A New Era

Chapter Three - To Seek Knowledge

Kelly opened the door, and Hanna followed her down a hallway with a few doors. As she went down the stairs, they passed others who stopped to look at Hanna, all of them had grey or black hair, but were younger. Hanna instantly recognized them as other werewolves. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Kelly led Hanna into the dining room, and when Hanna walked in, everyone grew silent. A man who had to be six feet, with long grey hair, and a braided beard that went to his waist, stands to his feet and looks around the room. "If you're not an elder or Hanna, leave, now." Everyone left, and then Kelly bowed and left as well without another word.

Three men sat in front of Hanna and studied her sternly. As one opened his mouth to speak, she interupted, "Who here can change at will?" and all of them stared at her, bothered by her question, and then their gaze changed to the man she noticed before. "What is your name?" he looked at her with stern eyes, "How dare you speak to me in such a way? You aren't even a werewolf!" Hanna could feel the anger from his ignorance. She stepped toward the table and put her hand on it, imagining the table being like the candels and suddenly it lit up in flames. Every elder jumped except the one man, "A witch. You're supposed to be extinct." She looked at him, and the flames dove down and simmered. "Supposed to be. Now talk. Who are you? And what is the witching war?"

The other two men began to grab books as the man nodded across from her. She grabbed a chair and sat down as she scratched at her wrist slightly. She had been surviving off cigarettes for almost a year now. The man handed her his coffee and took a deep breath and sighed, "It'll help." She started to sip the coffee slowly. "My name is Oliver. Why did you want to speak with someone who could turn on will?" she took another sip, "Do you know why you can turn at will?" he shook his head, "I want to find out. What makes you special from them? A witch must have lifted the curse of someone in your line is my theroy. Which means only one thing if I'm the last witch." he looked at her in shock, "It would have been your blood line." she looked at the men looking through the books and making stacks on the table. "What are these?" she asked. "Those are books that tell the history of the war you speak of. We have a couple of things you might want; they are artifacts from the witching war and similar ones we have found throughout the years."

Hanna looked at Oliver, "Can I ask some personal questions?" Oliver took a deep breath and sighed. He started to look through the books, then looked at her and nodded. "What does it feel like to turn?" he picked up a book that was a deep red. "I've turned three times in my life, every time was painful, the first was the worst. Unlike other wolves, when you can turn on command, the curse doesn't work the same. In my opinion, being what we are is a curse, regardless, but not everyone sees it the same way. When you have command over the part of the curse that allows you to turn, coming in contact with a vampire doesn't trigger it on the first full moon. After we have had contact with a vampire, we can turn at any given time. The first time I turned, I killed my wife. We got into an argument, and I turned. When you turn on the command, it isn't a slow process; it happens almost all at once. My claws tore her apart, and when I came to, I was human, bare, lying in our destroyed kitchen with her remains everywhere." He set the book down softly in front of her. Then looked from the book to her, "Being what we are is hard. Most of us destroy our lives becoming what we are."

Hanna picked up the book, and it was titled "The Witching War." Hanna couldn't believe it, a book that said exactly what happened. She looked at Oliver, "The second time I turned was in the forest, I did it to make sure if I had to, I could. So if I ever had to protect the ones I love, then I could. That time, I remembered every bit of being a werewolf and turning back into a human. The last time was to kill a vampire, I didn't know she was a vampire though... I thought she was a witch." Hanna looked at him in shock."Why would you kill her if you thought she was a witch?" Oliver didn't answer; he put his hand on the book.

"Hanna, what is it you want? It's clear you plan on staying, but what is it you seek? When you were brought here at the beginning of the day, you knew nothing, and now that you know only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to information, you seem to be looking for something. Looming in here seeking information for something, but what for Hanna?"

Hanna laughed, "I thought it was clear by now. I want to pull the curse from the werewolf tribe. I want every single werewolf to be able to turn at will to protect themselves." Oliver looked at her grimly, "Read the book, Hanna. It might change your mind about even wanting to be here." With those words, the room fell silent, and Oliver and the other elders took their leave. Leaving Hanna by herself with a book in her hands that made her scared as much as excited.