CHRONICLES OF AADYA

Episode Two

There’s yet no language for how I feel at the moment. The first thing I understood about my father was that he wasn't family, because family is the ones who were there for me. And he wasn’t.

I was escorted to the carriage Olaf had arrived in. I turned to look at the ones I had called family for the last time, and the only thing holding my already broken heart to shatter completely was the slightest hope I saw in Gunnar's eyes, and I believe them, I clung to them. With a weak smile I gave him, I turned and mounted into the carriage. And that was the end, I settled down knowing this will probably be the last time I do set my eyes on this house.

Night had come and a half moon rose high over the trees, lighting the land till it lay bathed in the ghostly night by the time we finally arrived at Alaston. We only stopped to rest a couple of times throughout the day's journey, each time a few minutes to relieve ourselves and water the horses.

That night, things went oddly strange, not that I expected to be treated special but I could tell something was off or perhaps people seem to be strange when you're a stranger. It wasn't until morning that I realize I wasn't married to Olaf, I was sold to him. And then I began to wonder how much my own father may have despised me to have sold me to a man capable of owning thirteen helots.

"You need to leave here" I suddenly hear someone whisper quietly to me and I immediately turned to look in her direction. She seemed to be younger than me and more fragile. I raised a brow at her but she never said another word and walk to the other corner of the tiny room we were meant to sleep. It was my second night here and the first night I would be sleeping with a bunch of other women. My eyes travel around the room, observing how strangely they were all staring at me.

I don't know what prompted me to rise from the corner I was in and began to walk my way to the younger one who had whispered to me. She kept nipping her fingers as I sat beside her, not even sparing me a glance.

"Hey. I'm Aadya" I introduce myself calmly except she never responded. "Why did you ask me to leave?" I muttered and she began to harshly pinch her fingers that I feared she would soon bleed from it. She seems to be highly strung about something and that was what I curiously needed to know. If this will be the land I die in, at least I need to know how it beats.

Her pale skinny hand reached for the lace of her dress and she slowly undid them and hesitantly pushed the right side of her shoulder down gradually exposing the scar that ran across her shoulder to her back, I breathed out and she shuddered. In this time, if a man has scars, it's like a heroic show or war happened. But women? They characterize us as some creepy freaks. And that bothers me why someone would give her such scars because they were definitely not done by her.

"How did you get these?" I quietly asked and she immediately covered them up as if she just realized what she did.

"It was done by Master Olaf. So you should escape while you can, and make sure you go far, and never stop running because once you stop, you would be back here" A different lady said firmly from a distance. She was clearly the oldest in the room.

To me, it was bad enough dealing with my father, but this said Olaf is an abomination, and I hate myself for being a relative to a man that's an accomplice of his travesty. I was about to say something when the door was suddenly pushed open and I heard my name being called by a man I'm seeing for the first time.

I stood up and immediately began walking toward the man, while the ladies watched me pitifully. I took one last glance at the girls before I eventually walked out of sight.

"You demanded I shouldn't touch you because you weren't mine" Olaf said once he walked into the room I was left to wait. It was a bedroom but I doubt it was his. "And here you are, as mine and mine forever" He grinned evilly moving closer to me before he roughly grabbed my jaw with his right hand, his fingers digging harshly into the skin around my jaw.

"Say that again!" He sneered but I could only grind my teeth together, he pulled my face up so I could look at him, I stared dreadfully at him and suddenly he shoved me away from him before his palm harshly came in contact with my cheek. I don't know how strong he was but I’m certain I could challenge him. However, if this would be all he does, then I can endure. I know I would.

Although before I could even look up at him again, I was shoved down on the bed. I lifted my eyes to see him sneering victoriously down at me and at that moment, I could feel nothing but hatred for him and a gripping desire to do something about it. I wanted to fight, to kill.

He quickly began undoing the lace of his pants, and all that mattered to me at that moment was to get him off me, so I did what everyone would do, and with no care, if my action would kill me.

"Enough!"

I yelled as I try to push him off my body, and I could swear I barely even touched him except the room sounded just like a heart beats as he was being sent in the air before his head slammed against the wooden wall of the room. I hear the c***k of his skull before the spattering of blood began to paint the area and I just stared at the body lying on the wooden floor.

When I was born, the name for what I was didn't exist. And in this kingdom, fire is the enemy. Woefully I was born with a spark in my eye so now I'm the enemy.

What will you do, when it is your turn in the field with the god? It's now a war between me and the people of Alaston.

***

ALISDAIR

I was ten years old the first time I realized I was strange. It was the first time I began to constantly see a specific individual in my dream and gradually it turn out to be more of a vision. It's been almost two decades since then and yet I continue to see this individual to who I'm not mated. I watched her grow, from a child to an adult and no one could give an explanation of what was happening to me.

