Two days later.
Chynna and Aria agreed to meet up earlier to prepare and go to the meeting place together. When they went out it's already starting to get dark but there is still enough time before the blue moon is at its fullest. They walked together towards the forest trail leading to the meeting place and they were accompanied by Chief Wesley and Elder Sarah, Chynna's grandmother.
As they walk the forest trail, other members of the pack started coming and walking together with them. Later when they reach the assigned location, the young Lycans who will face their awakening will receive a blessing ritual headed by the Alpha together with the Elders and all adult Lycans of their pack. All adult members of the pack are expected to attend the ritual, except for mothers of young children and elders who can no longer transform due to age. They were left behind in the village to do some preparations for the awakening party which will happen right after the newly transformed Lycans return.
***
Upon arriving at the meeting place, each person went to their position. Aria and Chynna with their group of young Lycans gathered together on the largest clearing just a few feet from the center of the place. There were seven of them standing there. Aria and Chynna are standing together at the very front with the other two girls, Chloe and Myca. The guys, Zach, Dustin, and Lenard all took the back. Then Chief Wesley slowly walked towards the highest rock and when he is roughly around three feet from the rock, he leaped to its top. Upon landing on the ground, he is already in his majestic wolf form. And just like a domino, the other adult Lycans around them transformed one by one. All shapes and colors of furry wolves gathered around them.
Chynna grabbed Aria's hand and gently squeezed it.
"It's starting. Aren't you excited?" She whispered.
"Very excited." Aria answered.
Then the wolf Chief Wesley growled towards Aria's group. But what they heard in their minds was not a growl, instead it was the human voice of Chief Wesley.
"Kneel young ones."
Each of them showed a different reaction to what they experienced. Surely they know that all transformed Lycans can understand each other even without using human language, but they are yet to transform and they can already understand them. And this is not the first time they heard the adults growl in wolf form but not once did they understand what they mean before. This only means that they are already starting with their transformation with some of the characteristics of a grown Lycan starting to show up. But what amazes Aria even more is the power that comes with that voice. It's like they can never disagree nor reject what is being asked of them. This is the power of an Alpha. Soon all of Aria's group are kneeling on the ground.
Aria shot a glance at her father. She's giggling inside.
'Dad is so cool.' She thought to herself.
Once everyone settled, Chief Wesley howled and just like earlier, everyone followed suit. The sound may come as eerie to normal people, as what they will hear is the sound of a few dozens of wolves howling at the same time in the cold of the night. But Aria and the others are hearing differently. What they hear is a symphony that envelops their hearts with a warm and relaxing feeling. The music is both familiar and unfamiliar to them. And the emotions that the music brought them gave them the motivation to move forward.
Once again, Chief Wesley growled.
"Now rise, young ones. Move forward and face your destiny with a strong heart and a clear mind. Overcome your tribulations and rise to the top. But bear in mind the love of our family, the dignity and pride of our pack, and the dream of our ancestors that you will continue in the future."
***
After just less than an hour and a half, Aria is already on her own clearing doing her last minute preparations. Last time it took her more than two hours to get to this place but that's because she needed to stop everytime to check each clearing she passed by. Also, she noticed that now she can run faster and jump higher and farther than before.
There's only an hour left before the moon gets to its fullest and right now she is scattering what they call the moondust around her clearing to cover her smell from werewolves as she transforms later. The first transformation is when a Lycan is at its weakest and before, during the great war between Lycans and werewolves, there had been incidences of werewolves succesfully attacking young Lycans facing their awakening. The elders and the Alpha of the original pack made contact with the spirits once again to ask for guidance and the spirits taught them how to make the moondust. Eversince, they use the moondust during awakenings.
Thirty minutes later and she is done with all the preparations and started placing the remaining moondust in the hollow. Then she started removing her clothes and placing them neatly folded near her other stuffs. It would get ripped later if she insist on keeping it and she didn't want that to happen. She then sat crossed legs at the center of the clearing and started her meditation while waiting for the time of her awakening.
Soon she started feeling a warm energy engulfing her entire body. She felt relaxed and at peace. But just a few seconds later the warmth slowly turned into heat and continued to rise in temperature. At this point, Aria wanted to jump into a tub of ice cold water as the heat feels like burning her every muscle. She tried to relieve some of the pain by rolling on the dirt beneath her. But even before she feel some relief, she felt a pounding on her heart. She curled up clutching her chest gasping for air. Her heart is hurting and beating erratically and she is already having a hard time to breathe. It is also starting to get harder to see her surrounding as her eyes feel like they are burning and her sight keeps on jumping in and out of focus. But despite all of this she didn't screamed or cried for help. She knew that this is a part of her awakening and that she must endure each step from here onwards.
Minutes had passed and the pain continues to grow. She has already dug a lot of the dirt with her bare hands to get some relief from the pain. Her usually pale skin is now red hot and dirty from the pain she is facing and the dirt she has rolled herself into. As she is feeling the pain as though her muscles are being ripped from her bones she bend her body and she caught sight of the moon. For some reason, her unfocused eyes regain their focus, and the only thing she can see now is the moon. She is still feeling the pain but she can't remove her sight from the perfectly shaped full moon. That's when the most excruciating pain happened. It felt like all her bones shattered and that is what might have really happened because she clearly heard the cracking of her own bones. She let out a scream uncontrollably. She fell down on the dirt facing the sky the same time she feel like falling out of consciousness. But she forced herself to stay awake. She must keep herself awake no matter what. This is the crucial part of their transformation. She knows that, they all know that, for they were all informed beforehand. They must remember everything that they are experiencing right now for them to be able to transform on their own the next time they have to.
And then she started to feel a tingling sensation all over her body. She felt around her body and she sensed the changes starting to happen to her. Her bones that were previously shattered started to rebuild itself. And her limp muscles started reforming around the structure of her bones. But instead of forming two legs and two arms of a human, her bones and muscles formed four strong limbs. She also felt her face elongating into a snout and her ears moving at the top of her head. Her lips became wider and her teeth changed into sharp canine teeth. Her long brown hair started shrinking back as her whole body started growing her fur and her tail growing at her behind.
When the tingling sensation stopped, Aria is standing on her four limbs. She knew her transformation is complete. She opened her eyes and she saw an owl hundreds of meters from where she is as clear as day. She perk up her ears and she heard the tiniest sound created by the bugs around her. She is exhilarated. She tried walking and looked down while doing so. She saw paws! She have paws! And they are white! She run to where she kept her things. And she was so amazed by how natural it felt to run in wolf form. Upon entering the small hollow, she went straight to her mirror. She brought one because she want to see her wolf form right away. What she saw in the reflection is a huge wolf standing proud in her pure white fur.