Chapter 4 - Secret feelings and stolen kisses.

It’s been a month since Sam’s party, that wonderful night that led Layton to fall asleep in my bed holding my hand and for two weeks I thought about it constantly. I had woken up that morning without him next to me, however he did leave a little note on my pillow

“'good morning little Lanna, you looked so peaceful I didn’t want to wake you but thanks for last night, for being there, like you always are… hope you had sweet dreams :) love Layton xx”.

But since then, I’ve barely heard from him and even Sam has been busy at the Palace preparing for eventually becoming Layton’s Beta. Sam felt so honoured when Layton chose him.

I had told my girls the next day after Sam's party what happened with Layton, they felt convinced that he might have feelings for me, and as wonderful as that notion made me feel. I knew I couldn’t get carried away with that idea, the only time I’ll believe it is when Layton tells me so himself It’s just too dangerous for my heart otherwise.

I had to get out of my own head so I decided to throw all my energy into my training and another passion of mine as I had no training today with Galeb and no work at the gallery I went to the field I always used to love as a kid and the sun was shining and the trees were still as I sat overlooking the clear blue pond watching the water glistening under the beaming sun and the waterlilies dance along the top. Pretty blue dragon flies hovered looking for juicy insects to eat. Daffodils and forget me nots dressed along the grass. It was all so pretty and peaceful, and the best part was no one ever really came here so I knew I wouldn’t be disturbed as I held my paint brush concentrating on the sparkles on the water and the light almost see through blue of the dragonflies’ wings as I continued with my watercolour painting.

I finished the last details and just before packing my paints away in my bag I decided to just sit back and let the sun warm my face and breath in the fresh air and I started to doze off Until the ping of my phone interrupted my bliss. Taking it out of my bag I saw a message from Layton.

"Hey little Lanna, what are you up to? this day is kicking my ass, I’m just glad I got your brother here to keep up my morale".

“Hey, you, I’m actually out enjoying the sun, its beautiful today... I love spring. sorry to hear your having a busy day though. Can’t you have a break?"

"Wow lucky you, wish I was out enjoying it too, we managed a little break on the terrace for lunch but that felt like hours ago. where are you?"

Instead of texting him back telling him where I was, I decided to send him a picture of my painting instead with a caption "I’m here". To see if he would recognise it and he instantly replied,

"WOW YOU PAINTED THAT!!"

"Yess!" I messaged as I smiled to myself

"Wow I love it there, can you remember we used to try fishing there with our sticks and string when we were kids?"

"haha yes course I remember, I’ve come here every year since then, when spring and summer comes…. although it still looks pretty in the snow"

"Wow Lanna, what a true likeness, it’s amazing, you never seize to amaze me!"

"Why thank you :) hopefully one day it'll end up in my own little art gallery"

"Well, I'd definitely buy it ;) thank you little Lanna for bringing me a piece of outside. But I have to get back to work now. speak soon"

"You’re welcome, speak soon Layton, take care".

I sighed as I put my phone and stuff away and made my way home, I promised mum I'd be home for dinner with the family as we hadn’t all been able to get together as much recently with us all being so busy, especially Sam.

My mum and Dad were both grinning at me during dinner after they had seen my painting, telling me they couldn’t wait to see me looking all professional in my own art gallery talking and acting all sophisticated to then change into my warrior suit and patrol the boarders and the town. Two complete opposites and they kept remarking on how I can be so physical and aggressive but also soft and quiet at the same time.

Mum "well dear we forgot to mention, when we were travelling back from seeing our pals the other week, we noticed a museum in one of the villages about an hour from here, its full of old war memorabilia and well we phoned them when we got home and booked some tickets for us to go, me, dad and you. Sam can look after the girls as I know he wouldn’t want to go, and neither would the girls… so how about it? would you like to go?"

I looked at her wide eyed "uhh yess mum course I would" I said excitedly" I had no idea we had one nearby, I can’t wait to go"

Dad "well we’ve booked them for two months from now. till after your training so we know you won’t be so busy as they only seemed to have weekdays available"

Lelanna "no that’s fine dad, its perfect, I can’t wait".

I went up to my room after dinner in an amazing mood that night, it’s been such a nice day and being with my family tonight made it even better. I had a shower got dressed and into bed I was just about to set my alarm for tomorrow mornings training when I heard a knock at my door.

"Lanny, you awake?" Sam called quietly through the door

"Yea Sam, come in!"

"Hey Lanny" he smiled as he walked over and sat at the end of my bed "you girls going to Jays party on Saturday?"

