CHAPTER 8- WOLVES OF THE WEST
1188 Words
ALAENA’s POV
The number of times my heart had been in my mouth these last few days I had lost count.
A call from one of his soldiers is what saved me from being found out.
“Why did you hide from him?”
“Are you scared?”
I asked Mahina as we came out of our hiding place, sure that he was out of the vicinity.
“The time was not right my child”
She replied to me.
“Come we must leave now”
She said as held my hand.
We found ourselves in familiar-looking territory.
“Is this my homeland? The Westlands?”
I asked, trying to recognize the familiar terrain.
“Yes my child you are correct The Westlands”
It looked well cultivated.
“My people were always simple farm folk?”
I asked, looking at her.
“Yes, My child they migrated after the issues with The Children of the Snow”
I looked around and saw more Wolves like me, Jet black hair and eye colors with different shades of green.
“Look, Blakhart wolves!”
I said, pointing to them excitedly.
“Amber-hart wolves”
What did she just call them?
“Amber-hart wolves of the Amber pack my child that was their real, original name well that was before…”
“…the children of the snow”
I said, completing her sentence.
“Yes my child”
She said with a disappointing tone.
“Your pack weren’t always the Blakharts, noo that was after the children of the snow tricked them and tainted your powers”
“Wow”
I exclaimed
“So what were our original powers like?”
I asked genuinely curious to learn about how my people were
“The Amber-hart pack had been bestowed the spirit of the Amber Moon”
“The Amber moon spirit?”
I was even more confused.
I had read about the Amber Moon spirit in the old texts.
It said it was a part of the Moon’s spirit that was connected to the Sun.
The part of the Moon's spirit responsible for nurturing plants and seeing food was plenty.
Alongside that, it also could evoke the different elements of Mother Nature but was also a calm spirit, with all its power.
If that was the Spirit bestowed on my people that means we were a powerful pac-
“Yes my child you were a powerful pack”
She said reading my thoughts once more.
“The Amber-Harts and the Silvermanes were the strongest packs, they had the opposite sides of the moon bestowed upon them”
She said taking me to a familiar location, it was my new hiking trail, the place I had first seen the Croonies.
“When the conflict had ended and the snow children banished, the Amber pack being peaceful decided to move West of the lands and cultivate it”
She said pointing towards the area where we were standing.
My people had moved up here to get away from the politics that began to arise.
They wanted to farm and live a quiet life, but that came with consequences.
According to Mahina, they had strayed far away from the moon source and so their powers began to slowly decline.
Generation after generation they moved farther west and more of them were born without the Amber moon mark and Hazel green eyes.
“Here, the remains of the last Amber-hart wolf with powers”
Mahina said pointing somewhere near where I saw the Croonies.
“Were they looking for the bones?”
I instinctively asked, trying to piece it together.
“Yes my child, they know whatever remains of the bone is key to the prophecy”
What prophecy I thought to myself
“The Moon Child”
She said smiling and looking at me
“But I haven’t even been able to manifest my powers, how am I a child of Prophecy?”
I asked
“Don’t worry my child you’ll get your answers”
She said
“Let’s finish up here”
She continued.
She tells me how generations later the children of the snow deceive Alpha Lance the first Blakhart and give him powers that they had perverted.
“They knew those People were not going to handle that sort of dark power and they thought them still”
She said with pain in her voice.
“Alpha Lance may have been desperate to bring his son back”
I said.
“And they used his desperation for their good”
She said, letting out a sigh.
They wanted to create more havoc, and they created something much worse.
“The Croonies”
I said
“Yes, the unholy union of a wolf of Amber origins and dark magic. The dark magic messes with them and they go feral”
She said,
“And what of the ones that are self-conscious?”
I asked her.
“They’re given that ability by the Croonie king himself”
So Sergei made a deal with him, I thought to myself and Roy.
I had almost forgotten about him. Where did he fit into all of this?
Mahina told me how the new packs were formed in the Westlands after the incident.
Alpha Lance was the first Blakhart
Then there was the Monti Pack, this was Sergei’s pack.
They became the Military force of our Land. When they learned the dark magic they became Bloodhowl wolves, extremely dangerous.
Their fighting becomes enhanced and they can sniff out a rival wolf's scent from ranges.
They were the reason my people were able to hold their own in the long war against the Eastland packs
Sergei hadn’t been able to manifest his Bloodhowl, but they still called him that like a nickname.
I wonder if that ever bore heavy on his mind too leading him to do this.
The last pack Mahina told me about was the border tribe.
They were the smallest in number because they lived closest to the Eastlands and were the first victims of attacks.
Perhaps they eventually felt bitter and betrayed us.
“Alaena my child”
Mahina called me by my name for the first time.
I looked up
“It is time for another phase of your journey for answers”
Another phase?
I asked confused
“You must embark on that journey with him”
She said opening up another portal.
Roy?
She was showing me, Roy?
I had to keep traveling with him?
“Only he can lead to you the center of the swamp where you’ll be healed totally of the wound”
She said pointing to my arm.
I had forgotten about it, I thought she healed me completely.
“No I did not heal you completely, I have been weakened and can’t function far away from the center”
She said, looking at me.
“The poison courses through your veins, you have 12 hours before you turn feral and a Croonie”
I begin to notice foam gathering at the corner of my mouth.
Great, now I’m turning into one of them.
- Writer
