DALEIA

Burning

The day I was born was for sure a weird one, my mother, a more than normal she wolf had carried for a shorter time than what the pack doctors thought was possible, she had gone through a lot to be able to bear a pup and finally it was her chance to experience motherhood after being shunned from the pack under suspicion of being cursed by the mood goddess resulting in the unbearable years of her being childless.

The day was unbearably hot, then the night impossibly cold, the moon was the brightest many had ever seen it and the whole atmosphere grew unbearably quiet, the creatures of the night hushed and everything grew still all the wolves in the land were anxious in anticipation and after 7 long hours of labor, I was born, introduced to the world in the loudest cry my pack had heard, but that could easily have been caused by the fact that the world was at a literal standstill. That's what how my father told me the day was. Mother died that day, making it the best and worst day of father's life.

I had my first shift quite early too 15 instead of 18 and father was proud he kept telling me I was stronger that he could have ever imagined and that I would be able to take care of myself quite well, fathers inner light dimmed after that time , he barely spoke, he barely ate , by then I was taking care of him and not the other way around , it was just the two of us but sooner rather than later it was just me , I knew living without mother was hard for father I had seen bits and pieces of it as I was growing up , he would just stare at her picture for long hours at night talking to it as if she could hear , my heart broke for him , the mate bond that severed when mother died had taken a piece of his soul with it , although he tried to provide me with the best childhood I always knew he wasn't truly happy , I loved father more than myself but I knew he had to go and he did quietly into the night , it hurt.

I was 21 at the time and I had just experienced something I could not explain so I went to wake him and ask what it was but he never woke I never saw his bright blue eyes again .

The pack was very loving ,they helped me with fathers burial rights , a sacred ritual that my pack took really seriously , many asked me to move to the pack house after that and many a time I refused. I turned into a recluse for a while after that till the alpha commanded I stay in the pack house, they were worried for me and now I could not refuse.

It was two years after father had gone to mother, I experienced the same thing again, a flash of white light tearing me from reality and stealing my consciousness, weird images of wolves at war and a bloody crown, soon enough it happened when I was around people and I was taken to the alpha to retell what I had seen,

From that point on I became an outcast , I was thrown out of the pack house and forced back to the lonely cabin I once called home in the middle of the woods , I stayed having more and more cryptic visions as the time went by , soon I saw things in my regular dreams too bloodshed and war and always the figure of the king or a symbol of the monarchy was in there confusing me even more , due to the alphas treatment of me the pack acted the same ,mirroring the behavior of their leader . I didn't blame them I knew something wasn't right with me I could feel it too and I collapsed into myself being more and more isolated day by day.

I had been living this way for a while until one day on one of my very limited visits to the pack square I was buying supplies for my home food and a new pair of shoes for the coming winter , I had a violent vision immediately immobilizing me in the middle of the road , a bright light rendering me blind for a moment before flashing images assaulted my vision ,the castle crumbles and the crown falling off of the kings head thousands of dead wolves surrounding the whole atmosphere then the final image the kings throat being sliced and his soul vanishing through the light of his dark eyes then the images fade and I feel my skin burn , the sensations similar to what father had taught me about the heat that females experience a time after meeting their mate.

I hadn't met mine I wasn't looking to either . But this felt more intense like someone was holding a flame to my skin burning it, I felt alight and the villagers hands on me seemed to make it worse, I was in and out of consciousness and someone was screaming, shouting something about the death of a king, it didn't take a while to figure it was me doing the screaming. I felt a prick in my neck and I was out like a light the morning now turning into a slight sizzle as I finally lost consciousness to the black abyss.

When I finally did wake, I was in the pack clinic, I tried to open my eyes further but it hurt, the pain settled slowly then all at once. It wasn't the same burning but it was close and when I tried to move I realized I was retrained and bandaged all over, a woman walks in and I soon realize it's the Luna, Marianna, she rushes over, seeing the panicked look on my face.

"Calm down Daleia, you're fine, you're doing fine , I need you to keep taking deep breaths okay , you have severe burns all over your body and the pack doctors don't know why you aren't healing as fast as you should , we will figure this out my dear but I need you to listen to me. "She looks deep into my eyes "everything starts here alright, trust yourself and trust your gut. Your whole life starts right now"