The Missing Guardian

Chapter 12 - How are you alive?

Twig (West)

As I slowly come back to consciousness, the first thing I notice is that I'm moving or in motion... I don't know where, but the motion is steady, the surround is quiet, hushed... But I pick up the sounds of hooves, wheels and the persistent groans of wood being moved and stretched.

I regain a bit of my senses and work out that I must be on a wagon, and that it must be evening, as I don't feel the harsh glare of the sun against my closed eyelids, but I can feel the cool air brush against my skin, so it isn't covered or enclosed. I feel like I am being pulled by something, on something...

Why? What happened? As I'm lying there, I try to remember what is going on...

I remember the battle with the Rogues, sent to keep us away while they infiltrated our sacred lands...

I remember Nightshade and I arriving before anyone else, the smoke, the debris of death...

I remember searching for people, and then coming across Pine... Fighting the Rogues to keep them away from the young ones...

Nightshade, the Wolves from Copper Moon...

The speckled wolf... Bracing for the attack... Running at the filthy beasts...

The earth is swallowing me... Falling...

Blackness...

The unknown pack...

That essence...

Suddenly, everything comes flooding back, the she-wolf taking me to the Alpha...

The unknown person... No aura...

Wait, can I move?

I wiggle my toes, not wanting to let my companions know that I'm awake. I don't know what kind of situation I may be in.

They move! My hope is rising. I can get out of this if need be...

But where is she? For some reason, I have this absolute panic that she may not be here. Why do I feel so strongly about this? What is going on? Maybe I need to just relax and take in what I can with my Fae senses.

I push out my senses from every angle and pick her out immediately behind me, her essence swirling in soft pastels again... Calm... I find myself relaxing when I find it. But new questions quickly arise...

Where are we going? Where are they taking me?

It dawns on me that I have no restraints on... My body feels healed... I feel clean...

What happened?

I try to search my mind for more memories...

Being moved to the other room...

The nausea...

My body wrenching, being flung up into the air...

The essence engulfing me in white light.

Nothing after that...

I tentatively open my eyes, and am met by the most spectacular view of the night sky above me. The milky way in all its glory is on display before me. Not a cloud in the sky, giving me what I could have only wished for...

Instinctually, I start mapping out where I am, based on the alignment of the recognizable stars and their positions. I smile, thinking of Nightshade and the hours upon hours of lessons he gave me about the night sky. I start recognizing stars and constellations, tracking their alignment.

I find the Atargatis constellation, traced my eyes down her tail to find the North Star. It takes me longer than I would like to admit to work out the angles. I've only seen the night sky from the South in person.

This sky is different, like the stars I am so familiar with but placed off tilt. I have to try to pull memories of examples Nightshade showed me from my brain...

West! I must be West... All my revisions and training are saying West... But how?

How did I get here?

I decide I might as well let everyone know I am awake, and possibly get some clarification as to what is going on. So I begin to sit up slowly. My limbs are jelly from slumber. It takes a lot of effort to pull myself up, using all my reserves of energy on a simple task.

Thankfully, nobody reacts and I am able to get myself up into a sitting position and lean against the railing of the wagon.

I'm drained and it's probably because I haven't had any food in... Who knows when? I can feel the strain on my body. It takes me a while to catch my breath.

I see nobody else at the back with me, but I was laid on a comfortable cot, secured to the wagon. I am facing the dust billowing behind us, which really doesn't tell me much.

As carefully as I can, and as quietly as possible, I twist my body so that I can see the front of the carriage.

There are three people seated in front of me, from what I can tell. But they are all asleep, nobody knows that I am awake. I immediately feel out for Ebony, I need to see what she looks like...

Her essence comes into view without any effort, it's easier to control when I have my eyes closed normally. But it's like hers recognizes me and doesn't hide. I've seen, what I like to call, 'loud' essences before, those that are visible without effort. Hers is the loudest I have ever seen. Like it is larger than life, bold...

Her physical being, on the other hand, is tiny. She is tucked under the arm of a big male, so I can't see very much of her except the fact that she is small... Especially as a werewolf. Most female wolves are bigger than the average human, and about the same height as a Fae female. But Ebony is seriously petite compared to her essence and the huge man next to her.

But I smile as her essence makes her seem bigger than she is. The man engulfing her is snoring lightly with his head on hers. A mop of brown hair is all I can see as he rests against the railing between the carriage and the wagon section I am on. Definitely an Alpha male by the look of his size.

I closed my eyes for a second to feel his essence. A pulsing vibration of burgundy, I immediately recognize him as the one who wanted Ebony to leave me for someone else to find, the man with her, when I first woke up in the box.

His essence is not as volatile as before, sleep always calms the inner chaos in most.

