Shadowed Forest

Breathe

Air flowing across my body as the pads of my feet run across the hidden pathways darting back and forth under the canopy of trees. A moment so clear you can see the wings of a bumblebee beating as its landing on a dandelion. You can hear the river running soundly nearby towards the waterfall that flows through the lands I call home. Albeit it was not always a place of calm. 

This very land that I run across holds a story one my grandmother once told me as we traveled across the borders of many creatures. Her story contained the knowledge that many sought that only a few understood. Thankfully, I was one of them. 

"You see Empyr, this land is rich in more colors than there are stars in the sky," my grandmother paused smiling while searching the night sky. The fire we had built was slowly going out, coals popping while cooling down. 

"Have you ever found those colors, Nan?" I looked up at the stars dreaming of a farther away future than I should have been. One where we could rest and stop running. Where I could build a life of my own for once. 

Nan grabbed her staff and whacked my knee while peering into my eyes when I looked back in shock, "I have seen colors richer than any jewel that a king may have. Even when that very jewel is the ones he sees daily I value them for more than any king might." Her eyes crinkled as her lips smiled in the shadow of the firelight. I rubbed my knee even though I wished to ask her more I already knew where it would lead. 

It has been like this every night for the last two years, ever since I turned 16. Our clan, no, my Nan's clan had forced me out as I had come of age. Choosing to remove me on the basis that I was cursed. Nan was the only one who defended me when even my own mother and father could not look into the eyes of their only son. She was the Clans Matriarch, an elder of the Moon until she chose to leave that post to go away with me. 

On that night when I first changed, I knew something was different with me. I felt my own energy surround me and flex its might across my packmates. The Alphas son, my cousin, almost lowered his head to me before his Father forced me out of my change. When he did, my eyes changed black when I stood in my human form holding a towel over my lower body. 

Nan gasped running towards me forcing my head to look straight at her. I didn't know how to react at first as I was not even sure if I had done anything. I could see fine even after the clan physician looked at me. The only thing that felt different was this energy deep within me that kept calling out softly. 

The moon had risen to its highest peak and what should have been a joyous occasion for our pack become a horror event. The black eyes were told to symbolize everlasting night that would engulf the moon. It could not have come at the worst time as Humans had advanced faster with every passing day encroaching on our lands to gobble up any resources they could. 

Our elders, Nan, and our Alpha gathered to discuss what was to happen. Nan was impassable and would not agree to ban me for the sake of the clan. Whereas my Uncle was more than clear he viewed me as a threat not only to the Clan but to the next Alpha as well. He would see me removed from the land I call home. 

My parents would not even come near me. I tried to walk towards them, but they turned away from me. Not even the people I considered friends would come near me now and I was left alone for the next hour to ponder how I would live on my own. 

"No, I do not accept his banishment. Not only is this arrogant and idiotic, but I see my grandson. He will be a light in a way none of you could ever become," Nan's voice carried power and a clear threat in her tone. My uncle roared in anger having his authority questioned. No one has ever had the guts to stand up to him until now. 

"You are a mad woman for even entertaining the idea that he would ever become a leader of this clan," I kept my head bowed and turned away as they discussed. My uncle kept arguing having felt my power and seen his son almost bow to me. It surprises me how easily he spooked at the thought of me being in charge.