The Shadows of Erisdar 1 of 3 [COMPLETE]

Chapter 2

Winter solstice 1638, Ardaman

Each generation of chosen fates had the task of making sure that inhabitants of Ardaman found their soul mates and friends. It was much simpler for the more supernatural beings such as the werewolves, for long ago, the gods made sure that any shapeshifting species could only reproduce with a bonded mate, and the bond could only be formed once; this was to keep the population under control.

Werewolves could therefore sense when they were compatible with someone and had the choice to form a bond.

The fates' tasks were then simple. They had to group similar souls of a similar age together to ensure that they would cross paths sometime in life, it was then up to the souls to decide with whom they wanted to bond, but on this day, the fates were puzzled.

They stared at the glasslike orb with the various shades of blue with white, silver, green and amber swirling within. The colours in the orb constantly changed between blues and greens with silver, black and white swirling around it.

They had never seen a soul such as this and they did not know what to do with it. This was now the second time that they had found a lone soul and they could not place it with any other souls, for it could create chaos.

"Why do you think it looks like that?" One of the fates asked the other two. When still a baby, a werewolf's soul swirls with various colours and as the personality develops, the colours settle. This soul looked half-settled and confused.

"I don't know" One of the other fates answered.

"It can't be because she has no wolf, can it?"

"Well she was the youngest premature shifter, it could be different."

"But her wolf is more than just dormant, it's gone, I can't sense it at all. It died." They all sat quietly as they debated on what to do. They had not been trained for this and there was nothing in the books to guide them.

"We don't even know where she came from." The fates didn't bother much with the souls until they had settled and were ready to be paired.

"If her wolf is dead, then half of her soul is missing. It is what makes up her personality and without it, she's broken or basically human."

It was the first fate to speak again this time. "I guess all we can do for her is what we did for the other one a few years ago." They all nodded their heads since there really was no other option.

As they left one of the fates asked, "Does anyone know where that orb is? It's been missing since the last quake." The other two shrugged in answer before they commenced reaching out to Alexandra.

Spring 1644, Boronduin Territory, Ardaman

It's been a little over fifteen years since Alexandra lost her family, her memories, her wolf and strangely, her scent. She has almost no werewolf traits and even though she has trained extremely hard to defend herself, she is nothing more but a mere human now. But she has made peace with it a long time ago, for her hard work has paid off and she has recently returned home with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery and can now proceed with being the pack veterinarian and also perhaps getting a mechanical degree. She was always hungry for knowledge.

Alex has been home for a few weeks now and so far it was quiet. She has done all the basic veterinary checks for all the animals, treated the sick ones and tested them for diseases and everything was well. She decided that she wanted to go to the forest for a while now. She had a secret place to the far southwest of the territory where she trained and practised her skills. It was a piece of unclaimed land that she had found when she was younger and turned into her training and playground. It was nestled between the mountain and the Erisdar forest and one had to either go south to the mountain and then move west along the mountain base to reach it, or one could take a shortcut, which is what Alex always did, through a piece of Erisdar: A mysterious forest that started on the edge of Boronduin territory.