I am interrupted while working out what I can from the male, by a shuffling sound and I snap my eyes open to see someone looking around the two sleeping wolves in front of me.

Silver hair and then a face comes into view. A young woman with leafy green eyes stares back at me.

She doesn't make any sudden movements and just watches me. Fae, but not my clan. This must be the person with no essence.

She is incredibly attractive and it distracts me for a while. I can't seem to take my eyes off of her, and I really am trying.

I don't feel any bad energy coming from her. But at the same time, I don't really feel anything from her.

She smiles at me while I make my assessment of her, though she says nothing, probably making her own assessment of me.

"Where am I?"

I decide to talk first, getting ahead so that I get my answers before they start their own interrogation.

"We are on our way to Mystic Grove, my mother will hopefully know more once we arrive. "

Mystic Grove? I search my memories for that name... A discussion I had with Spring comes to mind... Wind Fae....

How did I end up with the Wind Fae?

"How did I get here?"

It slips from my lips before I can catch the words.

"I suspect that the Tree of Life sent you. Ebony was able to retrieve you from the tree in her pack, which means that the prophecy is true..."

Her answer confuses me... How did the Tree send me all the way West? Thousands of miles away from home...

As I am processing her words, a groan in front of me drags me from my thoughts, the two people directly in front of me are waking up, the large Alpha boy stretches and moves away from the tiny person tucked under him.

I can hear her yawn quietly and my curiosity bursts at the thought of having an actual conversation with this enigma in front of me.

"Glad to see the two of you have woken up, our guest is awake. "

The silver-haired woman says, they both suddenly sit up very straight and slowly begin to turn to face me.

I need Ebony to turn around, something in me says that once I see her, all will be revealed. I don't know why or how, but my inner self is telling me that she is the key to my answers.

I am met first by the face of the Alpha boy. His expression is hard and cold as he glares at me. I am unfazed by his reaction to me. I am only interested in the girl next to him.

I watch as she tentatively turns towards me. From the back, all I can see is her long, wavy black hair, feisty like her essence. But then her skin comes into view, an olive skin tone... Like... And then her face slowly turns to face me, and although she revealed herself cautiously, I am still completely stunned to see the girl before me...

I know her... I know who she is... I mean she looks older... But exactly the same if that's possible.

I just stare at her with my mouth wide open in utter shock. I must be seeing a ghost... How is this possible?

The Ebony I knew died years ago, burned in one of the fires... How is she here, now?

"Ebony?"

I ask her, my voice is trembling though, I pray this isn't some cruel witch craft to get me to open up and tell them what I know.

But her eyes are just the same shade of hazel with a speck of green, just as I remember. She also looks just like her brother...

She knits her eyebrows together in confusion as I ask her if she is indeed Ebony. How did I not put the two together when I heard her name the first time they said it. I hadn't thought of her at all.

"Do you know me?"

Her voice sounds exactly the same, only more mature as does her face, but I would recognize her anywhere. She was my friend, that was stolen from me by a cruel twist of fate.

But she doesn't remember me... Was she too young? I know she was a few years younger than me, but I remember her vividly. How could she not remember me?

"Do you not remember me?"

I quietly ask, I have to be certain.

She studies my face and I pick out her birth mark on her neck, like a finger print smudge just under her ear. I see it as she strains to the side to look at me more closely.

Everyone else is silent, but I can tell the man with her is not impressed. I see he has crossed his arms across his chest as he watches our interaction.

"You look familiar, but I cannot seem to place you. But I can't have, I would remember, since I've never met a Fae before."

Her answer confirms my fears, she was either too young to remember, or her memories are hidden... Or she is simply the double of Alpha Blake's sister.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. This is getting exceptionally complicated and I am exhausted.

I feel something pushing on my essence, a sensation I have never experienced before... Strange and yet soothing... My Fae sense immediately kicks in as I work out what just happened. Ebony's essence has grown triple its size and is a bright pink color. As I see it, a tendril comes off it and waves at me. As if it had a personality of its own. Just a slight wave like motion before retreating back and reverting back to the swirling pastels.

Does her essence remember me? She is still an enigma when it comes to her essence, but I can't help but feel like her essence does indeed remember me. But how? She was too young to have her essence back then.

I smile though at the thought and open my eyes. They are all looking at me.

"Do you know Ebony?"

The exceptionally attractive woman with silver hair asks. I am still unsure whether or not I can trust her. But I am in a corner and can't really hide what I know and expect them to share what they know... She did mention a prophecy earlier that may be important information.

"Yes, I think so."

"I think we should wait until we get into Mystic Grove, and consult with my mother before we discuss this further. We don't know who is out there listening."

The woman whose name I cannot for the life of me remember says.

Ebony nods slightly and the man with her just makes a gruff noise and continues to stare me down.

