The Scent of Destiny

The dream

I woke up and grasped for air, breathing in the mist that surrounded me. It was thick, humid and warm, but it wasn't unpleasant. Somehow, this mist that danced around me gave off a familiar feeling, one where I felt safe, similar to that favorite blanket you could never let go of when you were a child. It felt like home.

I slowly stood up and noticed that the mist only covered the forest floor, which was odd in itself, but then it came to me; I was in the middle of a glade, and the forest surrounding me was beautiful. Every type and every kind of tree grew here, as well as different types of herbs, plants and flowers. I looked around me in awe; this place was like nothing I had ever seen. Vibrant and full of colors and textures.

A blue butterfly flew by and posed right on my nose, it slowly flapped its wings as it stood there and I giggled like a little girl, amused by it. It took flight once more, and as I watched it fly away, something else in the distance caught my attention: there was a white wolf resting on top of a rock close to what seemed like a gorge. The gaze of this wolf was set on the moon, as if hypnotized by its beauty. I walked towards it, and I noticed that the closer I got, the more it resembled Kida, but as I reached out for her and called her name, a bright flash of light blinded me.

I opened my eyes once more, and I was back where I originally was, in the mountainous forest, where my parents and I were hunting. The young buck was still between my jaws, the blood that filled my mouth gave off a weird flavor at first, but the aftertaste was pleasant.

If I did indeed faint, then it didn't seem like it was long ago, since my parents weren't yet at my side. I slowly stood up and felt a piercing pain on the left side where I landed, but the pain gradually faded. My fast healing kicked in right on time.

"Was I dreaming?", I asked myself, still disoriented by the fall.

My parents ran down the slope. There was a noticeable limp on my front left leg as I walked towards them. I stood still and checked my body for injuries, but there were no visible wounds that I could see. It was the landing that injured me, and the pain was more internal, I assumed.

“Alice, are you OK?”, my father yelled in my mind. He started sniffing me all around, surely trying to look for injuries.

"Yes... I'm fine, just a bit beat up, that's all".

"What you did was reckless! You could've hurt yourself! Did you not think of the consequences?", more than worried, this time he was angry.

“I’m sorry, I just had a crazy idea, and the adrenaline didn't allow me to think it through, but my instinct told me it was the right call”. I wanted to look down, but Kida wouldn’t let me, she was proud of what we did.

“You landed a perfect bite on the neck and killed it instantly! Well done!”, my mother was much more happy about it and wasn't scared to hide her joy, “This is a perfect kill for your first hunt, and you weren't afraid to follow your instinct. Keep this up sweetie, and you’ll become an apex predator one day. Happy Birthday love! Let's take it back and make some dinner, I can skin it and cut the meat in no time".

While we made our way back home, my mother and father argued about what I had just done. My father was in a frenzy that what I did was reckless, but she was crazy happy about my first kill, and was in love with my performance, even if it was risky. I couldn't hear them since they had blocked me off, but I could hear their wolves occasionally growl at each other. I, on the other hand, was so satisfied with my first hunt, and no one, not even the awful event with Claude, could take away the joy I felt. I made myself a promise to do more research on tracking. That way, I wouldn't have to rely on my sense of smell at all.

"I told you little one, we have power inside of us, this is only a fraction of our potential", said Kida proudly as we dragged the animal back home.

"Hey... were we having the same dream just a moment ago? When we blacked out?".

"No, little one, I blacked out and woke up the moment you did".

"That's... Odd", I reflected on her answer, but didn't give it much thought. It was probably that; a dream. I looked up and saw my father take off at full speed. My mother huffed and walked up next to me, Athena licked my cheek over and over.

"Your father is a bit upset by your crazy jump. Gosh, he's so sensitive! I wish he could just relax for five minutes!", I could hear how annoyed she was by his attitude, "I understand why he's so overprotective, but he also must understand you aren't our little girl anymore, and you are going to take risks despite our warnings. The least we can do is to be there for you".

