A Howl To The Moon

Chapter 16: The Hraic Forests Of Time

"Ok, we gotta stay calm. I'm sure there is a rational explanation for this. There always is," I say calmly, though my thoughts are racing faster than the wind. That satchel had most of the rarer and more useful ingredients for spells in it.

"Yeah...there must be some weird magical qualities in this forest," Skylar said and looked around.

"But there's no way that there could be someone who stole it from you. I made sure we weren't being tailed!" Luna exclaimed.

"Ok ok...first things first. Let's keep moving. There will be an explanation somewhere in here. As well as an explanation to those doppelgangers I saw," I said and kept moving through the trees.

"Wait. Doppelgangers?" Luna and Skylar asked and I gave them a curt nod.

"Say, you said you could use any form of mental magic right Luna? Can you use telekinesis?" I say and she nods after a moment of thinking.

"Alright...I think I'm starting to get how this place works. Let's keep walking," I say before moving forward at a faster pace.

As we walked through the mass of trees the fog grew thicker and thicker. I could hear a river coursing right beside us. If you know by this point a lot of things have made my fur stand on end and gave all of us chills. Well, add this to the list. I could hear whispers in the fog, but not the whispers of anyone. The whispers were coming from the river.

"Uh, Sylvester? What's...that?" Luna asked in bewilderment.

"Well...it's definitely not a lullaby," I said sarcastically.

"They...I can hear my parents voices in them...Is this the forest of time?" Skylar asked and I nodded.

I could hear Nava's voice in the mixture and a familiar female voice that I could only assume was my mother, Haru.

"Now that we're this close to the river I'm guessing that it will give us glimpses back into our past. So be warned we might be hit with sud-" I started to say and speak of the devil! A blast to the past came punching us in the snout/beak for lack of better analogy.

That first time I heard my mother's voice had been amplified to a full-on movie. I could see her, smell her, feel her, et cetera et cetera. I looked over her and I can see what features I got from her immediately. Other than that she looked absolutely stunning. If she wasn't my mother my heart would've skipped a beat (not like it already has). I soon realized that this was when I was born.

I didn't hear the words too clearly as I was focused on my mother's voice, which was caressing my small little head, which was whimpering and frighteningly quiet for a pup. But I couldn't help but notice that there was more whimpering. It wasn't matching my mouth movements at all and then I realized there was another pup right next to me. Drinking her portion of our mother's milk.

Then my trip back to reality was like a slap in my snout, but when is something not gonna feel like a slap to the snout.

"Sylvester? Are you ok?" Luna asked worriedly, "You were out for a good ten minutes."

"Uh...uhm...yeah yeah I'm fine I just uh....found out I have a sister," I stammered my reply.

I never really paid attention to Luna's features so much, but after seeing my mother I realized Luna was practically the spitting image of her. Just her fur color was different and her voice.

"Was I the longest out?" I ask quickly after getting up and shaking the blush that was slightly forming off.

"Yup. Now c'mon we need to get going. We only have five days until the bubble shield around the fire lets up," Skylar said and I rushed after her.

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We spent another hour walking and we were walking in circles. There was no out or in anymore and we had walked straight back up to where we entered the forest.

"We're getting nowhere," I said and Luna nodded.

"Wait why'd you ask me if I could use telekinesis earlier?" Luna asked and I gulped when I turned to look at her.

"Well, Skylar said she felt like something took her satchel and described it as-"

"An invisible hand...oh that's genius!" Skylar added

I grinned and finished my explanation, "Therefore, you might have grabbed it using your telekinesis and since this forest seems to have a bunch of time magic coursing through it we would probably happen upon a past version of ourselves when Skylar still has her satchel"

Luna looked at Skylar and me like we had something on our snout/beaks and just nodded slowly.

"O...k then...I'm going to pretend I understood that a little," she exclaimed.

"Yeah time is really weird when you mess with it," I say with a small but unnoticeable blush.

Almost right after I got done explaining we, we meaning past us, not us (confusing I know), happened upon us and we (present us now...oh gods this is confusing) stared back at them in surprise.

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