"Yea were going… why"? I looked at him quizzingly

"um"

"What Sam?" I urged

"Is um... are all of you going?"

"Yes Sam, we're all going… why"? I rushed, wishing he would just spit it out

"Just wondering"… he said as he got up to leave

"No.no Sam tell me, why do you want to know?"

he sighed "I just wanted to know if...Dakota would be there"

"Ok… why"? I shrugged

"Nothing, I just think she’s cool, she’s fun to have at a party"

"Ok Sam, well we’ve been over this, I don’t know what’s going on between you both or what your intentions are but If you hurt or use my best friend, I’ll kill you” I warned him

"Lanny, what do you take me for? first of all I just wouldn’t do that to her, and I know she isn’t like that and besides I think I’d be too scared I’d wake up one night to you battering me or chopping me bits off"

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter "oh Sam that’s hilarious, but I’m glad you already know what I’d do to you if you did" I joked

"I know, I know Lanny" he said smiling "goodnight"

"Night Sam". I smiled as I turned off my lamp and got my rest for training tomorrow.

I woke up early this morning to the sun shining brightly through my curtains, I could already feel the heat and it was only 7am.

Getting up and throwing on my training wear I shoved my hair back in a plait and headed downstairs to have my fruit and egg for breakfast. With my family all still in bed I cleaned away my stuff quietly and headed out for the training. The birds were up just as early as me and the rest of the trainees, all singing away as I walked along the path.

When I got to the grounds only a few of the trainees were already there, I saw Liam and he waved me over with a big smile... he was cute, really handsome and especially in his tight black top that showed off his pecks. Liam is really the only guy that I’ve felt quite attracted to, well enough to perv on him while walking innocently toward him, trying NOT to ogle at his body

"Hey Lelanna, your early!" he beamed

"Yea well, have to be extra ready today, there’s a lot riding on this"

"I know, I was in bed at 9 last night" he laughed "trying to get as much rest as I can but I still don’t feel like it'll be enough"

"Mmm, I think we’re all a bit nervous today, Gabel’s going to be testing us on everything".

"HEY GUYS" we looked over to see Dakota walking toward us with a big smile "you guys ready for today?"

"Just about" I said looking at her with a nervous smile.

she smiled back "it’s ok guys we got this, we’ve all trained hard, and remember we'll be doing this more than once, so just take it easy on yourselves" she said biting her lip which caused me and Liam to chuckle

Liam put his hand on her shoulder as he chuckled "your brave Dakota, but we know your just nervous as shit just likes the rest of us"

she laughed "oh that obvious huh!"

 "RIGHT LISTEN UP" Gabel’s voice boomed over the whole pack. "YOU ALL KNOW WHAT TODAY IS..WE ARE FOCUSING ON STEALTH AND ATTACK. EVERYONE MOVE IN CLOSER PLEASE BECAUSE WHAT IM ABOUT TO SAY I NEED YOU ALL TO HEAR CLEARLY”

We all stepped forward moving closer to Gabel so we were all pretty much touching arm to arm, and I could hear everyone’s nervous breaths as well as my own!

"Right trainee’s, today is a very important part of being a warrior. Today we will be going into the woods, my son Drake" he said as he motioned to his son "who I’m sure most of you know. He will be portraying a rogue in our scenario. You will all be given a chance to hide and then attack but keep in mind the importance of stealth and attacking at just the right time! I want you all to treat today as if it were a real life situation. We will be doing more scenarios like this over your last few weeks of training, however, DO NOT take it lightly, I want to see effort from you all. IS THAT CLEAR?”

"YES SIR" we all shouted together.

"LET’S GO, ALL FALL BEHIND ME" he shouted. as he turned around and jogged toward the woods as we all followed.

We got to a spacious part of the woods where although surrounded by trees, rocks and large bushes, there was a lull in the middle, just a large patch of dry mud and leaves enough for us all to stand and spread out waiting to be told when to run and hide. Drake was stood in the middle of the space. Gabel stood by a large tree, his eyes fixed on us and there is where he'll be watching and keeping track of all our every movement and choices, and I could feel my palms begin to sweat.

"5,4 Galeb counted... 3,2,1...MOVE!!"

We all dispersed in different directions around the area. I ran past a few smaller trees, quickly rubbing my sweaty hands on the trunks, to confuse Drake on where I was and maybe give us all more time to hide.

