by Sheryl Seal
“You believe me then?”
“Of course I believe you Oria; this is why Aponi brought us. Your instincts have always been correct. I see no reason for that to change now. Let’s spread out and search. The others are arriving already and have started looking for Grey Wolf.
There was every sort of animal you could think of in the woods that day. All were searching for a golden eyed wolf that was nowhere to be found.
We gave up the search and went home and I went to bed. I didn’t sleep at all though.
I wondered if I had everyone out all day on a fool’s errand. I knew he was somewhere but with all my powers I couldn’t find him. What good were they if they couldn’t help me find the one thing that mattered most in my life?
Now that I knew for sure he was still alive, I would move heaven and earth to find him.
I lay there in the night thinking when I suddenly heard howling. I shot out of my bed as quick as possible. I got dressed quietly and followed the howls.
They brought me to the top of Bridalveil Fall. Silhouetted against the cosmic silvery moon I saw an enormous grey wolf in all its glory. I raced up the trail and stopped short as my eyes were once again drawn into question at what I was seeing.
I was mesmerized as I watched. Where the wolf had once been was a magnificent God-like man. I had of course heard of all the legends about Gods, Goddesses and such. I’m a Fairy-shapeshifter and after all I’ve learned in the last few months, you’d think I wouldn’t be in such awe, wrong. Of all the wondrous things that I have seen in my life, this was absolutely the most glorious sight that I’m sure I will ever see. I watched as this brilliant light came down from the heavens and went right through him like a lightning bolt. He held his muscular arms towards the sky. With his ruggedly handsome face thrown back and looking upward, he received it all into his now shimmering statuesque body.
I gasped and was awestruck at what I was witnessing.
He must have heard or felt my presence because he turned his head in my direction and looked right at me. There was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this was Grey Wolf in his true form.
I could see his iridescent silver eyes. They seem to soften for a moment with that entreating look. I had seen them many times in my dreams. Then they turned golden as he shifted into the magnificent grey wolf and ran off into the night.
I stood there trembling with excitement and my soul felt whole again.
My heart soared and the voice in my head whimpered, “Grey Wolf is alive!”
Book Two: Beyond Oria Falls
Prelude
Envision you are a shapeshifter and a Golden Queen Fairy with certain powers who can control the very elements around you.
Imagine you thought your whole life you were just ordinary. Then on your eighteenth birthday you found yourself in another world. You were able to shapeshift into whatever spirit animal you wanted to be.
Well… It just so happens that’s exactly what happened with me. I was at a reunion in Yosemite National Park where our clan, the Ahwahneechees gather every year to learn more about our heritage. Boy, did I learn some interesting things that year.
It started off the same as it always had, with my grandmother telling the beginning tale of the night and then other story tellers following. All the legends took us back to a different land and time in the past. The night ended and I went to sleep and had many dreams. This isn’t unusual for me because all my life, there have been nights filled with dreams or visions, as my grandmother calls them.
The next day I went swimming in a pool at Bridalveil Fall. This is one of the many extraordinary waterfalls that are all over Yosemite National Park. I felt a force pulling me under and when I finally emerged, I was beyond the waterfall in a world where there are Dwellers that are trained to keep evil from entering the world of man. I have learned, when my ancestors left their village because of a sickness many hundreds of years ago, The Great Spirit called them beyond Bridalveil Fall and they were given these many gifts.
In this village occupied by shapeshifters and magical people, we live in lodges and many things are done in the old way. We all come here on our eighteenth birthday when our powers come to light. Mostly we are known as Dwellers of Ahwahnee. On some borders they call themselves Keepers of the Valley. There are many borders that need protecting to keep the evil contained.
I’ve learned many things about myself since I’ve come to this world. I’ve learned that I am not only a shapeshifter (which we all are), but that I can shift into any animal. My main spirit animal is a phenomenal red dragon. If that isn’t amazing enough, I am also the Golden Queen Fairy of the Ahwahneechees.
I am gifted with many powers that are constantly revealing themselves. I discovered one of these powers when my friend White Bear was attacked by a magical bear. I learned I could heal wounds and broken bones by placing my hands on the injured person. A glowing light appears and in a matter of seconds the injury is healed. My friends and I defeated the evil Ale which tried to destroy our world. If she would have succeeded, she would have then moved on to the world of man. The Ale consumes worlds in their entirety and moves on to the next one. This would mean the end of mankind.
I have yet to discover all of my powers or those of my friends. My grandmother is my only true family. She was once the Golden Queen Fairy but is older and with only me as her living heir, I became the Golden Queen of the Ahwahneechee. My name means, Little Golden Queen. I am still learning and discovering all I need to know to prevent evil from entering the world of man.
If this isn’t enough to handle, I thought I had found my soulmate. He is the man of my dreams. I mean that literally, because for years he was actually the man who haunted my dreams. I have seen him all of my life in the world of man. Watching and waiting. He is also Ahwahneechee and has the most captivating twinkling silver eyes. They always turn a deep amber color when he kisses me. They also turn this color whenever he shifts into a magnificent gray wolf. He is tall and muscular and more than just handsome with his long raven hair. He has a killer smile. He looks fine in his leather leggings, moccasins and bare chest. He is a handsome picture of the warriors of old. His name is Grey Wolf and I found myself falling in love with him soon after I arrived in this world. The Great Spirit sent him a vision that we were soulmates. I didn’t believe this at first because there have been many obstacles in our way. I also had never been in love before in my life.
