From Fantasy to Reality (on hold)

chapter 12: Key to Life? More like book to life.

I awoke with a kiss from Ethan. I hadn't opened my eyes and kissed him back. He backed away and I opened my eyes. First thing I saw was him smiling then his expression darkened with worry. "What's wrong?" Ethan said nothing, but he did in fact back away as if I just grew horns and a forked tail. "Ethan, What's wrong?" I asked him again
"I'll be right back." He rushed out of the room. I waited nibbling on my bottom lip for a moment until Ethan, William, Ryder, and Wreckage ran into my room." All with face that matched Ethan's. "Someone going to tell me what's wrong?" They all kept quiet but kept staring at me. I took my phone off the nightstand and opened up the mirror app. I froze. I dropped my phone onto the bed and began to breath heavy. "My Eyes," I shouted, "They're cyan!" I panicked "They're cyan like Ethan's, why are they cyan!" I began to stutter. "Someone please start explaining to me why my eyes are cyan!"
"We don't know exactly," Ryder explained, "We've never seen anything like this"
I gathered my thoughts. "You mean I don't inherit things from my creator, from Ethan?"
"No, most people don't."
"Dad, what do you think this means?" Ethan whispered.
"Legend." Wreckage mumbled, answering the question for him. Ryder, William, and Ethan all looked at him. "Legend." he mumbled again. "Legend." This time he said it loud and clear.
"What legend?" I asked
Ethan now spoke up. "Not what, but who."
"Legend was a member of our pack until he left this summer." William explained, "Wreckage you know the story by heart. You should tell it to Ashton."
Wreckage nodded and pulled up a chair, William sat at my desk, Ethan crawled next to me and sat, and Ryder settled at the end of the bed. "I'm guessing this is a long story." Ethan nodded.
"It all began with the birth of a wolf named Legend. Like us he was a werewolf. Ever since he turned thirteen he was bombarded by choices. Left or right? Yes or no? fight or flight? And biggest of all light or dark? He had a hard life, his parents died at fifteen and the rest of his family never excepted him because of his differences. He lived a life off the grid. He trained himself to be the very best of our kind and succeed. When we found him we were young like him, and on a hunt and spotted him lying in a clearing alone. We approached him cautiously. He almost refused but We offered him a spot in our pack. Several years later we were fighting against the Bloodpaw. He was cornered and the rest of the pack was or injured, dead, or busy with other wolves. I was trying to fight off a group of wolves to help him but I was knocked to the ground. When I regained awareness of my surroundings I saw wolves floating in the air. Others bowing against their will, and some running in place. He was controlling them, hot wiring their minds. He was becoming a ruthless beast. Losing control. We had a talk with him once we realized he was getting worse. He immediately snapped out of it and put his powers behind them. Though he never used them he still had them. When we became adults he settles down and had two children, a boy and girl. We never met his family because he was worried that the Bloodpaw would target them for revenge. He eventually disappeared this summer after an attack was targeted on him."
"But that's just the legend of Legend not the prophecy." Ryder announced
"What's the prophecy?" I asked
"The daughter of a legend will be born a mortal, later to share the blood of the wolf. She will witness a tragic death of a loved one. In her first turning she will be attacked. She and two men will have to find the answers to the war or all they love will perish. She, of all her kind will be the most different. She will have white fur and unnatural eyes, even in her natural form. She will be small in size but large in spirit. All who look towards light look towards her, all who look towards dark looks far from her. She must accept, she must rise, she must defeat or all light shall perish." Ryder read straight from his mind.
Ryder and wreckage left my room leaving William, Ethan, and I to talk. "Ok I've heard the story and the prophecy, but I still don't understand what it has to do with me."
"Wreckage thinks that it could be you because of your wolf form and your... your eyes.
"Well that's just one small detail... right" I said worried.
"Well let's see how much of the prophecy matches up to you shall we?" Ethan suggested.
I nodded.
"You were born a mortal obviously, changed later in life." Ethan stated.
"Obviously." I agreed.
"Was the death of your mother, tragic?"
"No it was as easy as breathing." I griped.
"Ok tragic death, check" he admitted.
"When you were attacked was that the first time you were in wolf form?" he asked
"Affirmative."
William piped in. "And she has a brother. Me."
"What time did you day Legend left?" I asked William
"Early September..." his voice trailed off, "dad left in early September."
"Ok that's not looking good."
"What!" I began to panic
"Ashton calm down." William said calmly.
"No, it can't be, I can't be, dad can't be, it just can't, that would mean people depend on me, that would mean a war will be on my behalf, that would mean... that would mean..." I began to go delirious. What would happen if I was the girl from the prophecy? A small sting in my neck caught my attention, but I wasn't awake long enough to figure out what it was. The light and surroundings of my bedroom began to fade away. Again for the millionth time in my life my world became nothing as I was knocked unconscious.
