A Sense of Mate

Balloon Children

        The morning brought a clear blue summer sky, and a gentle breeze that swirled around my face and neck, subtly cooling it from the heat of the early risen sun.  I peered over the railings at the end of the boardwalk. Watching as the ocean water laps around the wooden columns beneath me.  The fact that I was the only soul on the boardwalk made things seem so peaceful, and I allowed myself to get lost, staring at the water’s surface as the sun bounced off the peak of each small wave.

    I'd found a happy place.

    Distant sounds of music being played somewhere in town distracted me from my happy thoughts, and curiosity called to me.  I wanted to know where the music was coming from, who was playing it, and why?

    I began to walk back up the boardwalk.  I was hesitant to leave my peaceful place so I kept one hand on the railing as I walked, as though somehow it would tether me.  Reaching the end I began to see a mass of people, all hurriedly walking in the same direction.

    A group of children caught my eyes, all of them excited, and all holding balloons in a variety of bright colours.  I shook off my hesitation, let go of the railing and followed the children.  I kept a short distance between the children and myself, not wanting them to notice me tagging along.  I couldn’t help but notice how big their smiles were, laughing as they walked.  Also, each child’s outfit seemed to match the colour of the balloon they were holding.

    The mass of people walking towards the music had almost doubled in size.  Faceless people in white and black tunics, stood on stone plinths on either side of the crowd, gesturing us to continue moving forward through an alleyway.  It looked more like we were being herded, like cattle.  Squeezed through too tight of an area to handle this many people.

    I felt claustrophobic.  Panicking I began searching for an exit,  and through a gap in the crowd I could just about make out Main Street ahead of us.  The music had become much louder, I couldn’t quite make out what the tune was, but it was almost carnival-like in style and now it was mixed in with the sound of cheering crowds.

    We continued in a forward direction, still staying as close to the children as the mass of walking bodies would allow.  The air in my lungs seemed strained with the sheer amount of people being crushed together, and I breathed shallowly trying to conserve what little oxygen was around me.  The alley grew dark, I closed my eyes for a brief second to stifle my panic, and when I re-opened them we were all on Main Street, and I could breathe again.

    I took in the view in front of me as people continued to spill out of the alleyway.  Whilst I recognised Main Street, it looked different.  On any normal day if you stood in the centre and looked up one side, or down the other you could see the forest or the ocean.

    Not today.  Today the road seemed to stretch for miles in either direction, and large colourful floats were making their slow parade journey up the road.  Both sides of the street had been roped off, and thick crowds filled the areas behind.   Each person, laughing, cheering or waving a flag or balloon.

    I suddenly realised I had lost sight of the children, and frantically I scanned the sea of people.  The children were stood on the other side of the road, at the very front of the rope line.  Each colourful balloon now anchored to their wrists.

    I don’t know why, but I needed to get to them.  I looked for a way to get around, but the crowds seemed to be at least ten people deep along the rope line.  I had no choice, I pushed myself through a section of happy people.  I apologised for each foot I stepped on, or elbow I unintentionally gave.  I needn’t have bothered.  The people didn’t seem to be aware.  They were too busy waving, or cheering to notice me as I made my way to the front of the line.

    I scrambled underneath the rope and dashed to cross the road, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the parade float in front of me.  It was the moon I noticed first, it looked so real.      The glowing orb was huge and looked as though it had been plucked straight out of the night sky.  It’s base cradled by dark twisted oak branches which spread out to form an archway beneath it.  It changed from the wood into silver half-way down, and the remainder of the structure transforming into a throne at the bottom.

    I was so mesmerized by the moon; I didn’t see the figure sat upon the throne until the crowd became silent; frozen.  Then the figure came to stand at the very front of the float looking down at me. .  She was incredibly beautiful.  An athletically built woman, wearing a cream toga styled dress with silver hair which flowed down to her waist.  She looked to be no more than her early twenties.  However, her crystal blue eyes told me how much wisdom and age they held behind them.

    She stood there, looking down intently at me.  She seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place how I knew her.  Her gaze seemed to acknowledge my thoughts, and she gave me a side-ways smile before gracefully leaping down from the float, coming to stand less than a foot away from me.  Her eyes never left mine as she raised a hand and placed it gently above my heart.

    The very second she made contact with my heart I knew who the beautiful silver-haired woman was.  I drew in a gasp of air. 

    “Moon Goddess” I breathed.  She nodded at my realisation. 

    “How is this possible?” I whispered.  I searched for more words to say, or a question to ask.  After all, how often does a person get a chance to stand before their maker? 

    “Little one the how is not as important as the why?”  she didn’t physically say a word, but her voice filled my head.  I opened my mouth to speak and she shook her head at me.  “Use your inner-voice little one, I will hear you” the moon goddess coaxed.

    “Is this real?” I asked her, and she shook her head again.

    “You are dreaming little one, it was the only way to speak with you”.

    I must admit I’m not even sure how I am supposed to respond to that. The mother of all wolves wanted to speak to me, but why? I am nothing.  I am no-one.  I wondered if I had failed her in some way.  My thought process passed in silence, still, the moon goddess stayed with her hand upon my heart.

    It dawned on me that perhaps she was here to tell that my potential ability was a mistake, and she was here to take it back.  I searched her face for any semblance of disappointment.  There was none, and I lowered my head in embarrassment.

    “Oh little one,” her voice sighed in my head.  With her free hand, the moon goddess brought it up towards my chin, and slowly lifted my head back to her gaze.  “How could I be disappointed with you?  You are as I intended for you to be”.  Her hand dropped from my chin.

