Night Shade: Family Ties

Chapter 13

Sam

"Please, sit children. I've got spots all made up for you." Sage says, pointing to a worn couch in the middle of the cabin.

I glance around, it was a small place, with the kitchen and living room open and I could see an open door leading Into a bathroom. She must sleep on the couch...

"How did you know we were coming?" Darren asks as he sits down next to me.

I give him a daunting look. We came here to ask for help, not to interrogate her.

"Well young Fox, it's not everyday that Hati sends me a Speaker of the Gates. And if you look out the window, you see nothing but white. It's not hard to see a black and an orange patch from miles away." The wolf snaps.

I hold back a laugh at the woman's sarcastic remark.

Darren looks back at me, his face turning slightly red.

"Don't be upset young one, it's just hard to pass up an opportunity to embarass you. As you can tell I get so many visitors." She smiles, showing off dulled fangs.

"Well, I don't mean to be rude, but we did come here for a reason." I cut in.

"No no Sammantha, go right ahead. Who am I to delay the spirits?"

'Huh. It seems that this wolf believes you to be something of legend.' Red laughs.

'Where the hell have you been?' I growl.

"What was that?" Sage asks, wondering why I growled.

"Oh sorry. I wanted to know more of the moon dimension, if that's not to broad of a question."

Sage takes a minute to think, slowly closing her eyes. Darren and I look at each other again, I shrug my shoulders as he raises an eyebrow.

"Of course. You are being called there aren't you?" Sage questions as her eyes sparkle, "It's only natural for the moon to call back it's caretaker."

"Well...." I start, "the moon dimension is not exactly empty...."

Sage looks at me. Really looks at me, into my eyes and into my soul even.

"What do you mean?" She hisses.

"I believe there's a wolf trapped there." I nod, even as Darren gives me a confused look.

Sage's wrinkled face slowly pulls into what I could only describe as a smirking grimace.

"I always knew Arlene had gotten out, that sneaky mutt. I just had no idea that she actually found it."

I tilt my head, "How do you know Arlene?"

Sage laughs, "I'm a lot older than you think pup. Wolves live longer than most and spirit walker wolves even more." Sage stops to take a breath, her face quickly turing into a grin.

"Arlene was my sister. We were both born into a pack over in England, about the time of 'Jack the Ripper', one of the first werewolf serial killers. He was actually in a rival pack. But that's unimportant. Our Grandmother raised us after our parents died. She was also a Spirit Walker, one of the oldest." Sage closes her eyes as she relives the memories of her family.

"The Skoll uprising was already beginning back than, such as with 'Jack' we believed Skoll to be sending his spirits to possess our pack mates. We needed essence of the moon to bring them out of the crazy thoughts." I look over at Darren, who had now focused directly on the old wolf.

"Thing is, essence of the moon only comes from the Hati dimension, and no wolf had set foot in there since the time of Hati. So my grandmother was tasked with figuring out how to reopen the moon dimension and return with the essence. She enlisted mine and Arlene's help. I remember spending hours upon hours in that library, Arlene and I always across from each other, swallowing all the knowledge we possibly could."