The Last Hope

16~Echo

The night has crept closer and closer, and now the sheet of shadowed night has come to its full eclipse. Dakota has made many possessive shows onto me, and has been really working on my nerve, as well as Aria's. About an hour ago, she went to scout ahead as Auna and Alec insisted on taking a break. When she came back, I could smell blood, and saw the gashes on her knuckles from punching something... now it has healed into a deep bruise, with ridged scabs that are close to falling off. A deep part of me wants to join her, hold her hand as we walked, her gentle presence would be much more appreciated in the situation, rather than the smothering affection, making me feel clumsy and awkward, like I'm losing more control of myself, making panic flood into my heart when I think of how close the FireWalkers are.
We stopped for a break and had a small lunch meal of things that Aria had packed for our trip, though there is very little, considering we were meant to be much faster, with fewer people. As we finished up and began walking, I thanked Aria for the food, and we exchanged smiles. Kota took this as prime opportunity to grope at my butt. To which Aria didn't even show jealousy over, but just disgust at the disrespect. Without skipping a beat, I turned fast with an open palm, causing a sharp 'SWACK' to his face.
"Back off, Dakota!" I yelled. I turned to walk away, frustrated.
"What!? It's been months! And the way you stood up made it stand out, it should be a compliment!" He chased me with his voice in a high, defensive tone.
"A compliment!? No! That is rude, especially to everyone around us who you had just made incredibly uncomfortable!" I growled, before I could realize it, I was on the forest floor; everything was sharper, and clearer. A look of horror and stunned stretched across Kota's face. A howl behind me made us all jump. I turned fast to see a dark brown figure standing carefully a few paces behind me, her ears are back and eyes focused on me. Is she going to attack me? I could take her, show her I am stronger. I think about every muscle moving in my body; my shoulders and hips as I lower myself, my nose as I show my teeth at her, each leg as I slowly turn to face her. Her eyes widen in worry, then she sits, lifting her ears and tilting her head. I could easily attack her now, she's vulnerable, but why would she just sit. She flopped over at my feet rolling around like a pup. As she did, I heard Dakota jump up from behind me and take this moment as opportunity to run from me. I wanted to turn and bite his heels, but the wolf before me reached out a paw and pushed it to my shoulder. I watched her, still tense and careful. She wiggled closer and reached her head up to lick my jaw and I snarled in response. Suddenly images of two wolves running together, playfully nipping each other's feet invaded my mind. The wolf stopped licking me, slowly rolling over to her belly, raising to my height, and I let her. I feel myself relax, my heart beat slow. There was a pain in my knees as they thump to the uneven dirt and weeds. I wipe the clouds from my eyes, the wolf is still looking at me, her calming eyes smiling into mine. I sit up straighter, resting back onto my heels when the dark fur of her face blurred. I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was going cross eyed, but the wolf only continued to blur. The long features of the Beta slowly morphed and stilled into the strong angles of Aria's face. She never broke her concentration on me, and when I could see her clearly, we stayed like that for a moment before she let out a loud laugh, dropping her face to her knee on the ground, and the other hugged close to her chest. She leaned towards me, reaching her arm straight out to gently lift my jaw and close my mouth.
"It's a lot to take in, I know." She said in a soft, thick voice. All I could manage was a nod. She looked behind me with a steady stair. I remembered everyone else that was here, and turned my head from the handsome woman before me, and saw Rae's three friends, all standing a few rows of tall trees away from me. My stomach sank as I realized that they're scared of me. I feel pain in my heart when I see them wondering if it is safe to approach me or not. Tears begin to sting behind my eyes when a strong hand rests on my shoulder, directing my attention.
"Follow me." Aria says calmly, standing up and pulling me up by the hand and guiding me further away from them. I heard Dakota call out to me, but we picked up pace into a run. Aria looks back at me and smiles "Imagine yourself going even faster..." I did, and my feet carry me faster and faster, I feel like I'm flying! Suddenly I feel myself shudder and start to trip, I put my hand out to catch myself, but I don't see hands out in front of me, I see paws. This time, it does not startle me, or confuse me; I meant to change into a wolf. Excited, I use my new limbs to take me faster than I could have even imagined as a human. I feel pressure on my hind leg for a split second, I look back to see the chocolaty fur on my heels, white, bone teeth reaching for my haunches. I yip and throw my head up as I pull my feet forwards and try to run even faster. This wolf behind me is quick and can easily keep up, so
I jump and twist my body to come to a stop. This caught her off guard. Now that she is in front of me, I have the advantage and I jump at her, driving my front paws into her side, knocking her over with me on top. The happiness builds up inside of me until I start to laugh, rolling over on her as she laughed too. I laid on my back as I caught my breath, using her stomach as my pillow. I looked up, losing my breath to the sight of the tall trees and starry sky behind the canopy. Her arm came down and rested over my stomach as she sighed, probably noticing the view as well. Only then did I realize that we had changed back into humans.
