Within the Sapphire Forest

Chapter 3

I only slept for a short time, maybe a few hours, before a cold, wet nose woke me. It gently prodded my face starting at my forehead, then moving down to my cheek. Finally, it registered that someone was trying to get my attention and I opened my eyes and once again found Wolfie staring at me.

“Oh, um… sorry, did you need something?” I asked groggily, slowly sitting up.

Wolfie stared in the direction of the kitchen and whined deeply.

“Oh, yeah. You’re probably starving. Give me a minute and I’ll get you something.”

Wolfie limped back to the sheet and laid. He watched me as I stood and stretched out my aching muscles. I hurried to the kitchen, filled a bowl with canned chicken noodle soup, and microwaved for a few minutes. When it was good and warm, I set it in front of Wolfie and watched him lap it up hungrily.

“When you’re finished eating, would you mind if I checked your wounds, make sure they’re all healing alright?” I asked quietly.

Wolfie looked up at me for a few minutes, nodded, then returned to his soup. He finished it quickly, and I scooped it up to place on the counter. I grabbed all of my supplies, and carefully sat down next to the wolf.

I started with his neck, since it was the most severe and life threatening of his injuries. I slowly unwrapped his neck, while he sat as still as possible. I figured we were both afraid of the other's reaction.

His neck still had a chunk missing, but it wasn’t bleeding and looked much better than the night before. Another day or two and it would be back to normal, without any sign of injury. His other wounds had healed into tiny lines or gashes. They too only had about a day of rest and healing before they would be back to normal. 

His leg on the other hand wasn’t nearly where I wanted it to be. Using my magic to see his bones, I noticed it still hadn’t fused back together. It was frustrating because of the rapid healing of all his other wounds, but then I realized something else. I’d used my magic to re-break the bone, and that could have decreased his ability to heal. I poured my healing energy into the bone, hoping that would reignite his ability to heal that bone.

I put new gauze on his wounds and rewrapped them to let them continue to heal.

“So, most of your wounds are looking much better. My biggest concern right now is your leg. I would suggest waiting to phase back into human form until that bone is completely healed, or else you might cause it more damage.”

Wolfie nodded and lowered his head to the ground. I filled a clean bowl of water and laid it near him before hurrying to my room to change. 

I pulled on shorts, a bra, and a tank top, braided my long black hair, and put on sneakers. I walked back to the kitchen to fill a water bottle up and started towards the door when a soft growl from the wolf caught my attention. I turned and saw his frightened gaze boring into me.

“I’m just going out to my garden, I won’t be long,” I explained, trying to settle his nerves.

He struggled to his feet and limped slowly towards me.

“No, you should stay here and rest,” I scolded, trying to shoo him back to the sheet.

He growled and continued toward the door. I sighed at his stubbornness, but decided to let him try. He at least would get some sunshine and fresh air while I took care of my garden. I walked out after him, closing the door behind us, and slowly led him towards the garden. He found a soft spot with lots of sun near the small garden and laid down.

I got to work, starting with pulling any stray weeds that threatened my little plants. Once the weeds were cleared out, I grabbed a few empty watering cans, buckets, and a metal pole, and walked down to the river to fill them with water. Wolfie didn’t bother following me, and I didn’t know if it was because he was asleep, or because he wasn’t worried about me going anywhere.

The river was just deep enough for me to fill my cans and buckets, and I ran the metal through the handles. The buckets were heavy, but after so many years of perfecting this setup, I didn’t struggle as bad as I used to. I carried everything back up to the garden and slowly watered everything, making sure not to wash out any of the plants. Then I checked on the tiny greenhouse set up behind my cabin. I wasn’t adept at growing plants from seeds, but the greenhouse made it easier. I mostly had a few herbs trying to sprout up. I watered them and slowly put away my equipment in the back of the greenhouse.

Wolfie seemed happy laying in the sun, and I didn’t want to disturb him so I laid down a few feet from him and took some time to enjoy myself. 

