7

Unknown Treasures

I don’t know how long I have been here but I know it is long enough. All the werewolves are gone and it is just me and one other person. I cannot tell who it is but I have been feeling their eyes on my back for a while now.

The person is yet to approach me and I have no interest to investigate who it is. I am tired and I need a good sleep. I turn around to leave – I will have to use the forest since the beta had left with the car and did not send it back – when I notice the figure enshroud in the darkness silently waiting, watching.

I stop and slow my heartbeat, drawing Eliza up to the surface in case we need to attack. The tall figure takes a step out of the darkness and heads towards me. Although the figure has a white shawl over her snowy white hair, it does not take me a moment to recognize her.

Eyes the color of rosewood, patrician features and pale skin and the arresting scent of lilies. “Moon priestess.” I growl. I would recognize her anywhere.

“Child.” She drawled. Her voice is silky and smooth and, in some way, sounds musical to the ears. It is like a lullaby that calms the nerve and pulls you into sleep. Had she trained to talk like this too? How did this priestess thing work? Is she born this way?

“I did not realize you were still around.” I say.

She walks to my side and stares into the sea and I turn too. I guess I am not going home now. “The water is so still, yet so strong.” She says and I turn to look at her.

“You, Crystal are like the water.”

I scoff. I have been scared of the water for as long as I can remember. Water is the last thing I should be compared with.

“You don’t believe me.” Her lips are firm as she speaks. “But it is true. Your journey has only just begun, Crystal and soon you will begin to see what I see.”

“Really?” I roll my eyes. “And what do you see?”

She smiles. A confident but disturbing smile. “You and in this life, you have a choice.”

I frown. “This life What are you talking about?”

“You will see.” The beginning of a smile tops the corners of her mouth. “We will meet again, Crystal. And when we do, you will have started to understand what I am talking about. Then I will explain to you.”

She turns and begins to walk towards the forest. I look up at the full moon and then the still sea and howl into the night as a final greeting to my parents before I head into the forest.

The forest is warm – a stark contrast to the coldness of the sea – and inviting. I hear the croaks of frogs and the whistling of insects. The forest is my sanctuary. It is the place where I find peace and my head I clear enough to think.

I think of my parents and how healthy they had been the last time I saw them two weeks ago. How quickly things had changed in two weeks, I am orphaned and alone. I have to take in responsibilities that I am not ready for. Walk in shoes that barely fit.

Their bodies would still be hit but I am already missing them. I want to ask why they did not fight harder but I know how hard it is to fight death. How many times have I died in the dream? No matter how much I struggled, I still died. Not once had I been able to win death and that was their future.

If the dream had been clearer, then perhaps I would have been able to save them. I should have followed them on that ship, at least if I could not save them, then I would have died with them.

Why had they not called for help? Why did they not try to reach me through the mind link? There are a lot of questions I would have liked to ask them if they were not dead. If death was a person then I would have killed him or her, whatever body it came in.

I slow my steps as I sight the pack house. They were gone while the rest of us remained. Did the house even notice that they are gone and will never come back? I turn on my heels and pull Eliza to the surface, urging her to take over and when she does, we run.

Back into the forest, past the trees and across rivers. I sigh as the wind romance her mane. The memory of the first time I got my wolf comes to my mind and I smile.

It had been a bright and hot day and I just turned eighteen. Pa had been delighted with the prospect and mom had been cool about it she was always cool except when it came to my health and then she became excited.

She was busy with planning the initiation ceremony so I was left with pa. Anxiously, I gripped his finger and told him how scared I was. I was afraid I would not be able to get a wolf – the things were that I had always felt different – and I thought this was it. Perhaps, this was what made me different. I will not get my wolf and he and ma would be disappointed in me.

But pa was not having any of that. He had taken my hand in his and told me he could never be disappointed in me. Neither would ma. Whether my wolf came that day or later, it would not matter.

“You will still remain our sweet daughter who makes us very proud.” He had said.

“And what about the initiation ceremony ma is planning. This is what everyone expects from me and I am going to let them down.” I worried.

He had simply smiled and asked. “Do you want to let them down?”

I shook my head.

“Then don’t.” He had said.