"What did you see in that guy?" Aria spoke up. My stomach sank, how do you tell an old love why you love a new one?
"He's never been anything like this. He was gentle, honest, kind, understanding, respectful..." I trailed off, thinking about how things used to be. What happened to him since I have been gone...?
"I would be able to watch you love someone like that, someone genuine, but I cannot stand the way he treats you, especially when I know that I could be so much better for you..." she gripped my shirt with the right hand she had resting on me. Neither of us said anything for a while after that, until I finished forming the question in my mind;
"Why were we so in love, Aria? When we were so young, I mean. And how is it as strong as it is, even after so much time apart, when we could be such different people now..." I stumbled over my words.
"Well," she thought, "It can be a strange thought, when you grew up in the human world, learning their ways, their values and their history. You see, we're Shifters, there are many types of shifters, a few dozen or so. Each one is very different, separated by which animal they are, and even their human forms carry the personality traits of their animal." She stopped for a moment, then continued with; "For example, the Bear Shifters, you rarely see them in a city, or even around each other. Quite often they'll be in a profession that doesn't involve much or any human contact, like farmers. Usually the ones that have the strict 'no trespassing' ideals, and will chase you away with a shot gun." She laughed to herself, remembering something. I let the silence rise up between us as I took in this information.
"Wolfes imprint on each other, and they're one of the few animals who mate for life." She blushed. "For us, we were the first of the family to imprint. We weren't around other Wolves often, but I guess you and I didn't need to. As well as Axle and Nyx."
"What if we didn't imprint on one another? What exactly is 'imprinting'" I asked with a yawn.
"Well, imprinting is basically 'love at first sight'. That is by human terms, it actually isn't something that naturally happens to humans, but in some cases it does work out in the end, depending on what the kind of person they are. It would usually be very romantic, well timed cases. With us, Shifters, it's our future and present bound together. We have our spirit guides lead us to each other, they are the thing that loves us more than anything. Your Spirit guide is born with you, and they frequently battle other spirits that lost their love, and try to steal other away too."
I lifted myself off of her to watch her explain, but it still made nearly any sense to me, and I was very obvious. She only laughed, promising that she'll explain that another time.
"Your guide is the one who falls in love with another spirit, and their love transcends to you and who you imprint on." She finished.
"Wait, when did we imprint?" I asked.
"We were getting close to our third birthdays." She replied.
"If we're born with our guide, how were they able to fall in love so young?" I questioned.
"Well, they don't mature like we do. The only thing they really gain after years of life is experience. And Strength when fighting off lost spirits. It's very common for us to imprint before we even can talk. The soonest it took someone to imprint that I know- not including you and I, was around 8 years old. Although, usually imprinting happens to wolves around their teen years."
"I see! So not even three years old is impressive?" I asked. She nodded.
"We also can never do it again. If our match dies, then we usually die as well. Those who live usually don't love again. There are mutual arrangements, where you meet someone you get along with well, who makes you happy, and almost forget your match, and you wish you could love them, but we're not wired like that... People in that situation usually stay together, and live a content life together, breed, and raise their children." She sighed. "That's why I was surprised that you said you had a boyfriend, and insisted you loved him and missed him..." she trailed off.
"Well, my whole life I always gave my all to those who I loved. Not even romantically, just a deep caring for them. Quite often it got me in trouble, going too far to protect them or help them out of situations. I gave people so many chances that I ended up getting walked all over, and even when I recognized it, it didn't change. Dakota always was different, he was the person that needed help the most out of anyone, and always respected me. Until him, I never really knew what actually loving someone would be like. Though I have been questioning if it's still like that, as of late..." I paused, and we both welcomed the short silence. "Why am I like that?" I asked.
"I- I'm not entirely sure." She lied. The way I looked at her, she knew I saw straight through her. She looked uncomfortable, like she doesn't get called on for lies often. "Okay, I've heard rumours over the years. Other people who have been searching for someone, someone powerful. Each time the story is a little different. Some people say he's a powerful, ancient sorcerer, others say he's one of the gods themselves. The furthest someone has gone to describe this persons power, was that the ancient gods banded together to create an ultimate being, more powerful than anything in this world. The people were looking for the FireWalkers, because they had captured him..."  
"Woah... And you think that's me?" I asked.
     "I feel like you would know if you had that much power. I also think that a being with that much potential would give off a strong frequency." She paused. "I think I just met a lot of crazy people on the road." We both just laughed for a while, feeling giddy and goofy again.
"I have missed you, Echo." She sighed in a whispered. A smile stretched so widely on my face, it made my cheeks ache.
"And now I can remember how much I've missed you." I returned as I rolled my head to look up at her, and she was already watching me, her left arm tucked under her head to help lift it to see me. I smiled to her, and we stayed like that for what felt like hours, before I looked back at the sky, the dark canopy getting darker and darker as I slowly drifted away in the warm night.