The boy nodded. I wasn’t sure if he understood that I was protecting my friends or not, but he had to know nowhere in the wolf village was safe.
“We’re sleeping in the trees?” the little girl on my back asked.
“Yes, it’s the safest place to sleep,” I replied. And it was. That was why the tree people lived up there. It wasn’t because they hated the ground or anything.
After what seemed like much longer than I had thought it would take, we made it to our cave. Everything was just as we had left it. Grace and Nikkan got busy making the hammock beds, and I headed out to hunt food for the children.
Hunting was much easier when you could leave the barrier. I had no idea how the wolves were going to continue their lives inside the barrier. They were out of food, and I couldn’t hunt enough for a village. But I could hunt enough for twenty-two children. I returned with a deer, and the older children all came to help as Grace prepared it to cook over the fire.
Nikkan was ready with all the beds by the time I returned, and we quickly went to work climbing the two largest trees near the cave. One by one, we tied the hammocks to the tree. To be on the safe side, we nailed the two boards Nikkan brought with him to give extra support to the middle of the hammock beds. It wasn’t the safest way to sleep, but we were out of options. The tree people were right about one thing; the trees were the only place you could go to avoid the wolves.
As the night neared and the children were all fed, Nikkan and I boosted and arranged all twenty-two children in their hanging hammock beds. As the last one was slipped into the fabric cocoon, I sat down on the branch holding the beds as near as possible to the truck of the tree. Nikkan stayed below with Grace.
Grace was losing control of her wolf every day. I could see the strain that staying human was having on her, but she didn’t want to scare the kids. As the moon rose higher in the sky, I could see that she was visibly having trouble with her human form. All of the children were asleep as I hopped down to the ground.
“Grace,” I said quietly to my friend.
I could see her nails were already elongated into claws. She growled back at me.
“Nikkan, she needs to complete the shift,” I told my friend.
Nikkan just grunted as Grace elbowed him in the gut.
I held my hands up to indicate I wanted no argument from her.
“Grace. Shift.”
She blinked her eyes. I could see the wolf in her.
“I can’t,” she gritted out. “What if I lose control?”
“Then Nikkan and I will stop you,” I replied. “We won’t let you hurt the children.”
Grace glanced up to the beds. We made sure the strongest wolf wouldn’t be able to jump up to where the children slept.
“But….” Grace gasped as her body started to change on its own.
“I’m changing with her,” Nikkan said as he began to rip off his clothing.
As was I. Without a moment passing, I went from two feet to four feet. I met Grace eye to eye as I shifted at the same time as her. Her reddish wolf growled at me. Wolf form or not, I wasn’t about to let Grace boss me around, so I leapt forward and pinned her to the ground. Nikkan gave me a growl as I stared down at Grace. I didn’t acknowledge him. I was too busy telling Grace I was in charge.
“Hold onto your wolf,” I told my friend. “And don’t fight me.”
She whinnied beneath me and turned her head, baring her neck to me. I knew she was in control and let her go. We had won this night from the curse, but I wasn’t sure how many more she had left. She was fighting it, but it wasn’t something she could continue to fight. The curse always won. The question was, could I save her before it made her into something she could never forgive herself for becoming.
3
20th March
March 20th
I woke the next morning and found my two wolf friends curled around each other. I had already told them I was leaving at first light, but now I had to pause and smile at my friends. Only moons ago, they would have claimed it was for warmth, but at least now, they were admitting the truth. While I wanted to stay behind and help keep the children safe, it was time for me to get back to Azren and maybe admit a truth myself.
Without any pause, I shifted into a large eagle. Feathers sprouted on my arms as bones broke and rearranged in the places they needed to be. There was no pain or waiting as it happened. One moment I was a man, and the next, I was a bird. I had no idea why it was easy for me when I had seen more than one wolf struggle changing. For the wolves, it took several moments and even up to many breaths during the first changes. It wasn’t like that for me, and I had no idea why.
With a powerful push from my wings and my legs, I launched myself into the air, taking flight. It took several more powerful wing strokes to get me high enough into the air to allow me to soar. By holding my wings out, I floated on the breeze and didn’t have to use a single bit of energy. It would be easy to get lost in the air. The blue sky had always called to me before I could become a bird, but now, it was endless. I could go wherever I wanted, and I’d be there in no time. This was beyond my wildest dreams. While I wanted to stay in the air for fun, I turned myself south and headed off towards the capital and my waiting mother.
To get down from the sky, I pulled my wings in closer and began my descent. While I still had my own mind and the memories inside it, I didn’t need to wonder what to do. It was like when I was an animal; I just knew what to do. I could fly without flying lessons and had a feeling if I turned into a fish, I could swim just as naturally. The power thrumming through me made me wonder where I came from more than ever.
As the city came into view, I landed on a branch just above my mother’s office. Easily, I shifted into my human form and was thankful for my magical change of clothing. I wouldn’t have to walk around Azren naked, and whoever left them for me deserved a big thank you.