This however, didn’t last very long. There was a big storm that came and with the unleashing of the Ale’s rage, my soulmate has disappeared. I have experienced much guilt about his disappearance because I feel this is my fault. I had been the one to put him in harm’s way. I am the Golden Queen and I should have protected him. No matter what has happened, I have come to know one thing for sure. The Great Spirit never gives a vision that does not come to pass and Grey Wolf and I are meant to be together.
His vision foretold of our lives being intertwined and I now believe that they are. I don’t care what has happened between us that could not be explained before now. All has been forgiven in my eyes. All I want is for him to find his way back to me. I will never stop looking for him. He is after all, my heart and soul.
Part 1
Oria
I woke up in the night to howling and shot out of my bed as quick as possible. I got dressed quietly because I didn’t want to wake up grandmother who was snoring softly. The howls brought me to the top of Bridalveil Fall. There, silhouetted against the cosmic silvery moon, I saw an enormous gray wolf in all its glory. I raced up the trail and stopped short as my eyes were once again drawn into question at what I was seeing.
I was mesmerized as I watched. Where the wolf had once been was a magnificent God-like man. I had of course heard of all the legends about Gods, Goddesses and such. I’m a Fairy-shapeshifter and after all I’ve learned in the last few months, you’d think I wouldn’t be in such awe…Wrong!
There have been many wondrous things that I have seen in my life, but th
is was absolutely the most glorious sight that I’m sure I will ever see. I watched as this brilliant light came down from the heavens and went right through him like a lightning bolt. He held his muscular arms towards the sky and I wanted to scream at him to move. Horrified, I watched frozen in time. His ruggedly handsome face was thrown back and looking upward as he received this bolt into his now shimmering statuesque body.
I gasped and was mesmerized at what I was witnessing. He must have heard or felt my presence because he turned his head in my direction and looked right at me. There was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this was Grey Wolf in his true form. I could see his iridescent silver eyes. They seem to soften for a moment with that pleading look. I had seen these eyes many times in my dreams. Then they turned golden as he shifted into a wonderful gray wolf and ran off into the night. I stood there trembling with excitement, my senses were reeling but my soul felt whole again. My heart soared and the voice in my head whimpered, “Grey Wolf is alive!”
I was stunned to the center of my existence and then I shuddered and suddenly snapped out of my thoughts. I took off running and felt myself shimmering and then; shifting into a cheetah, I tried to catch up with Grey Wolf.
It was a brilliant night with the full moon lighting my way so I felt like I finally had a chance to find him. My mind was spinning with thoughts of him and I kept wondering, where had he been all this time? We’ve hardly spent any time together since I’ve been here. We both know we belong together, so why wouldn’t he just come home?
Since he disappeared on the night of the battle with the Ale, I had only glimpsed him one other time before tonight. I tried to find him, but once again he had vanished. With all the gifts that I have, somehow he blocked me from his mind and hid himself so that I couldn’t discover him.
I hoped this time would be different. Of course, I still had to wonder, why would he keep running from me? I stopped dead in my tracks shifting again; I turned around and started walking back to the village. What was I doing? One thing I have learned in a years’ time, is to follow my intuition. Right now it is shrieking at me to let Grey Wolf alone and go back to my lodge. As much as it was killing me, I had to turn around and head back to the village, and when the time is right, I hoped that all would be revealed to me.
Grandmother was awake when I came through the lodge door. She was bent over the campfire dipping out a couple of mugs of tea. I was sure she would have words of wisdom for me and that she would be in the sharing mood and try to comfort me. She wasted no time and as grandmother often does with great insight, she immediately spoke her mind. “My little Golden Queen, you have listened to your soul and come home instead of following your heart and pursuing what will come to light eventually. This is a good thing. I wish I could show you, when you are lonely and in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.”
Yes, I have a lot of trouble believing that I am something special. I’m working on it though. I bit my lower lip and tried to keep from asking questions I knew I should know the answers too. It didn’t help though and I needed answers. “I’ve listened to my instinct which led me to Grey Wolf. Was I only to bear witness? I’m regretting not going after him already grandmother. I’m confused about what is going on and what I’m supposed to do. Why was I led to watch as he disappeared from my life again?”
Grandmother handed me a cup of her special tea and motioned me to drink as she responded to my questions. “Oria my dear, you know that The Great Spirit has a plan and will reveal it all when the time is right. I know that it is hard to be patient and wait for all the signs. We don’t always get the answers we seek right away, and sometimes the answers are not what we want to hear. The Great Spirit knows what is best and when the time is right the answers will be there. You have to be able to accept his decisions and know that they are the right ones. Can you help this old woman with her hair?”
