The Little Rose

Nullar's Conundrum

Exiting the room, I found myself slamming the door, though I did not recall having the intention to, and stomping down the hall to the single flight of stairs. I knew most of what I had said had been out of line, things had escalated so quickly with the anger in me rising faster than I even knew was possible. I had lived the last two hundred years preparing for the day I would marry her. I had refused advances from woman in my kingdom and hers, finding it insulting to even contemplate an affair while engaged. I had watched her grow into the woman she was with pride. Now it was all being ripped away, something had happened to Odette, and I would find out what.

When on the first floor, I prowled around the building looking for the laundry room and our clothes, it didn’t take long and after scaring the daylights out of a young she-wolf folding clothes, I was dressed in a pair of Orion’s lose fitting cloth shorts and out the door, on my way to the forests edge and hopefully a bit of peace it could offer me.  Even when under the cool shade the trees offered, I was unable to push Orion’s words from my mind.

I was tossing sticks and rocks through the air to try and alleviate my anger when scrapping of something moving on bark caught my attention. Assuming it was a squirrel or a bird I had disturbed I began looking through the treetops, nature always put me at ease and birds seem to be the fish of the land, floating through the air with ease. Watching them fly through the sky often put me at ease when I was craving my saltwater home. It was not a bird or a squirrel I saw though, but a young woman perched high in one of the pine trees, leaned back against what looked like a backpack. She was looking down at me curiously, eyebrows drawn together as if she could not understand my presence here.

“Who are you?” I called up to her, smirking when she looked around her first, like girls just sitting in treetops was a completely normal occurrence and she were looking for others I may be addressing instead.

“Me?”  She seemed surprised, a finger pointing at her chest as her eyebrows rose towards her hair line quizzically.

“Of course you, who else would I be talking to out here? I see no one else, do you?”  The edges of her lips rose for the fraction of a second, giving me a glimpse of her sense of humor, before it was gone, and she was scowling down at me from her perch high on a branch. “Or is it that you believed yourself to be invisible?”

“Well, no, I guess not. I just thought I was hidden better is all.”  She answered, shifting on the branch to face me, her legs now hanging over the side and kicking softly back and forth. Despite having no idea who she was, the fact that she was so far from the ground with no harness to keep her safely in place, had my heart speeding up in fear for her.

“The black would be a clever idea to blend in if it were nighttime, but it’s daylight. Not to mention that hair of yours.” I referred to her all black clothing, from her shirt to the toes of her boots.

“What’s wrong with my hair?” She asked, raising a hand to smooth her platinum blonde hair, all I could focus on though was the fact that she was perched so precariously with one hand now off the branch meant a higher chance of falling.

“Nothing is wrong with it, it’s just very pale is all, a bit of a beacon. Please keep ahold of the branch, you are awfully far up, and I would hate to see you fall.” Her lips turned up into a smile this time, or rather a smirk, as she removed both of her hands from the tree and swayed back and forth, pretending to be unsteady. “Ha ha, you are very funny, please be careful.”

“I am fine, I’ve been climbing tress and mountains steeper and higher than this since I was a little girl. And who are you do say my hair is pale? Your own is white.”  She mocked my worry, but I was pleased none the less to see her hands placed back on the branch on which she was balanced.

“I suppose you are right; I do not have much room to talk as far as pale hair goes.”  I agreed, taking a few steps back so I could lean against one of the tall pine trees surrounding us while gazing up at her. “What are you doing up there anyway?”

“That is for me to know.”  She stated back, one hand moving up to push a pale lock of hair out of her face and behind one ear, for some odd reason I found myself wishing I were doing that action for her instead. “What are you doing out here?”

“That is for me to know.”  I repeated back, flashing a c*cky smile as she rolled her eyes at me.

“Nice of you to throw my words back in my face.”  She grumbled, adjusting her seat on the branch.

“I did not throw your words back in your face, I tossed them in your general direction; weather or not your face was in the target zone is left to be determined.”  She rolled her eyes again, but this time I saw the hint of a genuine smile curve her lips. Why did I feel such warmth spread through my chest at the sight of that hint of a smile? Why did I care if she were happy or if she liked me? I’d just met her five minutes ago.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a smoother talker, I got it.”  She was saying as she put the backpack beside her, set up against the tree on her back and stood on the branch.

“Woah! Wait, you need to be careful! That is a long way down and you could get seriously hurt.“  I had pushed off the tree I was leaning against and moved forward with my arms up, telling her to stay. “Stay there and I’ll be up to help you down.”  Eyeing the tree I wondered how I was to reach the first branch when her musical laughter floated down to me.

“No need, I can make it down on my own just fine. How do you think I got up here in the first place?”  Tipping my head back to look up at her I watched as she jumped to the next branch, swinging from it to the next, and next until she flipped from one, that was still too far from the ground in my opinion, and landed on the ground, just a short distance in front of me.

“Okay, I can admit that was pretty impressive.”  I said in awe, attempting to ignore how my heartbeat sped up just a bit when I looked into her dark blue eyes. She was taller than I expected, not much shorter than me, and though I felt like the worst traitor for thinking it, she was beautiful. But there was something about her that seemed familiar.

“Oh yay, because I live my life to impress the handsome me in this world.”  Her words were laced with sarcasm as she batted her long eye lashes at me exaggeratedly. Had I struck a nerve?

