I stared at Awa, and slumped back into the tree as I slid down the trunk unable to stand at what she had just unveiled.
I swallowed and drew in a ragged breath. “What are talking about Awa?”
Awa glanced around nervously and then looked at me. Her normally shrewd yellow eyes looked pained, “I couldn’t tell you before, and I will explain everything but first let us go to our cobalt dwelling.” She picked up the supplies, her claws coming out hold them in place.
I nodded stiffly and stood up slowly. Awa was the closest thing I had to family. She had to have good reason for keeping it from me. But that didn’t ease the ache in my chest or the thud of my betrayal assaulting my heart. I had told her everything, and I thought she had done the same.
I climbed on her back and rested my head against her shell, ignoring the wind that whistled past my ears, and the rhythmic thump of her wings. I closed my eyes as questions swirled under my smooth face, like a rapid current underneath seemingly still water. How could she not tell me before? Why is she telling me now? What does it have to do with the pendent? My heart was heavy, my mind was edgy and my body was drowsy.
We landed in close to our home and walked back, with Awa carrying one package and I the other. I paused again outside the door out of habit, expanding my hearing for heartbeats. I found only the rapid beats of small forest critters and the steady slower beat of Awa’s. I entered and we put the supplies in the cellar. I didn’t look at her until it was all away. Then with unspoken agreement we went through a curtain and lit the hearth in a room covered with books, murals and paintings. I sat in a nest of blankets and stared at Awa as she paced back and forth her one ear back and the other twitching in time with the end of her tail. I undid my cloak letting it settled around me in ripple of fabric and feathers.
“Awa.”
She just kept pacing back and forth her eyes large.
“Awa!”
She stopped both ears going back as she faced me with troubled eyes. Awa sighed heavily. “Right, I-I just, I’m not sure how to tell you.”
“Maybe you could start with why you didn’t tell me before?” I said sharply my chin jutting out in anger.
“No, you need to know the story because then it will explain itself.” She rubbed her paws over one another and then sat down, her tail still twitching agitatedly.
“Fine, then start in the beginning.” I said guardedly.
Her tail stilled and she nodded, “Ok here we go. It begins with the Last Dragon’s prophecy, just before he gave himself to make peace. He predicted that there would be great corruption and that two children would be born with alignment to two different elements and that these two would prepare the way for the four that would prevent the battle of all four nations and restore balance to Balmentia. You are one of the two guides.”
I simply stared at her. “You must be joking.”
“I am incredibly serious.” She said staring right back at me.
“Then why haven’t you told me before?”I asked my brows lowered trying to cover the pain in my eyes.
“Well I wasn’t sure until I saw you had the pendent and I confirmed who your birth mother and father were.”
“You, you know w-who they are?”
“Yes, but I’m afraid they have both passed on shortly after your adoptive parents Idoya.”
I took in a shuttering breath and nodded once, “tell me.”
“Your mother was Zoe Ina Donne, Queen to all fairies in Oceana.”
I gasped taken aback by the information. “What?”
“Yes, you’re mother was the late Queen of the fairies. She was also part enchanter.”
I looked at her confused, “What do you mean? The enchanters were wiped out after the battle of Balmentia.”
Awa shook her head, “No. The enchanters were a branch of fairy that was blessed by the dragons themselves. Fairies have the natural gift of compulsion but the enchanters were on an entirely different level. When they walked into a room if they didn’t want to be seen you didn’t even know they were there. The females were greatly protected because of their ethereal beauty and men often wanted to posses them. The last enchanter was Ina’s great-great grandmother, making her the last living person with the most potent enchanter blood. Now you and you’re younger brother the current Prince of the fairies, Seaton Donne, are.”
I took a deep breath, absorbing the facts that explained why men wanted to posses me; I knew it wasn’t in my head. It also explained why it was so easy to get Hawkeye to give me the price I wanted, and why it was so to keep Ryman from gaining any connection to the water. But one question nagged painfully at the back of my mind forcing its way out of my mouth brokenly. “But why was I given away?”
Awa sighed, “Your mother had a wild side which is how she met your father, and she was betrothed to a man but was in love with your father. She had you with her forbidden love before she was found and forcibly married to her promised. She found your parents, who had just lost a child in childbirth and gave them you to raise. She wanted you to be trained so she added the stipulate about the other children being born because she knew they would try for another child. “
I sighed, that explained why they always looked at me with a mix of love and sadness in their eyes. I reminded them of what they had lost. I shook my head that was only half of my heritage. I braced myself, why was my mother forbidden from being with my father? I swallowed at the thought, my tongue forming the question before I could change my mind.
“Who was my father?”
“Your father was Zarrack Lyondell, the Alpha over all the shifters in Infairna.”
