Amongst Us

Routine

L

~

Every day at the crack of dawn I always woke. In the early hours of the morning would be when I would get my peace. Peace from responsibility. Peace from my pack. Peace. I put up a block to my beta, if anything important where to happen within the pack he would know where to find me.

Whenever I came to the clearing I would always work myself until I almost collapsed. And then more. I needed to work until I could feel no more. I needed to make sure I was always strong, never weak and to be that I needed to forget. As I strengthened my mind drawing the energy I needed from around me. I could feel it, pulsing through my veins pumping me full of power.

My breath came out in short shallow breaths as the pain almost became unbearable. The sweat that trickled into my eye stung, but nothing compared to the cracking of my joints and the rearranging of my bones. I collapsed onto the soft damp grass listening to the trickling of the stream. I stared out across the stretch and into the middle of the lake where a den remained hidden from trespassers. This place was beautiful. My eyes shut as my past memories shuffled and resurfaced to the front of my mind. I didn't need to think about anything right now. I needed a distraction.

My eyes snapped to the right as I took in my surroundings. I was suddenly aware that I was no longer Luca. I had become Kalona. I no longer had control but even for a while it would be okay. I knew my wolf would be able to hold its own. I was vaguely aware as I saw through my wolfs eyes a deer gingerly taking short sips from the revitalising stream, eyes darting around looking for signs of danger. I quietly got up almost having to stop my tail from thumping in excitement as I stalked towards my prey keeping an eye on it's quivering form as its head perked up surveying the area. I knew the moment I had come into view as I saw her eyes widen, watched her legs jolt into a sprint for her life. I imagined a wolfish smirk cross my features before I bounded off after the deer relishing in the thought of a chase.

-

A

I trained night and day to perfect my imperfections. I needed to be stronger. I wanted to prove my worth. I wanted everyone to know who I really was and what I was meant to become. The days were counting down and I needed to be at my fittest. For years I hadn't worked up the courage to do it. I thought back to the type of person I would have been if it hadn't had been for Meliorna.

I always stayed back encouraging my friends to go and compete while I stayed back in the library and read all about how to complete the trial with perfection. I had never told them I wanted to enter. They only would have judged me telling me I would fail because they wouldn't have been able to stand if I had had the chance to win. They all would always come back and I would always make sure they would relay their mistakes to me so that I would build more information on how to improve myself into the ideal maiden. I needed to be the one. It was the only other half of me I would be connected to.

Thinking back, I recalled the night that had changed my life just 4 months ago. I had gotten up, not bothering to pack my books away as I knew I'd be back tomorrow. I remember the feeling of being so scared that I was terrified I would be violently sick. My wolf Meliorna, the one who stood by me while I had forsaken her, dragged my feet and pushed me towards one of the oldest corners in the library. I had always pushed her down, not needing her since I spent most of my time inside. However, this time she was too strong. I remember making my way back to the chair that had almost become my bed and opened the book that I had grasped so tightly my knuckles looked like they would split. I couldn't believe my eyes. Had the dark been tricking me? Had my mind been playing jokes on me? The Trials of the Bewitched stood as bold and as glorious as ever along the front of the cover. This was what I had been waiting for. It had been what I had dreamed of- what I had yearned.

My mind came back to the present as I looked around me. I had been working for three years, since I had been 15, ever so hard but somehow had almost thought I could survive with the knowledge I had mustered on my own. How foolish.

"Aleks! For goodness sake, this needs to stop? Do you really think you are ready for this? I think you-,".

"No. I have no care for what you think. Your opinions will not rule mine. If you want to enter, enter yourself."

I often recalled the conversations I had had with the people I had often thought were my 'friends'. Of course looking back, I understand that they all teemed with the sickening stench of jealousy and envy and had not discouraged me from entering due to love, but because of greed for themselves.

All of us, between the age of 15 to 19, who will be competing have been given a teacher each. These men and women had once competed in the trials and they had all won or survived at one point throughout the years. Back then ten of the women and men had competed. Today, we only had 18 men women teaching us. In our pack we called the past masters and maidens the Omnis. I remember my father had once said that it had meant all of me. In the other packs that competed there had been different names for them. The Pax, Morad, the Knor and I wasn't quite sure about the others.

I had been sweaty after I had finished my laps off the grounds. I had been up since 4 this morning. I knew that for the women who would be competing that it was highly frowned upon if you did not get full hours of sleep but I just couldn't lay in bed as the hours ticked by. I would always wake up around dawn. It was always by a crawling over my skin or the tightening of my stomach. Or maybe the amazing smell of the rich woody smell of oak accompanied by the smell of the cool rain. It would always pass. Every hour I was awake I was wasting if I hadn't been focusing on my task.

I looked around me. The pack grounds were absolutely gigantic. Sometimes my breath would have been stolen from me by the sheer disbelief that over 2150 pack members lived here on this land. There were about 5 pack houses that housed around 430 members. I lived in the pack house number 3. Or I used to anyway. They moved the 24 of all of us out of our pack houses and into the middle of the woods. It was a good 40 minutes away from my pack house when I would run every morning in my wolf form. I had woken at 4 and it was now 7. The pack house would be teeming with the voices of life. I looked up towards the sky as I felt the first spots of rain.

My back turned away from my old home. I did kind of miss it. Luckily I had never been the kind of girl to be bound to anything. I had had a lot of fake friends and a lot of unwanted attention from the men in the house. There was nothing that I had ever been attached to then my parents and my best friend Roma. My parents were dead and recently Roma found her mate. I think you can already guess what had come from that. All I had left was the forest.

So I stripped off my clothes and stuffed them behind a tree and bounded off into the woods, enjoying the comfort of the seclusion as they shielded me away from view.

-

Hi. I took a break of writing for a long time. These are the characters that made an appearance and Luca and Aleks are the main characters. As you have found out Alek's parents have unfortunately passed and with Luca you have found out he can draw power from the earth or anything nature. He practices this power everyday and only his beta really knows what he goes and does. None of the pack no about the powers of their alpha. They only know that he is powerful.

L- Luca// K- Kalona

A- Aleksandra//M- Meliorna

Aleks wants to enter the trials of the Omnis which is were you prove yourself as a warrior and more.

On the picture ignore the writing it was the image that I thought related the most to the place where Luca always went.