The Sapphire of Ismira

Sapphira the weregirl.

SAPPHIRA

     “I still can’t figure out what the big fuss is all about. So what if they saw some weird dude? Besides its not that he can be any weirder than those silly humans.” Hirando whispered in my ears.

“You talk like you aren’t human.” I growled back.

“Well I’m not your typical two-legged Homo sapiens am I?” Hirando retorted grinning, pointing to himself crouching on all four furry legs.

I couldn’t argue with that. He did have a point.

     Today was the big day. The council elders were finally going to cross the borders and meet with the strangers and unfortunately since I was second in command in the pack it was my duty to accompany the elders as their official guard. Normally it would be the duty of the alpha male to do the job but considering he was down with a bad case of the flu,considering we’re part humans unfortunately, it was up to me to fill in for him.

     I now had a huge job ahead of me and my wolf-ish instincts kept hinting that it wasn’t going to end well.

    “Sapphira!! It's almost time!” my mother screamed from across town hall.

 She’s got one hell of a voice if you ask me since I could hear her almost a half mile away. Looked like the elders were finally ready. If you thought your sister took a long time getting ready everyday for school, wait till you meet our town elders.

       I sprinted across town and stood at the entrance of town hall, this time in my human form.

       Town hall was a huge building that almost had the look of a medieval church complete with stain glassed windows et all. But on the inside it was fitted with designer décor which complemented the ancient tapestries perfectly. The elders had assigned different sections of the building to various departments to deal with security, affairs of the oblivious humans and stuff. It was almost like a miniature FBI. They even had a pad decked out with the latest gadgets and supercomputers just to keep track of the Neither world (I’ll explain about that later) and the human world. As most of us already knew, the town hall was built around the gateway to the Neither world. Deep within the building was an enormous arch with fine magical engraving and at the top of this arch was the most beautiful sapphire the size of a golf ball. The sapphire was a gift from Princess Ismira to us, the guardians of the Neither world, to help prevent another fiasco like the Battle of Arrhona. Long story short, town hall was just plain awesome.

   I waited outside for what seemed like an eternity till the large engraved doors finally opened and two of the senior members of the council stepped out dressed in their splendid purple robes with their long silver hair glinting in the sun. Even from a distance I could see their dark eyes shimmering with fear and grief as though they knew something terrible was about to unfold itself.

           They motioned for me to step forward and I did so and knelt before them.

“Raise Sapphira, guard of the elder council. You will soon meet your destiny my child. For better or for worse that will be your decision.” said Lord Ramon in his old and wizened voice.

“Huh?” I looked up stunned and confused.

Lord Ramon didn’t reply but I was sure I saw a weak smile dance on his lips.

     They walked forward and like an obedient little child I followed them. We walked for a quite some time till we finally came to the clearing that represented the end of our land. During the time we walked I thought about what Hirando had said. So what if someone was camping near the border? I still couldn’t figure out why crossing the border was such a big issue that it needed a were person to “guard” the elders. As far as I knew, the elders were quite capable of protecting themselves with their magic.

“Are you coming Sapphira?” said Lord Zarion.

“Sorry? Ah…Yes my Lord.” I stuttered as I noticed that the elders were already on the other side of the border.

“That’s it? You just step across the line? No wodoo magic or anything?” I thought to myself. I can’t deny that I wasn’t a bit disappointed.

    We could see a couple of tents erected a small distance away. A bulky figure was already walking towards us. He seemed quite normal (your kind of normal that is). Lord Ramon and Lord Zarion approached him and I followed at their heel.

“Who are you people?” Lord Ramon questioned with a puzzled look on his face.

 “You’ll see soon sire. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here and I wasn’t quite sure if I could cross the border.” the man said vague smile.

“I don’t…un...understand. You can see the border?” Lord Ramon said.

“Strange. Very strange indeed. And he shares a resemblance to...”

“Ah! This is no place to discuss that. If you would follow me please.” said the stranger, interrupting Lord Zarion.

We followed the man up to the entrance of one of the tents. He pulled away the flap and motioned for us to enter. One by one we stepped into the tent. What happened inside was entirely unexpected and little did I realize how much my life was going to change after that.