I let a few people walk by before I hopped down from the tree. I didn’t need to scare anyone. They were already on high alert. I didn’t want to get shot.
No one noticed me as I was above them instead of on their level. Without wasting any time, I was walking into Red’s office. I expected to see Red there waiting for me, but I stopped in my tracks when I found just Sera. She turned around and looked up at me from her desk that now faced my mother’s desk.
My heart hammered in my chest as I wondered what I should do. The last time I saw her, I was more than a little impulsive. I didn’t regret my choice, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed now. I had thought the feelings seemed to be mutual, but that could have just been me caught in the moment. Drying my hands on my magical pants, I swiped one through my black hair. While I wasn’t flying as a human, I felt like the wind was still whipping around my body.
“I was beginning to wonder if you really were going to come or if something more happened,” she commented, standing up.
I couldn’t read her. Was she happy or sad to see me? Was she annoyed? She didn’t seem to be, but I just couldn’t be absolutely sure.
“Red already left to go to the archive building.”
I turned to leave the office, but Sera grabbed my arm before I could leave.
“Not the hall of records,” she said, not letting go of me.
I turned and found we were only standing a breath apart from each other. She bit her lip as she looked up at me. Bossy Sera, I could handle, but Sera looking at me like she was right then was something I had never expected. Sera smiled as she turned but didn’t let go of my hand.
“We have three archive buildings where we keep records beyond normal Azren records. Red wasn’t sure why your adoption wasn’t recorded, so she went to go see if the archive building had anything that could help us.”
Sera walked over to one of the trees that supported my mother’s office. It wasn’t a large space, but at the same time, it was close to the size of my home. If it had been built around a tree like many of the homes, one tree would be enough to support it, but b
eing that it was the office of the Red, the room was held up by three trees, so that the middle was completely open, and she was able to hold meeting it the room with everyone able to see her.
Sera pushed on the tree, and a door snapped open.
“What in the forest is that?” I asked as I could see into the hollowed-out tree. There was just a small space; I doubted it could fit more than one person in it. This was new.
I had spent my youth exploring my mother’s office. There wasn’t really much for me to do at times, and being that Red was always busy in her office, I often was in here with her. When she’d leave the room, I couldn’t help from looking around, trying to find things I wasn’t supposed to know. I had never seen this tree room before. Guess there was still more to discover after all.
“Only the Red can open this door,” Sera told me, explaining my thoughts. She had caught me more than once on my hunts through the Red’s office. She never tattled on me, but she always gave me her classic Sera disappointed face. “It can be used to travel to ten different locations in Elder. Sometimes the Red needs to be somewhere quickly, and horses or running just aren’t fast enough. We need to head to the archive near the border with Oz.”
Sera’s words made sense, that is, the actual words she was speaking, but what she was saying didn’t make a bit of sense. She still held my hand and tugged me into the small space inside the tree. Once we were both stuffed into the tree, we didn’t have any room to move. She turned to be able to close the door and pressed herself back into me. Her head was just below mine, and I could smell the shampoo in her hair.
“We’re pretty sure that even though you aren’t the Red, the tree will let you pass as it does us,” Sera told me as she reached up with her free hand and tugged the door all the way shut.
“Pretty sure?” I asked. That wasn’t reassuring.
Sera didn’t answer. Great, she was talking in riddles and not sure. It was beginning to sound a bit dangerous.
It was dark in the tree. I had no idea what we were doing, but I trusted Sera. I heard a click before it felt like the floor was falling out from beneath me. I grabbed ahold of Sera’s waist as we fell quickly but then stopped. She made a thumping noise, and the door pushed back open. I followed Sera out into the bright light and stopped to gape. I knew where we were, and her words made a bit more sense. We were in Red’s office on the southern edge of Elder.
I stepped out onto the dirt floor and looked around. My eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. We really had traveled several days’ worth of running in moments.
“Red said to meet her at the archive,” Sera explained, not letting me have time to absorb what had just happened.
Pushing open the office door, Sera marched out of Red’s office and into the morning sunlight of the fields of Azren. I knew there were caves nearby, but we never spent too much time here when I was growing up. The farmers needed little from Red and were happy with their simple way of life never being interrupted. Red was needed up in the forest more than anything to help with the wolves, so I didn’t see much of the farm fields of Elder.
Sera waved to me as she took off running. While it seemed a race was in order, as it was every time we ran someplace, I had to keep pace with Sera, and I wasn’t sure where I was going. Sera took the pace as fast as normal, but it wasn’t a problem for me. She easily cut through fields and went off the pathway more than once. It seemed she was better versed in this area of the kingdom than I was.
Not too much later, we entered a small cluster of trees. Sera slowed down finally, though I could see nothing that would make her do that. As she rounded a hill, I caught the slight sense that there was more to this cluster of trees than the plants. Sure enough, Sera made an exact turn onto what looked like it could be stone steps, very miss-matched steps, but steps none-the-less. We climbed down, and I followed behind her. The pathway narrowed, and we slid between some huge stones. Anyone passing by wouldn’t have seen the opening, but I did now that we were going through it.
