Grace halted as she looked out at the empty fields in front of her. Most, if not all, of the wolves spent their time north of my home. Very few ventured to the south or somewhat southeast as Sera was pulling us. It wasn’t like the border of Aboria was close, but it felt like we were leaving home and the evergreen forest behind us. The farm fields of Elder stretched as far as the eye could see. Grace stared with her mouth open.
Sera grinned as she stared at her new friend.
“Guess she never saw the other side of Elder before,” Sera commented to me as she bumped her arm into mine.
And that was the truth for most of the wolves. The northern half of the kingdom was covered by the evergreen woods that we called home, but the south end of the kingdom was all farm fields. There wasn’t a reason for a wolf to go south since they lived in the forest and hunted there. The fields of Elder had some animals but not the same hunting game as the north. The wolves couldn’t survive in the south unless in they were in a tiny clan. And there was the problem of eating the farmers' animals, so they weren’t exactly welcome either.
“Won’t we get in trouble?” Grace asked as she continued to gawk at the fields that had yet to be tilled and planted with the new summer crop.
“You’re with me,” Sera replied. “You can’t get in trouble.” She gave Grace a grin as she took her hand and pulled her to a run again.
This time, we took off across an empty field that angled up a hill. I kept pace with them as we crested to the top, and Sera stopped again.
“You said you wanted to see the world,” Sera stated as Grace stared and started to spin in a circle.
From our hill, we could see so far into the distance; the horizon became a line.
“If you look that way, you can see the tips of the mountains in Aboria.” Sera pointed to the northeast. “And if we turn and look that way and our vision was better than our human vision, you might be able to see the deserts of Badalah or maybe the dragons in Draconis. Just a bit south of there, would be the walled city Urbis. No way we could see through those walls, but if our vision was better, I bet we could see the walls.”
Grace shut her eyes and took a deep breath of the cool spring air. The day was getting warmer, but it was still spring. It smelled fresh and full of life blooming around Elder.
“Over there where there’s a green glint,” Sera continued, “is the great kingdom of Oz. I’ve never actually been there, but Red promised me that we would make it there sometime.”
Grace bit her lip as she stared out to the horizon. I wasn’t sure if she saw what Sera was describing or not, but she was trying.
“Just that way is Arcadia and their fairies. They have stone castles and don’t have to live in trees like the people of Elder.”
“Have you ever seen a fairy?” Grace asked.
Sera grinned. “More than one, but let me tell you, they can be quite deceptive. Not all fairies are nice.”
“Just like wolves,” Grace snickered, and Sera laughed with her.
Sera turned to Grace again.
“Over in that direction, are the islands that make up Skyla. Make sure to look up so you don’t miss the islands in the sky. If we had time or another life, we could go there to relax and enjoy life.”
I smiled at the thought. Grace seemed to be soaking it all in. Sera was good at this. I doubted I could make her last day as great as Sera had in just the past few moments. I had heard Grace say she was going to miss seeing the world, but this never occurred to me as a solution to that. I never gave her enough credit, but Sera was smart.
“And lastly is our neighbor The Vale.” Sera turned Grace to face west. “You can fly on unicorns and live in perfect weather, never too cold or too hot. No more winters with snow and frozen fingers and toes.”
Grace took a deep breath and slowly spun in a circle. Her eyes searched the horizon in all the directions Sera had pointed her. She wasn’t going on an adventure to see the world, but Sera brought her pretty close, as close as Grace was ever going to get.
I stood beside my friends and stared out into the world also. Elder was my home, and the woods were my family, but there was much more out there. What would I have left in Elder when my friends were all wolves? Would I be needed when the cursed wolves were locked up, and I had no one left? Was it time I saw the world like Grace wanted so badly to do? Could I live her dream for the both of us?
“Thanks,” Grace said quietly as she turned back to Sera.
“We aren’t done yet,” Sera said as she grabbed her friend’s arm and led her off down the other side of the hill.
Sera turned slightly to run toward the deciduous forest off to the east of us. Grace grinned as the wind whipped past them, and they took off to somewhere new.
Again, they took to their conversation of giggles and laughs as they ran. Grace was happy. That’s all I wanted for my friend. One last perfect day, and somehow, Sera knew precisely how to give it to her. I never saw Sera as someone who would befriend a wolf, but right now, there seemed to be no difference between them. They were just humans having fun.
It wasn’t long before they slowed their pace. I wasn’t surprised when I saw where Sera was leading us. I didn’t wander often into this forest, but I knew all the lands of Elder, partly because I wanted to know and partly because of Red making sure I knew everything about the place I was raised.
Sera pulled Grace through the new woods. Grace looked worried for only a moment as they ran past the bare trees, then she fell into step with Sera and let all her worries fade away. Sera led her deeper into the woods and made sure that her approach would make Grace happy. I just smiled as I knew what we were doing. When Sera was sure we were at the right spot, she stopped and pointed for Grace to push past the bushes covering the view.
Grace gasped as she stood there in shock. A small waterfall, maybe three or four saplings tall, ran down into a pool of water that shimmered in the spring sun. The water wasn’t more than chest high, but it was deep enough she couldn’t see the bottom. I knew the water was clean and pure, but I just stood beside Grace as she took it all in. At the other end of the pool, the water continued to flow further down the river.
