*
On reaching home both Avyanna and Aspen had stopped by their favourite pizza and ice cream shop to get a rather sweet dinner. After all the time they spent together they had become hungry and couldn't wait to get home.
After their early dinner, they made their way back home talking about random things. The first thing both children noticed on walking through their hallway, was their father pacing back and forth the hallway as if waiting for something.
Confused, Aspen decided to speak up for the both of them,
"Father? Are you alright?" Aspen asked. The king's neck snapped so fast that one would be afraid that he had broken something there.
But past that was the urgency written all over his face, both children exchanged looks of concern before looking back to their father.
William let it a sigh of relief as if a large burden was just lifted off his shoulders, he looked at his children with contentment and decided that if there was ever a time to speak to them it was now.
"Father?" Avyanna pushed.
"If you wouldn't mind, could we have dinner together?"William smiled and immediately the children agreed, they believed now was not the time to defy orders, although it was just a simple request.
"Freshen up and meet me in the dining room." William ordered as he walked into another part of the mansion.
"What do you think happened? Father looked kinda tensed." Avyanna said.
"Well, we'll find out at dinner." Aspen said still looking at the door Father passed through.
Both the children went their separate ways and did as were told. Within 30 minutes, both were already at the dinner table, a few minutes later William walked in.
With the king seated, dinner automatically began and the maids moved in to serve the royal family. Immediately after this was done, they retracted themselves, leaving the king and his two children behind.
Dinner was awkward with an unsettling feeling attached to it. From time to time, both Aspen and Avyanna would exchange looks waiting patiently and following that; no one uttered even a word.
The King finished his dinner, and whipped his mouth as he finished the last drop of wine in his glass, he took a deep breath as he began talking.
"Normally, I shouldn't be telling you this since it involves matters of the state but... Something's coming. We don't know what and we don't know when but it's coming." William said with his eyes closed.
"Would it be war? treason?" Aspen moved forward to ask.
"To be frank son, I do not know. But that's not the only cause for concern." William continued.
"The escorts I sent with your mother about two weeks ago came back earlier this after, and it might be that your mother is being held captive back at home." William said dropping shocking news on his kids.
Unable to grasp what had just been saying, Bernessa let out a loud growl while Avyanna's heart began beating faster as miles and miles of questions ran through her mind.
Was Mom okay? Why would they do that to her? Is she safe when something unknown is about to happen? Wasn't Kendra enough to protect?
Suddenly, Avyanna shot up obviously shaken with worry, as she looked straight at her Father.
"Then what are we doing? Shouldn't we be on our way to save her right now? Who knows what she might be going through? She isn't safe there? They'll probably treat her like a-"
"Avyanna!" William intercepted his daughter. Frightened by his sudden outburst, Avyanna slowly sat down as she continued to listen to her father.
"I told you this because I felt you were old enough to handle such news, I started handling state affairs when I was 16. You're both Royals... Act like it." William understood why they were acting like that but he needed them to stay calm at all times.
Being scolded by her Father, Avyanna hung her head low, trying her best not to let her emotions show.
"We haven't confirmed that your mother is being held hostage but she did leave home without permission, anyone would go as far as restraining her movement, but depending on what happens next, till your 18th birthday, I will need both of your combat training. I wish that that's not the case but if it is then we have no choice." William finished.
More than he knew or his kids knew or anyone else in the kingdom, he loved and cared for his wife deeply and dearly and no one more than him wanted to jump right into hell to save her.
"And Mom?" Avyanna voiced her opinion once more.
The King opened his eyes to look at his children and saw the inevitable signs of worry and concern on both their faces even though Aspen had barely said anything.
"I'll be setting up a diplomatic party who will be handling the negotiation with your mother's people. The both of you should focus on your training and leave other matters to me." William said standing up from the table.
Both kids stood up too, recognising the place of their father as the King, William smiled at his children one more.
"Your mother will be fine, if anything, she has Kendra. She's tougher than she looks, so have faith in her." William smiled while excusing himself from the room.
After their father had left the room, the tension in the air had taken a step down as well. Avyanna fell into her chair not still able to comprehend that her mother had been captured.
"I want to believe in father, if he says mother is fine then she's fine. Besides Kendra's there, she'd never let anything happen to Mom right? I'm sure you can believe that too." Aspen said trying to cheer up his sister.