The path led us deeper into the hill, and the air chilled as the walls were no longer interspersed with trees but more and more solid rock. We hadn’t gone down more than a few saplings, but it was enough that we were underground a bit, at least, under the forest that was above us.
Sera didn’t say anything as we walked, and I didn’t either. I wasn’t too worried, though. It was strange to see her after my impromptu kiss at the wolf village, but it wasn’t now. Some things with Sera were just natural, and this was one of those times. Besides, I wasn’t sure what exactly to say to her. Deep down, I did have feelings for her, but I wasn’t sure how deep her feelings were. But for the moment, it didn’t matter.
“We have the archives here to keep them dry,” Sera finally spoke as we reached far enough into the cave that I figured we’d need light soon, but as she walked around the corner, I noticed that we wouldn’t.
Above us, the cave was open to the sky. I could see the blue, but all around, under the ledges, I could see containers. Red wasn’t too far away as she sat on a boulder with a container at her feet. She held some paper in her hands.
“This is the papers from The Vale for the winter you came here,” Red indicated the papers at her feet. “So far, I’ve been through The Echo and found nothing. I also made it through The Floris Observer and found nothing either. Sera, can you look through the Arcadia Chronicle and, Castiel, The Arboria Weekly, while I finish The Forge Hart?”
I sat down and took the box she had stacked at her feet that she had motioned for me to take. She had boxes upon boxes of the newspapers from different kingdoms. From the look of the very filled cave, it was likely she had papers from all the kingdoms. I never thought much of Elder not having a paper, but I didn’t realize that they kept the ones from everywhere else.
“It helps us to keep track of what is going on in other places, but we only keep notes and the papers from what might affect us back in Azren. The rest of the papers are stored here,” Red explained to me as I gawked at the room.
“And before you ask,” Sera continued for Red. “We purposely don’t have a paper because we prefer to have no other places keeping up with us.”
That made perfect strategic sense. I nodded to Red and Sera before I opened up the first paper and began to scan through it, not exactly sure what I was looking for.
“You had to come from somewhere,” Sera explained as she took her box and began to do the same. “Red came early to sort through and find all the editions from around the time you were born.”
I glanced around the cave. There were boxes stacked all over. I had no idea how they knew where to find what, but I trusted that both Red and Sera knew.
“What exactly am I looking for?” I asked as I finished the last of the paper in my hand without a clue.
Red smiled at me. “These papers might give us an idea. We need to see if there is any mention of male babies in other kingdoms whether they are adopted like you or any children that went missing.”
I nodded. If I did come from somewhere and made the newspaper, that wasn’t going to be a good finding. How would it go over diplomatically if Red was accused of kidnapping and raising a child from another kingdom? That easily could lead to war. I know she’d never do that. I was certain she told us the truth of how I came to her, but that didn’t mean anyone else would believe her.
The paper in my hand was labeled, and I had to think hard. We didn’t use the same system to name our days, and I tried to remember what day I was looking at. As I looked at the pictures in the newspaper, I could see everything was summer. I didn’t need to look that far ahead. I needed something in the wintertime. Quickly I paged through the front pages until I found winter papers and began to skim through them.
We all three sat in silence as we read. Page after page were things I didn’t care about, nor did they matter. I really didn’t care at all about people who would work to line walls with gold. How silly did you have to be to use your energy for that? Gold didn’t keep the col
d out. You needed solid, sturdy walls, not gold-lined. While I could relate to their mountain-dwellings that seemed quite like the tree villages, I couldn’t relate to the extravagance. I kept reading but was sure I wasn’t going to find any clues. The world outside of Elder just never seemed practical to me. And this place wasn’t an exception.
“Sera told me about your magic,” Red finally commented as she closed her box without finding anything to mention to us. She picked up another box and opened it. “I always knew that you were destined for great things.” Red gave me a smile, but it wasn’t a happy smile.
“I wouldn’t say that,” I replied with a shrug. “This magic in me doesn’t help my friends. It doesn’t help the wolves. I’d rather have the ability to cure people than shift into animals.” Though now that I knew how it felt, if given a choice, I would miss my ability, but I’d still choose to help my friends.
Red shrugged and gave me her all-knowing look. While I didn’t stop the curse or save my friends with being able to change into any animal, I did kind of help them the past couple of nights. I had kept Grace safe and got the children to safety.
“There are kids behind the wall,” I blurted out. Red had to know the truth. She was sentencing the wolf children to die.
“I know. Micco was setting up a safe place for them.” Red was back to glancing over her paper. She already knew. How did she not tell anyone?
“But he didn’t,” I added. “I helped Nikkan and Grace round up all we could find, and we put them in the trees.”
Red looked up at me, alarmed.
“What do you mean, Micco didn’t help?” Her voice wavered. I knew Micco was a close friend of hers, but I wasn’t sure if she was more alarmed that he didn’t help and something could be wrong or that there were children in danger.
Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3) Page 26