“This is where the Eldoris River flows into the Adder springs,” Sera explained to Grace. “It’s by far the best place to go swimming anywhere in Elder in the wintertime. The Adder Springs keep the water in the pool warm all winter long. It’s not quite like swimming in the waters at the edge of Elder but much warmer.”
Grace not only wanted to see the world and all the kingdoms around us, but she also wanted to go back to the ocean in the north of Elder. She had been there as a young child and hadn’t been back since. Nikkan’s younger siblings were already there. I shook my head to try not to think of him. It was his loss to not be with us and not our fault in the least.
Grace slowly walked over to the sparkling blue water. She reached down and touched it and then looked back at both of us in shock. She must not have believed Sera about the temperature.
“It’s like really warm,” she said in surprise.
That made me chuckle, and Sera smile. No one ever seemed to believe that the water would be the perfect temperature.
“Turn around.” Sera motioned to me. I sighed but did as she told me without complaining for Grace’s sake only.
The woods glowed in a mild green light as the sun peeked between the newly forming leaves. I didn’t mind looking around the quiet spring forest, but I didn’t have much time as I heard the splashes of the girls getting into the water.
I didn’t wait to be invited as I turned and pulled off my own shirt before diving into the water. Sera shrieked as my splash was artfully aimed at her face. I might have accidentally or purposely put my arms out to create a large splash of water intended for her. Grace giggled as she ducked back down under the warm water.
When we were all perfectly soaked and our skin wrinkled, I was the first to brave getting out of the water to get a fire going. It wasn’t near supper time, but with wet clothing, it
wasn’t going to take long before we all got cold from the weather, not exactly being summer yet.
“So how long have you known him?” Sera was asking Grace as I came back with my second bundle of wood for the fire that was now going good enough to keep both girls warm as they dried off.
Grace looked up at me and shrugged.
“I don’t actually remember when we met. It was many winters ago.”
I smiled and nodded.
“Don’t worry, Sera, you’ve known me longer,” I told her, knowing exactly where her thoughts were going.
Everything with Sera was a competition. It was hard growing up and being around her because I was probably just as competitive as she was, but I’d never admit that to her. It made for quite a few fights over the winters that didn’t seem to get better as we got older, a fact Red frequently pointed out to us. Red seemed to think one day, we’d give up competing and just be friends, but neither of us was anywhere close to that yet.
Sera stuck her tongue out at me.
“I wasn’t asking to see if I knew you longer. I was just wondering if she remembered your phase where you wanted your hair to look like a squirrel tail.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. Yes, of course, Sera wanted to bring that up. If she wasn’t competing with me, she was teasing me, and my choice of hairstyles always was a favorite of hers.
“I completely do,” Grace replied with a giggle. “But I liked his skunk phase where he had that white streak down the middle of his hair.”
Sera reached over and tousled my hair like I was her kid brother. I grunted at her as I pulled back and left the stack of wood at her feet before I stormed off back into the woods to find more to keep us warm through the night.
I wasn’t really mad. In fact, it was kind of nice to hear them talking and laughing. There was no worrying about the future or what life would be like for Grace. They were just two girls having fun camping out in the woods.
It didn’t take me long to find what we needed to get through the night, but I took my time going back. Grace needed her perfect last day, and my thoughts were making me more than a little gloomy. It was just too sudden and hard to take. And the notion that Nikkan would soon be joining her and I’d be left alone was harder to take. Grace didn’t deserve my sadness. She had enough to deal with.
By the time I made it back to our camp, the sun was setting, and the girls were already making, or rather pulling out supper for us. It seemed that Sera had grabbed every dessert she had been telling Grace about, and my dried meat was the only non-sweet thing we had to eat. I didn’t take any of the sweets the girls offered me but instead sat across the fire and just watched them, lost in my own thoughts.
I knew Red wouldn’t lie to me. If she knew how to break the curse, she would. But I had to think back through all she had ever taught me. There had to be an answer to fixing the wolves. It was broken once and would be again.
Sera noticed my absence and raised an eyebrow in question, but I waved her off with a smile. Lucky for me, she was focusing on Grace and making her last day perfect, but I was pretty sure the run home would be an interrogation by Sera.
As night arrived and the girls put on the extra sweaters I brought, I could tell by Grace’s satisfied smile that she’d had the day she wanted, mostly thanks to Sera. That was beyond surprising to me. Sera and I had never really seen eye to eye much, but today showed me a completely different side of her. As Grace fell asleep lying against Sera, it was the perfect end to her day and life as a human.
Sera watched the fire, and I had a chance to truly look at her. It had been winters since we had been together this long and not fought. In fact, I don’t think I could actually recall a time we didn’t fight.
Her hair had dried back off her face from the swim, and I could look at her, no longer hiding behind the mane of hair that was usually swinging around her as she moved about. Maybe that was it. Sera never stopped moving, but right now, she sat perfectly still as Grace fell asleep. Grace was now sprawled on Sera’s lap.
