Chapter 17 Jay: What comes up must fall down--painfully.A Chapter by A.L.ExleyChapter 17 Jay: What comes up must fall down---painfully. Ylvana's goat-wrangling skills were impressive, but I admit; it was the strangest thing I've ever seen. I am glad it worked. We are out of the mountains and only had one more obstacle to go. We all peer down the side of the mountain. "This is it," I say. "Just this and we're out." Ylvana shoots me a look. "Just this?" She may have a point. The slope in front of us is a steep 200 feet, with plenty of sharp rocks at the bottom to break our fall. If we fell or even slid down too quickly, those rocks would not be kind to us. "Can't we just go around?" Pine whines. Ylvana shakes her head. "There are lots of slopes like this along the eastern side of the mountains. This way's faster. We can do it, as long as we don't go too fast." She puts her paw slowly down onto the slope. The ground squishes under her weigh, and a mini avalanche of loose dirt and pebbles tumbles down. She eases all four feet onto the slope. I'm terrified of falling, but I follow her. We're careful to balance our weight and move slowly. Pine paces nervously at the top of the cliff for a moment before following us. He quickly overcame us; his light body and little paws navigated the slope easily. As for Ylvana and I, things aren't as easy. Our weight drags us down faster, so we have to struggle to control our decent. Every so often, one of us stumbles. We'd have to dig our claws into the dirt to slow our fall. By the time we reach the middle of the slope, our legs are shaking from exhaustion. Then it happens: Ana is just a few steps ahead of me when she slips. It's so sudden, one little misstep that makes her paw slide out from under her. Her shoulder rolled forwards, twisting the rest of her body after it. Without any grip, she quickly gains speed. I hear her yelp as she paws at the ground, trying to slow herself. As I watch her slide, I remember my mission. If I let her fall, my mission will be completed. I will finally be a Fenrir Warrior. I'd finally belong somewhere. It's not so bad. I think of the dream I have two nights ago. I've killed before. By my father's command, I had ended more lives than I want to count. But I have grown use to the pain it causes me. If I shut off all emotions, than the guilt can't reach me. I am nothing but a tool to do my father's bidding. I can't be anything else. But I am. I have always been something else. Even when I do everything my father wants, I can never be a Warrior. I am not a Crow. I am a wolf. I leap down to Ylvana and catch the scruff of her neck between my teeth. At first, I'm pulled down quickly by the extra weight. It occurs to me that I could be dragged with her, and we'd both die. But we splay our paws and legs, until finally coming to a stop. Ylvana is tense at first. She stares down at the rocks with fear. Then, she relaxes as I hold onto her. She trusts me with her life. She believes I am not going to let her fall. I slowly ease her back onto her own feet. She gives me a grateful look, and then we continue down the slope. This time, I stay right besides her. Pine is already at the base of the cliff by the time we get there. "That wasn't so bad." He smiles. Ana glares at him. "For you." Then she turns to me. "Thank you, for uh, not letting me die." I smile. "I figured you didn't really want to fall, so . . ." Ana smiles back at me. We start walking across the rocks, away from the mountains, and towards possible sanctuary. But I am not as joyful as the others. They had somewhere to go. I didn't. But I put on a brave face, and hide my insecurity, "Feels great to be out of there, doesn't it?" I say. "Yes-sir-y," Pine says. Ylvana just nods and looks down. I guess I was wrong; I am not the only one with insecurities. "So what's been bothering you?" I nudge her a little bit. "Why are you worried?" She looks up at me, surprised. "How did you . . .never-mind. I forgot all wolves had emotional intuition." Ana is a very closed off person. I only got to know her once she started trusting me. She isn't shy, but she is cautions, as if she is worried her emotions will show weakness. But once I got to know her, I was able to see through her. That, plus my power to sense other's emotion made it clear to me she has been worried all day. "I have this terrible feeling, ever since this mourning. Do wolves have the power to dream of the future?" The question comes out of the blue at me. "Uh, no. Regular wolves don't have that power." I force my voice to stay steady. It isn't a lie; I am just withholding the truth. Again. "Well, I had this dream about my friends. They were in the woods, searching for me. They came to this log, and Chris and Miria cross it. But when Alex crosses it, she falls in. The problem is, when I have dreams like this, they