The prophecy

The choosing

Around the long round table stood all the representatives  from the races that inhabited The Crescent Mountains. The mood was by far the worst ever witnessed in that table.

Alana, the reigning witch now raised her voice first "There is no way of knowing when this might happen, we've kept our people apart for long enough, the younger ones are getting restless and it's not smart financially speaking for any of the clans to keep this up, our resources are running dry, sooner rather than later we would have to send our young ones to the human villages to get instruction -"

A snort from the other side of the table interrupted her ascending speech "My pups will never dirty themselves with humans, they will be instructed within pack laws and traditions." 

"Alpha Blackwood, you can not tell me you haven't noticed, things are changing. People do not remember the reason for the Split anymore. And if we are being honest it was motivated by something that may or may not happen." She finished in one breath. As the only woman at the table sometimes it was hard to be heard.

"Of course, to the witches it would be no problem if a war arose, all you do is fight with your words, but for us wolves it would mean losses. Several of them." The alpha replied with a snarl

"What war Blackwood? If the problem was to arise, it would still take years for the Blessed Child to be born, that is if the kid was to be born in this generation. And what the witch says is true, my side of the valley keeps growing scarcer, and my pupils more restless, it gets harder by the day to keep them outside your territories, if we just loosened up barriers a little and joined forces on some installments, things could get easier for everyone."  Camden, the Vampire lord that joined the valley 400 hundred years ago with his clan of "good vampires" piped in, this discussion was already too long, the alpha and the Fae leader were being unreasonable.

"If we lift the law, we are leaving an open path for the prophecy to come true, why are you all being so absurd? Don't you remember the words? The kid will bring our destruction!" The Fae Leader said while thumping his hand on the table and raising his voice.

Alana looked at Apollo and could see the little vein on his forehead start to pop, just like it did everytime he was cross, and while listening to the tone he chose at the time, she knew. This meeting was done, being postponed because of the testosterone match that was sure to come.

"That is enough!" She snapped "We've already been here for too long, we are no longer in shape to discuss such matters, we can rediscuss this tomorrow after we've had some sleep and some rest. I do have an important choosing ceremony to go in an hour, so we wouldn't be able to take this much further."

"It must be one hell of a witch to have her queen attend her ceremony personally" Apolo retorted with an unnecessary sarcasm.

"It's a Smith, former Moon. So yes, she is." She replied seriously.

"Didn't that happen two years ago? Is the grandmother contained? Because with that family, we never know, it's been some years, but they could always be chosen by the spirit." Camden asked honestly.

"They are three girls actually, their exile will be lifted when the youngest one becomes of age. It's already cruel enough to cut them off because of their grandmother's actions."

"Well, since this is going nowhere anymore, I am leaving, but don't worry sleeping on it won't make me change my mind, my days as an alpha are coming to an end, and I will not be known as the Alpha that helped doom us all." Blackwood said while rising from his seat at the round table.

Camden took a deep breath while he looked through his young fellow leaders, right now he felt so much older than his hundreds. Even Blackwood, the oldest among them, could not see reason. So he rose up from his seat and gave his final statement before leaving.

"Believe me old friend, in all the years I roamed earth, there was never even a rumour of a prophecy that could be stopped by a simple law. Forgive me for thinking that this will not be first time."

The silence now, reigned heavier than the one from earlier, as all of the leaders retreated back to their lands. All of them with troubled minds and heavy hearts.

Sienna

The village was not as I pictured it would be. I thought everything would be wood and a little mold like our cabin at the edge of no man's land. But no, houses here were like the ones in the french movies Lily loved so much, all bricks with stoned rodes and flowers dripping from every balcony and window. I loved it, and felt a little resented that we could not live in one.

"Come on Sienna, we are a little late." My sister Rose urged me up to pick up my pace. She had already done this. All alone, it must have been very frightening. Even now, as we navigated as fast as possible through the little streets, I could hear the whispers from the women that sat together in the porches we passed by.

My choosing ceremony is today. I could not contain the glee in my mind, I was going to be chosen by my element and finally get stronger. Blue eyes flashed through my mind and I gave my head a quick jerk. Don't think about him Sienna, it's already been two years and now is not the time.

Two years ago I had the most frightening encounter of my life, with a boy (probably a  man now). But the thing that scared me the most was not my imminent death, its was the words he spurted when our eyes met. 

Mate

A beautiful word really, but not the most comforting, seeing as he was clearly a Werewolf and I was almost a Witch. There were rules against that type of union, and to be honest my life already had enough problems. 

And still everytime he plagued my every dream, my every fantasy. My mind kept wondering and wondering, who would I be had we exchanged more words? What would have happened? It's been two years and I still didn't know if my older sister's hand pulling me from my spot and dragging me behind the tree that marked our territory was a blessing or not.

Rose stopped abruptly and I was so distracted I almost bumped into her.  We had arrived at what seemed like a square. Here all the tiles on the pavement were white and gold forming images up until the center where a gazebo stood tall and proud and so very white, one would say it was made of marble.

In the center there were four crates, one with water, one with soil, one with coals barely lit and one feathers. I knew what would happen now, I expected it, so I walked in the direction of the gazebo. There an ancient witch was supposed to meet me and guide me to the ceremony, but as I walked up and looked at the one who waited for me, it was Alana. Our reigning leader, the daughter of the one who took the throne after my grandmother went insane.

"My queen" Rose said in salute as she courtesied, adn I dumbstruck as I was just stood there until she nudgeded me in the side.

The queen didn't seem bothered by it, and turned making a motion for us to follow. The air seemed heavy and my hand was clammy, I don't think I've ever been this nervous before. She stopped at the top and whispered a few words in to my hair before letting me inside the gazebo.

"Take deep breaths Sienna, let your element come to you, go around ever so slightly and whichever chooses you, you will feel." She said calmly.

As I looked around the crates and passed by them slowly and aprehensively, not even single one moved. All my life reduced to this one moment and it was being weirdly anti-climatic. The queen offered me a smile and said. "Breathe in and calm yourself, sometimes it takes time."

I gave the queen a yellow smile and closed my eyes, trying to feel the spark of magic I felt everytime I did something small around the house. Little by little, the spark came to life and by stinct I opened my hands to let the energy out.

In that moment the craziest of things happened, the crates thata were ignoring me up until now, started to shake. All of them. My hands started to feel warmer by the second and in seconds I felt wave. A wave of power, quite like the ones you feel after a bomb, it shook the gazebo in its place and I could swear I saw my sister fall on the outside, and just as it hit all the crates opened and spluttered their contents everywhere, leaving me covered in mud, feathers and charcoal.

The queen looked at me and said in eerie way "The spirit, it picked you."

Of course I knew what that meant, at every generation a witch would be chosen, to connect with the spirit. The one that predicted the future, that solidified our magic, our very basic connection to the earth itself, only the most powerful of witches were able to carry it and harness it without going crazy, my grandmother being the finest example of how things could go wrong.

And then just as I tought that things could not get any more complicated, a wolf howled at the moon.

The most haunting and excruciating howl, like it was really sad or missing someone.

I and knew then. He found me.