“So you think I’m handsome?”  I quipped back at her, smiling at the hint of a blush staining her cheeks as she huffed and turned to walked further into the forest.

“You would center on that part.”  I heard her mumble under her breath

“Tell me your name?”  I called after her, glancing anxiously between the packhouse I could just make out between the trees, and the odd woman who was getting further away from me. I knew I should go back to Odette, but there was something about this woman that called to me, drew me to her like a mouth to a flame.

“Why do you wanna know?”  Came her reply, as she paused in her retreat and turned to size me up again with those startling eyes.

“Isn’t that how human conversation works? You exchange pleasantries and then you discover details about one another?”  Orion was with Odette, he would not let her come to any harm, having decided my route, I jogged to catch up with my mystery woman, falling in step beside her as she walked through the forest silently.

“Perhaps that is how human conversations go, but we aren’t human, are we?”  Those blue eyes watched me for a moment before focusing on the expanse of trees before us once more.

“Well, I know what I am, but you are a mystery.”

“Really? How so?”

“You don’t smell like a dog.”  This brought a bark of laugher from her mouth that I was sure she had not meant to let escape.

“Do most people smell like dogs to you?”

“No, just the werewolf variety.”  This had her nodding her head in thought.

“I see, and what if I told you I was a werewolf?” 

“I would say you were lying.”  She snapped her head my way, laughter dancing in her eyes and a smirk on her lips.

“And why would you say that?”  Stopping mid-step, she turned to face me, her arms crossed over her chest as she eyed me curiously.

“Because you smell like salt water and sunshine.”  I stated softly. At my words, the laughter fled her eyes, and she was watching me in a new light.

“You smell like pumpkin spice and sweet cream.”  Her words were so softly spoken I was barely able to make out the words.

“Pumpkin spice?”  I had heard of this before, but never actually tried it, I was unsure if this scent was a good thing or a bad.

“Yeah, you know, fall. When the leaves begin to change, everyone is baking, and Halloween is coming.”  She seemed to be looking off into space for a moment before something pulled her back to the here and now, clearing her throat she adjusted her backpack on her shoulder and abruptly began walking deeper into the forest again. “Not that it matters.”

“Now that we know what we smell like, mind telling me your name?”  I tried to switch directions in the conversation, I wanted, no, needed, more info on her.

“Why is it so important to you to know my name?”  She snipped, flashing me a glare, and speeding up her pace.

“I don’t know, something just tells me to get to know you.”  Honesty was always best I had found, and I did not want to lie to this woman, I was not even sure I could.

“Something? Like a voice in your head?”  She was curious again, which only made me all the more anxious to get to know her better.

“I don’t have a voice in my head, I think only shifters do.”  I swore I heard her whisper ‘not all of us’ but it was just a breath of sound, and I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. “It feels more like fate. Like we were meant to meet today.”  Did she feel the same? For some reason, a part of me was wishing she felt the same… and yet, I also knew that all of this felt as wrong as it did right. Odette was my fiancé, she was my love, sure we were not fated, she was not my Pearl, which were Siren’s equivalent of werewolves’ mates, but I did love her. Yet here I was, fascinated by a stranger I had just met.

“I don’t believe in fate. We all make our own choices and walk our own paths. Believing in fate is just a way to blame something other than yourself for the problems you get yourself into.”  My mystery woman stated looking straight ahead, refusing to face me. I felt she was not being honest with herself. Hiding behind such half-truths to protect herself from getting hurt.

“I see.”  I murmured, unsure of what I was trying to accomplish.

“What’s your name?”  She asked softly, surprising me with the inquisition.

“Nullar.” 

“New-ll-are?”  She sounded it out, exaggerating the sounds as she tested it on her tongue. “That is an odd name.” 

“I suppose it is, but where I’m from it’s pretty normal. What is your ‘normal’ name then?”  Emphasizing the sarcasm on the world ‘normal’ while flashing her a smirk.

“Isabella.” 

“Alright, you have me beat, that is a beautiful name.”  Almost as beautiful as she was. Sh*t, where had that come from? I needed to get back to Odette and stop following Isabella to only Poseidon knew where. “I should be getting back.”

“Yeah, you should, the forest isn’t a safe place for those who don’t know it well.”  While her words sounded ominous, when she paused to face me, she was smiling, putting me at ease. “I should be getting back as well, things to do and all that, I’ve dawdled to long as it is.”

“Will I see you again?”  I needed to know if this was our last encounter, I hoped it was not, but the way she spoke was as if this was it for our fates intertwining.

“Maybe, lets leave it up to fate.”  There was a twinkle in her eye as she playfully mocked me.

“You may joke all you want, but I feel destiny working here, I don’t know what you are to me or what part you play in my future, but I think we will meet again.”  Isabella scoffed at me and raised her hand for me to shake, but instead I bowed my head to press my lips to the delicate skin of her palm, electricity sizzled around us for a moment before she yanked her arm from my grasp and retreated, almost stumbling over a fallen branch in her haste.

“We’ll see I guess, goodbye Nullar.”  With that she was gone, striding off through the forest, practically running to get away from me. When she had faded from my line of sight, I turned and headed back towards the pack house, I had been away from Odette long enough, though after my interaction with Isabella I was not sure where me and Odette stood. Everything in me was telling me that Isabella was my Pearl, but if she were, would she not have felt the same connection I did? And I was still in love with Odette.

Fate seemed to enjoy weaving a tangled web…