Stellaluna

Freedom

I am running as hard as I can, just breathing in the fresh air. This is what freedom feels like! Paws in the dirt, strong, reliable, pushing , jumping, soaring through the air! With the wind in my fur it feels as though I’m flying! And I love it! I run and run until I notice I’m at the Black Cliffs. Skidding to a stop I walk in a circle before lying down, stretching as I do. With the sun warming my fur this is a perfect time for a nap. I yawn, my tongue sticking out lazily and am just about lay my head down when I hear it. Startled I jump to my feet and try to locate the sound. I find it’s coming from over the cliffs. I peer down into the dark depths, unable to see the bottom as even the sun cannot pierce the thick darkness that coats it. They don’t call it the black cliffs for nothing I suppose. It actually is much colder when you’re right along the edge. Cold tendrils of mist creep from the darkness and before I realize it, they’ve wrapped themselves around my paws and are pulling me down. I finally realize what the sound was as I rush towards blackness. Laughter. A cruel and cold hearted laughter that gave me chills, even as I blacked out.

EVIE!!!

“AHH Oh sh*t mother of all that is..

Ah it was a dream.”

I could feel your distress but couldn’t wake you! I was worried.

It was only a nightmare Amaris, but thank you. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have someone care about me.

I could practically hear her eyes roll

You have Sarge too Evie. You’ll hurt his feelings if you keep leaving him out.

Oh not you too! You guys are so dramatic

I laugh and head to my shower. I worked up quite a sweat in that nightmare. I haven’t had one in years. But with Amaris and Sarge I am not worried. I hop in and use my favorite honey scented body wash and go ahead and wash my hair too. Except for the bad dream, I know it will be a good day. It’s been a two years since I got Amaris, and things could not be going better! I train with Sarge every day, and while I could always knock him on his a** at least 30 percent of the time before Amaris, We have been making great strides and can now do it almost every time in either form. It is now spring and the trading routes are booming, which means business is great! I dressed in my usual dark colored jeans and black short sleeved top, and threw my hair in a braid, stopping to check myself in the mirror before heading downstairs.

Today I have to stop by the market to get some supplies since we are running out much faster, so I quickly grabbed the shopping list from the counter in front of where Sarge was currently stuffing his face with biscuits. "Is this everything?" I questioned, already on my way out the door.

“Yeah yeah but hey, will you do me a favor,” Sarge asks me.

“Yeah you need something?”

“Can you keep an eye out for me? I’m craving something sweet and plump.” He waggles his eyebrows, giving me a devilish grin and a wink and I groan.

“No. For the last time I will not be your wing man! Do you know how awkward it is to check out other women just to see if you would enjoy f*cking them? Noooooo!”

“Ugh come on Evie. I’ll give you 100 dollars if you can find me a juicy redhead.”

I roll my eyes and walk out the door before he could start describing what else he wanted. He is seriously demented.

It isn’t long before I hear the familiar bustling of the crowds. I pass the baker who sells the most amazing croissants I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting, and head to the herbalist, weaving in between people.

“Selene, how wonderful to see you!” I screeched, throwing my arms around her.

“Evangeline! Oh darling it’s been a while! How ever are you dear?” I smile at her using my full name. She’s the only one who does.

“I’m great! I missed you! How was Europe? Was it amazing?” I gushed

“Oui darling, and I’ve brought you something special back,” she says as she rummages through a bag in the back of her stall. “I asked around for more information about blessed wolves for you, and found a book recording different wolves and what their blessings were.” She handed me the book and I slip it in my satchel quickly. “I am afraid I could not find anything else about your family line, darling.” Selene had an extensive network of witches, wizards, historians, anything you could ever need really. But if even she could not figure out where I came from, then my hope of ever finding family was looking grim.

“Thank you so much for everything Selene!” I hide my disappointment and update her on what she missed.

