The Sea of Change

by Tina Engel

  It was Douglas who spoke first, “I thought I told you wolves to stay close but hidden, not to show yourselves until I arrived! Why I decided to trust dogs is beyond me.”

  The lead wolf didn’t seem too pleased with Douglas’s remark, but Brett found it funny and chuckled, not a good time to do this with the tension in the air. The wolves all growled in unison, Ragnar and Jordan took a few steps further towards the wolves closest to them, and Eagle came out of nowhere, swooped down and scooped me up, placing me in a tree branch above. He descended then, to stand with the rest. Rose appeared suddenly and sat on one side of me, and Lily on the other. I wasn’t happy at all with this show of a lack of confidence that they had in me but was so pleased to see Eagle healthy again.

  Brett being in my mind again, started to laugh at my feelings of irritation, and of course the wolves had no idea why he was laughing so they got even angrier. Eagle stood next to Brett and of course the two of them couldn’t behave, now that they were together again, so Eagle started to laugh too as they embraced.

  It was Douglas who spoke again, “Will you all stop! I have traveled a long way on the back of this animal, I am tired and hungry, and in no mood for childish behavior.” He got off the back of the wolf, and sat down on a rock, as everyone calmed their tempers, all waiting for him to explain.

  I hollered down to Eagle, that he could either come back up and get me or I would jump, and if he wanted to take the chance on my being hurt, it would fall on him. With a scowl he looked to Douglas and with a nod of Douglas’s head, Eagle retrieved me, setting me down gently next to Brett.

  After giving Eagle a hug and whispered in his ear, how happy I was to see him, I approached Douglas and bending down, gave him a hug, whispering in his ear….”What’s going on?”

  Douglas then asked in a much calmer manner, would the tree fey get him something to eat and drink, and then he would explain everything. The wolves congregated together and sat next to the stream, all except the leader, who came over to Douglas, as Brett did. Douglas introduced the wolf leader as Weylyn. Brett and Weylyn greeted each other with a firm hand shake by grasping each other’s forearm firmly and holding it there for a few seconds before letting go. This was different from the traditional greeting that the fey did. Brett shared with me, in thought, that it was a respect greeting between two who are at opposing sides.

  I realized then that Jordan was behind me and Kimberlite was behind Douglas. Eagle had transformed into his eagle form and was just above us, perched on a branch, as if waiting to fly down to whisk me away again. Rose and Lily still sat in the tree, and the rest of my friends where as far away from the pack of wolf fey, as they possibly could get.

  Douglas got up then, walked over to the stream and found a nice rock to sit on, just as a tree fey brought him food and a cup. Douglas bent down, scooped up some water from the stream and gulped it down. Douglas bellowed, for all of us, to sit down and be quiet, while he shared what he knew.

  “We don’t have a lot of time. The dark fey has discovered where we are and knows we are heading to find Princess Emilee’s mother, Angelina. Stephan is leading an army there, to ambush us before we reach her. Proteus has been informed also, and is sending his army to capture Angelina.” Douglas said, with a grave look on his face.

  I gasped at this knowledge and opened my mouth to speak, but Douglas raised his hand to stop me.

  “Princess, let me finish, please. The council learned about this from a renegade wolf, a spy if you will…” as he looked towards Weylyn, and then continued, “who has been secretly working for the council for years. You see, a long time ago, in my woods, there was a wolf fey who was a young, defiant teen, and decided to enter the humans’ realm. He was caught in a human bear trap and was about to be seen by the human who set the trap. Well that would not have been a very good meeting, a human seeing a wolf fey, although more than likely he would not have survived the encounter long enough to share his story. If he did survive, that would have meant that he was able to kill the irresponsible wolf. Either way it would not be a good outcome, so I decided to stop it. I entered the human realm and saved the wolf.”

  “I could have taken care of myself!” Weylyn spouted, with a look of defiance.

  Douglas gave Weylyn a look of frustration, waved his hand in the air as if to disregard Weylyn’s outburst and continued. “As I was saying, I decided to intervene, stopping the encounter and bringing the pup back to our dimension. He was thankful….” Douglas paused then, looking at Weylyn and Weylyn bowed his head in a respectful manner.

  “And so he told me that if I ever needed a favor to call on him. I did so years later, when the council need help, information regarding the dark fey, who he was and what were his strengths and weaknesses. No one knew who this fey was, only that he was growing stronger and more daring, entering the human’s world and causing chaos.

  “Weylyn being not on one side or the other, but working for whoever paid the best price, decided to help. It took time for him to assemble a pack of wolves to follow him, but in time he did. They have been, as I said, spies for years, gathering information as they could but still no one knows the identity of this dark fey leader. Stephan is the closest to him, we know, but we still can’t get our hands on him.”