My nighttime eyesight was perfect and allowed me to see every last detail. I could make out the small smattering of freckles across her nose that had been there as long as I could remember. I tried not to see it, but I couldn’t help but notice that Sera wasn’t just a girl anymore. She had grown and changed probably as much as I had the past few winters that I had been out of Red’s house. It felt like just yesterday that I left, but it had been three winters. I couldn’t put my finger on one thing, but something about her was changed. She wasn’t the girl I remembered growing up with.
Sera didn’t look across at me as she looked into the fire like it held the answers she was looking for. I had to wonder if she was searching for the same answers I was. I never pictured Sera with friends because she was raised as isolated as I was. While she was a tree dweller, they never really invited her in. It was probably because they all knew she was the next Red, someone you didn’t want to get close to because it was a job that generally didn’t come with a long life. My mother was the only Red that made it past her thirty winters.
As the flames flickered on, Sera looked up at me and smiled.
‘Thank you,’ I mouthed across to Sera, where she sat staring at me now.
Sera grinned and nodded her head to me as she laid her head back against the tree at her back and closed her eyes. She didn’t seem to have the answers either, but I was pretty sure if Red wasn’t going to help the wolves, I’d just made a new ally that would help me. Together, maybe, we could save them all.
7
10th March
The smell of the smoke from the fire dying woke me the next morning. I had tried to get up every now and then to stoke the fire and keep the girls warm, but by the middle of the night, I was too sleepy to stay awake. I heard the snoring of the girls, so it didn’t seem to matter. They made it through the night safe and warm.
The day before had been perfect. Grace never stopped smiling as she fell asleep. It was everything I could have wanted for her, and it was thanks to Sera. I never saw her as anything but annoying, but that was changing with this trip.
Growing up, she hated anything related to the wolves. She could barely tolerate Nikkan; then again, he could barely tolerate her. Most of the time, she kept her anti-wolf views to herself as she knew my mother was passionate about bringing together the two kinds of humans in the northern section of Elder, but I always saw it in her eyes. I really never knew what made her hate wolves that much, but yesterday, it was amazing how much she cared and made Grace’s last human day perfect.
Slowly sitting up and stretching, I could feel the aches from sleeping on the forest floor. My one couch in my house wasn’t much, but it was still better than the hard ground. I really had no idea how Nikkan did it day after day. Then again, my wolf friend preferred my couch. I raised my arms and cracked my back as I twisted left and right. It felt like everything popped back into place, at least, I hoped so. We still had a walk back to my home, which would take half the day with the distance we traveled. At least as a wolf, Grace would be able to keep up with Sera and I when we were running full out.
Looking around our meager camp told me all I needed to know; Grace was gone. Seemed she was up earlier than I was, which didn’t say much since the sun was already up. I wasn’t one for sleeping in, but then again, I was up half the night keeping the fire going. Surprisingly, Sera wasn’t up yet, but I could remedy that.
Standing up as quietly as I could, I made my way over to her. As I pulled back my foot to give her a good kick to the bottom of her feet, I paused just to make sure she wasn’t going to fight back and was really asleep. One could never be too careful, especially with a highly trained warrior like Sera.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Sera told me, her voice groggy as if I just woke her.
I dropped my foot back to the ground. That took all the fun out of it.
Sera sat up and rubbed her eyes. She stretched just as I had, but it didn’t look like sl
eeping on the hard ground affected her at all.
“Which way did Grace go?” Sera asked as she sat up, no longer stretching. She looked around the forest with a quick glance.
“No clue. She was gone when I woke. Figure she had some morning business and would be back soon,” I replied, moving back over to where I was sitting before.
Sera patted the ground next to her.
“It’s cold,” Sera mentioned.
Yes, the ground was cold.
“Where Grace was sleeping. She has been gone longer than just a moment,” Sera explained like I was stupid.
I hadn’t thought of that because it made no sense. Grace wasn’t the kind that would go wandering off to explore by herself.
“She probably went swimming,” I replied. Then again, there wasn’t any noise beyond the water hitting the spring pool. “Maybe she’s soaking and enjoying the warmth since the fire is low.”
Sera turned toward the spring pool behind the trees where we set up camp, and then looked back at me and the fire.
“How long has the fire been out?”
Great. I could tell the look on her face meant she was disappointed with me for not staying up all night to keep the fire going. Wasn’t my fault I ran warm and didn’t feel it die off. She was back to old Sera, bossing me around and being overall a pain in the butt.
“I put the last piece on some time in the middle of the night. I don’t know what time.”
“The ground’s cold,” Sera commented. “But I don’t know how long.”
That much was normal. The ground was always cold in the spring. Guess she hadn’t slept outside in a while because she wasn’t making any sense.
Sera stood up and began looking at the ground. Could she see a cold ground? That was a weird Red power my mother never mentioned. Her eyes darted around before she began to walk away.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I jogged to catch up with her.
She peered over the bushes we had camped behind and looked over at the water. I watched with her but didn’t see anything. Grace wasn’t soaking in the water as I had hoped, but I had a feeling Sera didn’t expect that much.
Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3) Page 15