“Are you asking me to join your family?” She took a step back. “Asking if I want to become a wolf like the rest of you?” To become like the wolf Sasha is? “I do not know,”
He held up his hand to silence her. “Peace. For a long time, we have listened to tradition and followed it, only bringing orphans and only those over a certain age. Pyter broke tradition by seeking a way to break the blood curse that stops us having children. Whatever they say about Sasha, more will follow. We must become ready for the future, but in a gentle way, one step at a time in the Walker way. I only ask that you think on it.” He nodded back to where Sasha lay watching, “Now, go back to your charge. I will see to those things you need.”
She looked back at Sasha, saw the young woman staring at her and nodded. “I will think about it. It is a lot to take in though.”
Alice wandered back to her charge and sat. “What is wrong? What did he say to you?” The hand placed on her knee was trembling and she heard Sasha whisper fiercely, “If he has upset you I will make him pay.”
Shaking her head Alice said quietly, “No, nothing like that. He asked that I consider joining your family.”
The dark-haired young woman’s hand tightened on her knee for a moment and then left. “Would that be so bad?” Trembling, the voice continued, “I mean we get to see a lot of the world that others do not and you could see it with us.”
“It is not that easy. My father,” she sighed and then shook her head. “It is too much to think about right now. I have been taught that you are evil, that to meddle with you is to put our soul in peril. I know that to be false but to change shape? To become a wolf and feared by people. I cannot,” Looking to the sky she whispered, “I cannot think about it right now.”
There was silence between them for a moment and then Sasha whispered, “We may become like beasts, but it is still us. It is still our minds and still our personalities within looking out. When I came to you, it was as me, not the beast.”
“I am sure it is. I just don’t even know how to think of it. Tell me why you left.” She saw Sasha look at her confused, “Why did you leave when I was young? You were away for a long time”
“Father had a vision, that we would be needed in another forest in another part of the land. We had to go even if some of us wanted to stay.” She shrugged, “That is the walker life. Duty before what we want, we go where we are needed. This forest though, this forest will always be our home and we will always come back here.”
“So what did you have to go and do?” She shrugged, “I know so little about what your duty actually is. Teach me about it.”
“Here,” Markus placed down a plate full of meat and bread and a pitcher of water. “We are warming a cooking pot of water for Sasha to wash. Usually, we go and find a river or a stream but I guessed you would not like that.”
Nodding her thanks she waited until the man had left before picking up the plate. “This is what you eat for breakfast?” Sasha nodded and Alice saw her eyes move to the plate. Taking some of the bread she passed the plate over and watched as the young woman began to tuck into the meal. “I’ve never seen anyone eat like that after being as ill as you were,” she smiled. “You must be feeling better. So, what were you doing?”
Between mouthfuls of meat, Sasha talked. “We traveled for months until we finally got to a mountain region far away from here. There, a falling star had hit and it had unearthed a relic of the first race. It had great power and so we spent several years there fashioning a secure place to bury it so that it would not be found again. Then we joined other families for a great gathering and after that, we took ship and traveled to the great deserts of the south.”
“You really do go all over, don’t you. I can’t imagine wanting to come back to this gloomy place after seeing what you have seen.”
The young woman stopped eating and looked up. “There is a beauty here that pulls us back,” she said simply before blushing and falling upon her plate once more.
Together they chewed their food and Alice waited until Sasha cleaned her plate before passing her a drink of water. “Right,” Alice said after they had broken their fast. “Now, where do we go to get you some privacy so you can have a wash?”
Chapter 18
Sasha looked at her with a face that Alice felt her own mirroring. Wordlessly, and without turning her head the Walker pointed to the woodland around them and said breathlessly, “We usually either bath in a stream or if we can’t find that, we go out of the way of camp.”
I’m a healer and she is my patient. I can do this. “Come on then.” Alice got to her feet and held out her hand. “I don’t know exactly how different you are or what the after effects of your mother’s magic will be so let’s clean the illness away. Then you can change. Apparently, that will heal the wound?”
“Only the physical wound.” Sasha struggled to her feet, her hand trying to keep the blanket around her naked body. Every time she moved her wounded arm she grimaced until Alice could take it no more and she stepped forward.
“Here,” Alice caught both ends of the blanket and wrapped it around her friend, seeing a flash of skin that made her blood pound. “What do you mean only the physical wound?”
With a nod of her head, Sasha started to walk and Alice picked up the heavy water pot and a rag to trail after her. “The change renews our body. Any damage done in one form disappears when we change into the other. There are deeper wounds that can be done though, wounds that do not necessarily hurt the body. No change can heal those.”
Like the Walker girl, you met at the gathering? Alice flushed an ugly shade of red and kept silent as Sasha led her deeper into the forest. Then the Walker girl nodded to a bush with heavy foliage. “There will do.”
Disappearing behind the bush Alice placed the water pot down on the ground by the side of the bush and stepped back. “Where are you going?” There was a panicky note to Sasha’s voice that made her heart jump.
“It’s ok. I’m just giving you a little privacy. I’m still here on the other side of the bush though.”
