Katarina Montgomery(Book 1 Unedited Rough Draft)

Chapter 14. Exploring

      I awake to the sun shining brightly through the windows, I can hear the birds chirping and the creatures bustling about. I lay in bed trying to decide if I want to get up or lay here longer when I hear a knock on the door "Kat it's me Noah Moose and Murph are here also. We were hoping you were up so we could go exploring a little bit" with that I hear the boys talking about how amazing it is here and how they would like to see everything before we go. I laugh at them and respond "Let me get dressed and eat breakfast you guys". I grab a pair of jean shorts and slip them on with a light blue tank top that has a wolves paw in white on the center, I also grab a pair of white flip flops out of the closet. I walk out of the bedroom to the guys still at my door waiting for me I laugh as they all nearly fall into the room when I open the door. "Geeze guys can I breathe a little bit" I laugh as they fall on one another to keep from falling into my room. I walk to the kitchen not even knowing where it is but i seem to remember being here before because i went directly to it. Noah looks at me confused "How did you know where the kitchen was?" he asks "I don't know it's like i just knew" I try to explain.

      We get into the kitchen and notice right away that it is completely stocked with all kinds of foods that all look amazing, just then Elvana and Crystal come in "My Goddess would you like me to make you and your friends something to eat?" Crystal asks. "Oh my no Crystal it's fine we all know how to cook we can manage i'm  sure why don't you and Elvana go enjoy yourselves today?" I say. With that Crystal smiles "Oh my thank you My Goddess it's been so long since any of us have gotten to do anything." I then look at her "Please just call me Kat and why doesn't everyone take today off to enjoy themselves everyone deserves a break" i say with a smile. Crystal smiles back hugely and Elvana runs up and hugs me "I will let everyone know Kat" Crystal says after prying Elvana off of me. 

    The boys all look at me in amazement all of them start speaking at once so all I hear is a bunch of garbled words "Whoa boys slow down one at a time" I giggle. Murph speaks first in his normal shy tone "It seems you were born to be an amazing leader Kat everyone seems so happy to have you here but the question is are you going to stay here or return to the wolves?" he asks shyly turning his head down. Noah growls at him i'm guessing at the thought of his mate staying here. "of course she will come back to the wolves it's where she belongs" Noah finishes. Moose then looks to me for the first time not being able to look me in the eyes "I can understand why you would want to stay here Kat, it's beautiful and everyone seems to live in peace unlike in the wolf community." I then turn to look at all of them "That is why my dear boys I must return to the wolves, I want them to all live in peace like everyone and everything here. Plus, my mate is there as are you guys, I could never leave you all. Now let's get breakfast and go explore." I finish. 

     We are walking around the grounds watching everyone play and talk having fun due to being given the day off. The Gnome children and Elf children are outside running around playing tag, hide and seek, and many other games. The adults are watching the children laughing at them and talking among one another. We continue walking to the back of the castle wanting to see what is back there before we head into the woods. When we reach the back of the castle we all gasp at what we see, a sparkling blue lake with water sprites, pixies, fairies, and even a few mermaids lounging around on the rocks that are around it. There are unicorns drinking from it, and some of the fairies are flying above it playing tag and splashing one another. The mermaids are giggling and talking to one another pointing at the boys and some of them were blushing, I turn to look at the boys and see all of them blushing while staring in awe at the mermaids. I could understand why they were painstakingly beautiful, they all had different hair colors, different features, but you could tell they were all related. I run back to the house to grab a swimsuit the boys all following to do the same. 

       Once we all change into our swimsuits we run back to the lake and decide to jump in. We all laugh in joy as the cool crisp water hits us it was cool but not cold, just cool enough to be relaxing on a warm day. We splash around dunking one another and playing when I turn to see Ares speaking with the mermaids and they are all gushing at the God. I call to him "Dad come play in the water with us and bring your friends" I giggle seeing the mermaids all blush but they dove in and come to us splashing the boys and one another.  We are all having so much fun that I didn't notice Ares sneaking up behind me he picks me up and throws me far out into the water I surface and laugh vowing to get him back. As I get back to everyone I dive under water them not knowing where I am at I sneak up on Ares and the mermaids grab him as well and we all dunk him knowing it would have taken all of us any ways. The mermaids and I pop up and start laughing as Ares surfaces and spits out a mouthful of water laughing. We all go to get out of the lake having been in there for a few hours, Ares turns to look at us "How about some lunch and you guys can go and explore some more" he says smiling. "Sounds amazing Sir Ares" Murph states and we all nod in agreement smiling.

     After lunch we decide to head to the woods. We walk past the lake waving to the creatures there and smiling at the mermaids yelling hi to one another. The first thing I notice are the creatures I had seen the day we arrived, Ares had said they were Dryads, large tree looking things that walked and also had a womanly shape on top. I smile at them and wave they all wave back and are smiling. The boys are nervous wrecks at this point not knowing what we will find. As we venture deeper I hear a low growl and turn around to see a little dragon behind us, it is curious as it heads towards us sniffing the air. I reach my hand out for it to smell showing that I mean no harm, as it gets closer a very much larger dragon appears behind it and lets out an extremely loud roar breathing a bit of fire as it did. Hearing that the Dryads come quickly and they seem to be communicating with the dragon as it lowers its head and bows at me. Walking to me slowly as to not startle me it puts its head in my hand just like the unicorn did, I begin petting it hearing a slight purr come from it I begin to venture further feeling the wonderful scales under my finger tips. The baby then comes up stumbling as it tries to get my attention I giggle and turn to pet the baby it starts purring just like the bigger dragon did only this ones purr was much more like a whine high pitched and song like. After our encounter with the dragons we decided it would be best to head back to the castle as it was beginning to get dark. 

    As we get to the back of the castle we notice that the lake is now empty and there seems to be no hint of life near it. The stars are now reflecting off of the water making it appear as if there are 2 skies, it was truly enchanting. We get back to the castle entrance and all of us smell barbecue at the same time, my mouth begins watering and I see Ares grilling off to the side of the castle entrance running up to him he smiles "So I hear you met some of the dragons and dryads. You are very lucky the Dragons barely reveal themselves to anyone, consider yourself blessed and protected forever now." He finishes with a smile. "Now let's eat and head to bed tomorrow we will go get the flower and your aunts mate and then we will head home".