Half Blooded

05

05

“Focus, Celeste, focus!”

My mother is yelling at me now. We’ve been doing this thing all day long but I still can’t do it. Not even when I try my hardest.

“I quit!” I told her, catching my breath.

“10 lapses!” No! Not again!

I looked at her with a “please no” face but she didn’t budge. She even made 10 to 15 lapses!

“Mom! You can’t do this?!”

“Yes, I can. 20.”

She— “Ugh!” I yelled, releasing my frustrations. I don’t have a choice so I started running.

After 3 lapses, I felt my legs hurting. I’ve been running since morning and now it’s almost nighttime!

“Go, Celeste! 17 more lapses,” my mother said with a serious face. I want to complain but there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to so I kept running. I tried to speed up until I finally made it. When I reached mom, she just scolded me.

“Control your breath, Celeste!”

“I— Well at least I completed it?!” I can’t believe my mom!

“Still, control your breath. That’ll help you.” She then left me and walked inside the house.

“Still good?” Nat asked me.

“Do I look good?” I asked her back sarcastically.

“No.”

Will everybody here just keep teasing me? I am near questioning my whole existence!

I sat at the counter waiting for what mom is cooking. It smells good. It smells new though.

“What are you cooking?” I asked her.

“A special dish for you,” she answered, not looking at me.

“What do you call that?” I asked her again.

“You name it.”

I furrowed my brows in confusion. Naming a food? Is it created just today?

“Me? Name it?”

She nodded at me as an answer.

“Well, it smells yummy but also weird. Maybe because it’s new... I think I’d name it...” I have no idea what to name it so I took some time of thinking. “... The Grewerd Dish?” Even the name is weird.

Now everything is weird! Since the wolf thing happened... I don’t even know if this is real. How is this even real?

“Grewerd?” she asked with the dish in her hands. “Why Grewerd?”

“Because it’s both great and weird?” I shrugged.

She didn’t speak after that. We just transferred to the dining table and ate. The dish was great. It didn’t taste weird at all. I even felt energized while eating it.

“What did you put in here?” I asked my mom. I just knew there was something I don’t know in the dish.

“Uhm... food?” My mom is kind of weird right now. Food what? I looked at her suspiciously but it seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it. “Just eat up. It’s good for you.”

“Okay...” I didn’t have a reason to hesitate on eating it. It’s my mother. Why would she poison my food and her food?

After everything, mom told me to sleep early because we will be early tomorrow. So, I did.

“How was your sleep?” my mother asked me the moment she saw me.

“It was great!” I cheered. Wait... should my whole body ache after that tough training yesterday?

“Good. Eat up and let’s prepare for your training.”

She gave me a small amount of food and gave me time to change into my training uniform.

“Okay. One hour of warm-ups and stretching then we’ll train again,” she sounded very serious again.

My mother is often calm and cheerful. She has always been my best friend since I was born. I didn’t have many friends when I was younger. Even until now.

I get bullied a lot because they all knew I don’t have a father. My mom comforted me every time but she didn’t want me to mention my father. I don’t know why. Maybe she’s scared because I might get hurt thinking about him or is she mad at him because I get bullied a lot because I don’t have him.

I guess it’s not his fault. It’s not a choice to die. It could be but I’m sure my father didn’t choose to die. Why would he? Life is hard but and there are a lot of reasons why you would want to die but we couldn’t deny that life has its beauty too. It would just depend on how you look at it.

“We’ll proceed to train now, Celeste. Are you ready?” she asked me.

I don’t feel tired. I wasn’t in pain either so I said yes.

She showed me how to do the defense and distraction. We focused on that now because I was still starting. At least, I know how to defend myself whenever I’d get into a fight.

I’m a fast learner so I quickly got it. She just made me memorize what defenses would she do or show me, called. Sometimes she’d give me situations and lets me imagine that it’s happening and I’ll do the best defense for that.

So far, I was doing good but she told me to be faster because it might be too late when I move. She said wolves are fast and strong and I wouldn’t tell her she’s wrong. When I first encountered a wolf, I knew he was fast and strong. I’m just grateful because Natalia woke up and saved me.

“You’re doing better, Celeste. Keep it up. Always beat your best score,” Mom said while eating our lunch.

“I will, Mom,” I told her. I know it’s going to be hard but this is for the both of us.

“Mom? Why can’t I let Natalia take over?” I asked her.

“Natalia will be learning from you. When your human self gets stronger, so will your wolf. It’s also important for you to know that so you don’t always have to shift into a wolf.”

“Shifting?” I asked her. I know what that already meant but I have no idea how to do it. I’m just scared because my mother told me that it’s very painful.

“Yes?” she asked me back, curious about what I’m thinking right now.

“When will I shift into one?” I don’t know why I asked that but I was very curious about how is it like to shift into one.

“I don’t know, Celeste but at least you can communicate with your wolf now. Although it’s a very rare case. It's the first time I heard something just like your case.”

First time?

Why?

Isn’t this normal?

I was confused so I asked her, “What do you mean, mom?”

She froze for a second but she immediately put her spoonful of food and looked me in the eye. “I thought I already told you about this?”

“Told me what, mom?”

“Well, in most cases, they shift into a wolf first before they could communicate with their wolves. And you... Your case is almost impossible.”

We went silent after that.

My case is almost impossible? Why? And... how?

We were about to train again but it started raining so mom told me to just go to bath and rest in my room for the meantime.

I did as she told me but I kept thinking about my ‘rare case’. Could it be that I am that far different from them?

“Not really. You’re a half-blood so it could be normal.” Natalia suddenly spoke.

I didn’t answer but I know she knows what I am thinking.

Maybe she’s right. Maybe she’s not. No one knows. At least neither of us does.

I laid down in my bed and heaved a sigh. It’s cold but I don’t feel like turning my heater on. The weather and the temperature that it brings is relaxing.

I watched my window as I listen to the songs of the rain. It’s beautiful. Even when the sky is crying.

I decided to go closer to the window so I could enjoy the view. After a few minutes of being there, I felt like there’s eyes staring at me again.

When I looked around, I noticed a flash of the cold color of blue. I traced where it came from and it brought my eyes to the entrance of the forest.

Just like when I first saw it, it just stared at me. I’m starting to think if those are really eyes. It’s like it’s glowing.

It stared at me for a whole minute before it suddenly vanished, leaving me wondering.

Where did it go again?