Life-Times Apart

Ch.12 I am the Sun

AN// These chapters aren't going to be as thought out as I had hopped because no matter how many times I go through it, I can't find exactly the part I despise, and I want to rewrite it, and I can't do that without rewriting the entire thing. So.. here it goes.

  So, going to sleep at 1, and getting up at 4 was 100% not a good idea. Zach and Kol trudged through the woods, clasping thermoses that Jeremy had given them, full of life saving coffee, and oddly a glass of orange juice before they left. Zach's never had a problem with orange juice, but he thought it tasted really good this morning. Odd right? He thought so.

When Kol asked about it, Jeremy told them that he was feeling a bit sentimental, and that Levi says orange juice is the sun in liquid form. They all had another glass.

Now they come upon the back packs that Andrew had placed near the boundary line. The car wasn't too far off, and Hannah wasn't too far behind. Still, Kol was jittery, and kept looking over his shoulder for his mate. Zach placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him a little in front of him.

"Gah! I'm sorry man, but it just hurts!" Kol says apologetically. He bows head and moves along. Hannah will wake in an hour and a half, and she has no idea what to do. She knows that she needs to find Kol, that's it.

"It's alright. Just keep walking. I'm too tired to any faster." Zach says, and then stifles a yawn. They walk for another 15 minutes and find the forest green Jeep that they will be using for this little journey. The destination is three days away.

It's a clearing a decent amount away from the border of Zach's old pack site. When he was young, his family was called the Fire Moon Tribe. Tribes are different than packs for a couple of reasons.

For one, they are much smaller; two, they are more religious to the moon. It is said that they are granted with spirts of the sun and the moon. The Fire Moon Tribe were direct descendants from the Sun, The Luna Tribe were descendants of the Moon. There Tribes were the closest things to family other than real family. That is because the Moon and the Sun were soul mates, when they were allowed to walk the earth in spirit form. Then something happened, and the Sun and Moon were separated. The legend was never complete. When the two tribes were destroyed, many of the stories and legends and practices were lost.

Another thing, is that the Wolves were stronger and more influenced by the Sun and Moon, than any other wolf. The Tribes were targeted when the war with the Vere started. The Fire Moon Tribe managed to mostly escape. They used the cover of taking in wolves from other packs and orphaned children to hide in the cover of being called a pack. They were supposed to meet with the Luna Tribe, but they were all killed. The Spirit of the Moon could not have returned, until one child came forth who was worthy and strong and wise enough to take that force. The changeling will lead the Spirit of the Sun to the Spirit of the Moon so that they can be together in life as they were in death, and the Spirit world. Or that's how it goes any way. And that's why Zach needs to find the changeling. There is almost no other way to find the Spirit of the Moon, unless you are the Spirit of the Sun.

The two Spirits were always drawn together, nearly every time with the help of the changeling, but there were few occurrences when the Moon and Sun found each other alone. And someone always intervened. Apparently when the two Spirits are not joined, their wolves get the urge to track. It's like a beacon to their other half, and their wolves rise up and fight for the chance to be united with the other again. Or so he's heard.

Everything he knows, he knows from his parents. He was only 5 when his parents died, and he had only just started lessons. The most important? Find the changeling at all costs. Why? He doesn't know. His focus hasn't shifted on that fact, and the only reason he can think of for wanting the changling right now, would be to revive the Tribes and bring peace.

Peace nearly seems like a forgein concept now. Everything calm and the chance to rebuild lives and hope. He used to pray for peace, when he was younger, but now he fights for it, and it's begining to make a difference.

Their driving now, Kol in the driver's seat, Zach the passenger's. Kol is tired, but then again he is restless. He is aching for his mate to be returned. Some people say that when one mate dies, the other dies as well. Some say the other goes insane, until there is no other option but to have them killed. Zach knows this to be true.

Then his mind shifts to Levi. The dying girl with so much fire and power. The image of her eyes haunt him and tease him. Caleb gets riled up whenever he sees those eyes, and yet he feels no pull. No attraction like no other. Nothing that screams out to him, that this is his mate. Yet, she is nineteen, and he twenty. They would have been in the same mating class. The same year, and neither of them have mates? She was beautiful and fiesty and amazing, but he's thought that about other women before. There's also that thing in him that has to know everything about her. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

He did not go to her birthday because he was raiding a Vere nest. Over 50 of them, and that night was a night when he was more vicious than ever. Kol was even scared of him, and yet he felt justified in the vicious blood spill. Over 200 Vere. He thought it was because he had finally killed the bastard who ordered the raid on the Tribes, but no. It was something else, something more personal, and he never found out what that was, or why he felt that way.

That night, he had dreamt of figure made of pure moonlight, and he wasn't exactly himself. He looked at himself as if in third person, and he wore a marron tunic with black trim and a bold golden sun on his chest. He looked older at the time, yet he didn't seem like himself.

He girl made of moon, he could not see. For all she was moonlight. She called to him and caressed his cheek, yet when she said his name it was but a mere whisper, and it was not Zachary.

"Caleb." she had whispered so softly. And he knew that this was a time when his wolf lived a life of his own. His first life.

"Celeste, my moon." he had whispered back. Then man who looked like him, but who was ultimately Caleb, reached out to touch Celeste who was hidden in the moonlight. A man in a black tunic with silver trim separated them, and plunged a knife into Celeste. Caleb cried and growled and screamed. And then he watched as the Spirit of the Moon glided back to her place in the sky.

"Malfous, I will kill you. In this life, or the next." And then Caleb plunged his own knife into his chest, and fell to the ground in a ball of fire.

Zach shoots out of his seat, only to be slammed back down by his seat belt and the horror of understanding on his face.

"Dude, are you alright? You were screaming." Kol asks as they pull onto another highway with more cars.

"I am the Sun." he whispers and looks at Kol with large eyes and rapid breathing.

"What?" Kol asks, not having heard.

"I am the Sun." Zach says louder and with more certainty. Caleb hums in confirmation.

"I am the Sun." he whispers again. "And I need to find my Moon." he says in a hard tone.

"Excuse me, what?! No freaking way! This whole time we have been looking for the Sun Spirit, and it's been you, the entire time." Kol says pounding his fist against his head.

"Well we can call off the hunt I guess." Kol laughs in relief. The Sun was their ultimate leader and he/she was the key to defeating the Vere and restarting the old ways with the Fire Moon and Luna Tribes.

"No. We must find the Moon. I have to have her. Celeste." he whispers. With his new identity, the need and burning for his own mate returns. It's worse that fire and he needs her more than he needs air.

They pull up to the house where they will terminate their scent, and all Zach can think about is Celeste. His Celeste.