"Would you hurry up!?"
My feet continue to move through the forest, even though my companion has stopped to sniff around yet again. I glance back at the brown wolf and roll my eyes.
"I'm on two feet and I'm still faster than you," I tease. Just to get him moving faster, I jokingly mutter, "you call yourself a wolf?"
Wyatt growls and lunges at me, snapping his teeth at my ankle. My body absorbs the energy easily and I redirect it through my hands as I shove him away, causing his giant wolf form to go flying.
He shifts back to his natural form and glares at me.
"It's really not a fair fight when you use your gift," he grumbles. I roll my eyes and grab a pair of shorts from the bag on my back.
As I hurl the clothes at him I ask, "Are you saying that attacking me with your gargantuan wolf is fair?" He chuckles and steps into the shorts without responding.
"Cut me some slack, okay?" he asks, reaching out to help me carry some of our bags. "I think I can smell her."
"Well, then lead the way, wolf boy," I instruct, gesturing towards the vague path ahead.
Wyatt and I are traveling around the different nearby territories to find his soulmate. All I am, really, is a pack mule. This asshole has been romping around the terrain on all fours having the time of his life while I've been carrying the bags. He's lucky I know a levitation spell that lasts a good few hours.
We started by traveling south to the White Night Pack. From there, we've been working our way around the communities. We stopped in a couple vampire colonies and one other coven with no luck in finding Wyatt's mate. Our next stop is our first fairy frollick.
In my twenty-three years of life, I've never once wondered what life outside of my coven was like. Silver Pearl has a reputation for being a predominantly mage-filled community; while other species, like Wyatt's family, do live there, most members of my coven are pure-blood witches and wizards. I don't think I've ever met any fairies, though.
"What does she smell like?" I ask Wyatt as we walk. "Can you tell what she is? Is she a wolf?" He shakes his head and sniffs the air again.
"Not a wolf," he muses, "but maybe a fairy?" He sniffs again. "It's pretty faint. She hasn't been around here in a while," he adds, sounding a little disappointed.
"Well, we are getting close to the frollick," I tell him, trying to keep his spirits up. "We should probably try to find a place to rest for the night, though."
We walk for maybe another hour through the trees, talking and bullshitting, before Wyatt perks up again. He tells me it smells a little weird and asks me to stay back while he checks it out. I don't object and he strips off his shorts before shifting and running off. As soon as he is out of sight, a familiar chill settles over my body and causes the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.
I glance around me, my stomach turning over nervously.
"Who's there?" I call out carefully. Another chill rushes over my back and I turn around to see an old woman, or rather the ghost of one, standing behind me. I practically jump out of my skin at the sight of her standing so close. She last wore a comfortable sleeping gown with her stringy grey hair down and around her shoulders. "Hello," I greet as kindly as I can. I hope she's friendly.
"Good evening," she replies. She looks me over carefully before taking a step back. "Is that your wolf friend up ahead?" I hesitate, but nod and glance in the direction that Wyatt ran.
"I don't want to be rude, but who are you?" I ask. "And why are you here?" I haven't really developed my medium talent, yet. I can talk to spirits, but I can't summon them. This woman sensed me and sought me out.
"I used to live around here," she informs me, speaking gently. "Your friend will probably find my home soon."
"Oh." She was probably just protecting her territory. We watch each other for a few moments. "Well, my name is Maverick, it's nice to meet you." I would reach my hand out for her to shake it, but I know she won't be able to.
"I'm Cyrena," she introduces herself. "What are you doing in this area of the forest?" she asks me.
"My friend and I are traveling to the River Falls Frollick," I tell her honestly. "We were looking for a place to rest for the night."
"You boys are more than welcome to stay in my home," she tells me, "come, follow me this way." She turns to move without another word. I watch for a second before hurrying along after her. I call out for Wyatt and after a few moments he comes barreling towards me from in front of the dead lady.
His giant wolf crashes through her body and stops in front of me. He shifts into his natural form and grabs a pair of shorts from me.
"We should turn around," he says quickly, grabbing my arm and pulling me backwards.
"What? No," I tell him, glancing back at Cyrena standing ahead of us, "why?"
"Someone fucking died up there!" he yells back, tugging me again. The ghost only laughs. "I don't know, man, but there was a fire up there, it's still kind of smoking, and there are bones in the pit."
"That's just me," the old woman says with a wave of her hand as she beckons me along, "I asked my daughter to burn my body."
"That's just the woman who lived in the house up there," I tell Wyatt dismissively. His eyes bug out of his head and he turns to look around us.
