Chapter 45 - Semhighan Stone

It took a few moments to realise she wasn’t in her bed when she woke up. The usual comfort she was wrapped in was replaced by a damp surface that stuck to her cheek as her eyes drifted open. An earthen scent filled her nose and, as she blinked back the blurriness of her vision, she saw tall trees surrounding her. They reached high to a pale sky, which had the pale hues of the early morning painted into its blue.

A jacket slipped from her shoulders as she pushed herself up and rolled the sleep from her aching muscles. Whatever position she had taken on the cold floor, her body disagreed with it and already yearned for the familiar snugness of her own bed. She had slept on the floor many times before, often when she was a pup and convinced her father to let her camp under the stars, but there was a difference that morning. An added danger, an uncertainty, for it was officially the start of the third trial of the Alpha Games.

A buzz carried over her skin as she got to her feet and p