The Queen's Luna

Chapter 2

I step into the boiling water of the bath and my skin sizzles on impact with the water. I sigh in contentness as I fully submerge in the bath. This time, I do not mind the lavender oil she has put into the water this time and I actually enjoy the smell of the lemon and rose soap bar she has left on top of the towel. I make sure to scrub every inch of my skin and hair with it before relaxing against the back of the tub.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I relax into the water some. I close my eyes and, at some point, manage to drift off to the sounds of the animals chittering in the forest outside.

Morning rays of the sun manage to poke through my windows. Their brightness lands light on my closed eyelids. I block the light with my hands, squinting as I've realized I've fallen asleep in my bath. I groan as I pry myself from the tub and dry.

I braid my waist length hair so that it lays straight down my spine before actually choosing to dress today. Most days, I do not bother with garments simply because I end up not wearing them as I am typically in wolf form.

"Sage..."  I say softly, "I need to apologize for my words to you yesterday... I do not wish to keep you from being in a pack. I really don't... I just... I don't know how to be in one. It's just been you and me and that's all I've ever really known. We also have that creature in the living room to look after. She'd probably not make it long without us."

She appears in my mind and sends warmth through me, "I know, Enna. If we do anything, we do it as a team. It will always be you and I first. There is no questioning that. As for Rana..." She chuckles, "I don't disagree with you, but we would have ended up in the same boat. Not dead, that is. But, still feral."

I nod, "Yes, that I agree with," I say as I pull as sky blue and embroidered in white, dress with a hood over my head.

"I wish she would let us take her to a pack. She needs to be with her own kind. We do too, but we are much stronger than she is; in her current state," Sage states.

I sigh as I pull on knit stockings, "Yes. She would greatly benefit from it. Stubborn, old bat."

Sage giggles, "You are just as stubborn. She will not leave here until we do."

I roll my eyes, "She thinks we are a pack. Essentially, we are just two rogues..." I pause before saying the word 'ker', "Rogue wolves. I wish I was enough for us to be called a pack, but we aren't."

Sage lets out a small whine, "Some day, we will have a pack. You'll see. I promise this to you."

Suddenly, our door gets thrown open.

"There you are!" Rana says before 'looking' me up and down, "I'm not a betting woman, but if I were," She says, "You'll be out of that dress within, not even, five hundred yards of the house."

Sage laughs and my brows shoot up, "Have you been pretending to be blind this entire time?"

I know she is blind. You can tell by the foggy, glass-like color of her once green eyes. There is no way of telling how this woman figures out anything. Or, 'sees'. For that matter.

She shrugs her shoulders at me, "Why would you ask an old, defenseless woman something like that?"

I rolly my eyes at her banter, "Well, what is it I win if you lose this bet that you are proposing?"

A child-like gleam glints through her eyes as she looks at my mischievously, "You will go with me to the FireFall Crescent pack and we will ask to join them."

Sage cackles in my head and I shoot Rana a bewildered look, "That's it. Now I know that your tree doesn't go all the way to the top branch and that you've begun to go senile. I may just take you there and leave you with the pack doctor. They'll surely take you in. A sweet,  old woman like yourself. Emphasis on one particular word in the sentence."

She jabs me in the ankle with that stick of her, "So, we have a deal then?"

I scoff at her before setting my jaw, "Fine. If I win, then you will tell me what else it is that you know of my birth. I don't want to know the stories that 'everyone' knows. I want to know what you, in particular, know. I know you were there and have been a personal witness to all events.'

She looks me up and down and takes a deep breath before holding out her hand, 

"A deal is a deal."

I feel like my eyes are about to pop out of my head as I stare at her. She has withheld that information from me for eight years now. Will she really tell me now? I c**k my head to the side, "You'd really tell me? After all these years?"

She nods once, solemnly, "A deal is a deal. Will you shake on it?"

I stand up straight and hold my arm out for the crown. Our hands clasp each other at the bases of the others elbow, "I give you my word in binding contract."

She repeats after me. A deal sealed with this kind of closure, for me anyhow, is binding and I am held to it for the remainder of my life unless there is another deal that counters this once. The opposite party is also held to the contract for life. If either party is to perish, then the contract is void. However, I am a wolf of my word. If I give my word, then I will follow through.

Rana nods, "And so, it is done."

I sigh, "An easy bet, hag." I smirk.

She catches me on the side of the head with her stick and I narrow my eyes at her. She smiles, "Time for the pup to be off on her adventures for the day."

I roll my eyes with a small chuckle as I finish strapping into snow boots and rustling through my belongings for a small basket to collect the items Rana has requested.