Wild Avalon

28

A distant memory tickled in the back of my mind. “Here she stands, unadorned, dressed in white, barefoot to feel the earth she watches in the night.” I rhymed off the basic verse I knew of what Wolf shifters said at their mating ceremonies. Where the newly mated woman is dressed like their goddess. I looked at how I was dressed. Back to Rama, “You loved Selene?” I asked dream Rama. 

He shook his head. “I thought I did, I didn’t understand then.” He looked at me. Changing courses on the table once again. A giant plate of chicken strips was revealed. A spicy honey dip on the side. 

“Avalon?” I heard my mother’s voice. Calling my name. The dream came to a sudden and abrupt end before I even got to taste if the chicken finger would taste as good as it looked.

“I’m up.” I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. My face felt greasy and gritty. My mouth felt as though I was chewing sandpaper and cotton all night. I looked around. The low buildings of the suburbs stretching as far as I could see in both directions behind us in the distance. 

“We need to move, they can track me. You were hiding yourself right?” Mom asked me. She had bruises around her throat, her voice sounded strained. I felt such guilt that I had broken down over me feelings when she had clearly suffered something even worse. We both smelled terrible this morning. I couldn't find any trace of my mother's calming scent under the grime.

At least I could reassure her, that her lessons stuck. I knew how to be safe. “Always mom.” She had made sure I was full of enough fear my entire life that I never took chances. My one solo adventure was supposed to have been in the one place I wouldn’t come across other people.  A chance to feel safe, when I was alone. She nodded, heading off towards deeper dessert. “Mom?” I called, I wasn’t sure walking into the desert without a map, or phone, or direction was a good idea. 

“The grass knows a way. We will be safe.” She said. I knew better than to argue with her when the grasses were invoked. Now it was my turn to follow her. Both of us working together as a team to keep putting one foot in front of the other. We weren’t quitters. We walked in a straight line until the sun had moved past the peak of day. The grass hadn’t led mom astray. We had come to the farthest border of a public park. We started to follow the gentle, artificial paths. Until we came to a washroom building. Washing in the sinks. Drinking from the taps, to hell with any germs after walking across the desert in the sun. Hilda and mom’s deer were strong enough to battle most waterborne diseases we were likely to encounter here. Hilda bristled at my thought. Without any additional information.

Once we had refreshed as best we could. We sat down to rest on the dirty floor. Shaded and hidden for the first time since we escaped. “Where are we going to go?” I asked mom the same time she asked who my mate was. 

“Did Aaron find you?  Did you finally recognize him as your mate?” She looked at my bewildered expression. “That is why you were so upset? Something happened to Aaron?” Mom asked me. Studying my face. “Avalon?” She questioned. 

“Aaron did find me mom, I helped him move on. He isn’t mine and I’m not his. I hope he is happy with his fresh start. Whatever he did back at Blue Willow shouldn’t follow him.” Unsure how I would ever explain how if she asked.

“Blue Willow’s Luna has already pardoned him Avalon. He would be welcome back for helping to identify the traitors hiding in their pack. They are looking for the witches Serene’s family was working with. Probably looking for whoever is after you right now.” Mom looked so confused. She should have understood, Aaron couldn’t go back to where his true mate had died. That wasn’t his home. His mom had died last year. He had no one else. He needed a fresh start. 

“He made his own choice mom. We need to respect it.” Which was true to a point. Mom wasn’t acting like herself. I was going to blame the trauma and exhaustion. I had no idea how badly she had been treated once they had taken her from our home. I had seen in the pool that the entire place was destroyed.

When mom just kept walking, without talking to me, l had to finally ask.“Where are we going?” I asked mom again. Moving away from uncomfortable conversation topics. Talking about Aaron was much easier than talking about the new ache brewing and growing in my soul. 

“There was a witch, who suspected what you were before you would be before you were born. Offered to help protect you. Talik chased her off, any child of his was going to be a puma just like him he had bellowed, claws out. The witch  left her card with her name and information tucked into my own jacket pocket that was hung on a coatstand on her way out the door without being seen. All it said was ‘I can help’.”  She pulled it from her wallet, that held way too much cash. Why would she still have her own wallet after being kidnapped. ‘Why indeed.’ Hilda echoed in my mind. Finally deciding to pay attention and be present.

“Where is this witch, and how are we getting there?” I persisted. This wasn’t much of a plan. I knew witches were after me, why would mom trust one she met almost twenty five years ago.  

“Washington, and we are going to call the number on this card as soon as I find a phone I can use. I’ll see who answers, what they say before we decide where to go for sure. Then we will take a bus. Not before stopping somewhere for a lot of food. I’m starving.” I smiled. A slightly better plan after all.  “Now that we have our plan, care to tell me about your mate and what happened or are you going to leave your mother in the dark after all she has been through?” Mom looked at me in a way I didn’t understand, I was worried about her.

“It’s really complicated mom.” Stalling. I had no idea how to explain half of what had happened since the sat phone had crapped out on us. Mom looked at me, her voice positively drowning in sarcasm.

“We’ve walked this trail before Avalon, it’s nearly ninety minutes to the entrance, then we have to find a phone, and food. I think we have some time to try and talk things through.” 

Mom’s are always right. I also needed to talk this all through. I started to lie about meeting another hiker. Aaron finding us camping in separate tents together. Before managing to tie it all together with Aaron being offered a job, in a new city by the hiker, who in my lie was named Ryan. Not Rama. I didn't understand why I didn't want to tell her the truth, Hilda was being quiet again. I could feel her mind working and turning. Leaving me to manage on my own.