Wolf: Broken Howls

Chapter 6: Lost Manuscripts

I was intrigued. Those pieces of paper haven't left my mind all day. Something inside me wanted to dive into the mystical words they had hidden. Brax wouldn't let touch them never mind read them.

They lingered in my mind as I lay down in bed. The smell of old musky paper. I still can smell them on my fingertips.

I wanted to read them. What was so secretive about them? Why were they hidden from me? What did they hold? What mysteries did they contain? I wanted answers but of course I wouldn't get any.

Light started it to trickle in past the thick velvet curtains. I hadn't slept a wink. The mystery of the papers lay in my thoughts. Were they letters from my parents perhaps? Were they from my grandparents? All these questions. I flung my blanket off me and pulled myself up. My leg was getting better but it was defiantly hurting. I shuffled over to the oak bookcase in the corner of the sitting room. There was still a glow from the coals on the fire, it never got any sleep either.

I plopped myself on the ground and opened the small doors at the bottom. I was hit by the smell of old wood and books. It was beautiful. I peered in through the mass of books and documents. All the old ones were kept on the bottom away from sunlight. There was a mass of old books neatly stacked together. Glancing over their stained appearances one document caught my eye. It was binded together with twine. I pulled it from graveyard of papers. Was this what Brax was reading? It couldn't be? He wouldn't leave it in such an obvious place.

I ran my hand along its front page. It was thick and rough. And the smell. Oh God the smell. I loved it. It was stained from being so old, it had the odd mug stained circle. It coffee colored pages were holding mysteries, I could feel it.

"Verba Vetera. Lupus Palmae In Principio". That was all it said on the cover. I think it was either Greek or Latin or maybe some long forgotten language. I had no idea what it said.

"What are you doing?"

I turned, and of course Brax was standing there with that look on his face.

"What? I couldn't sleep so I got up and decided to get a book or something to read."

"Yeah, but that's not a book is it"

I hated being talked to like a child. "Oh come on, it's like this mangey book is the most important thing in the world. You're not going to die if I read it gosh"

"Give it here." He snatched from my hand. A piece of the old stained paper fell out on the floor. It had not writing just a picture. A picture that..... That. Oh gosh. What? He grabbed it before I could study it any further. It was taken with up to his room. I couldn't find words. I just sat blankly on the chair. It can't be. How?

That picture. It couldn't be. I lay frozen on the chair. What did it mean?

The floorboards creeked as someone was walking closer. I was to deep in thought to look who it was.

"I think it's time you read these" I looked up and Brax was holding the documents.

He took a seat beside me. "I know I shouldn't have kept these away from you for so long but I wanted to stall the prophecies from coming true. Stupid, I know. When a prophecy is spoken there is no undoing it, there is no stopping or stalling it. It must come to pass."

He held out the papers. "These are the what we called "The Manuscripts of Old". Original right? It's what dad called them. These contain ancient prophecies about... Bout you."

Was he kidding or was he serious? He couldn't be serious. I was puzzled.

"Wylder. These manuscripts were lost documents until dad retrieved them. He gave me strict instructions that you don't read this until you're at least strong enough and old enough to understand" "You see he knew about the manuscripts, he knew that from his family lineage these would be about you. See the front?" He held open the front page. "It's written in Latin."

"I can't read Latin Brax. How am I supposed to read it?"

"If you look through out the page you'll see dad's translation beside the Latin. He sat endless nights translating it. For you."