  As Douglas paused to take a drink and gather his thoughts, Brett and I connected, and I saw the grief and anger he felt where his brother, Stephan was concerned. He felt my sympathy, looked at me and smiled a slight but sincere smile, not upset that I felt what he was feeling.

  Douglas continued, “We must get to your mother, Emilee, before they do. The wolf pack will take us there quicker than we could get on foot, and they can get us around the ambush.”

  Jordan stood then with a gruff stance and said, “And how do we know we can trust these dogs? They may be taking us right to Stephan!”

  Weylyn stood then as all his pack stood growing. Weylyn let out a howl, as if scolding his pack, and it caused my skin to prickle. It shocked everyone just a bit and the wolf pack all let out a sheepish whine and sat back down.

  Weylyn then turned back to Douglas, bowing his head in a respectful gesture again and Douglas continued. “Jordan, I understand your distrust, all of you, but I trust Weylyn with my life and therefore I trust the rest of his pack. We must hurry now, too much time has been wasted. We will all ride on the backs of the wolves, except for you, Eagle, Kimberlite and Queen Anahita. You need to travel quickly, but warily, and report back to us if necessary, of any problems you see or hear.”

  It was quiet for a few minutes and then everyone started to mumble to each other in whispers. As Douglas stood, everyone followed suit. “Emilee, you will ride on the back of Weylyn and the rest of you, if you choose to continue, will ride on the backs of the rest. Ragnar and Eliza, you have been true friends and I am in your debt for all that you have done to help Princess Emilee, but you should return home now. The dark one knows you have been helping, and your village needs you back there to protect them.”

  I suddenly felt ill, knowing again that I put others in danger, because they were protecting me. I went over to Eliza, and stooping down, I held her tightly in my arms, this was my sister, or would have been had I been the true Emilee Stevens. I had to remind myself of this now and then. The true Emilee Stevens was back home, living my life, the life I had lived for 44 human years.

  Strange now, it all seemed like just a dream. As I pulled away from Eliza, I saw she had tears in her eyes and I realized that I did too. I stood then as Ragnar approached, and we embraced also, there was no traditional fey ritual of greeting or saying goodbye, but hugs, as humans do.

  Suddenly, the entire wolf pack turned into wolves, four legged animals and Weylyn was there at my side, waiting rather impatiently for me to climb on. Douglas was already on the wolf that he had rode in on, and I watch as all my friends climbed reluctantly on the backs of their wolf, the wolf that would whisk them away to where my mother was waiting. It would be Jordan, Brett, Rose, Albee, Douglas and
I, all on the backs of wolves.

  Rose had a peculiar look on her face, a little bit of disgust and fear, so I eagerly and with no sign of distress, climbed onto Weylyn’s back and held my head high, hoping to show Rose this was okay. Suddenly Lily jumped up on Weylyn, in cat form, and situated herself between my legs. I guessed she was not going to ride on a dog, alone. Everyone chuckled at this sight, all but Weylyn, who growled, but accepted the extra passenger.

  Without even preparing us, the wolves took off at a full run; I had to grab hold of Weylyn’s neck with one arm, and Lily with the other. I could see no one, for we were moving so fast that the surroundings were just a blur. I felt nauseous suddenly and had to lay my head down on Weylyn’s neck, shut my eyes and hope that we would make it safely without anyone falling off.

  It seemed like hours, and I’m sure it was, that we moved at this pace. I opened my eyes at times and actually got used to sitting up just a bit to watch the world go by. I was amazed at the speed and agility that these animals had. It was as if they were flying, their feet never touching the ground. Before I knew it, we were out of the mountains and racing through a valley, sparse of trees, as we ran next to a rather large river. I thought to myself, we seemed to be moving faster than the river and the river was raging as water spilled up over its banks at times, as if it was in a race with us.

  I laid my head down, feeling dizzy again, from watching the water in the river, with its white caps rushing to the surface, and at times trying to reach us. Was it friend or foe? Did I sleep, I wasn’t sure but suddenly, the movement stopped and I almost fell off Weylyn. I would have if Lily hadn’t changed into her fey self and held me tight.

  Lily said, in a rather put off way, “You could inform us when we are about to stop. That would be polite.”

  As I climbed off the Weylyn, I felt like I had been hit by a train, every muscle in my body ached and as I looked around at my friends, I imagined they felt the same. Rose was light green color and Jordan looked like he aged, bent over, unable to stand up straight. Douglas and Brett were the only two who appeared to not be affected at all.

  We were on a small, sandy hill, a mound to be exact and as I looked over the top, there was water, the bay, our destination. I couldn’t believe that we were there, even though it was dusk now and we had traveled all day. It should have taken days to get here. We were in the fey dimension; I reminded myself and I realized I still thought in human terms at times.

  The wolves all changed back into their fey bodies and everyone circled around Weylyn and Douglas. Eagle dropped from the sky in a graceful manner and Kimberlite appeared from below.

