Called by the Goddess

Chapter 15: Testing my abilities

“Really Kate? Want to do 100 push-ups? Stop daydreaming and talking to that cat of yours, come on, let’s see if we can catch the team that is trying to catch us!” Maya yelled back to her over her shoulder. She had made a head start while she had gotten distracted by the thoughts of Henry.

I grinned sheepishly at her, rolled my eyes at myself and set in on a sprint to catch up with Maya “Coming and no thanks!” I grinned, while passing her by.

“Ok, Luna, please melt with me, so we can keep that brat Henry from catching us!” I asked my wolf, who I discovered was named Luna, the same name that our pack used to have before men took over, so Granny thought that was an excellent sign. I felt Luna melt her senses with mine, without completely taking over.

From experience I know that my eyes shone a bright silver now. I felt amazing, with the combination of our senses and powers, I could smell everything around me, who had passed, when, which way they went. Even what they had eaten for dinner last night. My hearing became extra sharp and my telepathic and empathic abilities sharpened, so I could sense every bird, every mouse, even the ants under the ground, going about their business.

I put out my imaginary feelers and searched for Henry and his team, and soon I felt where besides the track they were hidden and where some of them were patrolling. “One is laying by the river, one by the commando crawl and 2 are walking in the periphery near the start of the track”, I mindlinked to Maya.

“And Henry himself is trying to sneak up from behind us, while we speak”, Maya added before I could tell her. I grinned.

“Yep, he is... and you know what I also sense between us and Henry?” I asked with an evil grin on my face, “a skunk and her young, who are already less than amused because we passed them by to close for her liking”

“So?” Maya asked, raising her eyebrows. We were still communicating through the mindlink, to not make any sound.

I closed my eyes and reached out to the skunk, telling her we were sorry to have disturbed her and sending her a picture of Henry trying to attack her young.

“Well, I just informed mama Skunk that we were ever so sorry, but that we were being chased by this mean manwolf, and that he has no good plans for her and her kids, so that if I were her, I would spray him!”

At that moment, we heard a scream from behind “Nooooo, yuck! Oooooh that smell… aweful, stupid animal!”

Maya and I burst into laughter. “That’s what you get for trying to sneak up on us!” I yelled backwards, “we can smell you all the way over here! Go to Granny’s, I saw a couple of gallons of tomato juice there! That should help with the stink!”

“Fine, I give up, be gentle with the rest of my guys” they heard Henry call out to them. Pissed off, but at the same time with a hint of respect. He knew very well that I was responsible for the skunk attack, my ways of bonding and getting the animals in the forest to do what I want had become legendary in the last few months. I smiled. This was one of the awesome things I had discovered the last year, that I was able to communicate with animals.

“We’ll be gentle”, I called back. “See you tonight”.

“So, do you have a plan for the rest of the team?” Maya asked me, through the mindlink again, to stay quiet. She wanted to test me by giving me the lead and I gladly took her test and knew, well, hoped, that I would ace it!

“First let’s get the patrolling wolves, then the other two can get nice and stiff for laying in an ambush. You take Bowie and I will take Sarah.”

We both went our separate ways but timed our “attacks” together. “Now!” I mindlinked when I felt she was in position. And we both jumped our target, tackling them to the ground and keeping them down.

“Well done Sarah”, I complimented her. She had joined the order a few months after me and had great potential as a warrior. “If I had waited one more second you would have gotten me, didn’t you?”.

Sarah smiled at me. “I did feel the sudden need to turn around and do a low kick, but just as I was processing that, you got me!” she admitted.

Maya joined us with a grumpy looking Bowie. He hadn’t sensed her coming, because he had gotten distracted and he knew he would be in trouble, being one of the top warriors of the pack.

“You just have to stop thinking so much. You are a natural, trust in your senses and take action without first analysing why you would do that, just go with the flow and your gut”, Maya told Sarah. “I followed Kate through the mind link and you totally would have gotten her if you had just gone with your instinct!”

She turned to Bowie. “You on the other hand, where did that head of yours take you? For the love of the Goddess Bowie, you are the best tracker and hunter we have if you put your attention where it should be. Take your mind off that pretty little she-wolf of yours and just focus on your job when you are on the job. Not paying attention can put us all at risk, including your mate!” She said sternly, but with a twinkle in her eye.

Bowie was one of the few order members that had found his fated mate. During my growing up in the pack, I was taught that fated mates were something out of faerytales, something made up by romantic wolves. Something that was made fun of. Here I learned that they truly existed.

I had been present when Willow had come into the order, a few weeks back. They had taken one look at each other, and the existence of mates was clear for everybody that witnessed their union.

“Mate!” they whispered at the same time, after locking their eyes. Slowly they had walked up to each other, grabbed each other's hands and both had tears of joy streaming down their faces. They slowly nuzzled each other, as though they were in wolf form and then started to kiss, before Granny had gently interfered. “Time for that later, love birds. First, let us have Willow settle in. Good thing we don’t have to think too long about housing arrangements, I assume you won’t mind staying with Bowie here?” She asked while gesturing towards Bowie.

“What? Yes, please! oh…. Bowie… what a lovely name!”, Willow had blurted out in a very dreamy voice, at which almost everybody started to laugh, but in a nice way, because we were all very happy for them. Not like back in the pack days, when usually the laughter was at someone's expense. I smiled when I thought back of the pure joy we all had felt for them. After Willow had been introduced to everyone, they had celebrated the Goddess bringing them together until late that night. It had been an amazing impromptu party, where everybody contributed in some way.