My parents at first thought I would eventually be mated to her, but it's been over a decade, and yet nothing. And now everyone sees me as a freak, they won’t say it to my face but their expressions say it all, even my brother the alpha. What else would it mean to be a lonely werewolf, if not a lost thing?

At the outset, I only see her in my dreams, but laterally I feel like I'm in a trance when I see her, it just comes without warning and I grew used to it. And that made me not blame the people around me because I don't even understand myself.

"...Alisdair... Ali!" I was awakened by my father's roar. It happened again. My eyes snapped up at my father to see him glaring down at me. The last thing I remember was trying to knot the rope attached to the sheep around the wood next to me, and the way things were, it pretty clear I did knot them before I was in trans.

"It happened again"

I don't even know if he meant that as a question since it was obvious it had happened. I rose to my feet and walked past him without uttering a single word.

"Alisdair!"

He roared and I stopped in my path not looking back. He didn't say any other word nor did he move from his spot and I just abruptly darted out of the ranch and into the woods. The expanse of trees ahead of me was never ending or perhaps I thought so. The tree canopies provided a slight glimpse into the overcast moon and the unending blanket of stars. The forest was calm as everything seemed to be enjoying its calmness except me. My steps pounded in time with my heartbeat, I was still in my human form.

The steady pound of the soles of my sandal hitting the ground echoed in my ears as I kept sending myself jetting past the various trees that blurred in my speed. Eventually, I ceased at the edge of a cliff, panting. I roared thunderously, and my amber eyes glowed brightly. Shortly I sensed Bellamy racing towards me and I turned to the sound of his footsteps.

"You followed" I muttered, the words were barely even directed to him. But he responded by saying.

"I always follow"

I felt not too alone hearing him say that, he was more of a brother than a friend and I'm grateful for having him always by my side. I wasn't weak, they all knew it, just that I wasn't still as normal as the rest. Bellamy won't say that to my face, but I know it bothered him sometimes.

"I saw you sprinting through the farmland towards the woods," Bellamy says as he settled down, his legs hanging over the cliff and I joined him. "It happened again?" He asked turning to glance at me and I nodded, resting my palms on either side of me and my eyes began to train at the blanket of stars and moon that shone above us. "Is she okay?" He asked quietly. He was the only one I tell exactly how my visions went.

"I can't tell. But she was different" My last line was barely audible. Feeling a little betrayed, like she had hidden that side of her from me. I don't even know if she was real, right now I can't even tell what's real, everything is just frustrating. I had watched her all my life in what could be visions or dreams, but never in one did I see her demonstrate any form of spell or whatever the hell I just saw.

"What do you mean different?" I could detect a slight curiosity in his voice. But he wasn't the only one curious, I was. I tried as much as possible to narrate the entire newest vision to Bellamy, but in the end, he was just as dumbstruck as I was.

"I believe she's a witch" Bellamy suddenly uttered piercing the silence.

I didn’t utter any word for some seconds, just thinking “She didn't look surprised about what had happened” I let out “She was sorry about it but there was no regret in her eyes. More like she was pondering about what would occur to her next. It seems she always knew she possessed those powers"

"So what do you think would happen to her?"

I don't know if he was being serious with his question since we all knew what happens to supernatural beings outside of our land. That's one reason why I haven't gone in search of her.

"I don't think that’s ours to ponder," I told him nonchalantly which earned me a glare.

"Stop doubting, Alisdair. She is real and you know it. So you need to cease from those unnecessary doubts that keep lingering through your mind in times like these" He said firmly and it wasn't the first time I heard those words leave his mouth. I know she's real, I could feel her, but why do these have to happen to me? When I found out she was from Dubrovnik, and my father confirmed there was truly a land named so, I wished everything wasn’t real. And now she's in Alaston, which will take us about eight days to arrive there. But the truth is that I have never gone beyond our land, not even in my human form.

"You can't just sit here and want everything to come to an end. It's time you search for her" He advised. It is much easier to say things when you aren't the one experiencing the unusual and I'm getting tired of everyone thinking that they know the best. Because it's frustratingly annoyingly painful to be in my situation. To be me.

"Hey, Ali. Look at me" He instructs me comfortingly and I looked over at him. It's the first time I took notice of him since he arrived. Bellamy was younger, but there were not many differences in our body size. He never ceases not to amaze me, he always finds a way to pull me together and that made me miss my mother. "We will find her. Together" He added gazing firmly at me, he was serious.

"Do you think she knows any of these is happening?" The words came out before I could process them. It was another thought that's been lingering for ages.

