Anika | A Wolf Tale

FOUR

F O U R


-THE LESSON-

"You must keep your chin up! Never slouch. This is the mark of a lady."

The Madam's voice was becoming a recurrence even in my sleep. While there were various different lessons throughout the day, hers was the one that I dreaded most: etiquette. Or, as she so fondly called them, Lady Lessons.

"Lady Green, you have wandered off again! Keep your focus ahead."

"Yes, Madam," I replied as I blinked away the sleep from my eyes and continued walking in the straight line she had mapped out along the dim lesson hall.

Seven nights had passed since my first in the palace. Lessons lasted all day, and I found myself collapsing into bed the moment I was able to kick off the heinous shoes required for court. Only, my dreams had been haunted by what I thought I was able to escape during the day.

Some nights, invisible hands clutched my arms, my face, my skirts, ripping and tearing and trying to strike at me as they pinned me to the wall in a certain barracks miles from here. Other nights, a quiet grey wolf peered in through the window at me, watching.

Sometimes I would awaken feeling as though it had actually been in the room with me.

All of the nightmares had robbed me of sleep, leaving me nearly helpless to the insults and nagging of Madam Brigida. At least I had not seen Captain Forester since the incident in the greenhouse.

"Are you okay, Lady Green?" Taron asked quietly as he escorted me back to my rooms for the evening.

I smiled softly. "Yes. Or, I will be once I can get some sleep."

His brow wrinkled. "Have you not been able to sleep?"

"No," I sighed. "It is simply a symptom of being in a new place. You need not worry about me."

He peered at me through those large eyes of his, lines of doubt wrinkling their corners.

"Tell me if you cannot sleep again tonight," he began as we reached my bedroom door. "I will have the healers make up a tonic for you."

I nodded. "Thank you, Taron."

"Enjoy your night, Lady Anika."

With a bow and a crooked smile, he was striding off down the dim hall.

That night, I dreamt that I stood in the courtyard of the checkpoint. The trees stood tall, silhouetted against the light of the moon. Silver shafts poured over the front of the small buildings, illuminating what looked to be broken window panes, and boarded doors.

"Hello?" I called out.

No one was there to reply.

When I turned toward the building I had been in only days before, I gasped.

It had been burnt to the ground. Nothing remained of it, save for a single lantern sitting atop the pile of ash. The lantern that had swung by the door.

I shut my eyes against the sight, a surge of panic rising.

When I opened them, the pile of ash was still there. Only, just beyond it, emerging from the tree line, was the wolf. Wild amber eyes peered at me over the barracks that was no more.

My breath hitched in my chest as I stepped backwards.

The beast stared at me, its maw stained a deep scarlet.

"Why are you here?" I breathed. "What-"

It stepped forward, setting off into a run.

Headed right for me.