The Unified Soul

Light of a New Year

Airis woke to the dawning sun in the sky, and to a pair of arms wrapped loosely around her waist. She looked up and saw her father Aaron still sleeping in bed, smiling as the color in his cheeks returned once again. She carefully removed herself from his arms and lowered herself off the bed. It had about seven months since the incident at the lodge, and everyone seemed to be healing well. She shared letters with Aaron and Aphmau, telling them about how she was healing and how much she missed them over these past few months. 

Of course, she had to lie in her letters about seeing Aaron. It just wasn't the right time, and if she had anything to say about it, she would never tell them about what she had been doing with her magic to help Aaron.

"Little One?" Yukisa asked as she fazed through the wall, "Are you ready to go back now?"

Airis nodded and climbed onto Yukisa's back, the wolf walking slowly out of the main house and back to Airis' private little shed. As they walked, Airis looked up and saw that snow was slowly falling down from the slightly cloudy sky above.

"Look Yukisa, it seems like you're falling from the sky again." Airis laughed, since snow was a play on words for Yukisa's name. Yukisa was a name that Airis gave the wolf when she was first able to speak and hear her. Translated, Yukisa is a metaphor for "something white as snow". Airis thought that it was funny because Yukisa was as white as snow and was born on the day that the first snow of the year fell. A classic name, but it got the point across.

Once they got back inside Airis' private little cabin, she lay down in bed and picked up her mother's spell book to study a little bit more before the doctors came in for her morning check up and breakfast.

Yukisa jumped onto the bed and laid on Airis' feet to keep them warm, "Did you find anything about it just yet?"

Airis shook her head, "Nothing yet. But then again, I've never really read this book until the...." She couldn't say it. Airis didn't want to think about that day at the lodge, where her family had nearly died. Though she didn't want to think about it too much, Airis knew that she had to come to terms with her new trauma. Best way to get through a trauma, is to face it head on instead of running away from it.

About an hour after she had gotten settled into bed, there was a knock at her door.

"Come in!" Airis called out and a doctor along with the Lycans came into the shack with breakfast.

"Good Morning, Airis." Derek said as he walked over to her bedside with his wife, daughter and a plate of waffles, syrup, a bowl of fruit and big glass of milk.

"Morning Grandpa Derek, Grandma Rachel, Auntie Melissa." Airis greeted and stood up once again to go to the small table in the corner of the room next to the window. The entire family sat down as the doctor gave her a quick check-up.

"All right, everything seems to be healing well." The doctor said, "You'll be strong enough to do more physical therapy here soon."

"Physical therapy like Papa?"

"That's right, sweet pup." Melissa said, "Though it will be tailored to your size and age, it'll still be a little tough so just tell us if it gets too hard for you."

Airis chuckled and picked up her fork to eat, "Better to get the hard stuff out of the way first, right?"

The Lycans were a little bit surprised by this, but then again, Airis was always like this for as long as they've known her. Even from what Aaron would say about her, she would always push forward and smile, even if it meant hiding her pain deep down inside.

Just then, as Airis was stuffing the waffles into her mouth, the robe that she was wearing slipped down her left arm. Rachel gasped when she saw what on Airis' left shoulder.