the clock, you cheated some, but you won.”

“I have to cheat; otherwise I’d never win anything.” She retorted, while she rinsed off the mud on her arms and legs.

“I’m proud of your traps, Minnow.” He grinned before he dunked her under the water. She came up for air and slapped his hand away. Typical big brother had to somehow beat her.

They both finally stumbled out of the water and she bent down, pushing off the worst of the water, which was when she found her Grandma Jenna’s necklace missing. “Oh no!” She cried in dismay.

“What’s wrong?” Camden asked with worry.

“I lost Grandma Jenna’s necklace.” She whined out.

“I got it. I think it got caught on the branches at the start.” He answered and pulled it out of his pocket.

She gratefully caught it and glanced it over and that was when she noticed that the chain had broken. “Oh no, Mom’s going to kill me!” She moaned when she noticed the damaged chain.

Camden leaned over and looked at it. “Here, I’ll take it to the jeweler to have it fixed. We don’t have to tell Mom.” He offered kindly, and put the pendant and chain back into his pocket, smiling kindly at her, before he pulled her into a side hug. “Let’s get home, we can tell Grandpa Henry that you kicked my ass.” He teased to make her feel better and she smiled faintly.

He was such a sweetheart; she wondered what his mate would be like when he found her. Neither of her brothers had found their mates, yet. They weren’t happy about it, since Aaron was twenty one and only had four years before he would have to take over the pack according to tradition. Luckily, Camden had only been of age to find his mate a year, so it wasn’t such a sore subject for him as it was for Aaron; even if Aaron didn’t have a shortage of female company.

They were both dry by the time they came into the pack house kitchen to find their Dad and Aaron in another disagreement. They shared a knowing look while Camden went for water and she went for snacks.

“We can’t just let them into the allegiance, Dad! They’re savages.”

“We have to find a solution, Aaron. They are the strongest pack in the area and we need help with the Wendigo and Vampires attempting this coup.”

“Having someone we can’t trust in the allegiance could make our plight worse, Dad!”

“I know that! But we need to find a way to see if they can be trusted, they keep mostly to themselves since before I took over as Alpha.”

“Who are you talking about?” Camden asked with interest, while he handed out the four glasses filled with water.

“Blood Lake Pack.” Aaron scowled as he spoke the name.

“He’s right, Dad. We don’t know enough about them to allow them into our list of allies.” Camden answered.

“We do know that they’re known for their battle strategies against the Wendigo and Vampires. They are the closest we have to experts in the field. We need help with this, we are out of our depths with the Wendigo and we’ve only dealt with vampires hunting for your mother.” Ripley added with frustration.

“Didn’t Grandma Emerald say her friend heard that they are looking for contacts?” River asked when she returned to the kitchen with her arms filled with snacks.

“Why are you eating so much?” Her Dad suddenly asked with a frown of confusion.

“I’m hungry?” She answered, trying not to confess that she’d been training.

“Little Minnow kicked my butt in training.” Camden answered proudly, causing both her Dad and Aaron to scowl.

“You’re training again?” Ripley asked angrily.

Camden looked confused for a moment. ‘Shut up!’ She mindlinked him before she answered. “Well, it was just the game hunter and prey, Dad. It’s so you and Aaron have extra time to get to me in case of emergency.”

‘Dad doesn’t know you’ve been training since you were sixteen?’ Camden asked in obvious surprise.

‘He gets…moody about it, so Mom has been drawing his attention in other ways…’

Camden nearly choked on his water at her answer. Her Dad and Aaron watched her suspiciously.

“What?” She asked innocently. “You were talking about Blood Lake Pack?” She turned the conversation back.

“Yeah, Emerald did mention they were looking for alliances…Apparently, the young alpha in training is convincing his father to bring them into the modern age.” Her Dad continued the conversation, but Aaron still watched her with eagle eyes.

River played innocent. “So why don’t you send a delegation to them?”

“That’s a good idea, Dad…You could e-mail them an offer of a peace treaty?” Camden smiled.

“They don’t use modern technology like phones and computers.” Ripley Gage retorted.

“So send a diplomatic group to talk peace?” River suggested before she bit into the mini cake she’d just opened.

“She has a good idea, Dad…” Camden answered.

“Yeah, we’ll have to send a messenger to run the invitation across to their border.” Her Dad answered while opening his own mini cake. Clearly, he’d made his decision to at least discuss the possibility while Aaron was busy watching her with eagle eyes.