CHAPTER 2
1005 Words
Morning came bright.
She heard her grandfather call out to Selene before coming to knock on her door.
“Are you sleeping?” he asked.
“I'm awake, papa,” she said.
“Hurry up and come out. Today is the monthly gathering,” Old Vale said and left with Selene.
She felt the sting of disappointment.
On most days he waited for her.
Today he didn't.
They were gone. Just as the feeling settled, something familiar caught her attention.
She turned __ her father.
“Dad.” She ran to him, almost crying.”
“Were you looking for me?” Rowan said, knowing fully well why she was sad.
“Don't worry, I won't go without you.” She nodded at him as she hugged him tighter.
Every pack attended the monthly gathering.
Fullmoon, Grimholt, Ashwool three packs one community, one long tradition of standing in the same open field. The strongest families took the front, and everyone arranged themselves so they didn't need to be told.
The old Vale came around but no one could see him, just like the other two. Their positions were vacant, but no-one dared to sit on them, unless you want the type of attention that doesn't end well.
Nyra stood three rows back with the other untested young wolf.
She could feel it in the half seconds too late, stops mid-conversation, the halfway stares, and whispers.
She kept her chin level. She had practiced.
Elder Caine was speaking at the front, his voice carrying old authority not loud but certain. He was accessing those whose wolf had already reacted and who had stabilized theirs, those waiting for the full moon ritual and those that are promising signs.
Her name didn't come up.
In the Solcist community, sixteen is not a deadline, but the very line when people stop giving you the benefit of the doubt.
Fourteen was probably a genius, fifteen was normal and sixteen was “we are watching.” Seventeen will be something else entirely.
She heard it anyway, even without elder Caine saying anything.
She heard it in the silence _ when her name was not called.
After the dispersing crowd, she made the mistake of walking too close to a group of girls from The Grimholt side.
The sound of laughter burst out the type that shaped like it was not made to carry but designed to
“Unfortunately, Vale blood skipped some people,"
“_ She is just wasting resources and standing there waiting for a miracle.”
“_must be exhausting, Mr Vale.”
Nyra quickened her step.
When a hand brought her elbow, “That's what they want. Don't let them win.”
Mira stepped into a step beside her with a face that looked unimpressed with whatever was happening around her. She is the only real friend Nyra has in this community as a whole. She has been Nyra's friend for the better part of three years. Most people drift towards people for better connections, but Mira had looked into Nyra for how soft she is and in her trial phase of life.
The next year came and Nyra was not called, but Selene was called as her wolf had already reacted.
Two girls publicly laughed at Nyra when Mira stood up for her with an expression of don't mess with me, and they left quietly and since then, they have been inseparable.
Mira touched her shoulders. Ignore them, most of those Grimholt girls only got here because their clan elder forces the breakthrough on them Is not a natural progression, it is pressure conditioned.” Nyra needed to explain to herself when Mira continued, “Their wolf will be unstable for years after the ritual.”
“How did you know that?”
“I read.” Mira said
Nyra almost smiled.
Her father found her near the treeline. “I heard the Grimholt girls.”
“Dad, don't worry, I am fine," she said.
He patted her head and left her with Mira.
When he left, Mira continued, “I heard your grandma shifted when she was eighteen.”
Nyra stares at her and almost laughs. “Please, Mira, I am fine.”
“But I am serious. Ask your dad when you get home, and as you know, she was very strong and peerless among her peers."
Nyra nodded still in disbelief, “Let me go say hi to Darius.”
“Alright, I am here,” Mira said.
Nyra had noticed him twice. First she saw him near the front with his grandfather associate, tall, the type that the crowd would normally orient around naturally. He was seventeen and already, The second stage wolf awakened.
There is a particular settled quality that comes with the wolf. He has awoken clearly and stabilized.
Half the girls in the community have reason to walk past Him.
They had been betrothed since before they knew anything about the arrangement between their grandfather in the years when Oldman Vale and Oldman Wolfe were still building the closeness that made such a gesture feel natural.
She grew up knowing his name as she knew some natural facts.
Some decisions about her were told to him first before it was done.
The second time she saw him, Grimholt girls were already surrounding him. She was not sure if he had heard, but he should, since they were close to him when they made that statement, he just looked at her and continued what he was doing.
As she walked towards him, suddenly Selene appeared. At his elbow she said something and they both laughed about it.
Then Selene leaned in and whispered something. Both glanced towards Nyra and laughed. Then she made him turn to her and that moment closed like a door.
Nyra watches her cousin have an easy conversation with him the way people who always had an easy conversation do something she hasn't even done with her betrothed.
She looked away and decided to walk towards Mira.
- Writer
