Prologue

My name. The young master whispered as he walked down the hall pausing before the drawing room of the third floor. He stood at the door; his mind stopped and froze, while cold hands touched the silver knobs. A slow smile stole across his face, as he entered the drawing room and stood by the lace curtains, his hand running over the smooth material. The room was cold like the rest of the castle but that did not bother him anymore. He had been there too long to care. His heart did not race, but he knew he was nervous, which such emotions did not come often. 

Tock. Tock. Tock. Footsteps rang from the wooden floors out in the hall. 

The house was quiet as always but today the young master could not keep his thoughts in order and memories at bay. Behind him maroon bookcases that could have mistaken for black, mirrored his reflection in their glass. To the left of the cases the Madame stood, delicate fingers tapped lightly on crossed arms. Her black eyes watched, the young man with interest. His lips moved silently of their own accord and the Madame smiled. “Boy,” she said as she stepped into the center of the room. The young master had learned not to be surprised if the Madame suddenly appeared from the shadows within the house, but then he knew she would be here for she had called him.

A pale blue light swept the garden down below the terrace. A hallow sound fell from over the surrounding hills gathering around the old oak door at the base of the Castle. The servants of the house huddled within their beds below the kitchens as the sound vibrated though the walls. It was midnight, when the earths old magic flows, at least that’s what the people of the castle whispered to each other on a night like this. The truth they could not accept was that their reality was a dream from which they prayed they would soon awake and possibly never would. 

A young girl sat huddled in the darkest corner of the basement, keeping warm with a rough blanket that had more holes then patches. Even though it was colder in the corners of the room, she had slept there every night because it was here that the walls were the thinnest and it was here that she caught glimpses of the outside when the moon was high on a night like this…  

A lone wolf sat within the shelter of the trees, his yellow eyes aglow. Tonight the air was full of essence; he could feel it gathering from different parts of the forest. Though it was normal for every first moon to gather the essence in the valley, this gathering was strong. The wolf looked to the edge of the castle grounds and into the nearby city, even from there the essence came and from there the pull was the strongest. The wolf sat through the night watching, until dawn then he laid down his head to sleep. He knew that he should be on his way back to the pack before they moved to the birthing grounds but he had no strength to move. So at last when his sight faded from his eyes, his mind wandered and it was then that he realized that his essence was taken as well. 

Author's Note

This is a first draft so please give critiques. How was the flow? Was there anything that did not make sense?