Eye of the Winter Wolf

Chapter 4

Serafina's eyes were blank and emotionless, her breaths came in small shallow gasps, her legs were shaking under her weight. She stood there for some time now, staring into the distance, towards the blazing red forests, where her mother died.

She felt her father nuzzle his nose into her shoulder, letting out a small whimper, eyes pleading. She nodded, and spun slowly, facing the direction of their huge, beautifully time-worn home.

They ran side by side, silent, as always, but it felt empty. The leaves crunched, but it sounded hollow. The wind howled, but it was cold as if winter truly arrived.

Rushing towards them was a russet coloured coyote, Vivian Woodman, with emerald green eyes. Serafina's eyes lit up a little at seeing her best friend. Vivian's wet nose touched Serafina's, and green met gold, communicating wordlessly.

Oh Vivian, my mother! It was the laquas.

I know, Sera, I know.

Vivian gave her a whine of sympathy and nudged Sera towards her own house, where her mother was cooking, and the delicious aroma of chocolate drifted out of their small kitchen window.

Sera turned human and sluggishly followed Vivian into her little brick cottage, it wasn't much, unlike their impressive mansion, but it was cosy, and she always felt welcome. Vivian's mother, Lucy, was a little on the short side, with fire-red hair and hazelnut eyes. She came to greet them at the front doorstep, the door squeaking open.

"Come in, Sebastian, Serafina.", she said, smile sagging.

They all sat down on the plush couch in the middle of the living room, near the fire, warming up, with mugs of hot chocolate in their hands. They sat in comfortable silence, none of them quite up for starting the conversation.

It was clear Vivian was itching to leave the silent room, so Serafina looked at her and jerked her head towards the front door. She nodded enthusiastically.

Once they were out the door, Vivian spoke, "I'm sorry, it must be hard."

Serafina sighed, "Yeah, and it's only been hours."

"But", Vivian said in an oddly serious voice, "You're Duchess now, you're in Queen Maron's court."

"Gosh, I'm sixteen! Are they really going to make me do that? I just lost my mother!", Serafina started rambling.

"Hush, it's gonna to be all right.", Vivian soothed.

"No Vivi, it's not."

"Oh whatever, I need to show you something else anyways."

"If it's as stupid as your last invention, I will kill you."

They both laughed hysterically. Vivian's last invention was a tomato launcher, something went wrong with it and Serafina ended up covered head to toe with tomato juice.

"Course it's not, and that was an accident! Follow me.", she gestured with one hand and transformed into a russet coyote.

Serafina was quick to follow and shook out her silver-grey fur. She followed Vivian round the corner of the house and into a cave underneath.

"Vivi, you sure we're allowed?"

"Course not, 's not like we ever cared about if we were allowed to do something were we?"

"Guess not."

"Now follow me, there's something wicked down there.", Vivian said, and hurried further down the cave.

Confused but curious, Serafina followed.

~~~

"Vivi, how did you find this place?", Serafina gasped in awe, turning human again, with Vivi close behind. The dark obsidian walls glistened in the dim light coming from the cave entrance, small crystals dotted the ceiling, and at the end of the room stood a woman holding a sword. The statue was old and dusty, but the sword was clean and gleaming.

"Been down here a couple-a times. Funny thing, the sword never gets dusty!" She exclaimed, "Thought you might as well look at it, got a wolf carving on it, interesting stuff."

"Yah sure.", Sera said reluctantly, she didn't want to break anything, that statue seemed valuable and old.

She stepped gingerly closer and picked up the sword, it was silver and heavy. The blade was almost as long as her arm, a carving of a wolf rested in the centre, the sapphire hilt was adorned with a golden gem, It seemed liquid, though solid to the touch. It eerily resembled an eye, then she realised, with a gasp, her eyes.

She ignored the gem, it was probably just for decoration. She flipped the sword, turning it over, and found words carved into its smooth silver surface. The words read, "Oculus lupi brumali, oculus vident."

"Yeah I found those words, couldn't understand them.", said Vivian suddenly from behind, which made Serafina jump.

"It's in Latin.", she said, "I can read Latin."

"What'd it say?", Vivi pressed excitedly.

"Eye of the Winter Wolf, Eye of the Seer", Sera furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Curious why that's on the sword, don't you think?"

"Curious is an understatement.", Serafina laughed.

"So what's 'the eye' huh?", Vivi asked.

"Might be this gem, the eye.", Sera assessed, "Look, the same colour as mine, see?" She held the sword up next to her face for Vivi to see, and sure enough, it looked exactly the same.

"Might be, might not. Just wanted to get your head elsewhere, you looked down.", Vivi said, "guess I did good huh?"

"Yah, you did.", she ducked her head, "Want to take this back to our parents to let them see?"

Before Vivian could answer, she saw the shadow of Vivian's mother, waiting at the mouth of the cave, arms crossed. Sebastian was next to her, and his mouth gaped open.

"Why are you down here?" Lucy said in a surprisingly stern voice.

"Uh-oh.", was all Vivian could force out.

"Uh-oh is right young lady, now why not start from the beginning."

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Thank you, everyone, who used their valuable time to read my book.

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