I could feel the world breathing beneath me, its energy flowing from deep in the ground up into the grass and trees. The energy stored in the grass transferred to the herbivores when they ate, and then transferred again to carnivores when they ate. And when everything died, as they eventually do, the energy returned to the earth to continue the cycle.

It was always a humbling feeling when I took the time to think about my small part in the universe. It was also empowering to know that I could manipulate all that energy, to bend it to my will, whether I was healing creatures, or moving myself from place to place. There weren’t many people in the world who could do what I could, and that was incredible to me. 

Wolfie huffed and I looked over to see him chewing on the splint on his leg. I jumped up and grabbed his head without thinking, which caused him to growl loudly and struggle against me. He yanked free of my grip and turned sharply to bite me, but I jumped out of his reach and focused my energy on creating a shield between us. He leaped at me, but the shield stopped him in his tracks.

I screamed in fear as he barked and growled at me. He hopped up and hit the barrier again, and I fell backwards crying. I’d dealt with difficult creatures before, one’s who’d tried to attack me, but I could handle them, I could calm them down and reason with them. This werewolf had lost his damn mind, he was crazed with rage and pain and I had no idea what to do.

He eventually wore himself out and laid down near the edge of the barrier. I stayed frozen in place until he closed his eyes and slept, and then I took off into the house, slamming the door shut behind me. 

I hurried to the toilet and threw up into it, bawling as I emptied my stomach. His eyes were so crazed, so angry, I saw my life flash before my eyes in the instant he turned on me.

I quietly peeked out of the bathroom, logically knowing there was no way for the werewolf to get inside with phasing, but still I checked, shaking every step of the way. I ran for my phone when I didn’t see anyone and dialed Melissa.

“Hey, Bae, what’s up?” she asked.

I fumbled with my words but managed to eventually spit out, “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t want to bother you while you’re out of town. I just… Well, I just really needed to talk to someone. I took in a uh, a creature who was really hurt, and when I was trying to help him, he tried to attack me. I don’t know what to do!”

“Whoa! Hold up! Eve, breathe.”

I took a deep breath trying to calm my nerves.

“Did you say something attacked you?” she asked, her voice dripping with worry.

“One of my creatures, a new one. He lashed out when I tried to stop him from chewing on his splint and I’ve never been so scared in my life,” I cried.

“Scared? Why would you be scared, Eve? You are a badass warrior witch. You can call the gods to your side, create storms, summon the earth. You mold the energy of the universe and you’re scared of a feisty beasty. Get a hold of yourself, woman. You’ve got this. Now, get your ass in gear and show that creature who's really the boss of your house,” Melissa scolded, efficiently kicking my ass in gear.

“You’re right. You’re always right, but I really needed to hear someone say that, so thank you,” I responded, feeling my anxiety calm.

“You’re welcome, girly. Call me back if you need anything, I’ll just be in Paris for a few hours.”

I giggled as she hung up. Melissa was truly my best friend. She always knew how to get me going again after a bad scare.

I straightened my spine and headed back outside. Wolfie must have heard me, because I turned the corner of my house and saw him standing on edge, snarling.

“I’m not doing this with you again,” I warned, refusing to lower myself again in my own home. “I want to help you, but not if you're threatening me, not if you’re putting me and everyone else who lives here in danger. Settle down, now, or you will give me no choice but to use force.”

He continued to snarl and growl, and hunched himself down. I prepared myself, and when he leaped. I used my magic to stop him mid-air. 

Realizing he was frozen in place, his eyes widened and he growled again.

I lowered him to the ground, slowly, refusing to break eye contact for even a second, and said, “I know you haven’t been here long, and I usually wait to explain the rules, but you’ve gone too far. So, now, you get a lesson in house rules. One: So long as you are a guest on my territory, you are forbidden from harming another creature.”

He reached the ground and tried desperately to break free of my hold, but I held tight, my energy greater and stronger than his own. I slowly began forcing this brute of an animal to lay down, trying to keep him from injuring himself.