“Of course mon cheri!” She leaned towards me and whispered, “and your powers, how have they progressed? Any news ones?” This was a secret I entrusted to no one except Selene. Not even Sarge. I didn't want to worry him anymore than I usually do. He tried to play it off but I knew he was worried about me ever getting my wolf. Most got theirs at sixteen. I didn't get mine until eighteen. I had also been having visions for as long as I remembered. Horrible, scary ones that always came on the night of a new moon. Sarge was always there with a glass of water for me to wake up to. Selene thinks they are prophetic in nature. My powers have grown exponentially in the two years since then, but I have not been trying to explore them. Quite the opposite actually. Like I needed anything else to make me stand out. No, I just wanted to control the ones I have and shove anything extra way way waaay down.

“No not as far as I’ve noticed.” I answered quickly, She nodded and gave me a kiss on the cheek as a customer came to her stall. I waved and went about collecting the things on my list.

I had eggs, meat from the local butcher and ordered three cases of beer and wine, all to be delivered tomorrow morning. At the fisherman’s stall I was currently haggling for a barrel to be delivered to the tavern. Leif the fisherman swears the fish in his barrel are fresh but with my sense of smell I could already smell the rot. After a few choice words, I got a barrel of fresh fish to be delivered by the hour. I was walking home quite proud of myself when all of a sudden a bunch of fancy cars started to drive to the village center.

What’s going on?

I don’t know Amaris, but I don’t like the look of this.

Let’s go see!

The village we live in is pretty small. Though it is busy. It is a kind of pit stop for the trading route. I have been to towns that have cars and the bigger cities do of course, so that’s not surprising. What is surprising is that this village is not as wealthy as most others, so we mainly have horses or a few have very beat up old trucks, but we normally just walk everywhere. The smaller the town, the more likely it is to be neutral as it doesn’t offer many benefits for a pack to claim. So what are these fancy ones doing here? I walk over to take a peek.

When I get to the village square I see that Sarge has already arrived and is waving at me so I quickly make my way to him through the fast forming crowd. Everyone is just as curious as I am.

“Hey Sarge, you know what’s going on?”

“No. I just heard them pull up and came to see for myself.”

We look around the crowd and I see a lot of humans came, but also a few more rogue wolves, witches and the local vampire too.

“Wow even Doc came out to see,” I said nodding to latter. Doc was an older vampire who just wanted to live peacefully. Since he could smell and taste any sort of illness in someone’s blood he became the village doctor. I waved a hand in greeting to him and he gave a small smile in return before looking back at the cars.

Men were starting to pile out of the cars. All of them werewolves. Their eyes quickly scanning the crowds and noting the creatures within. They all wore pressed, nice clothes and shoes. It was rare to see such crisp clean clothes here, as we were a simple village where everyone had a job. The biggest of the men was in the middle. He was bigger than Sarge, with short blonde hair and dressed all in black.

“Hello residents of New Serpentide! We have come to congratulate and welcome you into our kingdom! This village is now under the protection of the King of the South!” There was immediate chattering among the crowd and I locked eyes with Sarge, but our attention snapped to the front as the man continued.

“As of today, trade with the North will be closed. But not to worry! Supplies will be brought when needed. As many of you know, there have been attacks near here and we are here to protect you!” He smiled at the crowd. We were all confused though because we had not heard of any attacks at all.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” I whispers to Sarge and he nodded in agreements.

“As long as you all swear fealty to the King, you will all be protected and provided for. We will be sure to protect you from the unclaimed rogue.. bandits that plague the land,” he said eyeing the werewolves in attendance. “No longer will you fear the dark! Because you are all now on protected claimed lands!” The humans in the crowd cheered, seemingly convinced by the man, while all the creatures were very concerned. Sarge pulled my elbow and signaled to a few other creatures to go to the tavern. As we left I couldn’t help look back and made eye contact with the speaking man. He was smiling, and I got goosebumps and hurried after Sarge.

Evie, I don’t like this.

I don’t either. But Sarge will know what to do.

I could feel how nervous Amaris was, probably mirroring my own feelings. But there was something disconcerting about the smiling man.