A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3)

by Michael Lampman

  He was about to continue, but a resounding bang suddenly rocked his skull and a bright light flashed over his mind. It sounded like an echo had just launched through time and darkness. It startled him to his very core. He knew what it was. He knew what it meant. When he heard her voice, he melted from its overpowering heat.

  “Rana?” He tried to blink but couldn’t do it. He could just stand there and try to keep himself from falling to his knees. It felt that powerful. She always did.

  Sharlia heard the name and instantly froze. She also had fear race through her chest and erupt down her spine. It told her only one thing, and she spoke it to him next. “Do not tell her about this place.” She had to stress this. They, the people here, didn’t have the choice. “Devish must not know about it—about them. If he found out, it could be the death of them all.”

  He looked at her, and already knew that he couldn’t help her. With his sister in his mind, he was helpless in hiding anything from her. He, like Sharlia’s friends, didn’t have the choice.

  She saw this on his face. He gave her a look that brought her fear to explode deeper through her unending heart. Devish already knew now. It was over. It was done.

  Hello Rochie, how have you been?

  His head went from a booming pain to calm all at once. With it, he breathed hard and deep.

  Rana?

  I am here brother. I am here.

  Without the pain, without the boom, he saw something else. She felt pain. She felt longing. He felt her feeling afraid.

  What is wrong Rana?

  I…He could hear the hesitation in her voice.

  With everything that happened between them, with everything they did to each other, he understood this. But she wouldn’t have contacted him if she didn’t want to. Whatever was wrong, whatever had happened, he was here for her. It was time she knew this too.

  You can tell me anything Rana. I am always here for you. I will do anything for you if I can.

  I am afraid. On the other side of the sea, far away from him, she sat down on the side of her bed. Tears strewn down the sides of her face and wetted her chin. She needed him now more than ever—at least in a very long time.

  Any other thoughts about her vanished just as fast. It was like they were never there in the first place. He was her brother, no matter what.

  What is it? What has happened? He grew angry too. The brother’s instinct to defend her, to protect her, was strong again as it ever was.

  Sharlia left the room. She had to get help. The anger, the fear, the dread, it was all there. She had to get help and to warn them that something was wrong. Unlike her brother, she didn’t trust Rana. She had seen too much. She ran from the room, headed over across the courtyard and headed straight to Kenar’s room.

  Rochie didn’t even see her leave. He concentrated on Rana’s voice.

  Devish is used Kalima. So have I.

  He heard her voice crack with the saying of his name. Right then, he realized that she loved him. Again, he didn’t know what to think about that, but right now, right here, he didn’t care. She did and that was that.

  How is he using him? It also felt like the best time to find out what was really happening with the Walkers. It also meant helping her. He could do both. He also felt something else too. She came to him. She came to him for help. Just the thought of her doing this brought strong tears to his eyes. He couldn’t help himself. He cried. She had changed. She has come back to the light.

  Devish is using his blood. He using it and giving it to the other Walkers. With it, they can survive everything and heal like never before from their wounds. He has made them immune to silver and gold.

  He instantly felt relieved. It completely made sense. He knew that the black wolf could do all of that, and now hearing how the others are using it, he suddenly felt relaxed. Knowing it, he turned back to the need to help her.

  How have you used him? He now waited. He now felt his face dry.

  Hers did no such thing. I have helped Devish hide his daughter’s fate from him. I have blocked her from him seeing that she lives.

  Again, he felt somewhat relieved with hearing this. It too made sense, even though he had already known this. Only she could do that to the black wolf and to the child. Devish didn’t possess that kind of power. It confirmed everything he already knew.

  But it also told him something else. You fear what he will think of you if he learns the truth.

  He could almost hear her cry as she answered him. I am going to tell him the truth. I am going to let him go if I must.

  He understood everything now. At least he thought he did. You are afraid that he will leave you if you tell him everything.

  Across the great divide, she strongly shook her head. Devish has threatened to destroy him if I tell him the truth. I cannot let him do that.

  He didn’t believe that even Devish could do such a thing. The black wolf is something that none of us understands Rana. I strongly doubt he could do any harm to him. The black wolf is stronger than he is.

  Now she knew why she needed to hear him—to hear his voice and his wisdom. God, she missed him. She may have not forgiven him yet for everything he did, but she was close to it. She was so close to loving him again as she did before.

  I am not sure what to do. She longed for him to point her in the correct direction, and now that he was, she felt herself calm. She felt the tears stop.

  He felt this too. You must tell him the truth. You must confide in him why you did what you did. She is alive Rana. I have found her. You can help him find her too.

  She heard this and it made her instantly gasp. She also felt a sense of total relief flow through her soul. If he can see her, if he can see that she lives, he will turn against Devish. He will see what he did to him. She was thinking aloud, or—actually—aloud inside her head to him.

  He agreed with her entirely. He will and must. Devish has lost this war. He has already been defeated; it is just the matter of time as to how and when.