“Two: I am in charge of this territory and you will follow every instruction I give you.”

He struggled harder now, his fearful eyes locked on mine.

“Three:” I finished seating myself gently in front of him, “Breaking my rules will result in your immediate banishment from here. I will kick you out of my territory, and you won’t ever be allowed to return. Do you understand?”

He struggled for a moment longer, his ego fighting his survival instinct, until, eventually, he nodded his agreement.

I released him and pointed towards the house, and he hobbled toward it, his head hung low in shame and defeat. I hated causing that kind of pain in anyone, but he left me no choice.

Once inside, he laid himself down on the sheet with a huff, ignoring me entirely. I let him rest there, certain that his earlier activities put a strain on his injuries. I gathered my fishing gear, and headed down to the river.

The river was a great place to calm myself down. All I really had to do was focus on the way the water moved, how it swirled in certain areas, or bubbled in others. It was peaceful and safe.

I spent a great deal of time trying to catch some fish, but my definitely not calm aura seemed to make that difficult, so I removed everything from my pockets, took off my socks and shoes, placed everything high on the river bank, and stepped into the cool refreshing water. Of course, spring water in Northern America was cold as f**k and my toes felt numb rather quickly, but I ignored them. I sunk lower into the river, up to my ass, but I didn’t stop, the freezing water soon covered my abdomen, then my chest, until only my head was sticking out.

I laid in the water for a while, letting the freezing cold sap into my bones and increase my heart rate. I felt my blood rushing through me as my muscles spasmed, every movement meant to keep me warm. I focused on breathing slowly, trying to settle my heart rate and let my body go numb if only for a moment. The cold, once my body accepted it, was so calming, so peaceful, that sometimes I wanted to drift under, and let it consume me.

I jolted out of the water and hurried up the bank to grab my belongings. I walked carefully back to the house, desperate for warmth after my swim. 

I scared Wolfie on my way in as I shivered uncontrollably. Swimming always seemed like a good idea until I was standing frozen in my living room. I hurried to the bathroom to grab a towel and strip out of my soaking clothes, Wolfies eyes following me cautiously. 

Once I was dry and warm in a fuzzy set of pajamas, I walked back to the living room where the wolf was watching me worriedly. 

“Are you done ignoring me?” I asked, a bit spitefully.

He lowered his head and nodded carefully. I wondered if he’d taken the time to really think about his actions, or if he was just hungry or embarrassed. 

“Okay, then let’s get you something to eat before everyone comes home.”

He c****d a confused eyebrow, and I realized he wasn’t fully conscious when he encountered the other creatures that called this place home.

I warmed some more soup and laid it next to his now empty water bowl. I filled that bowl with clean water for him and a strange image crossed my mind of a boy trying to drink and eat out of bowls on the floor. The thought made me giggle and earned me another odd look from Wolfie.

“Sorry, just a silly thought, didn’t mean anything by it,” I explained, blushing like a schoolgirl.

“I realize you don’t know a lot about me, and that probably makes it difficult for you to trust me.” He huffed in response, and I settled myself onto the floor. “As I told you before, my name is Evianna. I’m twenty-two, born from the union between a witch and a sorcerer, which means I come from a long, powerful line of magic on both sides of my family. I care for magical creatures. They find me, or I find them, hurt and confused. I’ve spent the past four years building all of this,” I gestured to the house, “and making sure those who end up here are safe from outside forces.

“I don’t adhere to a coven. I grew up helping my grandmother’s coven set up rituals, and I abided by the rules, but I never learned magic from them, never grew as I should have so I left as soon as I could.

