Story of the moon

Chapter three: The clearing

As I stepped into the woods, the best smell in the world washed over me. It smelled like coffee, chocolate, and rose, all rolled into one. But, I shook it off, and focused on the task at hand. Now the riddle said to “Follow your heart for twenty steps” I looked ahead of me, and saw the most beautiful woods ever, and I hardly noticed as I took a step forward. I thought to myself, “Well, now I know what that means.” I then took twenty steps like the riddle said which brought me to a big beautiful tree, so large that I couldn’t even reach my arms half way around and it. It had a small wolf head carved in it, it looked like it had been there for awhile. “Well, at least I know I’m going the right way.”

I looked at the riddle again. It said, “Then use your head for twenty more to the left.” I turn left, and think about it for a minute. I remembered my grandfather showing me different ways to walk, he always said it was just a game but now I had the feeling it had been to prepare me for this trip, and one of them was ‘with my head’ as he said, which meant I had to think three heel to toe steps for every step I took, he had me memorize the distance, and I took twenty steps like that.

The next step of the riddle said to, “Turn right, and go ninety more using only your feet,” I then “consult with grandpa” so to speak, and remember he always called walking heel to toe, walking with only your feet. I suddenly realize that everything he taught me was to prepare me for this, and all I could think was, “Well played Grandpa. You found a way to get around Mom’s and Dad’s ‘no werewolf rule’ and still teach me,” and I take off. As I take my eighty-seventh step, I see that I’ll need to go through a small opening in bushes that I would not have seen if it hadn’t been right in front of me, and on my ninetieth step, I was in a clearing that looked vaguely familiar... but I knew I hadn’t been there before. I shrug the feeling off, thinking it was just my imagination, and start setting up camp. I start by building a fire, since the sun was going down and it was getting a little dark under the trees. I then pitch my tent, put some beans in a pot, and started heating them over the fire, and settled down with a book. I then go into my tent for the night and thought to myself, “Well, no sign of werewolves or vampires, that’s good, Right?”

The next day I decided to explore a bit so I wouldn’t get bored just sitting in that clearing I start walking making sure to leave markers such as a taking a chunk out of large tree trunks so I’d be able to find my way back. I started towards the sound of the river that I had heard last night, thinking about taking a bath. I got there and caught my breath at the beauty in front of me. I stood under a magnolia tree in full bloom it was one of many that lined the shore line, there were also bushes that were covered in a very pale pink flower I had no idea what kind of flower it was.

The river itself was perfectly clear with beautiful pink and blue stones at the bottom of it. It also held a few fish, but none that I was worried about. So I stripped down to my bathing suit, which I had put on before I left the clearing, and jumped in without thinking twice about it. It was a bit deeper then I had thought at first, but that but that didn’t really bother me, since I’d been swimming pretty much my whole whole life. Grandpa always called me his little fish.

After swimming around for awhile, I just floated around on my back and started planning. I decided that I would stay a week in the clearing, and if I didn’t see any signs of werewolves I would start exploring. I then got out of the water and headed back to my campsite after catching a salmon with a spear that I made with a strong stick yet another skill Grandpa had taught me, I get back to my tent and I smell that scent that has been teasing me since I stepped into these woods. I looked around and could tell that someone had been here while I was gone. There wasn’t any sign that anyone had been there while I was gone, except the strange feeling in my gut and I had learned to listen to my gut a long time ago for it was never wrong.

I debated with myself, wondering whether should I stay or go. In the end I decided to stay. After all, why had I come out here looking for werewolves if I was just going to run away at the first sign of life? Besides, I had weapons and I had a lot of training on how to use all of them since once again my grandfather had taught me. Roast my fish over the fire and start to read Pride and Prejudice, as some of you might know that particular book is a novel written in the eighteen hundreds. What can I say I’m a complicated individual. Here I am in the middle of the woods at night looking for werewolves and reading a romance novel waiting for my fish to finish. These thoughts cross my mind as I move to check on my fish. It is finally done. I take a bite and it just melts in my mouth like butter. There is nothing better then fresh fish. I then take a quick run down to the river to wash my hands and face then I return to my camp site.

