[Unknown POV]
"Witch Lassie made it." Hearing Paul's words, I opened my eyes and found myself lying in my bedroom. I glanced at the clock above my bed and picked up my phone to open my calendar again.
Seeing the date on it, July 24, 2021, I smiled and sat up from the bed. I couldn't wait to go to White Star Lake right now.
"Wait, how are we going to get through the woods in the Leyte Mountain without Witch Lassie guiding us?" Paul threw a good question.
I had traveled time back to one year ago. For the present time, Witch Lassie would come to visit my pack a year later. But now I was in the past time, how would I find her?
Although I had known this friend for over 30 years, the funny thing was that so far, all I knew about her was that she was a witch, and that was about it. And, eighteen years ago, no, seventeen years ago, when I saved her and the phoenix near the volcano, she didn't leave me any contact information.
Wait, that phoenix! I remembered something important. Now that Paul and I had gone back to a year ago, then I should have been able to find the Phoenix Blood I once possessed. However, I searched the room and couldn't find the glass vial which had been enchanted by Witch Lassie to keep the magic blood.
What the hell was going on? Theoretically, if my soul did a time warp and went back to the past world, then my past possessions would not change until I did anything to change the past, such as throwing away the phone in my hand. But, the reality was after I woke up, I didn't do anything to change the past other than sit up and stand on the floor. So where did the Phoenix Blood I owned before?
"Something went wrong, Arthur," Paul said.
I nodded my head. I was desperate to get to White Star Lake to meet my mate, but I had no idea how to get in touch with Witch Lassie right now.
Anyway, the first thing I had to do was leave for Leyte Mountain immediately. I hastily left a message for my beta Chris that I was going out, and then I rushed into my SUV and headed to the southeast.
Ten hours later, I met a little red-haired girl who was maybe 4 feet tall waiting at the entrance to the forest leading to White Star Lake at the Leyte Mountain.
"Witch Lassie?" I looked at the little girl's amber eyes and wondered if this child, who looked about 3-4 years old, was the witch who claimed to have lived for more than 200 years?
"Arthur, you're 10 minutes later than I expected." The little girl clearly called out my name as she pulled out a smartphone. She pointed to the time on it and said, "Do you know as an Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, it's very rude to keep a lady waiting for you?"
Okay, now I had no doubt at all that this little girl in front of me was not Witch Lassie.
"Lassie, why did you turn into a little girl? Magic?" I asked her while squatting down.
"Do you think it doesn't take anything but phoenix blood to travel through space and time? I spent all my magic to release the power of the Phoenix Blood and then sent the souls of the three of us into this world. Now that I'm in this state, it's generous of me to ask you to pay a fraction of your future lifespan." Lassie sighed.
"Hold on. What do you mean by 'this world'? I'm not in my original world?" My eyes widened in disbelief. But I knew that Witch Lassie wasn't lying in front of me.
"In a world, what happened in the past can never be changed. But if you consider the multiverse, that's a different explanation. You should encounter many situations in your life where you need to make a choice. "
"For example, you hesitated to choose whether to study Psychology or Applied Computing when applying to college, and you end up choosing Psychology. But have you ever thought about how your future would have changed if you had chosen Applied Computing?" Lassie gave a very understandable example.
"The multiverse? You mean that after I make my choice, the other 'I' in another world will select another choice?"
Lassie nodded, she waved her finger, and a dandelion illusion made of magic suddenly appeared in front of my eyes. "It's like a dandelion. At the moment you make a choice, the other option you didn't choose prompts a new parallel world to be generated." In the illusion, a dandelion seed detached and fell next to that original dandelion, germinating rapidly.
"So, we are in a parallel world separated from the original world? Why is it possible to go back in time in this world?" I looked at the separated dandelion seeds that had only grown to just blossom.
I figured out the reason and asked, "Because the speed of time flow in this world is slower than that of my original world? So, for this world, we are in the 'present' and not the 'past.'"
Lassie snapped her fingers and threw me an appreciative smile, "That's it! You hesitated before you decided to come with me to save your mate, didn't you?"
I nodded my head. Yes, I hesitated at that moment. I was still hesitating as I followed Lassie through the forest in the Leyte Mountain.
Just then, the dandelion in front of me separated more seeds, some of those seeds were growing fast, and some were just germinating.
Lassie continued to explain, "You can treat all of these seeds as newborn parallel zones. Some of them will have a slower time flow than your original world, and some will be faster. My magic can be used to discover that world with a slower time flow. Now, we managed to cross the barrier between spaces with the help of Phoenix Blood. And the world we reborn is exactly the one with a slower time flow. It is generated when you hesitated."