"We will be there shortly. Hopefully, my mother will be back soon so that we can figure out what to do next, rest until we get there. It may be a long night."

We all fall into a silence after that, and I am left to my thoughts while I digest everything. How did I land up in the West and stumble across Ebony? A person we all thought long dead... Her essence though, I do not remember that, but then again, she did go missing when she was but five. It certainly seemed to react to me now though. She said the Tree had sent me... But how? And why? And why Ebony? Was I meant to find her? Unrelenting questions bombard my thoughts all at once and I realize that I have absolutely no idea what is going on...

My family must have realized by now that I am missing, they will look for me... Right? I wonder what my brother would do in this situation, how he would calculate all his moves to ensure that he comes out with all the right answers and knows exactly what to do... But I am not Nightshade, he's so much better at this than me... Why did the Tree send me? How am I going to figure out what to do?

She was my friend though... Is my friend... I remember that day clearly, regardless of how I have tried to forget it.

I wept for days when we couldn't find her, our hands bleeding from searching through rubble and what remained for any trace of her and her mother. Nightshade was still a boy then, but he became a man with Blake that day. He saved Spring and I from the onslaught of humans retreating past the Tree, then searched longer and harder than anybody else. He refused to accept that they were gone. The trackers came back with nothing that indicated that they had left or been taken. We mourned their loss, created memorials in their honor...

And here, she sits in front of me, nearly twenty years later, very much alive and completely oblivious to what she was before... What she is, from what I can only assume. I wish I could look out at the scenery, but the darkness shrouds everything around us in darkness with just the Moon and the clear night to guide us to our destination.

I start to feel weary and decide to put my head down and try to recoup as much energy as possible. With a lot of exertion, I get myself down onto the cot again. I close my eyes to try and relax, break away from the onslaught of confusion that is my current situation.

I slowly start to steady my breathing, focusing on the sounds around me instead of the rushing voices in my head. I clear my mind as best as I can and try to concentrate on my surroundings right now...

The squeak of the tire, caused by the friction of movement...

The hooves of the horses up front, pulling us all behind them...

The moaning of the wood in protest at being pulled and stretched with the motion of the carriage...

A bird... In the distance, shouting about being disturbed probably...

Crickets as they sing their song of love in the fields next to us...

The shuffling of materials as someone moves in their seat, trying to get comfortable again, somehow after what has been discovered...

I focus on what I can hear in the moment, and not long after I am relaxed enough to fall asleep, I might as well. We weren't going to have a conversation until we reached our destination and I had no idea when that would be. Nobody else seemed to be talking either. Like a weird silence that is humming with possibility. I breathe out as much of my anxiety as possible.

I slowly slip off to sleep, but it's restless and filled with dark shadows and animals morphed into grotesque versions of themselves.

My fears brought to life in still motion under my eyelids.

I woke up when the carriage and wagon came to a halt. The sudden stillness disturbs my dreams and I am pushed to consciousness and back into the unknown.

The moon is still high in the sky, so it must be the middle of the night. I sit as gently as I can, but I already feel better, regardless of the nightmares, my body feels refreshed.

The main question is still running through my mind... How is she still alive?

I still cannot work out how she was taken and nobody knew...

Willow, yes-that's what they called the silver-haired beauty.

Willow waits as the doors of the carriage are opened by a set of guards that must have approached while I tried to rest.

When they open the doors for her, she takes one of their hands to accept his help.

"Has my mother returned yet?"

She asks him while the giant man child gets out next, extending his hand to Ebony. I really don't like him, there is just something about him that sets my alarm bells ringing.

"No My Lady, She is due to arrive at the Dust witches shortly and then will be teleported directly here. She has decided against the journey home by carriage. "

I hear him answer her, but I am watching Ebony and the man I cannot trust. My gut is warning me that he is dangerous. But I haven't spoken a word to him. I shouldn't dismiss him too quickly. Especially since he seems close to Ebony, who has now become my main priority. I need to get her back to Blake. I have to... But Alpha boy is going to give me grief with it... I just know.

Another guard opens the back hatch of the wagon. I slowly stand as I take in my surroundings.

We are in a strange place.

I'm unsure of what I am looking at.

The village seems to be built from woven grass and sticks, with straw roofs.

I was expecting a Fae colony, but this village is different.

All round in shape, similar to the huts in the Copper Moon pack.

But instead of clay, they were made in delicate patterns with the use of long grass and sticks.

All in a circle around the largest of these constructions in the Centre, it reminded me of home and how everything grew around the inside of the Tree.

Small plants grew in between the spaces and seemed to connect everything in a natural balance.

The biggest difference was that they lived their day-to-day lives in their larger forms, whereas we shrunk down inside the Tree.

