505 Frustrating Hindrances
Hunger was a funny thing, wasnât it? As well as the time with which it chose to torture its victims.
A reaction the body fabricated to inform the person to eat something or else it would start deteriorating⦠feeding on itself in an effort to acquire energy to survive, right?
Well⦠after spending nearly two years stuck in a beautiful garden of bright blue lotuses, this concept was starting to lose meaning.
Thane, the Rogue Kingâs beta alpha, had done exactly that. Heâd gone nearly two years without food or water⦠and oddly enough, he hadnât felt a tinge of hunger. He often chuckled at the sheer impossibility that was him being alive with no signs of malnourishment whatsoever.
Under the guidance of his master, the king of all rogues in the world, he had spent an impossibly long time without going hungry or even showing signs of dying.
When the goddess had trapped them here, heâd thought, âWE ARE GOING TO DIE WITH NO FOOD OR WATER TO SUSTAIN OURSELVES!!! WE ARE GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH!!!â
But the king showed no similar form of panic.
Yes, he was frustrated beyond compare but he wasnât frustrated over the same trivial matters such as food or water.
To the beta alpha, this had been the first concern. His survival instincts had kicked in and warned him of the most immediate and fundamental danger they faced:
.....
Death by Starvation⦠or even worse⦠Death by Thirst.
Which would get to them first? He didnât want to find out. He wanted to survive.
Back then, heâd really thought they were dead. The moon goddess had tricked them and they were going to die in a prison of her own designâhe thought. They were going to die without the royals lifting a finger against them⦠but King Rana didnât even think of that for a second.
Rana had simply flopped on his back in the grass and rested for a while, thinkingâ¦
For fear of questioning his alpha, Thane had remained quiet, awaiting the moment when his stomach would growl loudly enough, announcing their disaster instead of himself. A day went by⦠then a week⦠weeks turned to months⦠and they were still alive.
The feeling of stabbing hunger never came⦠and the king didnât look surprised one bit that they never got hungry. In fact, he looked like he could stay there for a century before asking for a plate of warm food the sate his century-old hunger.
King Ranaâs frustrations sounded much more⦠âchildishâ when the beta alpha first heard them.
Rana wanted⦠to âbiteâ people.
Well, who wouldnât?
The man had just got regained his power and could transfer the werewolf curse onto many more humans, replenishing the dwindling numbers that were left of his army of rogues.
He could continue to expand the power of the rogues and achieve his dreams like heâd always wantedâ¦
With them trapped like this, however, Thane wasnât sure that would be happening any time soon.
Or so heâd thought for whileâ¦
Who knew how long they would stay caged like this? Trapped in a cage of plants.
At some point, Thane had tried clawing at the trees with all his might, mustering a large pool of endurance and might as he claws his way deeper and deeper into the bark of one of the surrounding trees.
After what felt like thirty minutes of endless toiling in an effort to break out of the plant prison, the king had raised a brow at him and gone⦠âW-What are you doing?â
âTrying to get us out of hereâ¦â
âTake a look at your claw marks!â
Thane curiously turned back to the tree heâd been clawing at and there it was⦠right before my eyes.
The parts of the wood that I had just clawed began to knit together until there wasnât a sign of his pathetic attempt at escape.
After that incident, King Rana promised to find a way to escape their prison. All Thane had to do was leave it all to him.
It wasnât like there was much the beta alpha could do anyway.
All Thane could really do was watch⦠patientlyâ¦
He watched the king meditate for several days, attempting to achieve a feat never heard of. When he got too bored, Thane trained his body as he continued to watch the king meditate.
In this prison, even protecting the kingâs body felt like a waste of time. Nothing could pose a threat anyway.
After several days of no success, Thane witnessed his masterâs body go limp the first time his spirit travelled out of it. He watched the swirling blue mist that seemed to rotate around the Rogue Kingâs body as he performed these long meditation sessions.
This process was repeated countless times as the king explored the scope of this opportunity⦠learningâ¦
So much time passed that Thane lost track.
...â¦
It was just another evening⦠like all other evenings when Thane was doing a couple of push-ups, challenging himself to see how many he could do before his body screamed for sweet relief.
â1,858⦠1,859⦠1860⦠One thousand⦠*grrâ
âDamn it!!!â the Rogue King slammed his fist into the ground abruptly, startling the struggling beta alpha. Thane quickly launched himself into the air, his exhaustion forgotten as a new hidden pool of strength flowed into his body, ready for action.
The beta alpha facepalmed. He couldnât even tell if anything heâd done was real anymore.
âWhat is it, my lord? Was it her again?â Thane asked, hiding his disappointment.
The Rogue King rubbed his temples in frustration. It wasnât the first time heâd returned to his body with this much anger brewing within him. Apparently, he was facing far more resistance out there than heâd expected.
The first few times heâd returned like this, heâd brought reports of several gnats that attacked him when he least expected it. Humans that shouldnât have had as much strength as they exhibited.
And for some reason, he seemed to be running into them far too frequently to be a coincidence. Nonetheless, this frustration was akin to that of a person being bothered by small insignificant rodents.
With how much combat experience the Rogue King had from his long years, the hunters were nothing but an irritating bother.
This rage, though, was much more pronounced. It was the kind of rage he bore when heâd come across something that shouldnât have existed. Something that would make his mission significantly harder.
The first time heâd returned with searing rage like this, he mentioned something about a divine wolf that was capable of killing him even if he was at the height of his power.
The sudden transformation of Drake Sirius was just the first of many hindrances. The next time heâd returned cursing was after facing off against a jaguar in the woods bordering the Great Sirius mountains.
The Jaguar, which was in the wrong habitat, seemed to be protecting an alpha for some reason. The moment Rana had started fighting the wolf, the jaguar intervened and let the wolf escape and not himâ¦
Sometimes, the rogue king shared the memories with Thane and the beta alpha was able to witness very odd occurrences that transpired during his kingâs spiritual quests.
The king wasnât stopped by a jaguar alone.
Every time Rana left his body to grow his forces, he only had a short amount of time before some creature or animal interfered with his plans. With time, these creatures would even be found in an unusual collaboration with hunters.