“Let’s see, what else might you want to know?” I wondered aloud. I decided to go for the random obscure junk that most people ask when they first meet. “I love to read, eat, garden, paint, crochet, dance, sing, and probably a bunch of other things that guys tend to find boring.” He growled after that comment, but I wasn’t sure which activity he would be interested in. “Okay, sorry, I won’t make any more assumptions. Anyways, my favorite color is teal. My favorite animal is a fox. My favorite book is Tiger’s Curse, though anything by Shel Silverstein is a close second. His poetry is amazing, and I think I still have one of his collections. I love a large variety of music. Chinese food will always be my favorite food. I adore the movie The Greatest Showman, and I like to spend a lot of my time cooking.”

I couldn’t think of anything else to add at that moment, so I sat back and watched Wolfie finish his meal. He seemed to listen intently to me while eating, and once he finished, he sat back and stared at me.

“What?” I asked after a few moments.

He huffed, then whined at me, and I got the feeling that he wanted me to keep going.

“I don’t know what else to say. I guess I could tell you about my best friend.” 

He nodded, and laid down next to his empty bowl. I picked it up and took it to the sink to wash it.

“Well, her name is Melissa Parker, and she’s a super badass. We met when I was sixteen. Her dad had just moved to join the coven and since neither of us were old enough to participate in rituals, we hung out a lot. Melissa has this amazing talent for electrical magic. She can cause black outs, feed off trains and subways, cause lightning storms. Of course she can do a lot of other things, but I’ve always deeply admired her for her control of something so chaotic as lightning.”

As I spoke, I prepared dinner for the others.

“I kinda wish you were in human form so I could hear about your life,” I shyly muttered, feeling my face warm at the thought. “But, then I think about how you’d have to actually respond to my embarrassed rambling, and, frankly, I think I would just die.”

He snorted, and my cheeks burned. He was an intelligent being, capable of conversation and rational thinking, who could phase back to human at any moment. Then he could laugh and tell me I’m crazy.

“Forget it. I guess I’m just weird,” I muttered as I finished my preparations.

“I’ve gotta go give Syline her fish, and see if she needs anything.”

I ran out the door with the cold dead fish in my hands and my head hung low.

Goddess, strike me now before I embarrass myself any further, I prayed, but nothing happened.

I reached the well and pulled up the bucket, hearing a faint splash from down below. I placed the fish in the bucket and lowered it down again for Syline. The bucket yanked on the chain and I knew Syline had gotten her meal. I called down to ask if she wanted anything else and a soft, haunting melody rang up through the well.

Syline didn’t have the ability to talk like other rational, intelligent creatures did. No, her form of communication was through her song. She could plant images into people’s brains, make them see the most beautiful sunsets over gorgeous blue seas. This time she just implanted the idea of more kelp and fish.

Mermaids and Sirens were sister species, similar to each other, but not exactly the same. Mermaids, for starters, had a lot of fishy parts. I tail, fins, webbed hands, sleek features that allowed it to cut through water. They didn’t have hair and gorgeous features that most humans associated them with. They actually looked very reptilian, and pudgy. They needed a little extra fat to keep them warm in ocean depths.

Sirens, on the other hand, were gorgeous, land based, creatures. They had beautiful flowing hair, perfect facial features, incredibly slim and tall, and a strong disdain for water. Baby sirens looked vastly different from their mothers, however, since they were born with baby heads attached to bird bodies. When they grew into adulthood, they shed the feathers and became gorgeous people.

The one thing they truly had in common was the power of their voices. They each had an alluring song that drew humans to them so they could drown them and feast on their flesh.

I sighed and slid down the outside of the well. Kelp was a pain in the ass to get a hold of, but it was the only way she could bandage up her wounds. My gauze and cotton bandages would only fall off after getting soaked through and moldy. So, it looked like I was going to have to make a trip to Kalarn, the shopping district of the supernatural world.

I walked back to the house slowly greeting the rest of my companions on the way. Jewel and Manny were the first to reach the house, and Manny went to town on his steaks, seriously disturbing the more delicate folks. I let the rest in and they quickly moved to their own meals. 

I ate quietly on the couch watching as everyone finished their meals and made their ways to their little nests and resting areas. I cleaned up, saw that everyone was sound asleep, and took my place on my makeshift bed on the couch.