Destiny

Chapter Eleven - Aedan

Dedicated to our Mother Nature - the Earth - magnificent creation of God that we so poorly look after. 

I tried conveying the idea of forest wildfires, however, my writing will never paint the whole picture clearly.

☽☽ ☆ ☾☾

When Aedan was just a little werewolf, who still couldn't shift into his wolf form, his mother would take him to the woods with a tiny Gabriel tied with fabric to her chest. Aedan's senses still weren't enhanced, therefore she would introduce him to the trees and plants that inhabited the area.

His mother would tell him how to never lose yourself in the forest, how its inhabitants always aided you to find your way back.

"Mushrooms tend to grow on the Northern side of stomps and bushes, just like moss and lichen would thrive on the Northern side of aspen' and larch's trunks," she had told him once.

"When berries season occurred, they would ripen earlier from the Southern side, Aedan," she had said, "just like that, sweetheart," his mother had drawn back branches of wild strawberries to reveal bright-red sides of pale green berries.

But as time passed, Aedan matured into a shifter, whose senses had been enhanced by the process of growing up. He wouldn't need to look for moss or lichen, ripe berries or mushrooms: he would just trace his steps back, catch various scents in the air or listen to any familiar sound.

However, this gift his mother had given him - the ability to read the forest - Aedan kept very close to his heart. It had helped the boy to mature into a true werewolf, who felt connected to the place he lived in. Since the forest was his home, Aedan realised it was crucial to treat it like one.

One thing he knew beyond any doubt - his mother didn't wish for Aedan to rely purely on his werewolf senses and instincts. Even though Elias, his father, scolded Marvel for softening their son, she never stopped weaving threads of compassion, love and scrutiny into Aedan's developing character as if she was embroidering an already beautiful fabric with gold and silver.

Aedan often thought why Elias hadn't been overfond of him, and it was due to his soft heart and affinity to studying. His mother had always said: "Learning is the eye of the mind," while Elias preferred Aedan and little Gabriel to train, day and night, and become warriors.

That way, Gabriel was more like their father with expressive storm-grey eyes and fair hair, tall and strong with muscle, whilst Aedan was all angles and lines with his willowy limbs and slender frame, resembling their mother's pale blue eyes and raven-black curls.

Unlike Gabriel, Aedan never enjoyed fighting or training, although he was a good defender whenever it came to combat. Besides, he was of much more help in his study or the experiment room, where he invented new things or recorded observations made in the forest, rather than on a field of battle.

Gabriel and Idris - along with other mature werewolves - were then old enough to start training younger werewolves, and after a long day, the three of them would gather in Idris's huge manor and scarf down large meals of dinner, cooked by Greten, Idris's mother.

The sight of forest, meadows and paths were reminiscent of Aedan's childhood. Aedan wasn't sure how old he was, but a few winters back when the three of them were shorter, thinner and more nasty-looking, they spent evenings, sometimes nights, playing in the forest - their home. They invented all sorts of games to keep themselves occupied and away from academia. The Moon Weaver, their teacher, never reprimanded them for that, only shouted their names after them as they shot out of the classroom with the other children once lessons were over, on their way to find yet another troublesome adventure.