I reached for the brush and a leather wrap and started putting my grandmothers beautiful long silver hair in one big braid down her back. It was still luscious and clear down past her hips. She continued to give me more advice as I gently brushed her hair. “Sometimes when we think our wings are clipped, it might be that we are exactly where we are meant to be. Have you not thought about this my little Golden Queen?”
I was thinking about what grandmother was telling me and the question she asked as I finished her, I was getting a little exasperated. I wasn’t quite sure who I was irritated with though. “No grandmother, I had not thought about this. Okay, so I was meant to see Grey Wolf once again. There is nothing more I am to do, though? Seriously, grandmother, I think the biggest coward in the world; is the man who awakens a woman’s love with no intention of loving her.”
Grandmother chuckled at this and patted my arm lovingly. “You know granddaughter, it is easy to judge the mistakes of others but not so easy to recognize our own. It is also easy to hurt someone who loves you, but not so easy to heal the wound. Now, I want you to sleep for a while then you should go to Oria Falls and give a blessing. The Great Spirit is a wonderful advisor.”
She smiled at me affectionately and took the brush from my hand and gestured with it towards my bed. As I got up and went in that direction I noticed how the tea grandmother had prepared was meant to calm me and I felt weak in the legs and very drowsy. I found it difficult to unlace my moccasins and struggled to pull them off. I felt the haze enter my mind where my thoughts were becoming cloudy. All I wanted was to sleep now. Somewhere in the far distance, I heard grandmother’s final words of wisdom. “Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself. Go to sleep my granddaughter and we will talk more on this later.”
I slept for a while and when I woke up, the sun was high in the sky and I found that I really hadn’t slept very well at all. There were many dreams that haunted me. All I could think was more trouble was coming. I believed the concern was with White Bear. I thought he had been acting strangely ever since the battle with the Ale. Then again it could’ve been totally unrelated. I didn’t know what to think of the rest of my dreams. Strange people I had never seen before were all floating around a fire like they were ghosts. They drifted in and out of the fire and finally disappeared into the smoke. At one point, I was lying on a cot in a lodge I didn’t recognize and I could see that I was terribly burned. However, there was no pain; actually there was no feeling at all. All along in the background I could hear sorrowful music and weeping and suddenly wondered if I were dead. That could be the reason there was no pain. Maybe I was watching from the spirit world because I could hear the chanting. Who I wondered, were these people that wept for me so forlornly? Was my death coming soon? I really didn’t get a good look at my face because it looked very severely burned. It made little sense to me.
I would have to think on these dreams, because often times they were premonitions. I did know for certain that they were never just dreams. Grandmother calls them forebodings, and I shivered as I felt the vision creep into every corner of my soul.
Getting up, I changed my leggings that I preferred to wear with a tunic and laced up my moccasins. I ran a brush through my unruly hair that had come undone and put it in a braid once again. It was so curly I already felt a few strands spring free.
I gave grandmother a kiss on the cheek where she still sat beside the fire and left our lodge with my bag that I always keep a stash of apples in. I also acted like I didn’t see the strange look and smile that she gave me along with her gray arched eyebrow.
Grandmother often knows my dreams and me better than I know myself. I suspected she gave me the tea so that it would help me sleep and take my mind off Grey Wolf. Maybe to produce dreams she could read. Many times she would say that my dreams need to work their way through the debris in my mind just to be seen. I think she would like it more if I discussed every dream I had with her. The way grandmother often looks at me, tells me she already knows my dreams and just waits patiently for me to ask her advice. Somet
imes I just liked to figure things out for myself.
Grandmother says that I am tenacious that way. Sometimes though, I just liked to wait and see what the future surprises me with. I know I work better under pressure and I have proved this to myself time and again. I’ve never been much of an organizer anyway and with the way my life has gone, it wouldn’t have done me much good. Things often happen on the spur of the moment here and danger can come from any direction. There really is no way to plan for an evil force, except to keep the wards on the borders up and deal with the problems as they arise.
I headed for the stables. I love being a shapeshifter for so many reasons obviously. Today however, I wanted to ride my horse Buttercup. White Bear gave her to me right after I arrived here and I just love her to pieces. She is beautiful with her honey coloring and big brown eyes. She also loves me for the sweet apples I bring for her. I brought some for Little Wolf too; she was the first horse I rode when I came here. She is Grey Wolf’s peppered mare. I think she misses him terribly. “Yeah, I miss him to girl.” I whispered to her as I fed her an apple. She whinnied and not to be outdone, so did Buttercup, who was nudging me and waiting not so patiently for her apple. I gave her an apple and grabbed the bridle from the fence post. I check her legs and hooves each time before I ride her. There are Dwellers here who maintain the stables and tend to the horses and take care of their every need. There is really no other reason except pure enjoyment and the old way of life that the horses are kept here. Everyone can shapeshift and be wherever they need to be which is more convenient and often times faster than riding a horse. I like to do my share with my own horse and make sure that she is ready for riding. When I’m done riding her, I rub her down, brush and check her again. She knows all my secrets, fears and dreams. There are things I tell Buttercup I wouldn’t even tell Aponi. Not that Aponi would ever judge me, but I feel silly telling my best friend some of my thoughts about love and Grey Wolf. I’m not sure she would understand my way of thinking because she is such a free spirit.
