The clearing was an exact replica of the one she had dreamt of, save for the sky, instead of it being filled by blue and purple hues, this sky was the normal ocean of stars as the moon sat on her lonesome, and beamed over the earth. She found the silence peaceful, she couldn't care to hear the crickets that played their nightly tunes, or the sounds that came from the woods as the night life came alive. Her gaze found itself stuck on the calm waters that gave a distorted reflection of the sky.
There was something about the water, as if it sang a siren's tune and it had her captivated on one thought, and that was to have herself submerged deep into the water. The notion thrummed with such life she could also already feel the water, feel the lack of air as if she already sat at the bottom of the vast lake. Her senses were dislodged and she failed to feel a pair of eyes that peeked from behind the trees in the woods, hidden by the shadows of the night, the watched with curiosity and a sense of panic as the woman neared the water.
For getting into the water was forbidden, an old law by their ancestors that the water was too sacred to be desecrated by anyone. The lake had always been the Mooncrest's biggest secret and treasure. Folklore had it that the water was magical, having been blessed by the moon goddess for those that may ever find themselves in need of her help.
Therefore, it was the reason for their medicine's effective work in healing anything and everything. Reason barren mothers were able to bare children, if only they had but a drop of the waters, and therefore, as the younger woman watched her new found friend nearing the water, she couldn't help the movement of her legs as she made to caution her.
For even though the water gave such life, it was said it could take it away just the same, should you bode ill will then touching the water would be your demise, it wasn't kind either to those it didn't recognise, and the woman was neither familiar nor a werewolf, and so the younger woman's worries were more than justified. As Lucy tried to call out to Amoura who was but an inch from getting into the water, her call seemed to fall onto deaf ears, for deaf she was to anything else but the hymn she heard only to get louder when her feet submerged themselves into the water.
It was too late, Lucy thought as she stopped before the water, watching Amoura walk deeper and deeper into the nightly lit lake, the damage was done and there was no going back from then, and if the water wanted Amoura's life, she was already dead and theirs. However, nothing could have prepared Lucy for what she witnessed next. Amoura had sunk deeper into the lake, her feet still on the ground as she stood in the middle, unaware that she was no longer breathing. That was until a certain pain tore at her.
Gripped at her legs like seaweed made from unbreakable elastic as it wrapped around her being to keep her grounded. As the seaweed vines curled around her legs only to creep up until they wrapped around her arms, outstretching them as if with the aims to tear her body into pieces, the pain caused her to inhale, except what went in wasn't the very much needed air, but the lake's water as it filled her lungs. At that moment it was as if the water was poison for the way it burned her inside out.
What Lucy saw was a buzzing purple laced with blue light that glowed through the water, right where she figured Amoura was, for she could not see her, not because her eyes were a blur with tears staining her cheeks, but because Amoura was hidden deep within the water that the light didn't even reach that wide or deep. She was blind as Amoura was to the light that encircled her body as the vines had as it drew something from her body.
It was the essence that would have soon ate at her body had she not released it from her body in time.
Although it was now rightfully hers, she was not strong enough to bear it without serious consequence and so the waters would keep it safe for her. As the life that had lived within her floated into the water only to free the souls that didn't belong on earth anymore, the pain she felt was from those that had long since infused their essence with hers, made it hurt beyond what she could imagine as the lit vines tried to separate the essence from hers.
The process felt like hours of continuously drowning, to Amoura, however, it had been ablaze for but a few minutes before the lit vines detangled themselves from her, her silent screams brought to a halt when she no longer felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out. Realising that she could now move, her eyes burned when she opened them underwater, however, she had to have them open in order to know where she swam, through the blurry vision she swam toward the light that was like a door to the surface, for only that small portion remained lit.
Lucy let out a shocked gasp as she saw Amoura resurface with a loud gasp of her own,as she tried to inhale as much air as she could to compensate her lungs for the deprivation of air she had caused. Gone was the enchanting hymn as she heard lively sounds of the night again. From where she swam, hovered in the middle of the lake, with her sharp vision she could see Lucy in the barely lit darkness of night as she stood
before the lake.
She swam toward her in quick motions, feeling as light as a feather, until she could stand on the lake's ground again with the top of her body out of the water. Bracing herself from the ground before her, she pulled herself out of the water, only to expose her drenched lavender dress Mama Rivers had insisted she wear for a change, from all the jeans and tank tops she only ever wore.
