Chapter 22 : A Gift

*Val*

I'd been out at the main checkpoint of our territory for hours already. The men had gone over every second of last night's patrol with me numerous times. No one noticed any odd scents or movements during the feast. It wasn't until morning that they discovered anything was off.

We'd doubled the patrol since one of the guards was injured, so there shouldn't have been any gaps in security and no way for someone to sneak anywhere near our land.

I couldn't make sense of what I was looking at. Blocking the trail we used to drive in and out of town, was a line of newly planted saplings. It would have taken time to plant them and it would have been loud. That wasn't the strangest part. Placed neatly beside the central tree was a large bouquet of white, five-petaled flowers wrapped in a silver, silky material. It looked like an offering of some kind.

It was starting to feel like some kind of conspiracy was unfolding. I didn't want to entertain the idea that one of our own could