    “I’m afraid I must apologise to you.  Though you are as I intended, the path that you are now on is not of my design, nor is it one I can alter.” Her eyes seemed to sadden as she gave her answer.  

    “I should have had a different life?” I questioned out loud, no longer in my head.  I wanted. No. I needed to know more and I rushed the goddess with questions.  “Why did it change?  Who changed it? What life should I have had?”

    She held her hand up in the air to stop me.

    “I can answer your first two questions little one, but not the third.”  I took that as my cue to shut up and listen.  “Freewill changed your course, or should I say the freewill of other werewolves to be more precise”.  I c****d my head to one side and squinted my eyes.  That didn’t answer my questions.  

    “Whilst I set the paths of all of my pups, only their main destination points are set in stone. How they get to those points is only a guideline and the journey there can be altered through a pup’s own free will.”  I tried not to looked too confused, but I could see I wasn’t fooling the goddess.

    “Your free will to choose your journey to your destinations was taken away from you when you were just a baby.”  I could hear the sorrow in her voice as she spoke to me.  “Even when you wake from our meeting, your decision will not be your own”.

    “Um, m-mother” I interrupted tentatively.  “I am an Omega wolf.  I understand I have no free will”.  My words upset her, and her forehead furrowed.  “Can I ask who changed my path and why?”

    For the first time, the goddess turned her face away from mine.  “Your course when your parents were murdered. 

    “My parents died in a car c-crash” I stuttered.

    “No little one, wolves and hunters slaughtered your parents on their conquest for power and control”.  Tears began to sting in my eyes, but the moon goddess has no reason to lie to me.  “I was found in the car, why didn’t I die too?” I cried.

    “You were hidden in the back little one.  You never cried out, and your parent's murderers never knew you were there” she tried to soothe me.

    “But why? They didn’t have any power I know this because I have no power.  I am nothing, a no-one” I questioned, my voice straining at the new information.

    “Little one you are more than nothing”.  The skin underneath where her palm was radiated with warmth.

    “You have more power than you have yet to realise”.  The heat intensified.

    “You have the same gifts that I gave your mother, they are a powerful tool.”   My skin is burning now, I want to run and break free from the searing pain above my right breast, but I’m stuck fast.

    “These gifts will give you back your free will, they will set you on the path to where you're meant to be”.  The voice of the moon goddess was full of command now, but none forcing any form of submission.  I glanced down at my chest and had to turn away from the blazing light underneath the hand of the goddess. 

    I didn’t think I could take the pain anymore, I was on the brink of passing out when in an instant both the pain and the blinding light disappeared.  My breath hitched unevenly, and I nervously peeked down at my chest to see what wound was there. There was none.  Instead, sitting on my inflamed skin was a tattoo-like mark of a full moon, the outline of a small wolf inside.

    I turned my head back towards the moon goddess.  I had no words.  She placed her hand back over my new mark and settle her eyes back towards mine in a proud but soft manner.  Once again I could hear her voice in my head.

    “I only have a few more minutes here little one.  The mark you now wear identifies you as a Primary – you govern the power of two abilities".  Her words sounded as if the mark were the greatest gift she could give to me.

    “Listen carefully, Jessa”.  This was the first time I had heard her say my name.  “This mark will help you focus your gifts, and you must keep it hidden.  It is for yours and your mates' eyes only”.   

    My stomach knotted excitedly.  “I have a mate?” I asked.  I heard the goddess chuckle in my head.

    “Yes little one, that’s one destination point which hasn’t changed.  I think you’ll be happy with who I have chosen for you”.  I wanted to ask her when I would meet them, and what he was like, but she gently placed a kiss on my forehead, turned and gracefully leapt back onto the float.

    The crowd came back to life and the float began to move past me slowly.

    “Wait” I yelled out. “How will I know I’m on the right path?  What if I need your help?”.

    The goddess smiled and as she passed me by she whispered into my head “trust your gifts little one, I’ll always be with you through them”.  Then she was gone.

    It wasn’t just the goddess that had gone.  The floats; cheering crowd and carnival-style music had all disappeared.  Main street seemed to bare, all except for the children and their balloons.  They motioned for me to go to them, and I curiously walked over.

    “Hi,” I said as I crouched down.  A small girl with blonde pig-tails, and wearing a pair of blue jeans with a faded red top tapped me on my leg.

    “You need to be careful miss,” she said, her voice pitch sounding like water rubbed against crystal.

    “Is there something wrong?” I asked her.  She shyly nodded her head and pointed an index figure behind me.

    “The bad man’s coming”. 

    I turned around, the street was still empty.  “it’s okay sweetie, there’s no-one here, you’re safe” I said trying to reassure her.

    “HE’S HERE” she screamed, her finger still pointing behind me.

    I turned around to see the blurred image of a man running full steam towards me, something shiny in his hands.  I quickly got up from my crouched position and tried to use my body as a shield to protect the children.  The closer he got to us, the lesser blurry he appeared.  I tried to concentrate on his features, I wanted to see who our attacker was.  No use.  What I should have paid attention to was the shiny object in his hands. 

    When he was two feet away from us I recognised what he was carrying.  It was too late I couldn’t get the children to safety with the blurry man that close.   He stopped and pointed the gun barrel at my head.  I got the children to squeeze behind my body as tight as they could and closed my eyes tight.

    BANG, BANG…