  Douglas looked at Eagle and Eagle, informed us that the trap set for our capture had been back a few miles; we had passed the area just minutes before Stephan’s army had arrived. They were there waiting for us, having no idea we had already passed.

  Douglas said, “We need to hurry, get down to the docks, and to your mother, Princess Emilee. There is no time to waste. Stephan will soon realize that we have passed him.”

  Weylyn then replied, “We will stay here and slow them down when they get here. Go now and I hope to see you again Princess, if it’s meant to be.”

  And at that, the wolf fey all turned back into wolves and spread out amongst the sand dunes.

  Douglas led and we all followed. I however, was moving slower than I wanted. I needed food, water and rest but there was no time for that now.

  We reached a small seaside village and headed for the docks. Fey looked on as they saw this straggly bunch, some pointed, but none approached us. I could hear some of what they said and thought, they all knew it was me, the Princess who would save them all, so they were told. Some believed, others were skeptical, and some just scoffed. Never-the-less, they all left us alone as we raced towards the docks.

  “That is the ship that will take us to your mother.” Douglas said as he pointed in the direction of a large ship. We left dry land and walked onto the dock, a long, narrow walkway, solid and sturdy with the waves lapping at the sides and occasionally sloshing at our feet. There at the side of the ship, was a stairway made of steel that went along the side, to the top. Brett held his hand out for me to go first and Rose followed, with Brett, Eagle and Jordan behind. Where lily was I had no idea. She continued to disappear as she pleased. Douglas was the last to follow as we left Kimberlite on the beach.

  There at the top to greet us, was Adam. I was so excited to see him and as he approached me with his hand held out in greeting, I ignored it and wrapped my arms around his neck. It was so good to see him. The feeling of safety and security on one of his ships was so wonderful.

  As everyone boarded, there were many greetings, but the joy that I saw in Jordan and Adam’s faces as they hugged, was priceless. They had missed each other so. Rose I could tell, wasn’t real happy, since the ship was made of steel, but she was going to follow me as far as she could.

  Adam turned to me after a quick conversation with Jordan and told me that there was someone down below who wanted very much to meet me.

  I asked Adam when we would be setting sail to go to the place where my mother might be, and he informed me that plans had changed. He urged me in a strange manner to go down and meet this person.

  “Is she here?” I asked. “Is it my mother down below?”

  Adam said nothing more, but held his hand towards the doorway that must have led to the rooms below.

  Brett took my arm and guided me, and everyone else followed. There was a fey standing there and as we approached he told us to follow him. As I entered the opening and headed down the stairs, everyone else followed. We got to a closed door, the fey opened it, and then stepped out of the way for us to enter.

  As I did, there standing on the other side of the room, stood a woman, medium height, Blond wavy hair with gold stands weaved through it. Her skin had a glow about it that shimmered as the light streaming in from a porthole touched her. She turned to face me and I realized that I was holding my breath. She resembled me, or I her.

  “Mother?” I said, in a whisper, too afraid to say it too loud out of fear that she would say, no.

  She came to me, and reaching out, touched my face, running her hands softly against the shell covering, touching my hair, and then reaching down, she took my hand and greeted me in the traditional fey manner.

  As she stood, she put her hands on my shoulders and said, “I have waited so long to hold you in my arms again, and yes, I’m your mother.”

  She took me in her arms and held me ever so gently as if she held me to tight, I would disappear. When she pulled away there were tears in her eyes. We looked at each other, eyes locked together, not wanting to break the connection that seemed to be there. Her eyes, so ocean blue, held me in her gaze and I never wanted it to end. I had so many questions but didn’t want to speak.

  Suddenly, she broke our gaze by looking at something behind me. Her face turned a pale, sickly color and she let out a slight gasp and then a small smile appeared on her lips.

  I had heard talking around us but when we were connected the voices had been so far away. I knew that Adam and Jordan had just entered the room because they were loud and rambunctious, so happy to see each other but then I realized that the room was very quiet.

  I turned around to see what my mother was looking at, what could have drained her of her color. As I turned to face the door, there stood Adam and Jordan; Jordan had the same sick look on his face. The silence in the room was deafening. Then Jordan opened his mouth and said, “Lena?”

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  There is more to come, do not fear. The Hidden World of Terrafirma has more secrets to tell.

  Tina M. Engel was born in Seattle Washington in 1960. Her father served in the Navy, so they lived in many places, in the United States, both East and West coast. Her pa
rents grew up in Ellensburg Washington, which is where Tina raised her two girls, with the help of her family as well as the community. She worked in the food service/retail business while raising her girls but discovered the love of putting her day dreams down on paper, at a later time in her life. Tina's philosophy: Life's a journey, keep dreaming, reach for the stars and don't stop laughing!