Amoura barely braced herself as a body threw itself against her and arms wrapped around her, she realised then that Lucy was a full on mess of sobs as her body rocked with each of them.
"Lucy?" she questioned, her arms around the crying woman.
"Oh my gosh, don't ever do that to me again!" Lucy exclaimed as she detangled herself from the thoroughly confused Amoura
"Do you know how scared I was when you went into the water, didn't anybody tell you that the water is to never be touched, for heaven's sake Amoura, you could have died, it could have killed you. Why the hell didn't you stop when I called out to you?" the younger woman reprimanded and threw the questions at Amoura, it was clear she had been stressed, and was now thoroughly angry with Amoura, who was still trying to comprehend what was going on.
She couldn't recall hearing anyone call her, just a calming hymn she had heard from the water, which she realised then that it was gone as she turned back to look at the lake in question.
(Don't tell me you don't feel it, I mean what's with you and switching your senses off lately?) questioned the young lad, a tad bit concerned by Amoura's behaviour, for as long as he's been attached to the young woman, all she ever seemed to draw toward her was trouble and he worried her lack of focus wouldn't do her well but put her in more danger
At the question of the voice in her head, she noticed the serene quite that clouded her mind, as if all the other voices were slumbering, except she noticed she couldn't feel them either and that made her let out a silent gasp as she realised what had happened deep in the water must be the reason. She couldn't help the laughter heavy with relief from escaping through her lips when she realised she had unconsciously found a way to rid of the voices, yet not all of them were gone. At the thought she felt through her being only to realise she could feel the essence that belonged to just three souls and she wondered what made them different, why the water hadn't gotten rid of them.
(Sheesh I didn't know you wanted even me gone hat bad) said the young lad, although his tone was light, it held a tinge of offence and hurt, he truly had become attached to her
'You know that's not it, as much as I don't mind you, I do want you freed as well that's all' Amoura reassured in her mind which seemed enough to pacify the young lad
[Well we must have been left for a reason dear] said the motherly voice of the woman that always seemed to hold the power to calm Amoura down.
Speak for yourselves| spat another voice, the grumpy man although he didn't mind the girl, he still would have liked to be freed from their weird situation he was yet to understand
'Glad to hear you too' Amoura was too elated to even be bothered by the man as she jested.
"Earth to Amoura" she heard Lucy say next to her, which snapped her from her mental conversation
"I'm sorry Lucy, I didn't know that no one is allowed into the water, but honestly, I don't think I could have helped it" Amoura explained as the younger woman before her looked at her expectantly "It's hard to explain, but I'm fine, I promise" she added.
"I can see you're fine, even I can't explain what I saw, I'm just glad that you're alive, I think its best that we never mention this to anyone ever, gosh it's gonna be hard drinking from it should I ever need to, knowing your crusty ass was in it" Lucy jested,
happy that her friend was alive yet confused at what had just happened.
"My ass isn't crusty Luce" the young woman defended with furrowed brows and a pot, which only had Lucy laughing
"Wait, what do you mean that You can't explain what you saw" Amoura questioned as her mind backtracked to what she had said. Lucy quite her laughing and made to explain "Well, it wasn't much really, just, there was this light that was shining on that one particular spot you know, and I somehow knew you were there, what happened to you anyway, you were under a long time"
"I don't think I know myself either" Amoura lied, although she didn't like it, she couldn't tell Lucy about the voices in her head, she couldn't have everyone thinking that she was mentally unfit or something along those lines. As they walked through the woods, Amoura couldn't help but find herself glad that the three remained in her mind at least, reason being that they had been the one's to pull her from the weaponised instincts she had, she had been a mind controlled robot then, a mindless killing machine after the hunter leader had wiped her memory clean.
She had believed that killing was the only thing she was made to do and that werewolves were pests that roamed the earth and needed to be exterminated. Yet when she had killed the young boy and the woman, they had made her aware of things she was unaware of, somehow they had awakened her conscience, making her realise that what she was doing was nowhere near justified.
That was when she had shown signs of rebelling, at sixteen, dreams of Scileria began, and that made her worse, exposed her to new emotions she had never felt, she was like a child learning all over again, hence she naively fell for the man in her dreams and easily so, gave her hope that she could live for something else beyond the killing, live a certain way beyond the four walls.
That was when the leader needed a way to subdue her, since pain didn't work anymore, that was when Anna came into play. Because she had become old enough to carry a child, Anna had come through artificial insemination, a sperm from an Alpha werewolf, combined with her own egg.
