My wobbly legs gave way and I fell to the ground the moment I shifted. It was quicker than I imagined and I didn't feel a single pain. I sat on the bare floor of the forest, oblivious of how Rieka had done it but angry at the fact that she didn't listen to me.
"Rieka I said I didn't want to be in charge!" I screamed at her in my head.
"Stop being a baby and take charge of your life, Silveen." She said, then closed the link and I scoffed while burning with anger,
She does like to have the last words, doesn't she?
Wait, was I angry? Why am I angry? I have actually been begging her to let me out and now….
I looked at my naked form on the ground. My messy red hair fell loosely over my back, my skin seemed paler than I last remembered, probably from the lack of sun. I raised my hands up and touched my face to see if it was really me.
It was. I am in control of my body again, really in control.
"Wow! You are beautiful." I heard a voice say and I growled in response, anger flowing through me like it was my blood. I looked up to see the woman, the dark mistress, staring at me with admiration.
"Are you truly the human? Or is the wolf still in charge of the body?" She asked and I frowned at her choice of words, she made it seem like my wolf was a body snatcher.
I stood up to my feet, staring her in the eye, not minding my nakedness. I was angry. No, she was annoying.
But something wasn't right.
"I am Silveen. Who are you?" I asked boldly.
"I am Adela! You are not very different from your wolf, I see." she said with a full smile as she stretched her hands towards me to shake. I stared at it, then back at her and she took the cue that I wasn't going to take it so, she let it fall to her side.
"Listen, I don't care if you are the dark mistress, if I as much as find you doing something other than what we agreed on, I would murder you in your sleep." I said to her sternly.
Did I just threaten the dark mistress? A woman who had a band of warriors at her beck and call? I asked myself, but something in me told me. I could do it, I could make good that promise and I raised my head proudly staring her dead in the eye.
The woman smiled and nodded.
"Maybe I underestimated you?" I heard Rieka say, amusement in her voice.
"This isn't funny Rieka, I just threatened her."
"As you should."
"Are you sure you do not have a hand in my behavior?" I asked her.
"No! It's all you. This is all you." She replied.
"Why do I feel like I am acting like you?" I asked again.
"How can you act like me when I have never conversed with anyone other than you?"
She was right. But I'm so sure I was acting like her. Maybe we are not two sides of a coin after all. Maybe we are one and the same. Maybe we are alike in more ways than I can understand.
The first time I was standing in my human form whole, like the werewolf that I truly am, was today.
The first time that I was standing on my own without the support of others was today.
The first time that I was standing bold and strong, not afraid of what the other person could do to me, which is a very strange feeling, is also today.
The first time that I wasn't scared of not blending in was today.
Today is my first time for many things.
Today is my new beginning and I am going to make sure I am no longer the Silveen that the world knew and pushed down or trampled upon.
I looked at my wrist where it seemed the anger was pulsing and smirked. My first official smirk.
I was going to make use of anger and rage and rebrand a new me.
Adela walked towards me, taking off her leather jacket. The vest she wore underneath was a leather corset. She hung it over my slim figure and it hung up to my thigh. I put my hands through its arm holes and zipped it up as I pulled my hair out from inside it.
"Hurry, the others are waiting for us at the border." She said before venturing into the mist.
I took one last look at the bottom of the large tree that had been my home, knowing I would miss it there, then looked at the forest.
It would take a while, but soon the eerie atmosphere around the forest would be gone. I wouldn't be here anymore, so there was no way it would continue. Life would find its way back here, the leaves would breathe again, clearing the fog from the atmosphere and the sun would shine down.
The land would heal itself and the forest would regain the beauty that we had taken away in rage.
I took in a deep breath, letting all the scent of the forest fill my nose as if to say good bye, but all I perceived was my scent, the smell of cinnamon, which ran through out the border that Rieka had created and, of course, that of our latest intruder, the dark mistress.
Her scent filled the air behind her, forming a trail of the path she had taken. That was how Rieka had hunted down intruders, by following the trail left by their scent.
Even without seeing her anymore, I knew which way she went and followed.
It was the beginning of a new me.