The Lycan Who Shouldn't Exist

CHAPTER 4

Before dawn, they were already training in the courtyard when Oldman Vale came out, “Rowan Take them to the arena.” Rowan just nodded. He knew what that meant. It was time again.

Nobody called it a trial.

That's the first thing you noticed. Elders call it gathering week. Families call it season. Young ones who have already shifted call it, quietly among themselves. The day you discover yourself.

The arena itself doesn't look like an arena.

That's the second thing.

It is a valley wide and deep, ringed by old trees so tall their canopy has made its own ceiling. Beneath it are things that are left there intentionally, not monsters but something else.

The elders introduced them intentionally and deliberately, so they establish territory before the full moon ritual and become real threats.

The logic is old, and practical shift is cleaner when faced with danger than in a clean, controlled environment same as a breakthrough. The body reacts to real stakes differently than it is to pressure alone.

The Arena is sealed between rituals of no entering, no hunting, two years of undisturbed accumulation of intelligent beasts that are cultivated in such an environment in the wider.

After the ritual, the ground remains open to the newly shifted for ten days and parents so they can find their youngsters alive or dead. Whenever the gate is open, it is exactly how efficient it should be to create the right environment for what they need, wild enough.

The Arena has two gates, the first the hilltop where families gather and watch their kids below. The second is the gate to the training grounds and is opened on the day of the full moon by the three powerhouse pressures.

The arena is already open as the full moon is in a week's time. This gives families that are coming from far away to gather. It stays open for a week and on the seventh day it locks anyone who didn't make it to the seventh day to wait till the next full moon ritual.

On the seventh day, every young person, untested, fourteen or older enters and whatever happens is between them and whatever they carry inside.

They came from far and wide.

That was something Nyra did not anticipate—how many people would come.

Families from other settlements were distant relatives of the three main pack people she never saw who clearly knew the Vale name.

Many arrived on the first day like family and made their tents and campfires. And there were crowds with different cooking fires and heated discussions of people who struggled for a space of fire, but no one was expected to fight as this may lead to punishment and your ward would not be allowed to participate, so everyone was not totally well-behaved.

She stood at the top edge of the ridge with Mira and watched them come more. Some were having some bonding time with families they hadn't seen, old friends, and some making new friends.

“ I don't know, not that many people attend, right? And it is still the first day,” Nyra said to Mira.

“For crying out loud, Nyra is once every two years, people plan around it,” Mira said.

The camp was already substantial, the Ashwool contingent by their color deep green practical clothing, people who looked like they spent most of their life outdoors. The FullMoon pack families have set up near the eastern entrance, organised and deliberate. Here and there she caught sight of people pointing, conversation turning, heads inclining, someone explaining something to someone.

She realised after a moment someone was pointing at her.

Not cruelly. Not the way Grimholt girls had laughed. Almost recognition, the Vale granddaughter who shows no sign or has shifted.

She turned from that bridge, “they know.” She said,

Mira looked at her, “You’re Oldman Vale granddaughter You’re going unshifted at sixteen.” She paused.

“People love news like this.”

“Wonderful”

“Look at it this way. If you shift this week, the news becomes different.”

“And if I don't?”

Mira picked up her bag. “Then we will deal with whatever comes after. Same answer as before.”

Selene does not look more like herself as she did this morning. She was at the entrance of the arena with a group of youngsters that already showed signs and almost visible wolves discussing how far they could push. She was laughing at something, her hair dark loose, her energy visible even from a distance that made people gravitate towards her. The air around me feels more present than the surrounding air.

She didn't hate her sister, she just wished she was seen the same way, not like a disappointment.

She saw Darius at the arena gate; he was with some Grimholt boys and his father's men. He was laughing at something standing like who he always is, someone who the world has decided to be straightforward with.

She made herself walk towards him.

It was harder than she thought. And, of course, people noticed the betrothed girl closing over to the Wolfe circle. She has kept her chin level and her pace stable, telling herself it is a normal thing and a natural thing, two people who are promised to each other exchanging words and greetings before significant events. And there are already some days left until the ground opening and the day of ritual.

He saw her coming.

His expression didn't change exactly, it didn't close down or turn cold, it settled into a polite neutrality, the kind of face where you are being patient with obligations.

“Nyra.” He said.

“Darius.” She stopped a few feet away.

The circle had already started redistributing themselves to give them some level of privacy.

“Are you nervous?” he asked. The tone was not even kind nor warm.

“A little,” she replied, because lying felt worse.

He nodded. A single nod. “It will be fine.”

“Right,” she said. “I just wanted_”

“Darius.” Selene's voice was soft and warm. Arriving from the left, she appeared beside him naturally the way she appears in most space.

Like she has always been slightly entitled to them.

He turned towards her, something loosened, not dramatically but enough to be noticed. And there fell into a conversation and Nyra stood there for a moment longer.

Just enough to understand and not long enough to be seen.

Understanding that, she turned and walked away.

Behind her their voices and laughter continued.

The arena stretched below wide and waiting, and Nyra wonders if it will take everything away from her before it gives her anything.