  She didn’t know what he was telling her, but she didn’t care. Just that he sounded like he was going to help her was all that she needed. Nothing else mattered.

  I will tell Kalima the truth. I will show him to her. It sounded right. He may understand her, and forgive her, if she helped him to find the path to his daughter. She only hoped he would.

  Be careful Rana. Devish cannot be trusted. He will stop you if he can.

  I will.

  As quickly as she came into him, she was gone again.

  He felt the emptiness return. He felt complete again too.

  I have to tell Kenar everything.

  He turned. He moved to the door and went outside quickly. He didn’t have a moment to lose.

  10

  Michael watched Devish leave the room. He watched him stomp down the hallway and disappear into his own bedchamber, and when he was gone, he headed to her door. He was about to knock, but he heard her talking. It came from inside her own mind.

  When Devish was with her, he heard everything. He heard them threaten each other. He heard her freeze his body with her thoughts. With them fighting like that, her guard went down, and with it, he could hear her thoughts. He heard everything.

  She spoke to her brother Rochie.

  He heard everything about the black wolf too.

  So he is using his blood to strengthen all of the Walkers. Of course he is. It made total sense with everything he already knew and expected. He then heard what she and Rochie said about themselves.

  He heard what they planned to do, and it made him calm down instantly. He now completely knew what he had to do.

  Devish has deceived the black wolf in to thinking that his daughter is dead. That is what Devish was hiding from him. Of course, he will be very angry about what Devish did to him. He now felt giddy too. It seemed he was right after all. Kalima was the key to his challenge of Devish. Now if he could get the black wolf on his side and turn against him, he would have the power he needed to make the c
hange. They could team up and defeat him. It all seemed too good to be true.

  It is time that I go to the black wolf and inform him of what happened. He of course didn’t care about Rana, or what he might think about her part in what happened. All he wanted was the power. He wanted the council. He wanted to set things right again.

  I am going to find him, and tell him the truth.

  He turned from the door.

  He headed back down the hallway, and headed outside. He had to find Kalima before Rana did. He would then set the world right again.

  11

  Now, I have to stare into the flames. Kenar watched the fire burning in the fireplace at the back of his room. The Seer had one of the humans start it for him. According to Sima, all he had to do was watch the fire. He had to open his mind and let his powers fly out. He would then have it transport him to the flames. At least, this was what she said. He still wasn’t sure if it would work or not.

  He knelt down to his knees. He sat down on his feet. He faced the fire, feeling its overreaching heat caress his face. He then closed his eyes. He reached inside his mind and found the spark of his powers at the back of his head. He grabbed onto them and pulled them forward.

  He saw the endless void. He saw the blackness of space and time.

  He concentrated on the fire, as he opened his eyes.

  The flames were there. The fire was burning. He saw them and marveled at the sight.

  “I can see them.” He felt confused, but at the same time, he wasn’t. It just marveled him with how clear they were.

  “Of course you can my friend.” A woman’s voice came out from the orange glow of the flames. A face then appeared as a woman stepped out from the burning embers.

  He saw her and instantly recognized her face. “Sima?”

  She looked older than the young woman he saw outside in the courtyard by the bench. She looked maybe thirty, maybe older than that. Her voice was the same voice he heard inside his head.

  “Yes Kenar, I am here.” She moved towards him and stopped right in front of him in between the fire and him.

  She looked strong. She looked peaceful. She looked as powerful as the sun.

  “Is this the place?” He looked from her and saw the trees. He saw the darkness around them. He saw the glowing embers of the flames. He had never truly seen fire before, and didn’t know how to feel about it. Just the fact that he did was all that he cared about. They were more beautiful than he ever thought they were.

  “This is the place where you go to wait between life and death. This is the place where you will find the answers to every question. This is the place of the endless power of everything that has ever lived.”

  He looked back to her. A tear swelled up in his left eye. “Why are you here? Did you come with me?” He couldn’t believe this was real. He couldn’t believe where he really stood. It was all too much to take in at once.

  She smiled with this. She couldn’t help herself. “I am here because I have died. I am here because I have lived. I am here like you are here too.” She turned to her left towards the opposite side of the large circular fire, and he saw another man standing there.

  He looked at him, and didn’t know what to think.

  This man had long graying hair that spread out over his shoulders and hung down some over them. He had a reddish colored skin, almost like he had spent a lifetime living in the sun. His face bore the signs of heavy age, with wrinkles spread out over his brow and cheeks. He wore a red and black different style of shirt that he had never seen before. He did see something very familiar about his round face. He looked more than just familiar too. He looked real. He almost recognized him, but he shouldn’t. He had never seen him before now.

  The man looked light. “Hello Kenar. My name is Kenny Stroud.”

  Kenar stared him down. “I know you, do I not?” He tried hard to keep breathing. He tried hard to focus his mind and his thoughts. What the man said next, well he almost lost his ability to do both.