always seem to come true." I nod slowly, careful to hide my astonishment. This power isn't something that all wolves have, nor is it part of the shifting power for Wolves or Crows. For a long time, I thought I was the only one with this power. It didn't help my self esteem at first: I was already the loser prince who turned into an wolf. I didn't need to have any more quirks. So, I never told anyone about the things I saw in my dreams, and hid my astonishment when I watched them became true. I soon learned that I may have judged my powers a bit too quickly. One night, I dreamed that me and a bunch of other young warriors were practicing a drill when a bomb went off. I had a hard time sleeping the rest of the night; because there was a practice the next day. When all the warriors had gathered in the field that day, I asks Bjarke and some of his other guards to check the field for active land mines. The other guards shrugged me off, but Bjarke always listened. He sent out his men to search, and sure enough, they found an active land mine that could have been fatal. There were a lot of them laying around. They use to be a security measure for the castle. But a lot of them were forgotten, and never deactivated. That day, decided my dreams weren't completely bad. "Do you have these dreams often?" I ask Ylvana. "Well, I've had them throughout my life, but they are rare. When I was little, the dreams were pretty meaningless, so I ignored them. But lately, they've been terrifying. They're not always of the future, sometimes they're omens, or things that happened in the past. I've been having dreams of ravens, and war. Once, I think I even saw my dad charging into battle. I've only ever seen his face in paintings, but I saw him so clearly in my dream." "That sounds like a pretty neat power," I say. But Ana doesn't seem to agree. She darkly shakes her head. "I don't want this. I never wanted any of this; the dreams, this stupid runestone guardian prophecy. I could live without shifting if it meant I'd get to give all this up." I pause. "You can't be serious! Ylvana, the power you have is amazing! It may be hard, but this power . . . you must know how special it is!" She twitches her ears in an irritated fashion. "You talk as if you know what this is like. You have no idea how I'm suffering," she says, without looking at me. I choose my words carefully. "I know what if feels like to not belong. To be given a life you didn't choose. But sometimes that choice is beyond our control. We have to make the best of it, and with that power, that should be easy." Ylvana sighs. "Not when it has ruined your life." "Maybe you're life has changed, drastically. But it isn't ruined yet." She finally looks at me for a moment, considering my words. We cross the rocky terrain, and reach an overlook. Below us, a huge field stretches along the base of the mountains. Tall yellow and green grass sways in the spring breeze. A few spruce tree saplings spring up here and there. On the other side of the field, the dark forest stands proudly. Ylvana stretches her neck and squints her eyes. In the farthest possible distance of the horizon was a tall blue blur; Sølvefalske castle. "I guess this is where we go our separate ways." Ylvana turns to me. "It's been . . . well, I don't think 'fun' is the right word. It's been a pleasure." I nod in agreement. Looking down at the forest, I realize perhaps I can find a place to belong. My original story of joining the Solveig pack was just a decoy until I figured out a plan. But why not join the wolf pack? I don't have anywhere else to go. I won't mind living as a wolf the rest of my life. The idea comforts me, but I am still not too thrilled about leaving Ana. "How about before we go our separate ways, we go hunting together one last time?" "For . . . rabbits?" Ylvana and Pine look quizzically at me. I shake my head. "Do you smell that?" I take a deep breath through my nose, and Ylvana and Pine copy me. "That's the smell of caribou, not too far north of here." Ylvana's ears drop a little. "Oh no. Rabbit's are one thing, but caribou--" "If they don't impale you with their antlers, they'll shatter your jaw with their hooves. Or break your ribs," Pine says. "My Uncle Bob was dumb enough to go after one once. He had never been right in the head in the first place. He got kicked in the mouth so hard, his jaw became lop-sided. Everyone started calling him Lob-Bob." "Thank you, Pine," I say. "I admit, caribou are tough. But we're wolves! If we work together, taking down a caribou should be no problem." Ylvana looks at me, then at the field, as if she was wondering if she could live with a shattered jaw. "I am pretty hungry . . . Alright, I'll try it. But you better have a good plan, Bird Brain." © 2017 A.L.ExleyReviews
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