Bowie and Willow were still on cloud nine and Bowie had been caught daydreaming more than once, which was nothing like him. Granny, who had more experience with fated mates, had informed us that this was perfectly normal and usually was quite uncontrollable the first few weeks, so Maya had given Bowie some slack, but her patience was wearing thin, and Bowie knew it.

“Ok you guys, dismissed, see you tonight!”, Maya said to Sarah and Bowie, snapping me out of my daydream.

“Can I try something?” I suddenly asked Maya. I had read about an ancient werewolf empath, who could make his enemies frightened. I was wondering if I could do the same with my abilities, and never tried before. But now Luna reminded me and she obviously thought that there was no time like the present to test our theory that we could do similar things.

We snuck towards Abe, who was hiding by the river, making sure we just kept down wind, so our smell would not betray us. For my abilities to work, I did not need to be this close, but I wanted to see what would happen. I tuned in on his energy. I really had a good connection with him, he was one of my closest friends besides Maya, so that was no problem at all. I had used him for healing practice quite a lot and I could feel that same sensation, like I made an energy canal through which healing energy could flow, although, today I was going to send him something completely different than nice, soothing healing energy...

The ants I had sensed earlier suddenly popped up in my memory and I thought, let’s give it a try. I sent the picture of huge red fire ants (I figured, this would be more effective than the tiny black ants that I had sensed), walking all over Abes body, stinging him with their venom. I imagined how this would feel, the burning and itching and the feeling of dozens of ants walking over his body and into his clothes, and sent this feeling his way too.

We saw him heading quietly to the river, getting into the water, but looking very antsy, now I got where that expression comes from! Maya obviously found this very funny, because she started to howl with laughter, I had filled her in on what I was doing through the mind link.

“Good one Kate!” she told me. “Abe, you can get out of the water now, well done for keeping your cool and not making any noise!” Maya complimented the sturdy, huge warrior wolf.

I cut the connection with Abe and you could see a rush of relief flowing through him. I felt a little bit guilty, he really had looked VERY uncomfortable.

“How are you feeling?” I asked him, a bit concerned, I had no idea if there would be remaining effects of the imaginary ants.

“I feel fine now, but Goddess, I felt these ants everywhere, I could really literally see them walking all over me and saw the red bumps where they stung me. I really thought you had set a colony of ants onto me, until they suddenly vanished and quickly after the ants vanished, the red spots cleared up and I felt fine again!” Abe said, with a hint of admiration for what I had been able to pull off.

Me, I felt a rush of relief that I didn’t cause permanent damage. Unlike poor Henry, I thought, who got sprayed by a real live skunk instead of an imaginary one. But well, he deserves it for giving me those foul looks when he thinks I am not looking.

“Glad you are ok again now!” I said, and I meant it, for I really liked Abe, he was like a big brother to me, always having my back.

He grinned. “No worries, little one”, his nickname for me. “Even if they hadn’t vanished, a few ant stings won’t kill me!”

“Go see if Granny still has some breakfast left, and save some for us!” Maya told him, and waved him off. “See you later!”

Last team member was Tasha, who was lying in ambush near the place where the track was made in such a way you had to commando crawl underneath the nets that were there. It was a smart spot to pick, because you could just pin a person down, when they were under the nets anyway. So that made me think. If I can make Abe feel and see imaginary ants, could I also make Tasha see an imaginary Kate? I told Maya what I wanted to do.

“Have you ever tried this before?” she asked me.

“No, but once has to be the first time, right? I never tried making anyone feel like ants were walking all over them before just now, and that worked out fine” I replied.

“Ok, let’s give it a try!” was the final verdict.

We decided to keep a little bit more distance and climbed in a tree with a good view of the track. Tasha was, after Maya and me (and Bowie when he wasn’t being distracted by thinking about his mate) the best tracker of the warrior wolves and was going to take Maya’s place after tonight. So we did not want to take the risk of being caught while sneaking up on her.

I chose a branch where I could sit comfortably against the trunk and closed my eyes for a bit. I took the time to feel the connection I had with the tree, with mother earth and with the Goddess and I felt her power flow into me. I envisioned myself crawling underneath the nets and I fed this picture with all the energy I could muster, before sending it to the commando nets.

And lo and behold! I saw myself crawl there, how weird to see myself projected there, life like and all. “Yes, I did it!’ I congratulated myself.

But at the same time I realised my mistake. I just appeared there out of thin air, and Tasha isn’t stupid, so she would be suspicious, knowing I had been experimenting with my abilities. And yes, damn, there was a tiny red light, shining in my heart region. Tasha showed herself, still keeping her laser gun aimed on my heart region.

Then all of the sudden she moved her aim towards the bottom of the tree, while at the same time a little green light appeared in her own heart region.

“I would call that a tie between us!” Maya exclaimed, putting away her own laser gun. “I am proud of you Tash, you truly are the right woman for the job!”

“Yeah, you got me there, Tash! The moment I saw myself appear like that I knew I made a fatal mistake!” I grinned sheepishly.

“Well, that is why we are practicing right? But I tell you, you almost gave me a heart attack, appearing like that! That was so cool! How did you do that?” she asked me.

“Let’s discuss this over breakfast at Granny’s, I don’t know about you two, but I am starving!” said Maya, and she turned towards Granny’s house, with the two of us on her heels. Yum, breakfast!