"No, it's just that... at the time, you don't know how much you don't know. And if you need to understand everything that has been happening to you, we need to find her. I just know it's going to yield something exceptional, it's going to fill a void that you didn't know you had" Somehow his words made clear my deepest contemplations.

"Father said you were about to do something that he radically disagrees with" Callen, my elder brother voiced walking behind me as I kept on my way to the ranch. “And I also disagree”

“I know you would” I retort fully aware he won’t leave me be.

“That’s a very bad decision, Alisdair”

“I’m trying to remember when I asked for your opinion. Oh, that’s right, I didn’t. So you could just leave me alone, Callen!” I turned to face him at the last line, not in the mood to contain his presence and my eyes blankly trained at his wife in a distance. “Please, Callen. Let me for once do what I’m obliged to... I’m not asking Callen. I’m telling you” I finished as calmly as I could and immediately turned and continued walking to the ranch.

They don’t have to shove it in my face, this was my decision, it was my quest and no one has a say on it. I know he’s the alpha but he’s still my brother, and there are some things I get to decide on my own.

I ended up spending most of the day at the ranch as I didn’t want to come in sight with Callen.

“You sure love to stop by my cist unannounced and uninvited,” I said not looking in his direction, only feeling his presence by my door. I grabbed a few things I would be needing and nested them into the skin bag I had.

“It’s still my house”

“Not anymore, since you already have one with your family” I reminded.

“That’s an addition”

“No one cares”

“I’m your alpha, Alisdair!” He roared.

I turned to face him, grinding my teeth so harshly that I could feel its pain, I was trying so hard not to snap. “If you could refrain from trying to talk me out of my decision, I might be better able to converse” I returned as calmly as possible.

“You are not leaving” He blankly uttered and I immediately narrowed my eyes at him. “You are not leaving, Alisdair. It’s dangerous. People could find out about us”

“I don’t care anymore, don’t you see? I really don’t. I’m tired of sitting here and doing nothing... doing nothing about what is going on in my life for over a decade now. So you don’t get to tell me how to live my life, Callen. I have put on with you and dad for so long and I’m tired” I threw my bag over my shoulder and took a step forward but he never moved.

“Judging by your less-than-magnanimous expression, I’m guessing that’s a no?” I watched him fiercely. “You step out of my way right now or my next action would be unrecognizable” I warned and I meant every word.

“Alisdair”

“Mother would let me go”

I don’t even know why I had said that, but everything was better when mother was still alive and it hurts me that she wasn’t able to fix me before she went to join our ancestors. Mother always finds a way, she was good at it, maybe I would have had a better understanding of my situation if she was still here. She was my only hope of ever finding a solution and now I had those hopes back, no one, I mean no one would take that away from me.

Few moments of agonizing silence before he stepped aside and I walked past him and out of the house. My father was nowhere in sight, which I appreciate. It was night, Bellamy had suggested we start with the night as we were very familiar with our territory, it was secure to travel as a wolf at night and human during the day. That was the plan.

“Are you ready?” Bellamy inquired once I got to him and I nodded.

Someone is calling me.

***

AADYA

Evening fell and death rode into the great land of Alaston, it was searching for me. Sadly it was the night I will be burned alive and I pray to the goddess of the moon my little brother wouldn't be there to witness it.

When the full moon rose in the middle of Alaston, people came to watch me burn. I was being dragged out roughly from the dungeon I was kept in by a man, my two hands knotted together as he dragged me through the crowd of people eager to see me burn. It didn't disturb me though, never knew why, or maybe perhaps I wasn't afraid of death, I was certainly tired of living. But not that I want to die, I just simply don't want to exist in a world like this.

It wasn't until I was finally tied up against the tall log of wood that my eyes fell on my father, I was a bit shocked to see him here, standing among the people of Alaston, and right away I began searching for Gunnar, never been this anxious in my life. I stood barefoot clad in a moody white garment, my surroundings covered with woodpiles. But regardless of the insults and curses that were thrown at me, and the fact I would soon be turned into ashes, nothing feared me more than the terror Gunnar would have to witness, he was just too young for that. I didn't see him among the crowd, I kept searching, but he wasn't anywhere in sight.

It turns out the word family was mostly a lie, one which I lived through. But at least to me, it was beautiful with Gunnar in it. And I'm grateful for the last time he wasn't here to witness what would soon be unleashed on me.

My mother had taught me the golden rule of life before she was gone. "Sometimes you try your hardest but things don't work out the way you want them to, sometimes things have to change, and maybe sometimes they're for the better or worst. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there" Those were her exact words, and at that moment, I swore to myself I wouldn't die that day.