"Eric has always been soft hearted and sensitive. He's frail to a certain extent, and I believe he thinks you are the same", said Athena.

"I know how dad is, he always worries too much, but I think it's kind of rude he left like that, he should be happy about my first catch”, I said, it actually did hurt me to a certain extent.

“He'll be back sweetie. Don't get him wrong. He's happy but when he worries, he acts like that. Just let him run off his frustration”.

We headed home. We walked through the forest for about twenty minutes and talked about hunting strategies. Both my mother and Athena gave me tips for tracking down prey or ambushing them if I was ever alone. She knew a lot about the subject, since she had lived among humans for a long time and learned their ways from hunters. From what she told me, she was a rogue for most of her teenage years. She had killed a pack leader in self-defense, and despite her being right about it, they still decided to kick her out rather than to praise her for her deed, since that individual was a known bully and an abuser. While living among humans, she had met Victor Greymane, who then invited her into the pack, and soon after joining, she met my father. It was fated, she always said.

Once we were done with that subject, and after a couple of minutes of silence, I was building up courage to try and talk to her about the events that transpired before her arrival, but I wasn't sure about doing it, since I was still embarrassed about it. Talking about it was such a dilemma when it came to her. Any serious talk was met with a hard approach when it came down to my mother, since she was stubborn and had very set ideas. She was an amazing mother, caring and gentle, but never was the kindest when it came down to a heartfelt conversation.

“Alice…”, my mother stared at me with a gentle look on her face. Despite having a wolf appearance, the humanity in her eyes was still visible, “…the reason why I didn’t let you talk about what happened was because there is no need to make you keep thinking about it. I don't want you to torture yourself, especially on your birthday. You have every right to be sad or worried, but you are young and have a brilliant future ahead of you. I know you probably think I may be disappointed, but I am proud of the daughter I have, and always have been”.

My eyes widened as she ended that last sentence. The pressure that weighted on my chest disappeared instantly, and I felt myself forming a strange wolfish grin. My mother was still proud of me, and that's all that mattered. Still, there was that other thing that was bothering me.

“Mom, your words mean so much to me, and you have no idea what a relief it is that you think of me that way, but there's…”, the cheerful expression on my face turned serious once more, I took some time to think about the words I was going to use so I could finally voice my concerns about Alpha Carlise, but my mother interrupted me before I could start.

“I will talk to Carlise, honey. He can't deny my wishes. I'm his greatest asset so far. I've waged many battles for him against the rogues threatening our borders and I always come out victorious. He can't say no to me”. She stood silent for a moment, as if trying to pick her words, “I know you wonder why we're still in this pack, it's not what it once was, but there's a good reason for it; Carlise, despite being so arrogant and severe when it comes to strength and power, he's a good Alpha. I don't agree with him when it comes to kicking out weak members, but at this point, sweetie, going rogue until finding another pack is hard. Rogues aren't easily trusted, no matter where you go, and we have so many members now. There's safety in numbers”. She was looking straight ahead as she spoke. I could tell from her expression that she wasn't buying into her own words at all. There was still doubt, and that was what I was looking for.

“Mom, there's something you have to kn...”. I was immediately interrupted by her again.

“Baby girl, you’ll be OK, I won’t allow him to kick you out of the pack. I’ll make sure of it”, she said while looking at me sideways.

That moment of confidence I had to tell my mother about everything once and for all faded as quickly as it came. It was hard to get her to talk about anything related to feelings, which was the problem she had with my father occasionally, and the same problem she showed with me. All I could do was stare at her for a brief second, and then I looked down. I couldn't bring myself to talk to her anymore. Kida tried saying something but I blocked her off. I wasn't comfortable with it anymore.

Thirty minutes passed and we finally got home. As we crossed the yard trying to head towards the porch leading to the kitchen, we noticed that our clothes were gone from where we left them.

