As they arrived, Saoirse grew nervous. Creatures of all kinds surrounded them—dark, shadowy figures with deer antlers and sharp claws, others with bones poking through torn skin, and winged beings with feathers stripped away. Some looked human, with red eyes like Sirius, while others had pitch-black, soulless eyes.
She edged closer to Sirius, hoping his presence would make her invisible to them. Though the darkness covered much of the scene, the moonlight and her werewolf sight let her see everything clearly.
Sirius, unbothered, even waved at a few of the creatures as they neared a castle.
The creatures bowed to him in reverence and kindly aknowledged his presence. "Welcome back master Sirius." One of the deer-like creatures said.
He smiled at the man and continued forward. The moment they arrived, a woman appeared, fussing over him. "Where have you been all day? I was so worried! You could have been burned by the sun!"
Sirius shrugged her off. "I'm fine, Mom. I found a cave—and this girl was lost there." He gestured to Saoirse, still in wolf form.
The woman smiled warmly at Saoirse, "Oh, a shape-shifter like Sirius!" his mother exclaimed, noticing Saoirse's form. "How wonderful! I've never seen another one like him! But I don't recognize you. Where are you from, dear?"
"She told me she's from a place called North Banes," Sirius explained.
"North Banes, you say?" A man stepped out from the shadows, eyes sharp. Sirius tensed as the man's gaze fell on Saoirse.
"That's quite far. You must have been very frightened," the man said, towering over her. "So that's where the werewolves ran off to." He said smiling.
"What's wrong dad?" Sirius asked noticing his dad recognized the place. Then Sirius looked puzzled. "What's a werewolf?"
His father straightened, ignoring his son's question. "Tomorrow night, we'll make sure to escort you home. You can introduce us to your parents." With that, he turned and walked away.
Saoirse spent the night in one of the rooms in the castle. Sirius' mother had brought her some clothing so she could resume her human form and then she had eaten dinner with them.
They ate meat for dinner which she thought was awesome, they were also drinking blood which she wasn't used to at all, but it was actually quite good. she realized that she hadn't eaten in so long she began scarfing it down.
She tried to have manners like her mom always reminded her to do, especially because Sirius' father was eyeing her carefully. But she couldn't help herself and asked for more. She was like a starved puppy.
Once she felt a little better she had asked to be excused and a servant of the castle led her to her room.
She slept for a while and then heard a knock at the door.
"Hmm?"
It was a little girl with horns on her head. She had hooves for feet and freckles on her face. She was about the same age as Saoirse.
"Hey." The girl said coming closer and sitting on the bed next to Saoirse. "Is it true you're a princess?" The girl asked.
"How did you know that?"
"Well, the king and queen never have guests, so I assumed you were a princess."
Saoirse shook her head, "We don't really have princesses where I live, but my mom is the Luna and my dad is the Alpha. That's basically like the king and queen."
"Wow!!!" The girls eyes glistened.
"What are you?" Saoirse asked the girl. "You look like you're a deer person."
"Oh pardon me, I'm Madeleine. I'm a wendigo."
"What is that? Are you dead then?" She had heard of wendigos, they seemed to be something like zombies.
Madeleine looked a bit sheepish, "well you could say everyone around here is. Actually, we are the reincarnations of living creatures.
When a werewolf dies, they become a vampire. And when a human dies they become a wendigo. We don't really go to Asgard, Odin doesn't think we are worthy, being descended from Loki, so if we don't go to the underworld, we end up here, working for Alastor the king."
"Oh." Saoirse said trying to take this information in.
"Did you really remember being alive?" Madeleine asked curiously. "Like you weren't reborn as a baby vampire, so…so are you really one of the wandering ones?"
"What's a wandering one?" Saoirse asked a bit concerned to hear that she was abnormal for an undead.
Madeleine got closer and said whispering mysteriously, "it's like someone in between transition. Like they were kept on earth as a ghost to fulfill some unfinished purpose."
"Maybe, Saoirse said as she considered this, I definitely did die too early; I didn't even get to learn anything!"
"Well," Madeleine said as she hopped off the bed. "I think you're pretty special. Even if you're the only person like you, I bet you'll be a good queen someday."
With that Madeleine went to the door and picked up a bucket she had left there. "Hey tell them I cleaned your room if they ask! That's what I was supposed to do." She giggled and ran away down the hallway.
———
Once the next day was over, and the sun went down, The king had assembled a large amount of men dressed in armour and several black cars pulled up with tinted windows. The men loaded into the cars and led the way onto a highway. Saoirse must have been pretty stressed out the day before not to have noticed that the highway was always right there the whole time.
It was well maintained but overgrown at the same time, because trees loomed overhead. Madeleine and her mother had prepared Saoirse with nice clothing and told her that this visit was to be a visit of peace, to convince the Alpha to perhaps form an alliance with the vampires.
Being creatures of chaos, descended from Loki, the vampire kind said he always wanted to unite both species. Surely the werewolves would be happy to know that their little girl was in fact, still around.
They rode for several hours until they reached the end of the property and the men got out and opened a gate that read "Alastor's Christmas tree farm, private property, no trespassing. Once they reached the highway they asked Saoirse if she recognized her way back home yet. She didn't, so they turned right first.
Driving down the road she looked out the window and tried to recognize where she was. And then she spotted it; there was a logging company along the highway that she knew belonged to her uncle.
"It's there!" She exclaimed excitedly. Jumping in her seat a bit.
The driver turned onto the road and then they drove a ways longer until they reached a town that she also recognized. There was a grocery store where her mom took her shopping. She directed them to a small dirt road leading into the forest again and they drove another 4 hours into the forest. It was far away because they had once also kept away from humans and owned a lot of land.
They finally reached a paved road and a sign that said Welcome to North Banes.
Sirius' father chuckled a bit to himself as they passed the sign and a gift shop. "These wolves have gone soft, this will be too easy."
Saoirse didn't think it was funny, why did he sound so rude like he thought the kingdom was ridiculous. She glared at the back of his head. At least she wouldn't have to see him again, he was creepy too.
But then she thought about Sirius. Maybe it would be fine to see the king again if she could see her new friend as well.