MADELINE
In review of her life up to this point Madeline had to admit, she'd viewed the world with an abstract naiveté. Anything which didn't conform to her idealism, was brushed aside, or shoved into the metaphorical closet, alongside the skeletons Madeline was subconsciously aware of. Yet, even though Madeline had this subconscious awareness, she'd thought there was never anything she thought would come as a shock to her.
But, when you're suspended in place after your Mother suddenly reveals she speaks Greek. While your Father gently runs his hand through your fur. After you antagonise your best-friends father, who turns out to be an Alpha Wolf, who in turn recognises you for what you are, urging you to shift. You tend to quickly throw any, and all preconceptions to the wind.
Snapping at the hand her father ran through her fur, she growled at him, with a look she hoped conveyed her meaning,
"I am not a Dog," she thought to herself as he moved his hand away wincing. Watching him move towards her mother, she flicked her eyes around the clearing, it seemed the same force that held her in place, held everyone else as well.
'Don't be so dramatic, Madeline.' She wasn't too sure where this voice had come from, but considering almost everyone in the clearing was frozen in place, whatever it was, was coming from inside her.
'Are you, like a ghost or something?' She threw back at the voice, 'I can handle ghosts, but after what I've just seem I'm not ready for 101 on creatures that shouldn't exist'.
She felt, rather than heard the reply, and scowled at the laugher than rung inside her head. Or, she mentally scowled, controlling your facial expressions wasn't easy when you didn't have a human face.
'I am your soul', the voice replied, leaving Madeline momentarily stunned. A voice in her head was claiming to be her soul. All logical, and scientific explanations which Madeline leant on couldn't explain this away, she'd gone mad.
'Are we talking, you're going to anthropomorphise the conceptual nature of Angels and Demons, and visually appear on my shoulders, or the I've gone completely mad and am attempting to talk myself off the edge of insanity sort of soul?' She shot back towards the voice. It scoffed in return, which did nothing but antagonise the irritation inside her.
'As in, you're a supernatural hybrid of mythical creatures and I am the soul of your supernatural form. You know, the one you're currently in...' Madeline wasn't sure if the voice had trailed off, or if she'd stopped listening.
Realistically, she was a giant wolf-like creature, covered in fur, suspended from the ground by her Mother speaking in tongues. Her Best-Friends Father, who was also a Wolf it seemed, had antagonised her into shifting after she'd stopped him from torturing his child. But, Madeline had grown partial to normalcy, and not a single aspect of this entire situation was normal.
Shaking her head, she realised that she'd been released from whatever it was holding her in place. Stumbling her way to what she refused to refer to as paws, she glanced around the clearing again for the quickest route of escape. Before sighing and pawing at the ground. Walking over to Ellie, she whined, before staring at her mother again.
Her Mother sighed in response, before flicking her hand around the clearing. All those present shifted, and bled into the darkness of the forest, except for Ellie.
"Thank you, Maddie. I know you meant well, so thank you." She smiled, gently touching the top of her head. Madeline whined again, nudging her friends hand, she was sorry and she didn't know what trouble her friend would get in when they were gone.
"I'll be fine," she reassured her friend before looking back at her father, who's green eyes shone intently from the forest,
"But it may be a very long time before we see each other again." She paused, shaking her head,
"If we see each other again." She whispered, smiling with a look that Madeline didn't like. Stepping back, Madeline whined again, she wished she could talk to her.
Ellie shook her head sadly, before shifting, and bounding into the forest after her father. Locking eyes with the green-eyed wolf she knew better than to follow and stood in place.
Making eye contact with her mother, she shook her head once.
'Please don't follow me,' she pleaded with her eyes as she wandered into the forest, finding a clear spot to lay.
"So, hybrid what?" she acknowledged the voice again.
She spun herself in circles before curling her body into itself and resting her head on her front legs.
'Still not a dog', she told herself.
"I guess, I'd like to know everything. I just don't know where to start," she closed her eyes and focused on the voice, feeling it agree with her words.
"Well, you can start by calling me Martina." She began, and Madeline simply nodded internally,
'When I said I was your soul, I wasn't being glib. We, or you are the physical manifestation of both the Faerie, and Shifter race. Specifically, you're a wolf-shifter, less like the lycanthropes of history than you'd think. We're susceptible to silver, and the full-moon causes some intense mood-swings, but as you've discovered we can shift on will. Typically, a wolf-shift is born in wolf-form, and shifts to human at age 5, but being a hybrid, everything is switched up a little - I don't think your parents even believed you'd change.'
She felt Martina gathering her thoughts, she wasn't sure how she felt about having other beings' thoughts in her head.
"I'm not another person. I am, more-or-less, you." Madeline shivered slightly, to her, it was creepy.
"I don't know much more than you about the dynamics of things, but I do know that the soul of a wolf is passed from person to person, always staying in the same family line. It may remain dormant dependant on the species it resides in, but it will always be passed down somehow. I've also figured that for me to be dominant rather than another supernatural soul, you must be the descendant of the same beings I descended from. I know that I'm the soul of the first hybrid, and that as such you must also be a hybrid. But that's as much knowledge as I've unlocked." Madeline nodded her head in understanding, but she was still confused, how did one unlock knowledge?
"All knowledge is stored within us. I've been in void for so long that it will be deeper than usual. I do know that to unlock anything we need to be in a similar situation, the knowledge will then become available to us. Something to do with preserving the races."
'So, our parents are... and inter-species couple?' She didn't know if tones were noticeable in mental conversations, but she tried to remain as impartial to the idea as possible.
'No, they're both Faerie...' Martina trailed off, and Madeline could swear she was wincing, 'and no, it doesn't mean only one of them is your parent. Neither of them are, but that is all I can sense.'
Madeline cringed inside, her parents, were not here parents. But, they were. How could someone raise you, and not be your parent. The people downstairs were not her flesh and blood, but she'd be damned if they weren't her parents. Right now, she was feeling a little too betrayed to admit that to them.
"Well, I don't know if it helps Martina. But I've decided on a career, I want to study something in biological and medical studies. It's the easiest way to learn more about myself. I suppose in a round-about way, my parents really did help with that." She chuckled in her head before allowing herself to rest, it'd been a long day and she knew that the rest of her life would be just as hectic.