  “Yes you do my friend. I am you. I am the man you will become one day, long from now.”

  He almost passed out from this. He didn’t, but he almost did.

  “How is that possible?” he just couldn’t fathom this. How could he?

  Sima laughed. “He is you in another body, from another time Kenar. He is the one you will become and live as in that time.”

  “But…but…how is…he here?” Breathe, just breathe, and everything will be all right. He gasped instead.

  “I am you in another time, Kenar. I am you from another place. This is all you need to know.”

  He caught his mind. “How is it possible to exist as two separate people?” He hoped this question had an answer. This was all starting to look more and more like a dream. It just couldn’t be real.

  “Time has no place here, my friend. It does not exist, so all of you will be here too. That is the meaning of this place. It is the place to find others like you. It is the place to find who you really are.” She moved back towards him.

  He understood some of this, but there was more. He had so much more to ask her—both of them, but before he could a sound boom out from the trees behind him. He turned to it.

  A howl banged the world.

  “What is that?”

  “That is Kalima, my father.”

  He turned back to her. “He is here too?”

  Again she laughed. Again, it was quick. “He has been here yes, and he will be again. We have all come here at one time in the past. It is he from the future. All of us—human, Wanderer, and yes—even Walkers have come here to wait, to pass on, to live again.” Her blue eyes sparkled like gems.

  He never noticed the color of her eyes before so he didn’t think twice about it. He just felt amazed with how they looked against the flames. He had never seen anything like them before now.

  “Walkers can come here too? I thought they did not possess a soul, and without one, they would not be able to exist here as we do. I thought humans went on to the great unknown beyond here.” He obviously knew nothing. He suddenly felt so small. The fire looked twice its size in front of him. Right then, he knew that he had so much to learn.

  She looked back to the fire. She turned back to him. “All life comes to this place my friend. All life has meaning. They too can come here after death, but they do not move on. They are merely consumed by the flames and become it.” She didn’t know if he would understand this. “When my father gives them their souls back again, they will all come to this place in peace.”

  He saw the look on her face. “What does that mean?”

  She looked back to Kenny on her right.

  He gave her a soft nod. “Kalima is the light out of the darkness. You too will learn this someday, but until then all I can say is that. He will teach all of them how to find themselves again.”

  He looked down. He saw his own feet and felt amazed by that too. “What is he?” He thought aloud as well.

  Kenny chuckled some softly, before he answered him in the only way he knew how. “He is of both worlds Kenar. He is Walker and Human. He carries the truest blood. One day, far from now, he will carry the blood of all three—a Wanderer as well.”

  He looked back up. “He is not a Wanderer now, I have gathered that much, but if he is of both blood, does that not make him one?”

  This time, Sima laughed with this. “A Wanderer he is not.” She moved closer to him until she was nearly face to face.

  She looked even more beautiful standing this close to him now.

  “I cannot tell you what he is now. One day, you will learn the truth.”

  He shook his head. He truly did not understand this. “Why will you not tell me?” This was true. He didn’t know, but he so wanted to. In fact, he felt that he deserved that much for everything he did, and with this Kenny there as him of the future, for what he was going to do. “Do I not deserve to know?”

  She reached out and touched his shoulders with both hands. “I cannot tell you the t
ruth about him because it is not my place to tell you. Only you can see the truth of this.”

  Again, “I do not understand.”

  She could only offer him another smile. “You will one day Kenar. Have faith that one day the darkness will be lifted and you will remember it again. Until then, keep the faith that you already know it and thus him.”

  He saw that this was going nowhere, he thought he understand some of it, but with everything, with his aw of everything wearing off some since being here, he turned his thoughts back to what he needed to know—what he needed to do next. It felt like the simplest way to go.

  “I need to know how to stop Devish. I need to know how to turn the black wolf back again. I need to know what I must do before the end can come. I need to know how to end this damn war.” He rambled. He couldn’t help himself, so he didn’t try to stop it. There was too much at stake in all of this. Now, finished, he stood there and hoped to hear what he wanted to hear next.

  She would have to disappoint him in so many ways. “I have only one answer to give you on all of this.” She looked back to his other self.

  Kenar watched the man, Kenny; slowly fade out until there was nothing there again.

  With him gone, she turned back to him.

  He felt confident that everything was coming, so he paid very close attention to every word he was about to hear. He couldn’t wait.

  Only two now came.

  “Do nothing.”

  He, needless to say, felt floored. “What does that mean?” Again, he felt like she was not telling him everything, and also again, he didn’t know why. What did he do to her to garner such a thing?

  “Do nothing. Find nothing. Be nothing.”

  He forcefully started shaking his head. “There has to be something more than that. There must be an answer to all of this. There must be a way.” The feeling of the dream came back again. So did shame. Was all of this for nothing? He didn’t know, but he didn’t want to find out.

  She laughed again. She sounded playful.

  He wasn’t sure if he liked the sounds of that.