I am fascinated, especially since I note that all the guards are Fae.

We are in a Fae village.

I don't know much about the Wind Fae, and my instinctual desire to discover the unknown is about to burst.

I take tentative steps to the edge of the wagon before hopping down, testing my limbs and reflexes.

I seem to be okay, no major damage and nothing a good meal won't fix.

I look over to where Ebony is, and she seems to be watching me.

I smile at her and head toward Willow.

She will know where we are meant to go.

As I approach, she is nodding at one of the guards as he explains something I hadn't been paying attention to and, therefore, was clueless as to what he is talking about. I wait for him to finish before looking at Willow expectantly.

"Yes, come along, we can go into the dining room and get something to eat, you can rest then or if my mother has returned by then, we can discuss what is going on."

I simply nod as I feel Ebony's essence come up behind me, I don't even need to concentrate to find it.

I just know where she is now... It must have something to do with her essences strange abilities.

I wonder if she is aware of how it behaves?

I don't say anything though and just go with Willow, passed the guards and into the main building.

The main room is a huge circular seating area, with Wicca tables and chairs scattered around.

It reminds me of a combination between the inner pods I call home and the pack I played in and discovered as a child with a wild imagination. Regardless, it's beautiful.

Willow doesn't stop and I follow her into another dome of weaving, this one larger than the one before and filled with wooden tables and chairs, similar to a pack dining hall.

At the front, I see the tables for the food to be laden with, but right now they are barren.

My stomach growls at the thought.

As if on cue, a few maids enter holding trays of food, all different types, ranging from waffles to sandwiches.

Ebony walks up beside me, with her guard next to her.

He doesn't say a word to me and just watches the maids as they begin to lay the food down.

Willow then gestures for all of us to take a seat at a large table near the serving table.

"Please, help yourselves to the food. You must be famished, eat and as soon as my mother arrives we can discuss everything."

She then looks toward me and extends her hand to me for a handshake.

"My name is Willow. You say you already know Ebony and this is her companion and guard, Conal."

They both look at me. Ebony smiles but Conal just raises his eyebrows and rolls his eyes.

He seems bored already.

I smile back and then realized I hadn't introduced myself.

Do I tell them who I am?

But then again, what are my options? They have more answers than I do.

I might as well be honest and hope they don't use it against me.

My brother would be furious with this decision, but something is telling me I can trust them.

Maybe Ebony is part witch and has me under a spell, but even thinking that would then therefore make it void, I think...

I then realize that I still haven't introduced myself, I have been lost in my own thoughts and an awkward silence has settled over the table. I cough as panic starts to rise up in my gut, and I feel like a deer caught in headlights. What do I say?

"Umm... My name is Twig."

I finally splatter out, and wait for any reaction.

Neither Ebony or Conal seem to recognize my name, but Willow obviously has.

Her eyes begin to widen slightly and a slight gasp escapes her lips, which makes the other two look more intently at me, which is making me uncomfortable. Thankfully, Willow picks up on my anxiety and begins to hand everyone a plate from the serving table and ushers us toward the food.

I smiled thanks in her direction, grateful for the distraction.

It didn't take much to convince the overly large Alpha boy to begin filling his plate with every kind of food available, before huffing down onto one of the chairs and devouring his feast.

Ebony then slowly starts to dish, but her portions are a fraction of her companion's.

I file in behind her with Willow behind me, there is so much to choose from.

Eggs and sausages with waffles or sandwiches and delicate pastries.

I have a few pastries and pancakes, a glass of orange juice and fresh fruit.

I don't want to assault my stomach with my first meal, but my eyes certainly want to linger on the breads and meat with rich gravies.

I take a seat next to Willow, across from Ebony. I push all my questions aside and try to focus on eating, regaining my strength and figuring out how to get back home... With the young she-wolf in front of me.

I will probably have to find out what I can about this prophecy while I'm here and get as much information as I can...

Why didn't the Tree choose Nightshade? I whine to myself while everyone begins eating their food.

He would have been so much better at this than me.

He was trained by my father, an unstoppable force on the battlefield.

I was never focused enough, or fast enough.

How am I going to get through this?

Maybe I will be able to contact my family.

If Willow recognizes my name, then maybe there is hope that I can get word to them.

I can't taste anything as I get through the food on my place, my senses numbed from the constant unknown that I am wading through at the moment. I wonder what everyone is doing right now at home?

I wonder how everyone is doing after the attack. Did we win?

Or was my family left in pieces by those monsters?

The horrors of what could be happening at home starts creeping through my mind like an infectious disease.

I really hope these people have some answers for me.

There is a scuffle at the door and we are all brought out of our weariness by someone coming in through the door.

Two guards enter, followed by an elderly woman. Finally, we can have this conversation.