His Warrior Luna

6 The Red Wolf Ascends

At the peak of my pain, I vaguely registered hunching over and digging my fingers into the ground. But just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, my mind was being swaddled in a warm cocoon. A vision of one of the Moonflowers came to mind, and I was nestled in its dark purple center, and the whiteness of the petals embraced me.

It sheltered me. I knew I was in pain, but could no longer feel it. I felt weightless. But instead of my world going dark, it continued to lighten. I felt a presence, innocent and pure, sweet, opening its eyes like a newborn baby. I felt the calm acceptance of knowing and the wonder at existing.

“Hello.” I heard the clearest, sweetest voice ring through me. I felt as if a part of me had always been missing, and I didn’t even know until I finally found it. Or it found me.

“Hello,” I breathed back. “Who are you?”

“I’m Raina. You’re wolf.” I couldn’t see her, but could feel her preening. “Do you like my name?”

“I love it!” I exclaimed.

I felt her tense and concentrate.

“Okay, it’s time,” she said. “I’ve taken most of the pain from our transition, but you need to wake up now. You may feel a little sore still, but stretching should get the tingling out.”

With those words, the lightness around me faded to dark gray, and then the harsh yellow of the fire before me filled my vision. I slowly blinked. I felt as if time stood still and I could see the ash forming on the wood, and the lazy lines of fire as they weaved around and devoured through it.

And I could hear everything. I could hear the soft whisper of the Moonflowers behind me as they gently stirred in the air. I could hear the frogs, down by the edge of the water, as they chirped.

But then I heard the rustle of unease of the people beyond the fire.

Where is she?

Did you see that?

I can’t tell, through the flames, but I think something is wrong.

I was confused, and I stood on shaky legs, trying to figure out how to make them work. Carefully, I lifted one foot, then the other. The smell of the Moonflowers and the burning wood obliterated all other smells, and I sneezed.

The movement brought back what Raina said about stretching, so I did. She was right. It helped.

Feeling a little more confident, I walked around the fire with my head held high, ready to greet my father and my pack. But when I came out into the open, I couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

Instead of greeting me with enthusiasm and love as I was expecting, many of the people gathered shrank back away from me. I heard several gasps and shouts of dismay. Then my father roared in anger.

It was a sound I had only heard once before, and it had me shaking as I cowered away from it.

“WHAT KIND OF TRICKERY IS THIS?” He yelled, his voice deep and seeming to punch right through me. He rushed towards me, looking behind the fire and back at me. “WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?”

I whined, unable to tell my dad that it was me. I was right here! He had witnessed hundreds of shifts, he knew I would be in wolf form. I heard his harsh breathing and searched his wild eyes with confusion. He had never looked at me with so much disgust, horror, and hate. I wanted to run away from it, but I had to understand what was going on.

I looked at my mother, and she turned her eyes away from me, covering them with her hand. I took a step towards her, and my father snatched me up by the back of the neck and threw me with force back to the stone platform, where I hit it sharply with my back, and the pained yelp of my cry dominated the night. I shook my head and looked back at him, the hurt clear in my eyes.

Then it registered what everyone was saying.

A red wolf.

No, they were all killed. What does this mean?

She’s red. Why isn’t she silver?

Wait. Red? What did they mean I was red? I looked down at my paws, expecting to see a silvery sheen glowing in the light, but was met with paws the color of blood. Was I bleeding? I turned to look at my tail. It was the same color as my front feet.

In a panic, I struggled to my feet, hearing their anger and outrage become louder.

“Look!” someone, a visiting Luna, cried. “The Moonflowers are closing!”

But the moon is still out!

The Moon Goddess is displeased; we’ve offended her!

Cursed! The Red Wolf is a curse and harbinger of doom and misfortune!

Quick! Kill her before the flowers close and the Moon Goddess turns away from us!

Kill me? I panicked and ran back and forth, looking for a way to escape what was now an ugly mob. These people I had known and had loved me, were now demanding my life! I saw Devon rushing down towards me, but my fiancé was closer and got to me first.

Joffrey walked purposefully toward me. He was angry, too.

He was coming to protect me, I thought, and my tail thumped happily. Our promised mate was going to set this right.