Chapter 3

I woke up with an intense itching in my Crescent Moon mark, it is always meant as a warning. Damn! I get up with haste to see it's 4:31 a.m. I go to my window, everything seems calm, and the Mark starts itching again more intensely.

I start feeling beads of sweat on my forehead, I run to the front door, I sniffed the air with eyes closed just get as much information as possible... Nothing. I sharpen my eyes as much as possible to see into the darkness while at the same time making sure my ears miss nothing. But nothing is what I eventually find.

My Mark is literally burning by this moment and the beads of sweat are starting to run down from my temples to my cheek. I go immediately inside and get my phone to call the Alpha, tricky bastard is not responding to the pack link, while shouting to my parents to get up immediately waking up the entire household. While I'm running to my bedroom to get my phone my father opens the door of his room in a panic...

"What's wrong?!" My father asks with wide eyes.

"Dad I'm calling the Alpha, get in contact with General Braka and verify anything that might be approaching the island, something's coming or something's happening I'm not sure, but I think it's already here!"

That's all I have to tell them so that him and all of my brothers and sisters start calling and linking everyone. My mother is getting some coffee ready in the meanwhile so that we can be as alert as possible, and then it happened... I felt it so strongly I only had a few moments to tell everyone to brace themselves, the ground started shaking... I start to control my fear and try to focus on the ground beneath me. I don't feel any of tectonic plates moving... my arm is in agony right now because of my mark!

I tell everyone to keep doing what they're doing so that I can go outside and focus my mind more, my father decided to continue the call with the alpha so that I may be able to focus my energy better and understand what's going on. Suddenly my mind cannot stop thinking of Mt. Cemí, and then the scent hits me!

"DO YOU SMELL THAT?!"  I yelled to no one in particular, I'm just trying to confirm that I'm not going crazy.

"What smell?" My sister Guanina asks. I look at my older brother Urayoán to confirm that there is indeed no scent, he is the best tracker of our pack, I trust his nose more than anybody's I know. He looks nervous but he just shakes his head... "No."

"Dad, we have to evacuate the island ASAP! Tell the alpha to find any allies we have that we may be able to evacuate to! Sound the alarm! Wake everyone!" My father can see the mark in my forearm turn red, he knows it's burning me to a core and he knows what it means, everyone continues calling and linking with everyone! I can feel the pandemonium in my head!

"Alpha Gúarionex has been informed, they're trying to contact as many allies as possible, what's happening?!" My father asks anxiously as he is embracing my mother.

"Dad, you have to take your position, we need an emergency evacuation. Mt. Cemí is going to blow!"  I tell him as I kneel to the ground as I put my hand on it trying to find a way to appease the Earth trying to stop the veins of magma. I'm only a Priestess! Shit!

"Where is Yaya?! I am trying to link with her but I am getting no response!" Because we are on an Island we have a small airport and we already have an emergency Escape Plan just in case anyting forced to happen that we had to abandon our homes, we just never expected that day would come...

Everyone grabs what they can, mostly bug out bags, and just as we are filling up the first plane full of women, pups and The Elders... BOOM!!!

It's already 5:06 in the morning, the sun is already peeking its way East of The Horizon making the plume of the explosion the more distinguishable, the ground shook so hard and I remember falling on my ass and looking towards my brother asking him while I shouted "CAN YOU SMELL IT NOW?!" Ura just glared at me and as the smartass he is just basically mouths back "No shit!"

Everyone is going to the planes or to the boats, the main goal is to evacuate the island to salvage the pack, the second goal is to salvage the island. But we could not risk one for the sake of the other, the Alpha was able to contact two allies in the United States, one in Virginia the other not far from them... I stoped paying attention. They were the closest geographically that answerd our call, and we have to go to the closest since we did not have the time to fill up on as much fuel and hence the first plane left, while looking at the plane leaving I look at the mountain and what I see is the hot lava come spewing over the caldera.

I yell over the chaos to my father and I have to go to the mountain and see how I can try my best to control what's going on. It's not like we want to lose our home! The pack survives no matter where it lives, but we do not want to give up our home! My father and the Alpha understand what my duty is so they focus on theirs while I focus on mine... "TRY TO FIND YAYA AND SEND HER MY WAY!" I yell at my father and the Alpha. I take the fastest dirt bike I can up the mountain as close to the clump of lava that is already coming near. I used all of my focus try to stop it, tried to stop the Earth inside the magma, tried to cool the fire inside of it. A Prime Priestess would have been able to do this with no problem or issue. I feel the water of a river close by, I focus to raise the water and pour gallons of it over the magma. It's like throwing a block of ice into a raging Inferno. This is the most useless I have felt in my entire life... even maybe a High Priestess would have been able to have some control over this. I start feeling the heat of the lava that keeps coming closer by the minute like a slow running blob of black fire. No matter how much I focus, no matter how hard I try to use every single one the methods I was taught, it's just not enough. I linked to the Alpha telling him that the most I can do is to slow it but I cannot stop it, he orders me to go back and to evacuate myself!

'NO! Alpha, I can not do that! This is MY duty!' I link to him.

'Your duty is to obey your Alpha instead of questioning his order!' He answers through his Link and then he uses his Alpha voice and commands me to evacuate so that there is no more open discussion over this. No matter how much training I received as a Priestess, this is something I cannot go against. If you are not an Alpha yourself it is impossible to get out of the alpha command, you just obey. End of discussion.

5:57 a.m. I clear the mountain that is now covered lava that keeps clawing itself towards the shore on all sides of the island, I get to the airport I'm rushed by my brother to get on the last plane, I link to my father to see where he is, I can't find him. I asked my brother what has happened while I was away.

"Not even the strongest Warrior can fight against the mountain, most Warriors are helping people Evacuate the island, I haven't heard from father in 15 minutes give or take!"

"What about Mami and the rest? The Luna, Yadiel, Bruno? And where the hell is Yaya?!"  I am panicking at this moment.

"I don't know about the Luna but I know Yadiel is with the Alpha!" Aymaco, my oldest brothers tells me. The pilot tells us we're about to take off, the cabin is full, we don't know who is safe and where the other people are.

"Where are we going? Did the Alpha get in contact with any allies?" At this point my voice is breaking... I can already feel the Alpha command gone, that can only mean that Alpha Gúarionex is dead, I try to link to Yadiel, my milk brother... I can't reach him either. I start feeling the pain of the pack join my own and tears spilling out of my eyes while I look out the window and look at our Island go up in flames... It's 6:34 by the time I catch my last glimpse of home. I become very tired all of the sudden, another tear falls from my chin and falls on my sizzling mark on my forearm evaporating immediately and I fall asleep allowing the darkness to engulf me in it's comforting seclusion making me forget what a worthless, useless priestess I was to my pack.