Soulmate

Chapter 4

DIVINE

I led my pack back home from the hunt. We all returned to the cold mountainsides where our community houses were all terraced along. As I made in into the small parlour, there was a frown on my face. We had encountered them again, those Timberline pack of werewolves in our own hunting territory. They had attacked us, but I had led the rest of my Southern tribe pack and we fought back in our defense. Both packs had retreated from the hunt at last. After all, we had to get back home for some rest before the sun drew up in the morning for another work day.

For centuries, the Southern tribe pack had lived in peace in these woods and lake, this mountainside and wildlife surrounding what was now Cilantro Falls. We were natives to this place, it was our land. Before they moved in her in their colonies, becoming settlers, and the elite of them all taking title as ‘founding families of Cilantro Falls’, casting we who were natives to this place aside. Today, the growing Timberline pack had occupied the western part of Cilantro Falls, the upper class areas, the hills and woods of the town while we remained in the poles.

Before they had come, the werewolf packs which had strived in this parts were the southern and northern tribe packs, my pack, the Southern, occupying the southern extreme of the town while our sister pack, fellow natives, the Northern tribe pack lived in the northern end of town. We had lived in peace for centuries, both packs; hunted together, maintained community and stability. Both histories of our packs were said to be linked; our original forefathers, both brothers and hunters who dominated these mountains with their hunting wolves and families. History said that a native shaman had blessed them with the werewolf curse, birthing the bloodline of werewolves which now lived today, and ever since, we had lived in tranquility; until the arrival of the non-natives, that it.

They came in their packs and their machines, and their colour the palest of shades. As natives, we were survivors, brute in nature and content with the life we led as werewolves. But these colonisers came and built, claiming land, enforcing territories and expanding their own bloodline. From the onset, we had fought for our heritage but as humans, these werewolves were the sharpest tool in the shed, and they outwitted us with their far westernisation. We had had to fight ever since.

Generations had come and gone but the Southern tribe pack and the Timberline pack still manifested their bad blood against each other. My father, who was the pack leader and chief of the Southern tribe had gone against the Timberline pack leader in a standard pack leader duel which was traditional trial where werewolves had to fight to settle a dispute. As pack leader, my father had gone but was beaten and killed by the Timberline pack. I was just a boy then, but heir to being pack leader. The Northern tribe pack which had always fought alongside us to stand against the Timberline pack, retreated into peace after the pack leader duel, under the leadership of their new Chief Lapis, their current pack leader. The Southern tribe pack remained vengeful towards the Timberline pack and I had grown with that vendetta into the young man I was today. I was at the age of being pack leader now, but not yet undergone the rites for the scared duty. My grandmother, Nana, stayed chief of the tribe and had nurtured me since the death of her son, my father. I was being groomed into leading the pack, and so far I always led hunting and other duties. The rest of the pack looked up to me.

We were back from hunting now and had now retreated into our tent in our human forms. Other members of the back had gone into their homes while my good friend Fey, fellow pack member had followed me into mine and now we stood before my grandmother who sat around a designed fire.

“Child, you return” Nana spoke to us.

“They were there again” I informed her “The Timberline pack. They think they can bully us”

“Sit” my grandmother beckoned to us, and Fey and I sat with her around the fire. Not that she was ever cold, but she was covered up in traditional wolfskin garb tonight, the heavy fur surrounding her neck along with the old trinkets and white jewels too.

My friend Fey was brown skinned and as lean as I was, although lankier. He wore his dark long hair in a single braid while I had mine silkily over my shoulders tonight. I did not wear a shirt but a pair of frayed old jean shorts and my amulet around my neck. My amulet, a string of jewels and precious stones my father had bestowed to me before his death; the pendant of this amulet was a small shell in the shape of a half-moon. I held it to great sentimental value and never took it off.

“When does it end, Nana?” I asked.

