Astraea's Journey

The Connection

As the oldest, it was my duty to start the prayer to the woman in white, the lady who created our connection. "O lady, please help us find our connection on this full moon evening, aide us hear the call you have created. In your light we stand and in your name we pray." by the third word all of our voiced joined together to create a symphonic plea. As we finished our plea the wolves before us howled in sync and all 16 of us walked toward the creek in sync. Once we reached the creek all the humans knelt to reach down and drink from the creek, on the other side the wolves lapped up the creek water.  once all 16 had taken a sip of the creek the humans stood again and as one we all went to stand on the rock rise in the middle of the creek. The wolves paced and we walked back and forth, slowly people stopped in front of a wolf and started squinting then suddenly a large smile would come across their face and they would hug their wolf until a pitch black wolf, barely seen in the moonlight clearing and myself were all that was left.  I looked at the wolf and slowly walked toward it hopeful that a connection would appear; the wolf walked towards my slowly as well, almost as if it was hunting me.  We stood together in the center of the rock. I concentrated as hard as I could, this was the first time there were wolves enough for everyone in the group, I was hopeful that meant that I would get a happy ending this time.  ¨Can you hear me?" I whispered in my head. I waited moments for a response my shoulders dropped from the lack of connection.  My chin quivered, any hope I had lost when suddenly a strange tingling sensation started filling my fingers and toes moving up my arms and legs filling my torso and my head suddenly the only thing I could think of way just pure joy suddenly a deep voice filled my thoughts "Hello, you must be mine, go ahead and hug me if you must." I smiled at the resigned sounding voice filling my head I opened my eyes and realized I was looking at myself "....am I.....am I looking at myself?" I asked amazed but hesitant. "Yes, you gain my eyes, and I gain your language remember?"  I blinked and my vision switched back to my own.  I sighed in relief and kneeled down before the giant black wolf, my connection. "I do remember, my father has taught me as well as is allowed. My name is Astraea, what are you called?" I asked the large canine. " Asha, that is the spoken equivalent of my name." I heard back in a deep voice "Beautiful, I have one more question, in all of the stories I was to understand, that I would be matched with a female wolf, and forgive me if I am mistaken, but you are not female...." I stated hesitantly.  " Well noticed" The deep voice reverberated through me, dread pooling in my stomach.  " I am not a female, I do not know how this came to pass..... but the pack will not accept this unusual paring....I do not know where we go from here." I hung my head fear filling me I was so confused as to what was happening but I shook off my fear and lifted my eyes to Asha's.  "Okay, then we go off into the woods and discover what went wrong. no one expects us back until tomorrow, normally the first evening is spent with our wolves, my family will not notice me slipping into my room to change.  We can go off on our own and see if we can't figure out what is going on. I don't want either of us being rejected before we get a chance to really discover this connection." I stated firmly, since Asha was male, I was a bit worried about whether or not he would follow my direction, especially with this being an anomaly. Asha's large head bowed in consent to my idea.  I exhaled in relief and nodded back to him.  "We will wait until the others fall asleep, they are so focused on their own connection they won't be able to speak of what has happened here.  If you walk back the way you came, and I do the same, we can meet on the edge of the clearing by the east side of the creek.  Then we can walk into the woods and follow the creek out of the territory." Asha nodded his head again, he pushed his nose against my cheek and his deep voice filled my head as he stated "Be swift, as different as this is, the moon goddess knows what she is doing and this connection is true and good, I am glad to have found you." A tear rolled down my cheek and I nodded leaning against his strong shoulder one hand floated down his soft fur and disappeared into the black covering as I held him for a moment before gathering my courage and turning away from him.  I slowly stepped to the proper side of the creek and quickly walked back towards my home.  The long path that I walked to arrive seemed to fly past me as I ran to the doors of my familiar home.  I couldn't think about what I was giving up and leaving, all I could do was think about my future. I had to know why the white lady called me to such a future, and the only way to know was to go with Asha.  Once I saw the light of my front porch I paused looking in all directions to ensure that no one was patrolling before sprinting to the side of the house and scaling the vines that lead up to my bedroom window.  Once in my room I quickly changed into a more suitable outfit for roaming the woods and packed as efficiently as I could two changes of clothing and as many pairs of socks and underwear as I could find.  I then rolled up my favorite blanket along with my sleeping bag and a small one person tent.  I attached everything to my backpack, found my water bottle and its body strap then sank into my hiking boots and turned back to the window then froze... I had to give an explanation for my disappearance.... I could leave my family to worry....I turned to my desk and quickly wrote an apology letter telling my family that I did not find a wolf, and parting in person would hurt to much. I was leaving for the unlinked lands and that I loved them with everything I had in me.  I signed my name and then turned to the window.  Checking once more for the patrol once I verified that I was in the clear I scaled back down the vines and ran to the woods.  I searched for that joyful feeling in my brain, once I found it I called out " Are you in place? I am on my way, before I get moving show me where you are." I heard a soft chuff in my mind, blinked and saw the surroundings in front of Asha.  I blinked again and started running towards his location sending a grateful feeling towards him with the link. I met him on his side of the creek and placed my hand on his side.  Standing next to him, I realized just how large a wolf he truly was... I could ride him and he would barely feel it.  I then realized how fatigued I was and looked to Asha to start us down the right paths as his vision was much clearer than my own.  Asha chuffed again, then his deep voice filled my head "Get on, you are far to tired, we will need to find a way to make you nocturnal, but not this evening, for now we run as far and as fast as possible. We must solve this ourselves." I nodded my agreement and pulled myself onto his back.  I leaned against his soft fur and my heads held on firmly as he lept into a run the trees passing by at an alarming rate.I closed my eyes and felt the air rushing through my hair, still in a twist, and breathed a sigh and fell into the darkness of sleep as Asha ran on towards the undiscovered future we had chosen.