When I awoke I headed for the closest mirror. It happened to be in my closet. I warily walked up to it keeping my eyes closed. I raised my head and opened my eyes. I almost stepped back at the moment I saw my eyes. They were the same shape and size as normal. Left eye was bigger than the right, a small scar above the right from a small meeting with a glass table from my youth, and bruise on my temple from a few days or ago. I had recently learned that I was out for multiple days. Though everything was the same -except the color- they looked completely different. They looked larger, more noticeable, and more well... different. I removed my gaze from the mirror to look towards my feet. To the left there was a small box. My father gave it to me when I was younger. I picked it up and set it on my desk. I settled into the chair and examined the box. It was dark oak wood, which gave it weight. On it was carved a wolf howling at the moon. It was painted. The wolf was painted pearl white and it had blue eyes. The moon was painted golden. It had a small lock to the side. It was a combination lock, but instead of numbers it was letters.
The night my father, Max, had given it to me he had said, "My darling Ashton, I know you will want to look in the box as soon as you can, but you have to wait until you're ready."
I had whined that moment. "But why daddy? Why can't I open it now?
Years later he had asked if I still had the box, I replied yes.
"Good keep it. Now and forever ok but remember when I said to open it?"
"Yes daddy, open it when I'm ready," I mimicked him, "but how will I know when I'm ready?"
"You will know. Trust your instincts."
A knock on the door alarmed me. "Can I come in?" Ethan's voice sounded through the door. I quickly hide the box behind some piles of folded clothes. "Yeah." I called back. Ethan opened the door and came up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed me on the top of my head. "What'cha doing?" he said as he settled his chin on my head.
"Nothing important."
"Oh, well would you-" his voice trailed off. He walked over to the pile of clothes. I noticed he saw the box. I raced over and grabbed his hands stealing his attention away from the box. "Would I what?"
"What's the box for?" Well not completely stolen.
"It's a box for an ancient diary of mine." Or whatever's in there.
"Oh, can I read it?" he teased.
"No! now out so I can." I pushed him out the door. Before I could close the door on him he placed his foot in the way. I turned my attention to his foot, focusing on moving it out of the way. His hand reached through the crack and pushed the door open. He took my hands in his.
"Forget about the box for now, I want what I came for."
"and what was-" I hadn't had time to finish the sentence before he had meshed our lips together. I almost fell into a trance. But I pushed him out the door and quickly locked it. "Come on now." I kept quiet. "Ok fine be that way." I heard him walking down the stairs. Then and only then had I put my attention towards the box.
The combination contain six slots. I quickly thought of an equation in my head
6 slots x 26 letters= one million possibilities "ugh." I thought for a moment. What have I recently learned that could make me ready to read this... this, whatever it is? I tested out many ideas "GreyFlame, too many. Bloodpaw, too many." I stopped for a moment and thought, "Wolves." I tested it out on the lock. "W.o.l.v.e.s" I twisted the last letter in and pulled the lock." Nothing. Should've known, my dad's not an idiot he would have known not to put the password with the answer being on the front. Or would he... I checked the front of the box again. No secret word was engraved on it, no name, no nothing except the picture. The picture looked just like my wolf form. And looked just like the description in the legend. Legend, that's it! I had recently learned about a legend. the legend of Legend. "Ha-ha" I laughed to myself. I punched in the six letter word. "L.e.g.e.n.d" I yanked on the lock and I heard a small click. The lock disengaged. I flipped the latch and carefully opened the box. Inside lay a small journal.
The journal was worn down. The cover was pure leather and had cracks and crevices along the binding. I flipped the front cover open to see many thin and worn pages. Many were torn or folded, some were both. Each and every word was beautiful. The tails of the cursive letters were perfectly curved. The elegant writing belonged to my father. After studying the delicacy of the text I began to read.
"June 16, I'm thirteen as of last week. Already I'm being bombarded by choices. Just today I was asked if I had to kill someone for the love of my beliefs would I? I hadn't know what they meant until I arrived at home. My father said they overheard the Bloodpaw talking about a plan to harm me in the future. My father took me to our secret hide out. He sat me down after I won a sparring match. I had asked him why I had always beat him. Because I knew for sure he usually doesn't let me win. He didn't believe in that stuff, false confidence is what he calls it. He then explained to me everything. Who I was and a weird prophecy. I had a hard time believing I was going to be a legend, despite my name. let alone my future daughter as well."
I glanced at the clock on my nightstand, 11:37. Today went by quickly I thought. I was hungry and my eyes began to droop but I wanted to continue reading. I needed to. I need to find out why dad gave it to me and what was really going on. Why am I different?
"November 23, it's been five months now since I began training with my new powers. So far I've mastered mind bending and covering. These powers allow me to control and erase other wolves minds. It was hard at first but once I found my soul it became easy. At the moment I'm learning afloat. It's a mind spell. A mind spell is a word or a group of words you say in your mind along with a memory that will conduct the spell through energy towards the target."