I took a deep breath, “No… but that would mean that I…”
“Yes you are half fairy and half shifter, with ties to both water and fire. I couldn’t’ tell you because, well the prophesied are hunted. There are those that would kill you because they resent the control of the dragons as well as those that would do it because they thirst for the violence of war.”
I stood up and began to pace around the room taking in this information.
Awa laid down and rested her head between her paws, her large yellow eyes watching me process this like she knew I would.
It did explain my red hair, how I could hear heart beats, and why I enjoyed meat more than most besides shifters, why part of me acknowledged submission when Ryman exposed his throat to me and most importantly it explained my nervous tic. Shifters are able to learn the forms of animals around them but they also take on some of their characteristics. I put on a brave face because then no one would know I was afraid or nervous; it was a defense mechanism, a way to deal with a perceived threat.
“If I have ties to both water and fire, then why have I only ever used water?”
Awa sighed, she had laid her head on her paws while I was pacing and she muttered out something.
“What did you say?”
She lifted her head, “I said, you were born in Oceana so water was always around you; you simply learned it by being exposed to it. When I take you to Infairna you will observe and learn fire as well while we travel to find the fire pendant before we go in search of your mate.”
I stopped pacing, “What are you talking about Awa? I can’t leave, these people depend on me! And I’m certainly not going to go searching for a mate when they practically line up at my door.”
Awa shook her head, “They would survive without you and you only have one mate, you are destined to be with only him.”
My head snapped towards her and a snarl left my lips. I blinked surprised by the sound. I’d never done that before…
Awa sighed at my confused face, “You are coming into your shifter side, Fairies are fully developed at sixteen and shifters at twenty, so you will be fully developed in… about a month, on your eighteenth birthday.”
“What do you mean by ‘fully developed’ exactly?” I asked warily playing with my hands with anxiety.
Awa rolled her eyes, “the wings that have been growing on your back for the last year will unfold for the first time and you will learn you’re first form, the form you will be most comfortable in, the one that will come most naturally to you.”
“Wings, wait, what?! What wings? I have wings growing on my back and you didn’t bother to tell me?”
Awa shrugged, “I thought you already knew.”
“No, I most certainly did not know; when in the seas do I ever see my own back Awa?”
“Don’t get smart with me missy. I’ve been training for years to be able to help you fulfill your destiny and I am still your closest friend.”
“Awa I’m sorry but then you’ve wasted your time because I am not going to abandon my people on the whim of a prophecy, even one spoken by the last dragon.”
“You won’t be able to deny it after you’re eighteenth birthday Idoya.”
“Why not?”
“You’ll… go into…”
I watched her shift uncomfortably and motioned for her to continue.
“You’ll go into heat for your mate.”
I stopped breathing. No. NO. I didn’t want to go… into … I made a face. That was why I had let Neal kiss me like that. I was already turning into a wanton hussy and my birthday was a month away. I paled sharply at this revelation.
Awa studied my face intently, “You’ve already started to feel the effects, haven’t you?”
I nodded stiffly. This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. I had a plan. Step one Help people, step two bring down corrupt government and step three deal out justice to my adoptive parent’s killers. I closed my eyes. When I opened them I set my shoulders, my decision made. I had a plan and I was sticking to it, destiny could be swirled down the drain as far as I was concerned.
“You can’t ignore this Idoya. It won’t go away.” She finished in a whisper.
I turned to her and said, “Just watch me.”
She shook her head her eyes watering, “Please don’t Idoya, you will be in a lot of pain during your heat if you don’t find your mate. “
My lip twitched with disgust, “I don’t need a mate, Awa. I can handle the pain; it’ll only last for a day after all right?”
Awa shook her head, “No, Idoya, it will last for three.”
I felt the blood fall from my face yet again. I took in a deep breath. “I have a month till three days of pain, let’s get going we have a lot to do.”
“Idoya.”
“There’s money to divide.” I started listing them off with a finger for each.
“Idoya.”
“Carcasses to skin”
“Idoya.”
“Meat to preserve.”
“Idoya…”
“Hides to tan.”
“IDOYA!”
I stopped and looked at her. Awa rarely yelled.
“Now that I have your attention. That’s already been done. I did it last night; yesterday’s hunting was easier than normal. And don’t tell me you didn’t already divide the money because I know you didn’t leave Galena without leaving her some coin.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
“Good, now let’s eat, it will give you more time to think this through, and think of questions to ask me.”
I nodded and hopped up to prepare lunch. I needed some serious meat right now, or even better spice bread. My mouth watered just thinking about the soft moist bread that exploded on your tongue with spice and the taste of creamy butter. I snapped out of my food lust quickly. If I didn’t get moving I wouldn’t be eating any of that. Besides it would be a welcome distraction right now, not to mention I was starving.