“Good because I kind of need your help.” Alice blinked as Sasha’s voice rushed on. “I can’t move this blasted arm worth a damn and you want me clean before I chance. Can you come and give me a hand?”
Gods above! “Sure,“ she said and her voice was quieter than it should have been. Walking around the bush Alice saw the Walker woman standing nervously. The blanket was still wrapped around her shoulders and moving until she stood behind her Alice reached up and gently took the blanket away.
She had seen the young woman naked before. She had touched her skin before. These times melted away as she felt the pads of her fingers touch the young woman’s back. I’m a healer, the body is nothing to me but something to be healed she thought but her thoughts turned to clouds as the blanket dropped away. Smooth skin flushed healthily, warmly, greeting her gaze.
She saw the night dark hair fall, saw the flash of silver as Sasha tossed her head and Alice felt herself breathing faster and faster. Urges she had rarely felt sent signals to her brain that she could not fight, did not want to fight. Slowly her fingers reached out, touched the bare shoulders of her friend and stroked across her back. Skin against skin, gossamer-light she felt her heart race, the blood pounding in her head. Without thinking her lips descended and Alice felt herself become lost in a need she could not understand.
“Is everything ok?” Sasha’s voice broke the spell and Alice shook her head as she stepped back.
Red-faced and breathless Alice squeaked, “Yes of course. I’ll do your back.” Reaching she dunked the rag into the hot water and brought it out to let the water run down Sasha’s back. What was I going to do? Oh gods, I nearly ruined everything. Blinking back tears she ran the cloth down the bare skin, being gentler than she had ever been before.
I can’t think like this. It is wrong for a healer to think like this. Over and over again she thought those words. She kept her eyes on the foliage around them and tried t
o stop them from roaming but it did little to stop the urgent desperate thoughts that invaded her brain. “So you know what I was doing whilst we were apart.” Sasha’s voice cut through her confusion and she looked at the back of the Walker woman’s head. “What were you doing?”
Whilst we were apart? Are we together then? Do you want me to touch you? “I was just learning from my father really. Helping him heal the villagers when needed and I occasionally helped the village girls who got into trouble.”
Sasha turned her head and Alice saw her eyes searching for her. “You have no one special in your life then? No man who takes your fancy who is waiting for you back at the village?”
Shaking her head she felt her blond hair tickle the back of her neck. “No. There is no one at all.”
The look of joy that flashed across Sasha’s eyes was gone the instant after it surfaced and she heard the Walker woman say quietly, “I am surprised. You are beautiful.”
“I am also an outsider. The others go to church and we rarely do. The others dare not step into this forest and we do with impunity. The others fear your kind. We do not. I have a few friends, but even then I think they would turn on me if the others did.” She slid the rag one last time over her friend’s skin and sighed. “Ok, backs done. Can you do your front?”
“I think so.” She heard Sasha say and passing over the rag she thought good but even as she thought it she did not feel it. Walking around the other side of the bush she could hear the splashing of water and then a soft sigh as Sasha got clean. “I forgot how nice this felt.” Sasha’s voice filled the air. “I will have to show you I normally bath when I am here though.”
“Really, is that different?” Alice spoke loudly enough for her companion to hear. “I can’t imagine water feels any different than what you are doing now.”
“Oh Alice, you have no idea. Trust me. Tomorrow, if father has nothing else for me to do I will show you ok?”
“Ok,” she managed to squeak it out. Gods, not only will she be naked, she will expect me to be as well. Her body flamed and she shivered. I should not think like this. She is my friend, nothing more. Reaching with her fingers she pinched her arm hard, pain chasing the thoughts away.
“Good, Ok I have finished washing. Now I will change and heal this open sore on my arm and then we can go back to camp.”
Alice blinked and softly said, “Wait, will you show me? Will you show me how you change?” She stood quietly and felt her heart beating faster as she waited for a response.
“Are you sure you want to see it?” Sasha said equally as quiet. “I am not like you. It will only remind you we are different.”
Alice carefully walked around the bush and stared into her friend’s eyes. “If you don’t want to show me it is ok,” Alice waited, her breath held. The forest had gone quiet and she could hear the Walker camp clearly, a bastion of seeming normality in this strange moment.
“I don’t want you to think badly of me,” whispered words that were harsh with fear crossed the air between them and Alice could not help but smile.
“You are my friend. You always will be my friend. This thing you do, I have seen it already when you were unconscious. In the middle of the poisons attack, you tried to change but could not. I know what you are here,” she tapped her head, “And I feel it here,” she tapped her heart. “So I would replace that memory I have of you changing with a better one if you would allow it.”
Sasha’s silvered midnight hair trembled and then she nodded, just once. There was nothing of the animal in the way she stood just then and Alice ached to reach out to her. “We do not show this to outsiders you understand?” Alice nodded as Sasha continued, “It is a private thing, between families and,” her voice went even quieter, “Lovers only.”
Then she closed her eyes and Alice watched with bated breath. Holding her arm up Sasha smiled slightly as if she felt pleasure at the coming transformation and gently, slowly, dark black hairs began to sprout from the arm in front of her.
