Solstice

Chapter 4

When I was younger, mum never tells me bedtime stories. I didn’t know any stories except for fairy tales after my uncle from Liverpool. Stephanie’s father got me a book of fairy tales on my seventh birthday. Mum tried to give that book away but didn’t because I started crying so hard that she gave me back my book.

Were legends and history the same thing? The people who knew the answer must be dead by now. History will repeat itself. Will legend? I didn’t know but I was about to find out.

Without wasting any minute, I took my notebook and followed Val downstairs. She led me to the living room with Alice there. She sat next to her mother and crossed her arms. I sat opposite of them and waited for either of them to speak.

“I’m sorry for not telling you earlier but you need to understand this is not easy and you are destined to accept yourself,” Alice started. “As Sam told you before, you are a hunter. I’m sure you dreamt about this.”

I flinched when she reminded me of my nightmare. I shook my head in reply. I didn’t dream about this. I didn’t even remember if I had the dream.

“You are also gifted with dreaming. Now you dream while you are sleeping. It is possible to dream in the day without sleeping. Here,” she said as she handed me a book that looked like a diary. “It was your Gran’s. She wrote down instructions, stories and everything you needed to know as a Hunter.”

“The legend?” I asked for the point, not bothering anything unrelated to it. This question was killing me for weeks. I held the diary tightly.

She positioned herself on the couch and leaned forward. “Your vision, gift for dreaming and hair. They are all related and existed over generations in our family. Sophia, you hunt werewolves.” I didn’t feel shocked, to my own surprise. The internet helped a lot. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for her to continue.

“The story I’m going to tell you is how all these started. How werewolves existed. A long time ago, there was an explorer called Van Wolfe. His job was to explore places that were available for his country, now called Netherlands to conquer. He enjoyed his work very much. He was born in a small town that we forgotten the name over the years.

“The town was conquered by France. Van Wolfe tried all his power to free his town to join the Netherlands. One day, Van Wolfe disappeared for about one month. People thought he was dead. He actually tried to find other empires or kingdoms willing to help him defeat France. Instead, he found a wolf. The wolf was big for its size. Van Wolfe spent days to communicate with the wolf. He succeeded.” Alice leaned back and looked into my eyes that were on her.

“He managed to do something any human was able to do that time. He and the wolf became one. He entered the body of wolf and he could turn into a human. He was bigger than before and more powerful. He helped his town as he swore and defeated France without an army. His force, power, strength and speed are a thousand times better than human. He won but he was also the bad guy. He ate his own people and nobody could or dare to stop him. Eating human was the only way to fill his empty stomach. Whenever his eyes turned red, it means he was hungry. Van Wolfe would turn into a wolf and eat people up.

“He could turn into a wolf and human as he wished. He also discovered that he could turn other people into a wolf by biting them. He lived for over two hundred and fifty years and still stayed young. By this theory, he was immortal,” Alice stopped to see if I was following the story. This legend was more than I expected.

“Three hundred years later, one of his people wanted revenge on him for killing his children,” Val continued the story for her mother. “His name was Thorene. He and his brother Elrik went to find anything to defeat Van Wolfe and his followers. They found something extraordinary. Thorene found a humongous eagle and Elrik found a sabre-toothed tiger.”