Soul of the Phoenix

Chapter 18

Sakiya held Maranda's arms as she still stood there in shock. As Sakiya turned her body back towards the stairs to walk her back down away from the scene, the big pitch black wolf ran towards them, blocking their steps. Maranda didn't make a move, tensing her whole body up as she was scared of the creature who had just sat down before her. Sakiya admired the magnificent creature, slowly moving her hand towards it, causing it to whimper. "What's wrong boy?" Sakiya asked, the beast nudging her hand and rubbing its face against her palm, seemingly urging her to pet him. Maranda looked on at the wolf, watching curiously. She was still a little tense, but seeing the interaction between the two calmed her nerves a bit. Maybe the big bad wolf wasn't as scary after all, acting as soft as a puppy.

"See that, Ran? I don't think he would hurt us." Sakiya tried to reassure her. The wolf then perked his head up to gage Maranda's reaction, staring at her intently with those pure silver looking eyes. "I still don't know about that, Sakiya." Maranda replied as the wolf moved his body closer to her. "Give it a try, at least." Sakiya told her. Maranda went to move her hand towards the beast and pulled her hand back as she got scared, the wolf whining for her. She went to try a second time, and as soon as she touched the wolf's head, she quickly jerked her hand back as if something had hurt her, staring between her hand and the wolf. "What was that?" Zachary joined in, as he was watching it all unfold from a short distance. Sakiya grabbed ahold of Maranda's hand to examine it, but there was nothing visible to be seen. "Are you alright, Maranda? What was that for?" Sakiya questioned her. "He shocked me, I don't know! When I touched him I felt a spark shoot through my whole being. I think I'm gonna go." Maranda said, quickly making her way around the others, practically running away. Sakiya turned back to Zachary and the wolf, crossing her arms. "You know, it would've been nice to know if you knew about this, Zach." She confronted him. He shrugged his shoulders and moved to scratch the back of his neck. "I didn't want to make anything worse for you than I'm sure you've already been dealing with. I didn't think now was the time, but it looks as if the goddess had other plans." He chuckled. Sakiya furrowed her brows. "Goddess. What do you mean goddess? I thought that was just a saying." Sakiya asked. "I'm sure you'll find out one day soon, kid." He replied. "I gotta finish getting this mess cleaned up. I'll leave ya'll to it." He said, moving away from the duo to grab up the bodies and throw them overboard.

Sakiya looked back down at the wolf, surprised to see an air of dust around him. The wolf disappeared behind the smoke, and when it cleared again, Sakiya's face went as red as lipstick. She threw her hands over her eyes in a hurry, a very naked Sylis suddenly standing in front of her. "Uhm, I think I'm gonna go change. I'll find you and Maranda after." He said in embarassment, before walking down the stairs in a hurry. Sakiya went down after him, trying to calm herself. She took a deep breath before knocking on the door in front of her, which was the room her and Maranda shared. It was locked of course, Maranda still most likely reeling from everything she had just witnessed. Sakiya understood Maranda's plight, but for some reason she herself seemed to not be scared at all. It was like she was familiar with the creature, and felt a similar feeling that she had felt when she encountered the other wolf in the forest.

After she gently knocked a couple times on the door, she stood there awaiting to face her best friend. Their lives were not like this before they ran away, even though it was still shitty, and things seemed to get weirder as time went on. After a few minutes, she finally heard the click of the lock on the other end, the door opening to reveal a sniffling Maranda. She moved out of the way to let Saiya come in, and closed and locked the door behind her. Sakiya went to have a seat on the bed, gesturing for Maranda to do the same. "Is this real life right now?" Maranda asked, rubbing her hands down her face to dry up the rest of her tears. "I just wanted to get away from the craziness and help my best friend. I didn't expect things to get much more crazy." Maranda bitterly chuckled.

Sakiya ran her hand down the length of Marand's brown hair, trying to soothe her. "I'm sorry Maranda. I didn't mean to bring you into all of this. I had no idea either, adn I thought we were making the right choice, I still do. I know things are weird right now, and that's why we need answers." Sakiya explained, Maranda looking down while twiddling with her fingers. "I just.. Ugh, I don't know. I knew it wouldn't be all peaches and rainbows, but to find out humans can trn into wolves and the fact that there has to be more out there, kinda freaks me out. He's a werewolf for goddess sake, Sakiya! How crazy does that f*****g sound?!" Maranda rambled, standing up to pace back and fourth. Sakiya didn't know how to soothe her, as she still didn't understand it all herself. "I know Ran, and there's nothing I can say to change that, or explain it either. Remember when I told you Sylis had found something, and I wanted to talk to you about it? Well, it kinda showed itself before I had a chance to tell you first." Sakiya started off, Maranda finally looking up and giving Sakiya her full attention, sitting back down beside her. "That notebook, Maranda, talked about a supernatural world with werewolves, it said werewolves are real, adn that they live among us." She continued, causing Maranda to look like she may pass out at any second. Before they could talk further, there was another knock at the door. Sakiya got up to answer it, as she was already expecting Sylis on the other side. Once she opened the door, Sylis locked his eyes on Maranda, and went to walk towards her. "Maranda, I'm so so-." Sakiya took her hand and covered his mouth, preventing him from apologizing or speaking further. "There's nothing to apologize for, Sylis. She understands. I don't even think you knew the extent of this, or what we were getting into. Let alone finding out you're a superhuman!" Sakiya threw her hands in the air. She noticed Sylis seemed to have a connection with Maranda, as he always seemed to act like he wanted to be close to her and always had his eyes on her. "Now, sit." Sakiya demanded him, already knowing he would take his seat next to her best friend. She looked on at the two of them while he was clearly spologizing to Maranda anyway, regardless of what she had said. Maranda seemed to be a little uncomfortable, but for some reason she could sense a clear connection within her best friend too. It was a really weird feeling, but she brushed it off as nothing. As she took her seat next to Sylis, she had something that popped up in her head, and she wanted to get it off her chest.

"So, now that we know you're a werewolf, which is really hard to wrap our heads around by the way, I think this is something we need to discuss. The first thing, Sylis..." She looked between him and Maranda, gathering up the courage to put it in the open. "Now we really need answers, and since you're a werewolf, that has to mean..." she went on, Sylis deciding to finish her sentence for her.

"My parents must be wolves, too."