It was everything and nothing like she expected. Hair sprouted from skin covering the forearm entirely. Fingers melded together, slowly, quietly with little sign of pain until the created three thick digits and nails strengthened, lengthened and became lethal looking. “It looked like it hurt when you were ill. Does it hurt now?” Alice whispered and she saw her friend shake her head.
Opening her eyes Sasha waved her arm, a wolf’s leg and a paw from the shoulder down in the air. “When other families say I am not one of them, not one of the Walkers I try and push their words away with practice. Only the strongest of us can control the change this carefully and fully. No matter what they say, I am strong.”
Reaching out with her hand Alice breathed, “May I?” and when the Walker girl nodded she ran her fingers through the rough coarse wolf fur. “Beautiful,” she whispered. “I had forgotten how soft you were.”
“No one has called me beautiful before.” Sasha’s voice whispered and looking up Alice saw those eyes bore into hers. She blushed and stepped away.
“Come on, change back and we can go and tell your father you are better.” With a nod, the Walker girl closed her eyes once more and the wolf disappeared becoming human once more. “I will leave you to dress,” Alice said and turning she started to walk away.
“Alice,” Sasha’s voice stopped her and she turned to see the young woman pulling the blanket around herself, all trace of injury gone. “Thank you.”
“I promised you remember. I don’t give up on you, and you don’t give up on me. I did nothing else. Now go and get dressed properly,” Alice ordered the Walker woman. “I will go to your father and let him know you are fully healed.”
Alice walked back to the camp and then towards Pyter’s campfire. Thinking of what she had just seen she shook her head still amazed by it. To think such magic exists in this world. I have seen nothing to suggest they are evil so are all the church’s teaching so very wrong? Then she thought of her village and sighed, I can see why they keep it quiet though.
Walking up to the headman’s campfire she nodded to Pyter and to Markus who sat by him. “The wound is gone and she seems fine. I fear I did little to help though.”
“Nonsense,” Markus spoke up. “She stopped breathing and you brought her back. Do not belittle your accomplishment.”
“He speaks truly healer, I hope you will stay a few more days amongst us even if you fear you have little to do. It would do Sasha good to have a friend here again.”
“I am ready to follow your orders once more father.” Sasha, dressed in the walker’s usual attire walked up the headman’s campfire and nodding to Markus, she bent and kissed her father on the cheek. “And I am sorry if I worried you.”
“Is she ready healer?” Pyter turned to Alice with a questioning gaze. “You have more knowledge of these things than anyone in my family. Normally our blood keeps us strong but now you know Sasha does not share our blood. Is she ready to become a Walker once more?”
“Father you know I am! I may not be fully a Walker, given the gift in the same way you were but I am ready. I am of the family father.” Alice watched Sasha’s face turn white and eyes used to signs of illness saw how her legs trembled.
“Give her light duties.” Her Walker friend turned to her, disbelief on her face and she continued, “Your body has been through a trauma Sasha and needs time to recuperate. I have no doubt when you are stronger you will be the Walker you have always been but right now, you need to build your strength up.”
Pyter nodded and before Sasha could say a word he held up his hand to forestall her. “She speaks wisdom daughter and Markus has been speaking to me of his plans for when I pass the leadership of the family over to him. What he says makes sense also.”
Getting to his feet Pyter walked the few steps to his daughter and squeezing both shoulders he nodded. “I have given the healer the safety of the forest. Markus is needed elsewhere so I want you to guide her, show her the way of things and show her some of the places we
hide from those who would use their power so that she may gain a greater understanding of us. The safe places mind.” He smiled and sat back down. “I place the healer in your care daughter. Do not make me regret it.”
Sasha nodded and Alice swallowed dryly. “Very well father. I will care for her like she was my own family.” Then she turned to Alice and smiled, “Looks like we will be together for a little while longer,” and Alice felt her skin blush fiercely.
Chapter 19
“Come on lazy,” Alice groaned as she rolled over and flicked her eyes open. Sasha squatted by her bedroll, her bright green eyes staring at her. Slowly the Walker’s hand reached out, stroked a wisp of hair from her eyes and smiling she said entirely too boisterously for Alice’s state of mind, “You wanted to know about the Walkers. Well getting up early is part of it,”
Soft dark leather boots went up Sasha’s legs to her knees, sliding over brown leather trousers. A shimmering green cloth shirt was covered by a touch looking leather jerkin and as Alice watched the Walker woman moved slightly and Alice saw the leather stretch against the skin. It fit her like a caress, close and yet soft enough to move easily.
What am I doing? She thought even as she took in the vision before her. “Where did you get the shirt?” She burrowed slightly more beneath the blankets she used, trying everything to get her mind off the young woman. She could smell the dew on the grass, the soft cold breeze that came with the end of the night and groaned. “And just why do you need to get up so damn early?”
The Walker woman laughed and then poked her blanket. “I’ll tell you about the shirt later.” Sasha stood and stretched and as Alice watched she saw those eyes stare at her once more, “As for getting up early, it is so we can spend the darkness as ourselves. We have an old saying. The day belongs to the goddess but the night belongs to us. We use it to share our lives with someone... special.”
Wolf Heart: Moon Born book 1 Page 11