The leader not only wanted to create more of Amoura, but the child was turned a weapon against Amoura when he realised Amoura was attached to the baby. Amoura figures that the reason her Anna hadn't made it, had had the disease that ate at her from the inside out was that her essence was rejecting that of the unfamiliar alphas, as if it could tell that the pairing was wrong. Hence Anna had had a slow gradual death,
Amoura had killed as much as she was instructed just to get the serum that made Anna feel better, alas that hadn't been enough. Therefore, it was clear that she and the voices in her mind had come a long way. Maximus was still without an idea that Amoura had ever been and even had had a child. She hadn't told him at the time, believing that Scileria was nothing but a dream, so why bring such sadness to taint the only time she felt truly happy.
Amoura felt them before she saw them, their piercing eyes that had grown to follow her every move, something that was grating on her last nerve. The king's men that had arrived with the Beta of the pack a few days ago, an exact day after she had arrived. She thought about how the man hadn't seemed surprised to see her at Mama Rivers, and hadn't needed to be told of who she was as he already knew, although he claimed he could tell on his own, she knew he had lied, just as he had lied to her when she had asked about Maximus' return.
The Beta had said in a few days, yet he was still to return a few days later. She wondered what the Beta was hiding, however, she figured, if Maximus trusted the man enough to name him the second in command, she could at least try and tolerate
him, despite his insistent need to really aggravate her by having the king's warriors keep a constant eye on her. Another question she had, for if it had been by the order of the acting Alpha and mama River's then perhaps she would have understood their constant need to know where she was, because of what had happed years ago, except that wasn't the case and she aimed to find out.
At the thought of the acting Alpha, she couldn't help the stretching of her lips at the thought of the old man, Papa, as he had made sure to remind her that that was what she used to call him when she was little. He had been just as overjoyed as his mate, just not much a teary mess as Mama Rivers had been. He had been sure to regale her of old stories of her little self when he finally gave her a tour of the pack's grounds, which
Amoura found to be ginormous, it had made her feel proud of Maximus for being an Alpha of such a great pack, and have the respect she couldn't miss from the eyes she saw in a few that had also turned out stunned by her presence. She could tell the rest respected him just as much, and she couldn't wait to finally meet the man her heart yearned for.
She had laughed really hard when Papa had told her of the time she had made it clear to the whole pack of just how much she had their future Alpha wrapped around her finger. Apparently, Maximus had forbidden her from joining the other pups during training, planning to train her himself, except that week he had been too busy to.
Therefore, on the fourth day of just watching others her age learn a few new moves, she had grown tired of sitting idle and being the spectator, therefore, she had stood near the edge of the woods watching the pups only to imitate the moves by herself. The instructor hadn't seemed to mind since she was doing so on her own and without a sparring partner that could have potentially hurt her. For even though the pups were to still change, they were still stronger that human children.
It wasn't until one she wolf pup had spotted Amoura, and had made sure to approach the human with clear intent to either have her crying home to young Maximus, or to successfully make the human realise her supposed place. The she wolf pup hadn't expected the little Amoura to show that even though she had no wolf or werewolf blood, she could still be just as fierce when she challenged the she wolf pup. Apparently little Amoura had been quite the firecracker, of course emboldened by the fact that she was super close with the pack's future Alpha, truly rightfully so considering she was to be their Luna by fate.
Little Amoura's words must not have been gentle on the she wolf pup as the pup had pushed Amoura in attempt to intimidate the human, except the push had been too hard,
hard enough it had caused Amoura to have a hard fall that resulted in her breaking her wrist. Although little Amoura hadn't cried in front of everyone's shocked and terrified expressions, she had become a bawling mess minute she had found young Maximus in his father's office, and boy did the young man turn mad.
As much as young Maximus had wanted to hurt whoever had dared to hurt his mate, he hadn't been able to, however, everyone had been aware just what a raging mess young Maximus was as right after having had Amoura treated, Aurelius had shot for the woods to release some steam. The she wolf pup had been thoroughly reprimanded, same as Amoura, yet it was clear that little Amoura could have caused chaos and still would have escaped with nothing but a slap on the wrist.