Avyanna nodded absentmindedly as she slowly stood up to walk away, seeing his sister in that state really worried Aspen that she might make a rash decision on her own.
So her decision to place a tracking spell that he had been practising, just to make sure that he knew she was fine and because he used light magic, seemed possible.
Avyanna walked back to her room and sat on her bed quietly, knees hugging her chest, in her heart hoping that the moon goddess would spare her mother.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, Avyanna ignored it, but the knock came again persistent.
"If that's you Aspen then I do not want to be bothered, anyone else leaves me alone." Avyanna managed to say calmly.
But the door was opened anyway, Avyanna knew there was only one person who would come into her room like that, unannounced.
It was her Father.
William again found his way to his daughter's bed, he sat there in silence as if waiting for the right time to speak. To Avyanna, he believed that he must have felt bad and was trying to console her. But doing that would only make her worry even more.
Noticing her father probably felt nervous to start the conversation, Avy decided to step in.
"I know she's going to be fine. I have complete faith in both Mom and Kendra. You don't have to worry about me." I said to my Father not looking directly at him.
"I know my dear. But... That's not why I came here." William said peeping at Avyanna's curiosity.
"You see, your mother understood that she was about to embark on a dangerous journey home and she insisted that if she didn't come back within a week, I was to tell you everything I knew... Concerning the curse." William said at once making a pause at the end.
"Curse? What curse?" Avyanna asked.
"I'll tell you a story that happened centuries before any of us were born..."
Long ago, there weren't many magical creatures in the world, just man and animals, these magical creatures came from the earth among plants and some rear animals.
Once, a generation of humans got greedy and decided to hunt these rear animals for sport instead of food, thereby causing a shift in nature. Being hunted some of those dead animals returned to the earth only to be returned as guardian spirits sent back to protect their kind.
Of course, the people of that generation found it amusing and wanted these magical beasts for themselves, so those humans learnt how to make armour that could repel the magic of these guardian spirits and also created ancient ruins to stop the flow of magic.
With that armour they were unstoppable and they used it against those guardians. On a certain trip, these people were able to corner a magical beast to the point of death when a little girl appeared through the bushes to shield the wounded beast and pleaded for its life. The evil men laughed amongst themselves and decided to kill her and the beast.
In a moment, just say they were about to strike a powerful light shone down from above and came upon this child and with that blessing, she was able to protect the guardian spirit.
For years, this girl looked after the magical creatures of the world, no matter how far or how deep in trouble, she was blessed with unbelievable magic.
Years passed and slowly the mind of men began to change and their hearts softened. Many came to seek the child blessed by the heavens to learn from her and spread her teachings on love and perseverance.
Overjoyed with the change of heart, the little girl gave blessings to her followers and from them, their powers would be passed on to their children.
These followers are the reason we have so many different types of magic and magical affinities and for more generations to come there was peace at every turn.
A few years later, there was a clash between some of the magical creatures and the humans which caused a massive war to break out in that region. These magical beings were werewolves who had the power to change creatures and according to the book, they wreaked havoc with that power, so with each human, they came across, they turned them into their kind. That is the origin of the werewolves we see today.
For years, these wolves kept turning humans into mindless human-hunting wolves that killed many and the child of the forest had to do something to appease both sides or else they would incur a far worse curse upon themselves.
So one fateful night, the child of the forest offered up herself as an offering to quilt the anger of the heavens and with her last magic, she gave the wolves the power to transform into humans for a better chance at diplomacy and those who had turned would be able to turn back and also whipped the minds of the entire human race of the unfortunate event.
That child became the Moon Goddess that these wolves worshipped and because of her sacrifice, there was peace in the land again. But the truth was that some people didn't like this peace because of the ones they had lost.
The curse came about because, the child of the forest was not able to erase the minds of her believers, and some of them blamed the magical beasts for her demise. Those believes gathered together to make a covenant amongst themselves, they caught an original wolf turned human and fed on his flesh and blood, giving birth to vampires.
Of course, this act was forbidden and they were cursed to burn in daylight and because they were part of the child of the forest, a curse fell upon the land with a prophecy that one day the god of war was going to descend on our land and eliminate the evil deeds of the people.
"He appeared once, in the days of my great great great great grandfather, and luckily because of the grace we still had from the magical beast we were able to defend ourselves but prophesy must be fulfilled and I'm sorry to say this but that spirit has reincarnated within you Avyanna."
"You are the goddess of war!"