“What kind of powers?” I asked.
“The power of the mind and of will.” She tapped her head as she smiled with amusement, and I knew she would tell me no more. “When spring comes, it will all become clear,” she riddled as she sat down in her bed, looking tired and weak.
I left her to go to my own room where I laid awake, wondering about the star engraved box. My body was restless with unanswered questions that rattled my brain.
I was up before Aelish the next day, having hardly slept even despite the tea. She saw my questioning eyes and quickly averted her gaze as she put a pot over the fire. I had thought about it all night and realized there was more she had yet to reveal, and I deserved answers.
“What is it you aren’t telling me?” I demanded, playing with my empty cup on the table.
“It is not time to tell you yet,” she said with a shrug, and I felt nearly ready to lose my temper, my pulse began to race, but I kept it at bay as I loosened a breath.
“Where will you go?” I asked, knowing that if she intended for me to leave in the spring, she too would leave.
“Wherever the stars will me to go.” She sat down gingerly across from me and I wondered how she could even manage to leave this place. But I knew the stealth warrior that lay beneath that old weak exterior.
I waited for a moment before I asked, “Where did you come from?”
I had long since wondered but never felt there was a right time to ask. I didn’t even know if she would tell me.
“I came from here, from this forest. It is where I was born and where I have spent many, many years growing.” She looked out the window to the sun soaked forest surrounding us. “My family has lived in the cities, the forest, among the people. We have lived everywhere, but the forest has always been our home. We go where the stars will us and for this moment, for you, I came here, to this forest.” She looked at me with such tenderness that I felt my heart cave in a little.
“What does that mean?” I’d given up long ago trying to decipher her riddles, her mentions of the stars and where they willed her to go. I knew she believed them, and who was I to judge, but that wasn’t an answer. The stars weren’t an answer.
“It means that for as long as I can remember I have been what I need to be and where I need to be. A warrior, a friend. Hunter or prey. I am the wolf and the sheep, the teacher and the student.” She waved her hand as if pointing to all the things she was and all the things she could be.
I stared in utter ignorance of what she could possibly mean. I tried to make sense of it all, but as she took a sip of her warm tea, I knew I would get no more from her. So I slugged on my Dred Wulf fur cloak and headed out to hunt.
Spring came faster than I’d hoped, as if the stars knew I wished for an eternal winter and brought spring faster just to mock me.
As the snow melted and the grass turned a bright shade of green, I began counting down the days and the hours I had left. I didn’t know why, or what for, but I knew I was preparing for something.
Aelish didn’t reveal any more to me after that night. And she never mentioned the box again. Nothing more about herself or what she had planned for me, what the stars had planned for me. So I continued on with training and hunting with the hopes that she’d forgotten or that the stars would reveal something different to her in the intervening months.
But when she pulled out a pack and began filling it with my stuff I knew, I knew this was the day.
I didn’t speak while she gathered my things, passed me my hunting knife, and ushered me out the door. I noted the wood box had not been added. It still sat on the top shelf in Aelish’s room that was now opened as she gathered supplies for me to keep. But I did not ask as I knew she would reveal nothing.
Together we walked in silence as the sun slowly began to make its morning rise. She led the way and I obediently followed, knowing this was the end, this was where I said goodbye.
I wasn’t sure I was ready and I felt like time was going too fast for me.
I didn’t know if I would ever be ready.
But I trusted her, and she had always known when I was ready, what I was capable of even when I didn’t.
We reached the edge of the forest, the end of one and the beginning of another. The same place I had once scared away the Dred Wulf, the first day I truly became what I am now. She sat down on the edge of the cliff and I sat down beside her.
She pointed out to the horizon. “You see that dense canopy of trees, just there in the distance?” I followed her eyes to the spot she was pointing towards. I nodded. “There you will find your people. There you will wait for your father to arrive, and for her to arrive.”
I turned to her and said sharply, “My father?”
She nodded slightly. “I told you once before, he lives. And you will see him soon but he will not be as he was before. You can trust him, but there will come a time when his own heart will speak lies to him, and you will know they are lies though he won’t. When that time comes he will look to you for the salvation he needs. And you must oblige him.”
My eyes searched into the distance, to find him. As if I could see him from here. And there was a longing burning inside of me.
“There is another that you must help. A girl. You will know her by the amber ring around her brown eyes. She will need you, like you needed me.” I looked back to Aelish, my brows furrowed, but she continued, “She will need you to push her, to move her to be what she is to become. And when the time comes, you will do as the stars ask. It is your destiny.”
“What do they will me to do?” I asked.
“You will know when the time comes. I cannot tell you as the stars may change if you know. No one must know their own destiny until the time is right.” Her coal black eyes hardened. They were warning enough to tell me not to ask any more. “And you must tell no one of this. Speak to no one of me. That is imperative.”
I wanted to object, my body seizing at the idea that no one would know what she’d done for me. People had to know of her, the woman who had saved me, the woman who had kept me safe for so long. But I knew she spoke the truth and ever since that first moment on this very rock, I had chosen to trust her, and so I would do so again today.
