My stomach rumbled, demanding attention.
I was so hungry.
What was I going to do?
I closed my eyes. This actually felt nice. Now that I wasn’t moving, now that I rested on something soft, this wasn’t so bad. If I wasn’t careful, I might fall asleep here.
But I wouldn’t.
I snapped my eyes open.
I needed to keep moving.
My eyes slowly descended again.
I would. Keep moving. I just, I wanted just a minute. That was it. Just one minute of rest, and then I’d be up and moving in no time.
Kent
As Alpha of the Earth Pack, Kent wasn’t required to patrol the academy territory. However, whenever it was his pack’s turn to provide security, he always participated. The other Alphas gave him shit for it, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t about paying his dues, it was about commanding respect. If he was going to assign a duty to his pack, he wanted them to know he would perform the same duty. This was supposed to create respect and trust. Most of the time, the two members would have preferred if Kent wasn’t around so they could slack off.
He sighed.
It was hard to find worthy recruits nowadays.
He stepped on fallen branches, his spathi hanging from his hip. He had just cleaned and sharpened the blade in order to prepare for his nightly rounds before retiring for the evening. His spathi was his means of survival; he took great care with preserving it to an honorable state the way others took care in their every day appearance.
There were always threats to be dealt with, and his spathi was enough to inflict damage and even death to prevent the walls of the academy from being tainted with the Vrykolakas overwhelmed the nation of Cordova.
His footsteps were silent as he made his way across the grass. A gentle breeze picked up his white, shoulder-length hair, but it didn’t dare linger. Kent had a reputation not even nature questioned.
He continued to move, keeping his eyes in front of him. His hand always hovered just above the hilt of his spathi – just in case. The Vrykolakas were stealth and had speed the human eye couldn’t follow, even if it was a human with mixed blood.
Something to his left caught his peripheral. Instead of immediately turning towards it, he focused in front of him, tilting his head to the side in hopes to pick up whatever he needed to hear to gauge just what was behind him. Slowly, he crossed one foot over then used the other to spread wide, moving with precise movements as if he were doing a dance. Then, with speed he had practiced and perfected for over a century, he whirled around, only to find a monarch butterfly.
Kent frowned. Those shouldn’t be present, even this late into fall. They should have migrated south, where it was warmer and snow didn’t touch the earth.
Strange.
The butterfly continued to flap its wings as though it didn’t notice Kent staring at it, before moving forward.
Kent waited. This was most certainly a trap. That was the only explanation.
But he knew the Vrykolakas. They didn’t possess magic, just enhanced, animalistic abilities. Considering it was still daylight, there shouldn’t be any cause to worry, either. The monsters only came out at night, and Kent was almost positive they avoided the forest. It was too cold for the Vrykolakas. Whoever was in control of this butterfly possessed magic, and the only people in possession of magic were the Light Bringers. He didn’t know much about magic and tended to stay away from it. His ignorance put him on his guard and caused him not to trust it or those that wielded it. The Vrykolakas he understood. He knew what they wanted; he knew how to kill them. They were simple.
The Light Bringers were a completely different story.
And yet, as he watched the butterfly move, something propelled him forward. He would have marked it as instinct, but he wasn’t sure that was completely true. There was something more to this, like a golden string wrapped around his middle, forcing him to move.
The butterfly led him away from the academy and deeper into the forest. Every step he took, he was prepared to attack. Just in case this was the wrong move and he needed to fight. Luckily, fighting was what he was best at. It was what he loved to do, even if he didn’t like to go out looking for a fight.
He weaved between the trees, light footed with his steps. He dodged low-hanging branches and stepped over gnarled trees roots. Buzzing tickled his ear but he couldn’t be bothered with the bees right now.
Another strange occurrence.
Why were the bugs still alive?
Were they part of whatever the butterfly was leading him to?
The further he moved, the closer he got to the stream. It ran all the way through the middle of the forest and ended in the lake just beyond the academy. The running water, slow and calm, was enough to indicate where he was and where he was going.
But why would a butterfly lead him to the water?
It didn’t make any sense. Kent was the first person to admit that he didn’t know much about a lot of things, but even he had the ability to follow a thread of logic. Butterflies should have migrated. Besides the heather and the dandelions, there was no other flower still left alive once the rigid winter took hold. As it was, he hadn’t seen either flower even during his most recent patrol, which made him wonder how this butterfly could have survived.
And then he emerged from the thicket of trees and wound up at the bank of the stream only to find her.
Kent immediately stopped. There, lying near the bank of the stream, was a girl. Long blonde hair was muddied and tangled. Cuts scattered across her face like the soft freckles on her cheeks and over her nose. Her clothes were torn, but she didn’t appear too dirty. She couldn’t have traversed through the forest for very long.
Was she asleep?
His eyes focused on her torso. It was only when he happened to notice the gentle rise and fall of her chest was he satisfied she was still alive.
He needed to check for any injuries. So far, he couldn’t find blood save for a few cuts that had already clotted over. He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder in hopes to shift her to the side so he could get a look at her back.
Her eyes snapped open and she reacted. Her fingers wrapped around his wrist and she managed to throw him off of her, using the momentum she had. She rolled up so she straddled his hips. Her hands fumbled at her waist, looking, searching for something –
“Fuck.” She squeezed her eyes closed before opening them again.
Kent made no move to get her off of him. He was surprised by her attack, but allowed it to unfold. It was the only way he might be able to understand what was going on.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The girl swallowed. “I’m looking for Cormac Grey,” she said. “Can you help me find him?”
For the first time since he could remember, someone had shocked him not once but twice in the span of minutes. What did this pitiful girl want with Master Grey?
Adrya
I shouldn’t be here.
None of the wolves that belong to Bloodmoon Academy should, but me especially.
The daughter to the Alpha of the Fire pack.
The sole heir to this legacy I found myself drowning in whenever I thought about it.
Sometimes, I found myself questioning my birth at all. Why was I here? Why was I chosen to be born to my parents? Why was my birth so wretched that my mother died? How had I sinned in a past life to have been born a female?