As we exited the den, I immediately called Foire forward.

“I need you to take your scouts and find exactly where the humans are. There should be a couple members of a scouting party that know their general location, but we need specifics. We’re moving directly east,” I gestured east, “and will be going about as quickly as we can manage for a solid amount of time. We need separation from the humans, so come let me know when they get close.”

Foire nodded, and as he jogged off, whistling for his pack, I noticed Iituli, Trai, and Foult staring. The brothers at their father, and Iituli at me, all three in admiration. I smiled back and then turned to, for the last time, cry out, “ALL MEMBERS OF THE SWARM, GO EAST TO THE FURTHEST EXIT, NOW! FOLLOW ANY TRACKS LEADING EAST!”

As I lead the way, I couldn’t help but glance back one more time, seeing the lonely exit, forlorn and empty. From this point on, we had no home, no path except forward. Looking onwards, I could see what little food we could carry among us as we stepped forward and began carving our path to the unknown, with nothing besides our wit and my [System] to guide us.

I began to hum my [Innervating Address], the energy flowing out of me and energizing those around me as I began a steady run forward. As individuals, then packs, the swarm followed behind me and we made our way forward under the midday sun.

…

It was somewhat frustrating that not an hour later we needed to stop as a body to rest. I was fine, and those from my pack were still going strong, but this wasn’t the same easy, distance devouring lope that we had marched just days before. Instead, it was a forced march, nearly a sprint, focused on immediate speed and creating distance as soon as possible. With the break, I immediately enlisted a couple packs, under the direction of Took and Rulac, to conduct hunts further to the east. My hope was to ensure that the hunts could be completed and the hunters wouldn’t have to drag the prey back to the waiting swarm, but to simply get near enough to our path that we could walk right into the waiting food.

Sybil approached me. “How long are we going to keep up this speed?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Hopefully, this separation that we’ve gotten will give us enough time to take it easy for the rest of today, only lightly jogging for now. Once night falls, we’ll resume a more reasonable pace for half the night before resting until a couple of hours past sunrise. We’ll evaluate from there.”

“And do you know how long we’ll be traveling for?”

“... No…”

“Do you know exactly where we are going?”

“No, but the east is outside of the human’s control, so once we get far enough in that direction, we should shake off any pursuit and be able to progress more reasonably.”

“Do you have any specifics for me to share with–”

“Dulvroc take you, Gamma! I don’t know!” My voice thundered out without any conscious thought as rage flared within me.

The entire swarm immediately fell silent. Sybil stared at me, her eyes flashing. I sighed and continued, consciously pitching my voice louder for those around us to hear.

“I don’t know how fast we need to go, I don’t know how far we need to go, I don’t know how long we need to go. But, I do know that I will go alongside every one of you until I can be absolutely sure of our safety. I’m sorry for lashing out, my stress got to me and I shouldn’t act that way towards my mate and my Gamma.” I nodded deeply at Sybil and, as I rose, I noted the subtle flick of her tail indicating this wasn’t over as she began to speak.

“Alpha, pardon my insistence. I have shed blood for you willingly and purposefully,” She held up her tail and I noted, for the first time in quite a while, the deep scar tissue that stretched from crest to underside of the middle of her tail, and was reminded of her resolve to follow me. A wave of shame swept through me as she continued, “You are my Alpha, and I believe you are what the keelish need to progress beyond our current state. I simply wished for your guidance to spread to the swarm, but you have now done so. Is there anything that you would like to add?”

“Only this. I trust you, you are wiser than I in many ways, and I do apologize again for my short temper.”

Sybil nodded nearly as deeply as I had in my apology in response before stepping closer to me and nuzzling tenderly into my neck.

Nuzzled closely enough that nobody could see her mouth move as she whispered, “I understand you’re under a lot of stress. I wanted to help. Don’t treat me that way again.” It wasn’t a threat of violence or an uprising, simply a promise of a loss of trust.

I nestled my head down into her, “I am sorry. I’m stressed, and want to keep the swarm as strong as possible as we begin this long journey. I don’t know how long or how far, but I would suppose that this takes us at least as long as we have been alive to get to our destination.”

Sybil stiffened. “That long? Then we really do need to stay united.”

I nodded.

“Then, you are forgiven. Conditionally.” She playfully nipped at my neck and pulled away, but wasn’t quick enough to escape my hand grabbing her tail, right over the scar I’d only recently remembered. “I don’t want to force you to shed blood again. Thank you for making me calm down and see the distant as well as the immediate future.”

Sybil nodded, almost seeming embarrassed, before trotting off towards Octavi. Suddenly, I became aware of a presence behind me, but before I could react, Rulac’s rumbling chuckles washed over me.

“She’s just as flirty as she is dangerous, like all good females.”

I rolled my eyes as his voice gained an edge. “You’re doing right by the swarm right now, make sure that you stay that way.”

“How do you mean?”

“A Zaaktif is a leader that people were willing to follow to certain death. For a couple, you are that now. You need to be for the rest as well. And,” a grin slowly spread on his face, “flirting isn’t the best way to do that.”

I started, then mumbled to him, “We can’t be having any clutches for the foreseeable future. Don’t be fooling around too much.”

“Wait, what? No rutting?”

For the first time, I saw Rulac truly taken aback.

“I thought this would just be for a couple of days! It’s going to be longer than that??”

“Much longer.” I couldn’t contain the chuckles as I spoke.

“Wait. That’s not fair. I have needs!”

I didn’t respond with anything more than my uncontrolled laughter as I called for the swarm to begin moving once again.