With a solemn nod I agreed to keep what she spoke a secret.
She stood and I stood with her. “You must weave a story of survival, and fear. One that you have not lived but for the nightmares that haunt your dreams. You will not remember me when I leave, and you will not search for me, but I will always be there watching, as I was that night six years ago when you stood before the Dred Wulf and became a man.” She placed her hand on my shoulder and I wanted to hug her, to hold her close and promise I would never forget her. I was sweating at the thought of being alone again.
I wasn’t ready.
She pressed her hand harder against the small my back, so much so that my body began to lean over the edge, and she pushed me from the cliff. I began to free-fall towards the hard ground and thick brush below. My arms flailed as I tried to reach for anything to stop my fall. My voice caught in my throat as the wind rushed against my cheeks. I got closer and closer, and when I closed my eyes the world around me went black and silent.
Chapter Five
There was a burning searing pain in my head, and hot sticky wetness streamed down my cheek. I touched my forehead and winced at the gaping wound gushing bright red blood. Glancing around, I found I had landed in a relatively soft collection of bushes, by some miracle. I looked up to the cliff above and found the Dred Wulf looking down on me, its teeth bared as it let out a low growl before it turned and left.
What had happened was a blurry mess, but I think I remember the Dred Wulf standing before me on the edge of that cliff, and I think I must have jumped to get away from it.
I tried to stand on shaky feet, knowing the Dred Wulf would find a way down to hunt me, but pain shot through my ankle and I dropped to a knee. I looked down to see it was no longer facing the way it was supposed to.
Hotness met my face as I gripped onto the thin tree beside me and prayed for the flush of hot and cold to subside, and for my vision to return.
Gritting my teeth, I sat back down, knowing I couldn’t walk on my busted ankle, but I had to get out of there, I had to find somewhere to hide from the Dred Wulf. I took out my hunting knife and pulled myself to my knees. I tested a low hanging limb on the tree beside me and deemed it strong enough to hold me up. I sawed it off, then flipped it over to make the other end flat as well. I found another already broken branch and snapped it in to a small handle and wrapped it around the top to create a little T where my hand could rest upon it as I stood.
My entire body ached, but I was running out of time; the sunlight was quickly dimming. I took an assisted step forward on my dislocated ankle, and though I winced with pain and the heat threatened to take me over, I managed to make my way slowly.
I didn’t have to go far, I just had to find somewhere to hide. The blood reeked from me and I was certain every animal in this damn forest would smell me and come running sooner or later. So I went only as far as the large tree a few meters away from where I saw a strong high branch jutting out from its sturdy trunk.
I took the rope from my bag and threw one end over the branch. Once I had both ends in hand, I created a loop for my good foot and strapped myself in. I hauled myself up slowly and steadily. My tired and sore limbs barked at me as the rope tore through my hands but I kept going. I reached the branch and pulled myself over it, resting my back on the trunk. As I felt my body failing me, I tied the rope around me and around the trunk, securing myself to the tree just before the pain and blood loss sent me into unconsciousness.
I woke to the howls that haunted my nightmares. They were just below me, I could feel them, but they hadn’t spotted me yet. I forced my racing heart to slow down and took small breaths so as not to alert the Dred Wulfs of my presence. Darkness had set in and from where I sat I could see the stars above shining brightly.
They prowled where my blood still stained the forest floor, a thankful distraction so they didn’t look my way. I watched them with cautious eyes, my knife ready the entire time as they stalked the area, searching for their prey. Searching for me.
Just as the sun was beginning to rise, signaling another day alive, the forest began to awake with life once again and the Dred Wulfs finally left.
Exhaustion and pain took over again and I fell into another deep slumber.
Hours later, I woke once again to the warm spring sun now beating down on me at full mast. I examined the gash on my forehead, which had thankfully stopped bleeding, and then looked to my wrecked ankle. I needed to find some way to straighten it before it healed like that.
I untied myself from the tree and used the rope to gently hoist myself down from the branch that granted me safety through the night.
Once I reached the bottom the pain and heat stabbed me like a knife and I knew it was as good a time as any to set my ankle back in to place. I crawled to the tree across from me and wrapped the rope around it twice, taking both ends back with me to the tree I’d spent the night in. I took one end of the rope and gently wrapped it around my misplaced ankle, locking it around the heel and toes so the rope wouldn’t slip. I grabbed the other end and made sure the rope was tight enough as I pulled it around the tree securing it strong against my foot. I was sweating with both pain and anticipation. My eyes scanned the ground where I found a thick piece of bark and placed it in my mouth, biting down hard. With one quick pull, I jerked the open end of the rope. My stomach lurched at the pain and the sickening pop that filled the air. It worked. My ankle was back in place.
Heat hit me like a wave and I passed out immediately from the pain.