Just as I am about to turn in for the night, I hear a rustle in the bushes. “Whatever it is sounds big,” I thought to myself. So I jump up and try to see my weapons are close enough to grab if I need to what it is but I can’t. I feel a sudden rush of air behind me and a silky soft voice says in my ear, “Follow me.” It suddenly hits me where I had seen this clearing before. It was the clearing in my dream that means… I turn my head and see a young man with fangs smirking at me and I knew he was the vampire from my dream.

He was gone in a flash, and just like in my dream a giant black wolf takes his place. The weirdest thing is that the thought that was uppermost in my crazy brain was, “Finally I get to see how this all ends.” As you know, it had been bugging me for awhile. I was pulled out of my thoughts by a voice saying the word “mate”. I tense as I slowly realize that the wolf had said that. Suddenly the wolf goes into attack position his beautiful black ears flatten against his head and his lips go up in a growl, but I could swear I saw him smirk first. He started growling at me for some strange reason I didn’t feel any fear.

There was another rustle and a clear female voice said, “Donahue stop teasing your mate. You realize she can hear you right?” When I first heard the voice, it was more like mind linking Grandpa had told me about it. It’s how the pack communicates when in wolf form, its pretty much reading each others minds the thing is is that I shouldn’t be hearing them. I turned toward the voice. She was a white wolf with a red crescent moon on her ear which meant she was a high ranking wolf.

I turned back to the black wolf whose name was apparently Donahue, and grinned at him a little sheepishly. He tilted his head a bit as if wondering how that was possible. When he did that I let out a low chuckle because when he tilted his head he looked adorable and very puppyish. I’m pretty sure he realized this, because he stalked over to me and playfully growled and nipped at my heals. As he passed close to me I couldn’t help but let my hand drop and ran my fingers over his back. His fur was as soft as silk and I felt a tingling pull. He tensed under my hand and looked up at me. I could tell by his eyes he didn’t mind it, but he moved away since it would “ruin his image,” but it honestly looked like he was sulking which didn’t help his image either. “Stupid male ego,” I thought with another chuckle.

Suddenly a slightly sulky voice asked, “So, were you planing to introduce us or were you just going to sit there and stare at her for a few years first?” I looked from the vampire who had just stepped out from behind a tree to Donahue. I really didn’t get what was going on now since vampires and werewolves were supposed to be terrible enemies. Donahue’s only response was to roll his eyes and growl out, “Shove off, Nico.” Nico just grinned and turned in my direction, held out his hand and said, “Nico at your service. Sorry for scaring you earlier. I’m a vampire, as you can see, roughly two thousand years old. And I have a question for you and that is, why the heck aren’t you freaking out?” I burst out laughing at his ramblings. Nico looks at me for a second then at Donahue and asked, “I was doing it again, wasn’t I, rambling I mean?” Donahue grinned and answered “a bit.”

I got control over myself and answered Nico with a shrug, and said,“Because I was expecting it. My grandfather told me to come here, and what to expect.” Donahue turned and trotted off. For some reason I really didn’t want him to go. Then the white wolf spoke up, again, “Don’t worry, he just went to shift. He’ll be back. I’m going to shift as well.” And she slid behind a tree. A couple of seconds later she and Donahue come back fully dressed. They are both Native American very good looking. Nico whispers right next to me, “Like what you see, sweetheart?” I jump a couple of feet into the air. I hadn’t seen him move. I turn and glare at him, and he smirks and backs up, holding up his hands in mock surrender. Donahue walks up to me, glares at Nico, then turns to me and says, “We’ll take you to our house. We have a lot of questions, and I’m sure you have some too.” I nod and say, “Quite a lot, actually.”

“By the way, what is your name?” I asked the woman. She gives me a soft smile and answers “Luna. I’m Donahue’s sister.” Donahue turned to Nico and says, “You probably should be heading home. We don’t want your coven to turn on you for being with us. I’ll talk to you later.” Nico nods in response, and runs so fast that I can barely see him and we head the opposite way, presumably to Luna and Donahue’s house.