an Everlasting Pursuit

twenty

I was wrong.

This pack was huge.

Walking around a large twenty foot high rock, I realised. What I thought would be just a normal lake with random groups of friends around it turned into much more. This wasn't a normal lake by any standards. Its water was glistening blue for a start and second, it must've spanned about one hundred meters in diameter.

Despite the magnificence of colour and size, I was drawn to the beauty of the waterfall. Large brown rocks concave at least half the circumference of the lake. Walking around its beauty, it sprayed me with small specks of water, but I was too amazed to even care. Above it was a great landscape full of trees and hedgerows, a forage of wonders.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Eve laughed.

I turned back around to follow her, stepping further into the open. Most wolves turned to scan my appearance, some innocently, but others seemed guarded. She led me to a spot where I could see Mya and the other two girls lounging on blankets.

"How is it so... clear?" I wondered.

"It's an ancient lake, blessed by the Goddess." She shrugged.

I shook my head in disbelief, grabbing her shoulder to spin her around. "You're saying... this is magic water?"

She grinned, nodding. "The ancient texts claim she blessed it to purify broken souls. We come here whenever we can as a pack, and if the timings are right, the water changes you."

"Changes you? How can water change someone? Is it blue dye? Am I going to come out looking like a smurf?" I cringed.

She laughed as we came to our final destination. "Not like that! It is meant to... wash away your worries, your sins, that kind of thing."

"Purifies your soul is what our mother says." Mya snorted, catching my attention.

Mya wore a simple green bikini, with bows tied into the strings. Her body was lean and toned, and I had to keep my eyes away from staring at her.

"My heat has gone, if you're wondering." She laughed. "Otherwise, I would not be here right now."

I nodded with a small smile, redirecting the conversation back to the magical lake. "Why do you talk of the lake as though it's a joke?"

"It's just what our ancestors say. It has never happened to us before. We come to this lake about four times a year and nothing magical ever happened." She grimaced.

"But it has in the past?" I questioned.

"Maybe." She shrugged, popping a beer open with an extended claw. "Maybe not."

I hummed, sitting myself down on the blanket Eve had brought with us. So the lake was obviously so blue and clear, and had a majestic waterfall that led to a tremendous amount of forest and wildlife. Said to be blessed by the Goddess in the past to purify them, and yet, they think it's all a joke? If anything I have learnt since being here, is things are not what they seem.

"You say if the timings are right, what did you mean by that?" I muttered to Eve, knowing she believed in a lot of this kind of stuff.

"It's rare the lake works. My mother said the pack only felt it when they were all at war, when not one person was content. It was after a battle up the hill and they came here to wash off." She grimaced. "That was the day we lost the Luna."

"The Luna?" I wondered, glancing around the lake curiously. "Asra had a Luna?"

"Shh, they'll hear you." She chastised me. "But no, his mother. We were at war and she was one of the fallen, sacrificed to the enemy. Alpha Asra was just a pup, his father now mateless ruled the pack until he was old enough to take over."