"Is she here?" he asks, looking back at me. "Did she tell you that?" I smile, grateful that he trusts me so easily, and nod my head.
"She's probably what you smelled earlier," I tell him, gesturing in her direction. "She told me we could rest in her house for the night." We follow Cyrena a short distance to her house, talking with her the whole way. Though Wyatt can't see or hear her, she answers all of his questions and I reiterate for him.
When we arrive, the first thing I notice is that it doesn't look abandoned. The woman informs me that she only passed a day earlier.
"My daughter would have left this morning," she tells me, "she was heading to River Falls, too. You might meet her there."
"Is this her?" Wyatt asks her, picking up a picture of a beautiful woman with brilliant red hair. She looks no older than me, in other words, much too young to be this old woman's daughter. Cyrena nods at Wyatt. She must see the confused look on my face, because she goes on to explain.
"Toni was dropped off at my door when she was just a pixie," she tells us. Wyatt hands me the picture and I take it absentmindedly. Something weird takes over me when I really look at this girl, though. She truly is gorgeous. There are giant purple and pink wings behind her that accent her features beautifully. She is smiling softly, her purple eyes shining brightly. I feel like she's looking directly at me, like I am the source of her happiness. For a moment, I kind of wish I was.
"Her eyes," I mumble, unable to look away from them. "Purple. It means something."
"She's a nymph," Wyatt reminds me, he looks a little hopeful. "Nymphs have mates." His face falls and Cyrena looks confused. "But, she already has her wings."
"She has a mate? What do her wings have to do with it?" Cyrena asks. Her eyes are wide and she almost looks panicked. I voice her questions to Wyatt, seeing as he clearly knows more about fairies than I do. He always paid more attention in classes than I did.
"Nymphs are the only fairies with mates," Wyatt tells me, "but they get their wings when they meet their mate, that's how they are supposed to know. She has hers, so she must have met her mate already."
"She had her wings when she was given to me," Cyrena tells me. "I had no idea what that meant. Will she know her mate when she sees him?" She looks as if she could cry.
"She had her wings as a baby," I tell Wyatt, for some reason I feel nervous when I ask, "is there another way for her to know who her mate is?" Wyatt shrugs.
"She's a nymph, they pretty much know everything," he tells me, "so, unless she's, like, in denial, she should at least be able to feel the pull. I'm sure it'll feel similar to wolves." Cyrena looks relieved to hear this.
"Do you feel anything?" I ask him, pointing to the fairy's picture. "Do you think she's your mate?" He shrugs again.
"She's pretty, but I don't think I'll know unless I actually meet her."
"Excuse me?"
I watch as Wyatt asks yet another person if they know the red-haired nymph named Toni. I insisted he try and find her specifically in case meeting her mother was a sign that we were on the right path. That's how it felt to me. He didn't seem as convinced, but he's desperate, so he agreed pretty easily.
Honestly, I just want to meet that girl. I felt weird when I saw her picture and I feel like meeting her will explain why.
After arriving at the Frollick yesterday and exploring the entire land, we hadn't spotted a single head of red hair. I'm beginning to feel like she may not be here like her mother thought.
I begin to wonder if this was what my mother was so worried about. Nothing bad has happened so far since we've left. Does she not want me to meet this girl?
Wyatt continues asking people if they've met Toni, very loudly I might add. I catch a tall guy staring at us curiously before heading into the serai that we are staying at.
"Come on, Wyatt," I call my friend. "We were up early and I'm starving. Let's go clean up and eat and then we can make one more round this afternoon." He grumbles, but agrees, and follows me to our rooms. "She may not be here," I tell him. He shrugs his shoulders and nods.
"She is, though," he tells me. He sounds so sure of it, I know I have to trust him. "I can smell her. She's here, somewhere. Just...busy. I don't know." He looks so lost. I guess I can't imagine what it would feel like to have the one thing you're looking for just out of your reach with no way to get it.
"You'll find her, Wyatt," I assure him. "If she's here, we're not leaving until you do." He offers me a small smile and we continue walking in silence.
When we reach our rooms, he turns to me. "What's the plan?"
"Well, I want to shower," I tell him, "and then I figured we'd grab some food."
"Okay, well, I'm not showering, and I'm also not waiting for you. I'm hungry," he says with a chuckle and unlocks his door.
I unlock mine as well, mumbling, "Getting food was my idea."
"Yeah, but you take seven years to shower and I don't have that kind of time," he says before shutting his door and disappearing.
"Why did I even agree to this stupid trip?" I grumble, walking into my room.
Just as I shut my door I hear Wyatt shout from his room, "I heard that!"