I retrieved two stakes from the cellar along with a jar of sweet beans. They were a purple vegetable that was said to boost energy and they were sweet with a spicy aftertaste. When I reached the kitchen Awa had already started the fire and was pawing a cupboard trying to get it open for the meat seasoning.
I giggled a moment and she turned to me with an irritated huff. I sighed; I had already forgiven her for not telling me before. I loved her to much not to.
“Don’t just laugh at me, open this thing so we can get cooking, I can hear your stomach from here and you look even more tired than usual. Did you not sleep last night?”
I opened the cupboard and said, “Of course I did I just had a small dispute with Ryman Calder before I met you is all and I used my water gift. Oh and Awa, I’m… I’m not getting fat am I?”
“What! No you are not getting fat why would you ask me that!?” she exclaimed with a confused expression. It was then that I realized that she didn’t know anything that had happened for the last two days. I turned and went back to my back. I pulled out the wanted poster and came back to the kitchen.
“Well...”
I sighed and told her all about it. From robbing the wrong house, meeting Galena’s Ernie and her son Neal, Nita’s antics, to the wanted poster, the social, Neal’s kiss, the meeting with Hawkeye, the announcement about the wanted poster, Pan looking at me strangely, clearing things up with Neal, sleeping next to Vona, the cloak from the orphanage and finally being accused of being me and the fight.
Needless to say she was rolling on the floor laughing at me by the end of it.
I stood there and huffed as I stabbed the steaks aggressively to tenderize them. I’d already whipped up a batch of dough for the spice bread and was munching on the sweet beans as I went to hold me over till it was all cook. “I’m so glad that my hurricane of the last two days has been so amusing for you.”
Awa finished her purring laughter and sighed catching her breath, “I’m sorry but the sheer amount of trouble you can get into in such a short amount of time is quite frankly overwhelming. I almost pity the man who has claim to you; he has no idea what he’s going to deal with.”
I scowled with annoyance piercing the steak viciously with her last statement. “Yeah, well just see about that. Now, what does the pendant have to do with anything? I just thought of it, you mentioned it earlier but why is it tied to this?” I asked as I laid the steaks on the grate to be taken over the now smoldering fire, my hand absently going to the pendant around my neck.
Awa smiled and said, “There are four pendants, each are a dragon claw each containing unique properties and are tied to one of the four elements. No one really knows who the dragons were, some say that they were a mix of all the two legged: dwarf, elf, fairy, guardian, and shifters all in one that were born with an intense connection to all the elements and that when the four claws are joined together then the dragons will come to light once again and that the four you will train will be the new beginning for the dragons.”
“What do you think Awa?”
“I think the dragons are gone and aren’t coming back but that people fear what they can’t explain.”
I nodded as I placed the grate on the fire watching the glowing embers. Did I really have a tie to fire?
Was this really my destiny? Was I the cause of my parents’ death, adoptive and real? Could I convince the people to stand up for themselves? Could I find the man who would love me, the maiden of many masks?
I placed the bread loaf on the rack as well and flipped the steaks.
Awa threw a sweet bean up in the air and caught it in her mouth. “You look troubled Awa, please just ask me.”
I looked at her with a serious face, “Do you think that I was the reason that my family is dead?”
Awa blinked slowly and exhaled heavily, “I can’t answer that, but I know that when you put that pendant around your neck you awakened every snooping wind, watching well, seeing stone, and appearing ash, to your existence after they had been dormant since your thirteenth birthday. You will have more dangerous people after you than Ryman Calder. They’ll kill you and your mate if they get the chance. We need to be more careful. In a month you will be able to start learning forms. I will help you. You will not be alone Idoya.”
I nodded and then we ate together, enjoying the meal.
Once all the food was gone I looked over at Awa. “Do you have a mate?”
She looked away her golden eyes had a faraway look to them, “I did, but he died on the same night as your parents. We and another couple had been assigned by the Council of Fewa, yes we have a council, to find you and protect you. My mate, Sean was killed in the fire searching for you. I was so relieved when I found you in that forest; it gave me purpose after he was gone. I still miss him. Don’t fight being with your mate, he will drive you crazy but life without him will seem almost pointless after you’ve met him.”
Tears streamed down my face. “I am so sorry Awa.”
She turned to me and said, “You have nothing to be sorry for Idoya. I will see Sean again. One day I will leave this world, but even after I do you are only as alone as you wish to be, there will always be someone to care, never forget that.”
I nodded absently, “Thanks. We need a detailed plan Awa. I cannot leave my people in their current state. I need a rebellion but I can’t lead it, I can but I shouldn’t they need someone who will be completely dedicated to it and I have a second agenda. I am going to hunt my hunters.”
Awa turned to me and gave me a toothy smile. “I think we can find someone. I’ll enjoy this hunt of yours.”
I smiled back at her, “Yes, I think it’s time to do more than steal from them, I want to take them to their knees. I want justice for all of them.”
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