I then spotted a cluster of tall trees and rocks, I quickly clawed and ran up one… knowing that I could jump from one tree to the next if he scented me in the one I was now hiding in and work my way down to the rocks and keep myself low and hidden. Best of all, these trees were English Walnuts, they were thick and bushy, and they had such a strong fresh smell that, would be great for masking my wolf scent…. My dad taught me that.

I kept low on the edge of a thick branch getting close and ready to move to the tree next to me. I could see Drake slowly moving around his eyes peeled looking for any movement, sniffing out any scent. I chuckled to myself when I saw him move toward the tree trunks where I had put my sweaty scent on, it kept him distracted enough for someone to emerge from some rocks and plunge toward him, he was quick, but Drake heard him just in time and caught the guy by his neck and put him on the ground. As his attack didn’t work and he made his way over to Galeb and sat down to watch the rest of us. It had been 30 minutes and so far, 8 out of 12 of us had attempted attacks but none of them were successful and one by one they were sent back to the training ground to practice defence and attack. But 9th trainee managed to attack Drake, he came out of nowhere and practically rugby tackled the back of Drake’s legs pushing him to the ground, the guy sat on his back with all his weight. Drake was down so the attack worked but when the guy got up to make his way back to the grounds, I saw his face and realised it was Liam… I smiled widely for him, I knew he’ be feeling so chuffed with himself right now ‘Go Liam, I knew you had it in you’ I marvelled to myself.

It was now just down to me and Dakota, I had no idea where she was but I didn’t dare take my eyes off of Drake to look for her, he was nearing to a tree not far in front of me when all of a sudden his feet were grabbed and pulled back, quick and roughly, he fell to the ground as I saw Dakota from around the tree dragging him, she then jumped up and leapt on him, she had him pinned down but to be honest he looked as though he enjoyed having her straddling him as he gave her a playful smirk. she got up with a proud grin as Gabel gave her a nod as she left. It was just me now which made me even more nervous, Drake knew he only had one left, so I had to be careful and dead quiet. He was coming toward the tree I was in, his ears listening out for the slightest sound, eyes locked on everything around him, but I could sense he still had no idea where I was. I needed to get in the right position, a bit closer.

I quietly moved to the next tree, moving on my feet like a little mouse and luckily the stream not far from us created a little noise so I could at least move without him noticing... I waited as I saw him near, and I slowly moved myself a few branches lower down the tree but keeping enough distance that he wouldn’t catch my scent above him. There he stood, just below me, his eyes still looking around carefully, I moved my feet to the edge of the branch and let myself drop without making a sound... and BASH I landed on his shoulders and as he fell to the ground, I wrapped my legs around his neck tightly to keep him pinned down for ten seconds!

‘I DID IT!! I smiled inwardly to myself an as I moved my legs off of him, he stood up smiling and gave me his hand to help me up

"Well done Lelanna, knew you could do it" he said giving me a wink.

"Thanks Drake, I can’t believe I did it, but I’m so happy I’ll be smiling all day!"

"Well, you should have more faith in yourself! I’ve watched your training, you’re really skilled, so just keep that in mind, your capable of being an outstanding warrior Lelanna but you need to know it yourself you need to know how much you’re capable of"

I gave him a smile and a nod, slightly blushing at the compliment "thanks Drake, I will definitely work on that" I chuckled. I turned to look at Galeb who gave me a smile

"Ok Lelanna make your way back to the ground we'll follow"

"Ok Sir" I said as I set of into a jog back to the grounds, I quickly grabbed my water once I got there my mouth was like the Sahara Desert! I picked up a practice sword and started working on my attack with one of the standing training dummies, I was quick, and I could manoeuvre very well with a sword, but it was my accuracy I knew I needed to work on.

After a while we were all called to stop and clear away the equipment before we could go home. Another session finished and we were all sweating as our clothes clung to our skin.

Me and Dakota made our way home slowly together.

"Ugh we still have to go shopping" Dakota said, sounding exhausted which made me exhale loudly in annoyance, we both wanted to go home, shower and nap. but instead, we had to go shopping for Jay’s Summer Garden party that was happening tomorrow.

It was the first one of the year... one not to be missed it was the one that everybody near our age group wanted to attend.

"Well, we did promise the girls we would" I reminded her "We can’t back out now and besides we’ll be glad we did once were out with them"

"Yea, it'll still be fun I suppose... and anyway I guess we can just sleep tonight" Dakota said sarcastically with a chuckle.

"Uhh I'll be sleeping for the next week after today and the party tomorrow" and we laughed as we parted ways to go to our houses.

"See you later Lanna"

"See you later D".