Skin- walker

Knowing the truth

Alexis

Dereck and my mother helped me to stand and I said:” I need all shifters present within five minutes. I have interesting news.”

Within a few minutes all shifters were back in the hall and watched me with concern.

“I had a vision about Andrew and Luise and I want to let all of you know what I saw. First of all I found out that Andrew was able to see me in the vision and even talk to me. I think it has something to do with the fact that we both have the same gift and are the same blood of course. Furthermore, you were right Dereck, Luise promised my father not to harm my mom and she used a blood oath to do it. Now I am pretty sure that you all want to know why on earth he did it. Well I asked him the same thing and he said that there was a letter hidden in the biggest pine tree near my house. This letter should be able to answer all our questions. I only know one thing for certain. Luise had a secret and he said that nobody knew it, not even you and that he will keep it a secret if Luise agrees to the oath. So she did and he gave his life and took the secret with him. Luise seemed terrified of the shifter community, which made me think that you were able to ruin her plans if you would have known about them.”

The crowd was silent and thought about the news before some of them started to propose to assemble a team to get the letter.

I agreed and took Dereck, Connor and Nathan with me on the mission. How hard could it be to get a letter out of a tree? I asked myself.

I knew exactly which tree my dad meant and took the lead. We decided to stay in humanoid forms for now and I learnt a lot about Nathan. He was a nice guy even though he was always grumpy. He seemed to care about me, and I caught him looking at me with warmth in his eyes. As we talked, he confessed that I looked a lot like his daughter and that he wanted to protect me. Loosing another life wasn’t an option he said.

As we reached the huge tree we decided to start from the bottom and move our way up in order to find the letter.

I stuck my hand into every hole the tree had, but the only thing I found were some leftover nut shells that some chipmunks must have left here. No letter. The others had no luck either, so I started to climb up the tree and searched centimetre for centimetre. “Don’t move up too fast or you might lose your footing.” Dereck said.

“Dereck you don’t know me at all. I am better at climbing trees than a spider monkey. So no worries” I grinned.

“Yes right. You are a STRONG independent woman” Connor teased me.

“Shut up Connor I am strong okay?”

He just laughed and continued to observe the woods to make sure that no uninvited guests distracted us.

Having both of them with me made it painfully clear. I liked them both. With Connor near me there was laughter and lust and with Dereck it felt warm and uncomplicated, romantic even. Lost in my thoughts I nearly forgot to climb up even higher after not finding anything.

There it was. A plastic envelope. I finally found it. Raising my hand in the air with the envelope in my hand “Guys I found it.”

An idea crossed my mind. “Dereck here catch the envelope.” I threw it down and decided to try out my shifting abilities in a life-threatening situation. I Jumped and changed mid air with my clothes still on. I had to be quick in order to avoid hitting the ground with my human body, which would definitely lead to fractures and other injuries.

The boys gasped, Connor and Nathan changed immediately to catch my fall if necessary and Dereck ran to catch the letter.

I landed on my four paws and was welcomed by a growling Nathan “You are really reckless. Don’t frighten me like this ever again. My old heart wouldn’t be able to take it.”

 Connor on the other hand was staring at me. “What’s wrong Connor?”

“Ahm nothing. I am proud you made it.” He turned around and signalled us to follow.

Back at the sanctuary we decided to involve only the most important members of the pack. Therefore a decision was needed.

“Have you decided on who will take the two remaining seats in the council?”

“Yes, we did.” A young woman said.

“We want Nathan and Maya to join the council.”

Nathan looked stunned. “Me, why me?”

“Because after Andrews death you took on the role as a father to most of us. We respect and care for you.”

Nathans eyes started to water, and he wasn’t able to form words. One by one the pack members came to him and wrapped their arms around him.

Maya on the other hands was never speechless “Well thank you all for your trust. I will do my best to fulfil this honourable task.”

“Good now that everything is settled, I want my council members to come with me. We have important information to discuss.”

Maya, Dereck, Nathan and my mom followed me to the main office and took a seat around the table.

“As most of you already know. We found the letter and I want to read it together with you and discuss our options. If the information in this letter is to sensitive for our pack to know, you all will have to remain silent until we find a way to defuse the sensitivity.”

They all nodded, and I took out the letter and opened the envelope

The paper was stiff and yellow, but the plastic envelope saved it from withering and the black ink was still readable, only a little faded.