Full Moon

Chapter Eight

I don't dream. Instead I'm suspended in a gray area. I can hear what is going on around me, but barely.

"How hard did you bite down, Silvia!?" says someone whose voice I don't recognize. The name Silvia seems familiar. I can't place it though.

"As hard as I had to", replies someone with a vaguely familiar voice. I can't place the voice either.

I feel my skin tear. A fresh wave of agony shoots through me. I scream again.

"Oh sorry", the first person I heard says. They don't sound very sorry. "One more and I'll be done."

This time I brace myself, but it's not enough. Agony rips through me one more time. If I scream, I don't hear it. I'm falling further into the levels of sleep.

When I wake up, I can't see anything. I wait for my vision to clear. When it does, the first thing I register is that the walls of the room I'm in appear to have wood-patterned wallpaper. The second is that the walls are actually made out of wood. The third is that I'm lying in a hammock. The fourth is that there is another person in the room. As soon as I open my eyes, she lifts her head. Her eyes meet mine. A shock goes through me. I could recognize those eyes anywhere. They at the eyes of the wolf from my dream. They are the eyes of Silvia Gray.

"Sorry about the bite", she says," but I did have to bite you. You were one of the stronger Bronzes, so I had to bite down harder than I normally would."

"What?" I ask. I have no clue what she is talking about.

"I'll explain tomorrow", Silvia says.

"Tomorrow?" My head is still a little foggy.

"Tomorrow", she confirms. "You'll know what to do. In the meantime, you should go home before your parents notice you're gone." Se opens a door that I didn't notice before. "I'll give you a tour first."

I slide off the hammock. As soon as my feet hit the floor, pain burns in my side. I slide to my knees and wait for it to pass.

"Are you okay?" Silvia asks, her voice edged with concern.

"Yeah", I say. I don't know why I trust Silvia, but something about her seems...trustworthy. Even though she bit me, I want to trust her.

"Come on then", she says. I rise to my feet. No pain comes this time. I step through the door and emerge into the woods. These aren't any woods I've ever seen, though.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"We are in the Mist Forest", Silvia responds. "It is one of our many homes. We are the werewolves. We are the guardians of this world. The Indians believed that we were spirits that lived in animals. They also believed that we were guardians. They were mostly correct. We are guardians, but we do not live inside of any animal. We only live inside of wolves. We are humans, but we are also shape shifters. The full Moon forces us to become a wolf for a short period of time, but we have control over that wolf. We can also become a wolf whenever we want to, but it takes a small amount of energy. It also hurts, but you get used to that."

Now that Silvia is finished lecturing me, she is taking me on a tour.

"The building you were just in is the infirmary", she says. "We have separate rooms for those who were just bitten. Normally we sleep outside. This is where we sleep", she says, indicating a redwood tree with what looks like handmade hammocks hanging from its very high branches. Handholds are cut into the tree. Silvia walks past the tree. Behind it is a gigantic hallowed out redwood.

"This is the library. Other werewolves who came before us found this tree. It was already hallowed out when they found it, and chose it as a place to keep records. As Silvia explains the library, she walks into the tree. I follow her. Inside, it is very dark.  There are no stars to light it up. I can barely make out what looks like shelves with hundreds of scrolls piled on them lining the inner bark of the tree.

"The last place of importance is a place you have already seen. It is the Seeing Tree. It is the tree you saw in the dream I sent you. You already know how to use it. You learned in your dream. The Tree stands in the middle of the Council's Earth, which is where the Council meets. The Tree is over there." Silvia points to her left, and I follow her gaze. I'm too stunned to speak.

"Now, I believe, it is time to return."

"Wait, I'm confused. I don't ge -"

"Tomorrow you will learn", says Silvia, a little firmly. She takes hold of my hand, and pulls me over to the Seeing Tree, causing me to stumble.  

"Show me the stars", Silvia says, and a section of the tree wipes itself of the carvings except for a small dot, which carvings spiral out from, showing the stars and night sky. I wonder if the carvings shift every night, just like the sky, or if they always stay the same.

"Show me the Hunns", Silvia says, startling me out of my thoughts. Images of my family in their beds swirl past, along with pictures of my house and.. me.

"That's weird!" I say. It is so weird to see my own face staring back at me.

"Touch the carving", says Silvia, "and you can return home." Right. As if touching a carving will take me home. But after everything tonight, is that idea really so crazy? I reach out to touch the Tree. As soon as my fingers brush against it, I feel my feet lifting off the ground and wind clawing at my eyes and hair. A couple seconds go by, and the wind grows still as I land in a crouch in my room, surprising myself with the fact that I even knew to crouch.