“I bet your father is back, he likes to cook when he's angry”, she said. My mother shifted back to her human form and headed for the door butt naked, “leave the stag outside your dad’s workshop, I’ll skin it once I’m changed”, she said as the door closed behind her. I looked at the door for a moment, kind of lost in my thoughts for a moment, until Kida pulled me out of it.

“Let’s go little one”, she took over and walked towards the porch. It was a strange sensation having my body controlled by someone who wasn't me while in this form, but at the same time it was something I was willing to explore for the rest of my life. She was a part of me, and I was a part of her. She walked slowly and then told me, "You should've just yelled your fears, even if she pushed you away, Alice. She will never know what is going on if you don't tell her about possibly being harmed by him".

"Just leave it be, Kida, it's just not the time", I lashed at her. She didn't reply.

We reached the little shack that was about twenty feet away from the house. It was a medium sized workshop that my dad used for working leather or carving wood, which was a hobby he adored to do. I reached for the door and pushed it open with the inert body between my jaws and set the stag right on the floor. While looking back up, there were lots of carved wood pieces and totems along the wall. Most of the carvings were Viking-like, lots of them in allusion to the moon goddess, but there was this wooden piece that was the most beautiful of them all; it was this carved representation of the moon goddess, both her wolf form and human form holding the moon in the sky. Beneath the moon, and between the two heavenly figures, there were silhouettes of people stretching their hands towards the moon. The meaning I got from it was that it represented her light shining upon her children.

Right under the carved picture, on top of a table full of carving materials, sawdust and tiny wood fragments and pieces, there was a medium-sized carved wooden statue that had two wolves with amazing details. It was still unfinished, since there was a big chunk on the right of the statue, waiting to be carved into. And right next to it, there was a finished carving of me. There on the wall, right next to it, was the reference picture he used for carving it; a full body picture that he took of me when I was 16, right in front of a pine tree. My father really did go all out on it because he captured my face almost perfectly. It was beautiful.

“Your father is really talented”, said Kida.

“He is, isn't he? It’s beautiful”. I took one more look inside the little workshop, and stopped right on that wooden statue of me, and I internally smiled as I made my way outside. While walking, I stopped right in the middle of the field between the workshop and my house to set my sight on the horizon, watching as the last sunrays shined behind the mountains. The sight was even more gorgeous from a wolf's perspective.

I looked away and wanted to shift into my human form, but something stopped me from doing so. As I looked sideways, there were signs of movement from some bushes on the edge of the forest, or that's what I thought. Darkness had started to set in, but despite having good sight in the dark, there was no way to spot what provoked the movement. “Must be the wind”, I thought to myself. Kida heard me, of course, but even then, I really believed there was someone or something watching from the distance.

“Must be the animals that are active during the night. Let's go inside, little one, but shift closer to the entrance”, she said in a comforting tone. Luckily, as I reached the door, there was a towel right next to it, on top of a little wooden stool. I grabbed it with my teeth and shifted into human form while trying to cover the front of my body. Even while going inside, the feeling of someone watching me never went away. There were people that lived near by, but the closest house was a quarter of a mile away. I shrugged and headed straight for the shower.

As my mom skinned and cut the stag's meat and prepped it for preserving, I helped my father cook the rest of the side dishes and some dinner rolls; we came to an agreement that we were making venison stew. My mother had already brought the meat we were going to use for the stew. Once we prepped everything and after a couple of hours of cooking and laughing while throwing flour at each other, we were finally ready for dinner.

We ate, talked, and laughed while surrounded by the flower decors that gave our little family dinner a very pleasant and elegant touch. They opened a bottle of red wine and shared it with me, the taste at first was very strong, but the aftertaste was very smooth and sweet. Once we were done with dinner, my mom brought out from the outside refrigerator a beautiful chocolate cake. My favorite. They both put it in front of me, lit the candles and sang happy birthday to me. It was a beautiful moment that I really cherrished. We ate the cake as we watched movies all night and the evening was just full of laughter. Even if my day had a very rough start, ending it like this was all I could ever ask for; a beautiful moment with my mother and father.

If only this could last forever.