More obvious when Amoura had decided to have her revenge by cutting a decent lock of little Melony's hair during nap
time. Little Melony had woken up only to become a wailing mess when she had realised that her precious hair had become crookedly cropped. Young Maximus had been an elated laughing mess behind closed doors as he high five'd little Amoura, however, in the face of everyone of course, he had urged Amoura to apologise, which had resulted in Little Amoura offering the she wolf pup a chocolate icing covered sponge disguised as a piece of cake, which had proved otherwise when
Melony had taken a bite with a smugness about her face, only for it to turn into a grimace when she realised it wasn't cake that she had bitten into. Amoura had laughed till her tummy hurt and she could swear her defined abs became more defined from the work out when Papa had told her the story. It seemed with every old tale she heard of her and Maximus the more she seemed to grow fonder of the man. She hadn't thought that she had been such a trouble making prankster when she was little either, she found herself longing for the memories that had long since packed and left her mind, for she hadn't missed them as she did then.
When both Lucy and Amoura walked across the expanse of green grass, up the stairs passing the beautifully lit statues, she dipped her hand into the fountain's water, part of her missing the feel of water on her skin, they climbed up the stairs heading for the front doors of Mama River's wondrous home.
"You seem in need of water today huh" Lucy scoffed as she jested at her Amoura's action.
"I thought we said we were gonna forget about that" Amoura said with a tight lipped smile at the younger woman she had come to call a friend, who merely raised her hands in mock surrender. When they entered the doors, the first thing that assaulted Amoura's nose was the deliciously wafting aroma of baked cookies, and he stomach could help but give a little rumble. She truly loved everything Mama Rivers made for it always tasted like heavenin her mouth, perhaps that was why the woman had baked so deep in the night, to try and distract Amoura from the news to come.
Amoura could feel the tension minute she entered the kitchen, everyone was sitting stock still as if she had interrupted a conversation she wasn't meant to hear, as she looked at the worried expressions on Jeremy, Mama, and Papa Rivers' face, she knew something wasn't right. She could see it through the blank expression the Beta had as he looked at her, and she couldn't help but wonder if the man had always been so cold
toward her when she was little.
"What's going on?" Lucy was the one to question as she stood next to Amoura near the entrance. "Where were you?" the beta questioned coldly, so much so that Amoura didn't even grace him with acknowledgement.
"Papa?" she shot a questioning look toward the acting Alpha, despite having renounced the title to his adoptive son Maximus years ago. The man merely let out a troubled sigh as he made to speak
"We have news, concerning Maximus and I'm afraid they aren't the pleasant kind bub" at his words, Amoura's heart lunched, although she wanted nothing more than to hurl out questions, worried that something bad might have happened to the man, her face turned into an expressionless stone, mentally preparing herself for what was to come.
"Okay then, let's hear it" she said, her tone just as void, Mama Rivers got up from her seat as she padded toward Amoura, only to stop when the young woman shook her head.
"Well" Mama Rivers started with a sigh as sombre as her expression. "Levi received a call, the king has decided that Maximus will mate with his third daughter, tomorrow" the day hesitantly leaving the woman's lips. Her words were cautious as they caressed Amoura's ears.
"Right" Amoura said under her breath, before she turned to make her way for her bedroom for she refused to cry in front of them. He heart squeezed in pain and partial betrayal, only to almost stop beating at the Beta's next words.
"I'm afraid the king has also demanded your presence, he seems well aware of your presence here since we're the closest pack to the castle" Amoura stopped as she faced the small table in the foyer that held flowers in a vase, she couldn't help but admire them then, they looked so pretty in all their different colours and kinds, yet found herself sad that they would soon die just as she felt like her heart would if she was to witness her love tie themselves to someone else. Maximus was meant to be hers after all, how was she to stand the fact that he would give himself to another.
"Okay, I'll go pack" she said walking away from everyone that watched her with broken hearts. It had become obvious that the young woman had grown to fancy the man she was yet to meet, despite having known him since she was a baby. Amoura wondered why the king would demand her presence, from what she had heard, the man wasn't fond of humans at all, hence it puzzled her.
She figured it was to question her motives in the least. Then a thought struck her, the king had a law against humans and werewolves mating, perhaps he thought that was a law Maximus would break for her, and so he demanded her presence to make sure that she understood her place. she wondered then if whether Maximus would have mated her regardless of the death row that awaited those that broke the laws of the king.
As she packed her usual type of clothes, she wondered if Maximus fought the king's decision, or if he wanted to mate the princess. When she was done, she wore her coat, hood over her hair, which she had failed to notice had become more white yet the slight silvery highlights remained.