“It all ends with you, Divine” she said, squinting the bags in her wrinkly eyes, her plump face growing into a sagacious smile at me. As an elder wolf, she was a quite seasoned healer and often spoke in parables “As a tribe, we look up to you. Your father sacrificed himself as his duty and he left the pack in good hands with you. You have trained for it, you have shown the attributes of a great leader. I look up to the skies and I read your stars. You were born for this, if only you follow your heart and duty. You will end this war. You will lead the Southern tribe pack to victory, Divine Merchant”

She has read my stars. My pack was very big on astrology and the horoscope. They say the witch who had started our bloodline of werewolves, did not only conjure the curse from the full moon, but from the stars too. It was a night when all the stars were aligned. So as a pack, the stars as well as the moon was sacred to us. We took them with heavy emotions and believed they influenced and altered the course of our lives. My grandmother could read my stars, and she had said I would lead the pack out of this war. Sometimes, I doubted myself, but I already knew I would. Because the motion had already been set in place for me.

As Nana spoke, Fey nudged me with a soft chuckle. I only turned to him and rolled my eyes.

I was betrothed to the daughter of Chief Lapis of the Northern tribe pack; the beautiful Ophelia Moonbeam. Lia and I had been friends since childhood, and we had grown to know that it was duty for us to mate. She was the one there for me, and as time grew closer, I had transitioned from boy to man. Soon, I would fulfil my duties of the pack. Soon, I would mate with Ophelia Moonbeam and bring the Southern and Northern tribes as one mighty pack with me as pack leader and chief. The pack would be the strongest in the land, and even the Timberline pack would be no match for us.

This was the only way to bring the age old conflict to a stop.

It was fall season in Cilantro Falls, and tonight the most beautiful autumn night. Lia and I were to marry on the first full moon of the winter, the season where both native packs were in their most powerful element according to our werewolf curse.

“Just believe in yourself” Nana rested her frail hands upon my shoulder and preached to me.

That moment, I sniffed to myself and patted my grandmother back, leaving her to get the rest of her night’s rest. As I did need mine too after hours of hunting.

I set out into my space and lay my head to sleep, and I drifted into sleep quick enough.

* * *

I was not surprised when I found myself in a dream. That same enchanting dream which always materialised whenever I closed my eyes. In the dream, I was in my wolf form, standing on the bare earth, in my strongest element as it was winter. Snowcapped mountains and the wood surrounded me, and standing before me was the most dazzling she-wolf.

She stood radiantly under the night lights, her fur a blend of fire and roses in the gentle breeze. Her eyes shone at me, eyes pricked just as mine was. All she would do was stare down at me from the few feet distancing us. We both stood still in the equally still night, nothing exposed to the both of us but the universe.

I had never understood this dream. It had started appearing to me on a random, and I was especially surprised why it had chosen this point in my life, when I had so much duty; when a whole pack was looking up to me to lead them. By winter’s first moon, I would take up the mantle of pack leader, mate with Ophelia Moonbeam and create a dynasty between both tribe packs. Why now did I start having these dreams? What did they mean?

Who was this wolf? And why was I so drawn to her.

There was something about her; her gait, her appearance. She glowed more than anything else I had seen in real time. She was spiritual. Angelic. It was soothing that I had to close my eyes every time I did and become drawn to her, standing before her.

Above us, the sky seemed to be perfect, the stars perfectly aligned. My grandmother would always tell me nothing was ever random, that there was organisation in a higher above; organisation in the unknown, and I knew whatever this was, whoever she was, there was a purpose for her in my life to keep appearing to me.

Or perhaps it was my insecure mind creating this distraction for myself because of my self-doubts; that I would never be a great leader, neither would I ever hold up to the legacy my father did as pack leader. Maybe these dreams were here to alter my mindset from reality itself; from what really lay before me.

I was stronger than these forces. I had a pack to lead, duty to uphold. I was betrothed, I had a she-wolf to mate. The only way to end the pack wars was through my actions. The future of the bloodline of many rested upon my shoulders, based on whatever decision I would make.

I had a dynasty to create.