I shook my head and asked her again, "There aren't many differences between this world and the original world we once lived in. The main differences are that here is a year slower than there, and I don't own Phoenix Blood. Right?"
"Exactly." She nodded and then asked, "What's wrong? Are you afraid your mate isn't the same girl from White Star Lake Pack? Or, are you worried that the Emily here is no longer the Emily you know?" Lassie seemed to read through my thoughts, and she gave a mocking smile, looking like a little kid ready to play a trick on someone at any moment.
I turned my head, "I do worry that in this world, my future mate is not that girl." I was also thinking about Emily. Would the Emily in this parallel world have the same fate as the Emily in my original world?
"Well, then forget about the mate the moon god has arranged for you and go back to your pack to find your dream woman! "
"It consumed a tremendous amount of magic power from this body when my soul woke up and merged with this world's Lassie's soul. I can only use the form of a child to ensure that I can move normally. It will take me quite a long time to recover my magic." Lassie said sarcastically. She clapped her hands together, and the dandelions illusion that was used as examples disappeared.
"Wait!" I sighed, "Please take me to White Star Lake. I need to make sure she's safe now and also confirm she remembers what happened in the original world as much as I do."
"This world generated when you hesitated if you should go to the Whitestar Lake Pack, which means that everything that happened here in the past is no different from the original world. Except for the Phoenix Blood."
I raised my brow, "That's my second question. I gained the blood 17 years ago. If time in this world is only one year slower than the original. Why I couldn't find it?"
Lassie shook her head, "Alpha boy, do you think you can be reborn infinitely, as long as you own the Phoenix Blood? Each person, no, each soul, can use the Phoenix blood only once. That means the moment our souls step into this world, the Phoenix blood we once owned in this world will be erased."
"By who?"
"By the Time."
I kept a short silent moment to think about her words. "Thank you, Lassie," I whispered, totally understanding what she meant.
"You are welcome, alpha boy. Well, I'm not helping you. I just want to save my.... my friend's children."
I noticed that Lassie's eyes seemed to be hiding very complicated emotions. I wasn't sure if Lassie was referring to my parents or my future mate's parents. However, the way she called me the little boy was a bit like my grandmother, who had passed away if she hadn't spoken to me in this childlike manner.
"Lassie, you just said you merged with the soul of this world's Lassie. Why didn't I meet my soul of this world?" I couldn't help but ask her on the way to the White Star Lake.
"I used magic to put you two souls, into your bodies in this world while they were sleeping or in a coma. You werewolf souls are not as powerful as us witches. Suppose I put your souls into active bodies. In that case, you will be treated as ghostly foreign objects by the bodies of this world and expelled by the body's self-defense system at a second glance. At that time, no amount of Phoenix blood you have will be able to save you."
"Where is the soul of 'I' in this world? And Paul?"
Lassie was obviously a little impatient, "You can't even figure this out? The biggest difference between you and you in this world is that you have more memories of the year from July 24, 2021, to July 24, 2022, than you do in this world. The so-called soul merging is nothing more than a memory overlay."
"Okay, imagine your soul as a new system equipped with new features and your body as a laptop. When you upgrade the system for your laptop, does the original information in your laptop disappear? Or Will the hardware in your laptop become the latest model because of the system upgrade? No, your laptop has not changed, except for one more new feature."
I instantly understood what Lassie meant, and I had to say, she's a smart witch who's very good at giving examples.
Neither of us spoke again for the next few minutes until Lassie led me to the exit of that maze-like forest. She stopped and fingered at my phone.
"I'm going to hide away for a while to recover my magic. If you need anything, you can message me or voice call from 10am to 4pm weekday time. Just remember- you two should change the future rather than struggle with the memories of the past."
"Good luck, young man. See you later."
I looked down at my phone screen, and a notification came from ChatsApp. It's a greeting sticker. I looked up to say thank you to the witch who had helped me so much. But she got on her fleece blanket and disappeared into the fog of the forest.
I forgot to ask her exactly how many years of my future life she had taken because when I asked her to help me with the power of the Phoenix Blood, she offered to take 100 years of my life. I didn't know how many years she would take away from me, but, apparently, it was more important to go to the White Star Lake Pack now than that affair.
When I left the forest, it was late afternoon. I shifted to wolf form. Paul led me for about 200 yards before we were surrounded by several wolves.
Fine, it was acceptable to have a greeting with her father and pack members before meeting my future mate.