Shadow Cursed

Chapter 11: Wulfric

I woke up in my room and got out of bed. Putting on some warm clothes I grabbed a piece of meat from the fridge for the trip I was going to make today. After making sure I had everything I teleported into the winter forest.

I bundled myself warm with the cloak again. I felt the amulet under my clothing and smiled. It made me feel safe, and now that I know it was my mothers, I would never take it off or let it out of my sight. My satchel was also under the cloak.

Crossing the realms was easier this time. I arrived in minutes and had a soft landing. The snow was not coming down as hard as last time and a little bit of the grass was peeking through the surface. My boots walked through the snow left on the ground as I looked for one wolf in particular.

I saw no sign of Wulfric, and his warning to me last time was pretty much burned in the back of my mind. But I had to talk to him, and peacefully this time. There would be no unneeded injuries or deaths today. I wouldn't take no for an answer.

Wandering for hours I finally found some kind of trail near the cliff where I had fallen off. I followed the trail of paws leading to a cave. The cave had an overpowering smell of death, I had to cover my nose so I wouldn't complain about it. It didn't block thoughts of who died in here though, or how they died. He wasn't here at the moment but there were bones and skeletons of animals scattered around, also some rotting flesh of some animal laying around with flies swarming it. Disgusted and horrified, I wandered back out of the cave and went back to the cliff.

I just sat down at the cliff with my feet dangling off the edge admiring the view. It was a pretty nice view though. I would wait for him to find me instead.

I imagined the snowman was there in the distance. Jumping off the cliff I landed in the snow on both feet and not my bad this time. Taking my time I built the snowman I had remembered snowball by snowball. I left it standing there to melt later and seated myself back into the cliff. Three hours passed.

I grew bored with each passing hour. Four hours. Where was he? Five hours. I was making some effort to be friendly, but in his eyes I was invading his territory again. The piece of meat was still in my satchel I was wearing over my shoulder. 6 hours.

At hour 8, a howl confirmed he knew I was here and coming. Moments later he arrived at the cliff again and stared at me without saying anything. "I know what you told me last time, but I come in peace. I bear an offering." I took the meat out and threw it on the ground.

He walked around it and smelled it. After examining the meat, he determined it was safe and ate it off the ground. He seemed happy. After finishing his dinner he licked his fangs and walked over. "What have you come for strange being?"

"The name's Isabella, you'll learn it. My father is Alric. And I need to know more about my mother." I begged, "Please, he won't tell me anything."

Wulfric seemed to hesitate with his answer to my request. It seemed to pain him as much as it pained Alric. "She was gentle and loving. Anyone was lucky to be able to know her, and be a part of her life."

I wanted to meet her so much, but even they couldn't bring her back from the dead. "Everyone tells me she was pretty."

He nodded in agreement, "You look like her. Like mother, like daughter."

"Did she have anything special? Like powers?" Alric had said that it came from his blood but what if she had some also.

"She had some magik, a rare ability that she told few about." A rare ability in her blood.

My heart raced, what if I had her ability? "What was her ability... Just curious." I added, "Just cause she's my mother and maybe it passed onto me."

"She had the gift of time. Time is precious in this realm." He sensed my confusion on the topic, "It's kinda like being able to go back in time. But anything you do may affect the future."

"Basically time traveling." Memories took me back into time. Could I change those? Curiously, "I have memories, if I learn how and I have the gift, could I change the past?"

"It's a dangerous thing to do young one. One mistake and everything can change. That's why the gift is so precious." Before I could say anything he added, "But there is a dark side to it. It can be abused."

"Magik." The word made my body excited. I wanted to try some more. Being part human made me want to know more about what I could do. "Teach me magik."

"It's not that simple. I tried teaching your mother, she was able to do simple healing." Healing magik. A kind heart. It made sense. To be kind meant you could help people. To be dark hearted meant you hurt people.

"If one has a dark heart..." I could say the rest but he knew what I meant.

He pointed his paw in the distance at a shadowy area, "The Shadowlands. All creatures that serve the Master, live there and can't leave unless without permission or escape."

Anna. She was there, possibly dead or alive. I thought about something else to distract me. "Do you hate me? For looking like her."

He looked at me with his eyes that could stare into your soul. "I don't like you exactly, but I don't hate you either. I'm warming up to you."

"The good I guess. I don't need anymore enemies after me." I shivered from the cold breeze coming through.

He howled to the moon, and stood next to me. I yawned and felt tired. He let me lay my head on his neck. It felt soft as a pillow. "You guys aren't that bad. The books I read made you sound like monsters that mercilessly killed."

He didn't seem to hate me for saying that. "Those books are written by people who don't know us. We have families and lives also. They write them based on past experiences. We only go into attack mode when we are in danger."

I pet his fur and sat up. His fur was a bluish green and he kind of had a glow coming off of his fur. In the night he appeared scarier than day. "I should get going probably, I don't want them worrying about me."

He nodded and helped me up, "I'll take you to the best place to teleport back out." He offered me a ride on his back and he took off, I had to hold on to his fur to not fall off. Stopping at a field with no snow, I got off and walked to the center. I could feel the magik around here. "Have a safe trip home."

As I thought of home I felt myself teleporting and he left as I was returned back home. Alric had not returned home yet. I went downstairs to find a note, he had gone out for the night. Grabbing the container of cookie dough ice cream and a spoon I spend the rest of the night in my laptop watching a movie until I fell asleep.