When I came back to consciousness, I was thrilled to see my foot now facing the right direction. Though the pain and tenderness were still there, it was the best sight I’d seen all day. Using a shirt from my bag, I wrapped the ankle tightly, and secured two sticks on either side to keep it in place. I tucked the rope back in my bag, grabbed my walking stick, and slung the pack back over my shoulder as I gingerly made my way towards the dense patch of trees that seemed to call my name. I’d seen them the night before, when I had stood on top of that cliff before the Dred Wulf must have surprised me and I was forced to jump off to survive.
My pace was slow, and the pain hit me in waves as I grew weaker. My mind was a foggy haze with every step, my vision blinking wearily. The lack of food and water didn’t help my symptoms. I was dizzy and near fainting.
I couldn’t remember the last time I ate. And my water container had emptied hours ago.
The sun was hot at my back as I neared the dense forest, navigating off sheer memory as I hadn’t seen any sign of the spot I saw yesterday but I knew it was close.
I was nearly on my knees crawling in exhaustion by the time I saw them. They were almost shadows, and if I hadn’t been paying attention I wouldn’t have even noticed them in their green army fatigues that blended into the forest. I stepped into the clearing before I dropped to the ground once again.
The soldiers startled and raised their guns at me. “Who are you?” one yelled.
“Max –” I mumbled, barely audible. “Max Murray,” I repeated, and I heard one of them swear under their breath.
They were at my side in an instant, and I was too exhausted for words. They picked me up between them and carried me through a sliver of rock hidden within this dense forest. I hissed in pain every time they banged my ankle trying to maneuvering through the narrow space. The entrance was tight and curved as we wound between the rocks until we entered a cavernous room. Rocks surrounded the outside and the dense forest canopy covered the open edges to shield it from the outside. The sun poked through the opened roof above.
The men took me to who I assume was a doctor who cut away my shirt to reveal more wounds I had not noticed before.
“Where have you been? We’ve been looking for you for…years?” one of the soldiers asked me.
I turned my head towards them, wincing at the pain. “Out there.” I nodded to where I thought the forest was. The two men looked at each other, and another mumbled swear escaped them.
“Six years, out there? In that forest? How?”
And so I told him the story of my survival. The one where I was alone for six years. Where I was hunted daily by the Dred Wulf and had to learn how to fight and hunt on my own. The story felt natural, it felt real. Because in my mind it was real. I had lived this story every day for the last six years.
And only later that night when I sat by the open fire, looking up to the open stars above, did something tug at my heart. The stirring in my chest reminded me I had made a promise, even if I no longer remembered it, when the time came, I would.
Chapter Six
It was four more years before my father arrived. The man who had once taught me to read, and scolded me when I got things wrong. The man who loved me unconditionally though he rarely found the words to convey how he truly felt. And even when I embraced him, even when I held him tight and fought back the tears that threatened to escape, I knew he was not the same man I’d left. But something told me to trust him, though it also warned of a time when I would have to trust myself first.
He told me of what happened in Cytos, of the destruction that was brought down upon the city I once knew, and the people he had saved. He told me of the others, and I saw his eyes light up when he spoke of them, of the family he had created while I had waited for him to return.
During the four years while I waited, we monitored the situation in the nearby city of Kuros. We knew an attack was imminent, but could never have fathomed the depths to which that man would go to find whatever it was he was looking for. It was more than we any of us could handle. Coleman took Kuros before we could even blink an eye, and just like that we were down on bent knees to him once again.
It wasn’t until many weeks later, after my father sent multiple search parties and many hunters to fend off the Dre
d Wulfs, that he returned with his beloved family, the one he cared most for now. The people from Cytos that he now called his sons and daughters. I couldn’t bear to watch them arrive so I hid in the control room, not wanting to see the people who had taken my place.
He was not the man they remembered, not even the same name they had grown accustomed to, but I saw the love that flowed between them all, and the respect they had for him. I saw what I had missed these last ten years away from them as I struggled to survive on my own. I saw what I had been wanting my entire life, even before this all happened. Acceptance, respect, family. I had none of those and these people had swept in and taken it from me when I didn’t even have a chance to fight for it.
We had received a message two days before my father returned with his former team, and he was eager to get their opinion on it.
As the three of them walked through the door my heart dropped into my stomach as I finally laid eyes on the people who took my place. It was one person in particular that stopped my entire body from functioning. My breath was nearly taken away as she walked in. Her long brown hair was tucked behind her in a neat braid. Her skin was a porcelain kind of white as if she had barely seen the light of day. But that wasn’t what had my heart near stopping at the sight. It was the amber brown eyes that gazed past me, not even seeing me as she looked around the control room we stood in. Her eyes reminded me of a simple place and the stars overhead, but I wasn’t sure why. A feeling of home, safe and warm, lived inside of them, and I longed to look at them again. But she turned back to my father as he spoke.
There was someone beside her that I barely noticed, but I saw her eyes flicker to him every chance she got. And his to hers.
Untold: The Complete Watcher Series Mini Novellas (Watcher #4) Page 12