"You're going to need this, and this... Hmm... Oh, how could I forget about this, too?" Traisha was throwing things into the three bags that she had set out for me. One was full of strange-looking fruits and meats (?) that were wrapped in something similar to plastic wrap. However, it had turned as hard as glass once it had been wrapped. I had asked her before how it did that, but she had just grinned and replied, "Magic."
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It felt like some kind of plot convenience, but I hadn't been here long enough to understand what magic could and couldn't do. Some stories used to talk about magic like it was only there to solve whatever would come to be a problem that was beyond any kind of physical abilities for some characters. I never thought about some kind of magic as a mystical plastic wrap. Preserving food... I knew that I was still learning about Wonderworld, but it seemed like there was a lack of food. The children I had seen had appeared to be skinnier and paler than back on Earth, but I thought that was just how things were here. They still looked happy. They still had shining innocence in their eyes, but their smiles had seemed somewhat broken. Just thinking back to the kids caused a shiver to run down my spine.
No. I couldn't focus on that. Not yet. I would help cross that bridge once the Queen of Hearts took her rightful throne. I would do anything that I could before I left so I could help these people. I had vowed that to myself the night after Traisha had told me about her past; alongside the stories that Chad had told me, I concluded that I would refuse to leave before I saw a change take place.
Traisha had been very patient as I told her what I had thought about; I was stumbling around my words and stuttering every other syllable, but she still offered me a strong smile. She reminded me so much of my grandmother, but it did make sense considering that the two of them had spent a lot of time together. I wondered who rubbed off on who: did Ella rub off on Traisha, or did Traisha rub off on Ella? I didn't have time to ask her, though. As soon as the words about finding a way to change things left my mouth, she was rushing around the house in a frenzy to get me ready. "You need to find the Rebellion," she had told me. I didn't like the idea of going back there, but she was right: that was the only rebellion that I had learned since I started my journey here.
I could imagine Helen standing there, her arms crossed, and that smug grin across her face. She would blame me for the disappearance of Chad and Amenah, and it would be justified. I was a random girl that a stray cat had brought in to work for a cause that seemed completely foreign to me. I didn't have anything to my name. I didn't have a reputation. I didn't have evidence that would prove my innocence. I was always a strong believer in the phrase, "Innocent until proven guilty," but the favors were not looking very favorable for me.
"Don't worry," Traisha called as she continued to pack. "I'm going to make sure that they're going to let you back in once you show up at the door."
"How? They didn't mention you, and I feel like they would have mentioned you if you were on their side..."
"Oh, you're right. I tried to stay low once the war started, but I have lent my services before. I would give shelter to other rebels who were hurt or try to give them prophecies that I was able to. I've stayed anonymous, though, and only step in when I feel it is completely safe and necessary."
"Why?" I asked. "You seem to like that kind of woman that would put everything down to defend and fight for others."
"I had promised your mother and grandmother that I would wait in case either of them or anyone else in the royal family decided that they wanted to come back one day. So, I've worked silently and as inconspicuously as possible." I stared at her. Being mysterious and inconspicuous was something that went the rest of her aura and personality.
"I think that is cool for you to do, but how is that going to help prove that I'm innocent?" I asked, looking at the random clothes and meticulous items that had been tossed in the sack. There sure was a lot of blue, but something seemed to glint near the bottom of the bag. I leaned forward to grab it, but more clothes were thrown in before I could get to it.
"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie!" she cried. "I didn't realize that you were going to look through that." I looked at her before I waved my hand.
"Nah, don't worry about it," I shrugged. "So, how are we going to get in?"
"I'm not going in with you." She sinched up the bag and picked it up with a low grunt. She began to walk towards the door as she called over her shoulder, "The wolf is going to take you there. She'll be able to get in you."
"What? How is that wolf going to get me in and prove my innocence?" I asked as I walked after her.
"There is more to her than you know, Allyson," she chimed as she placed what she was carrying on the left side of the door by a large overgrown bush. "If she comes with you, then you will automatically be welcomed in and any kind of rumor that you were the one that got rid of Chad and Amenah will be dismissed." I stared at her.
"But why?"
She paused for a moment, playing with the ends of the blue bush and refusing to look back at me. "You just have to trust me with this. It isn't my place to tell her story. If she wants to, then she should be the one to tell you that."
"It should be the same way with if I want to go on this journey or not," a voice piped in. I turned around to see the preternatural wolf hopping down the edges of the steep hill around the cottage; it could almost be considered a cliff, but the fall wasn't quite so drastic, nor was it tall. "I never said that I agreed to go on this trip."
"Please, you know that this is pretty much your job," the older woman sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "We need you to go with her, or else we're all doomed."
"We're doomed either way," the wolf growled as she rolled her eyes. "We have been for such a long time. Why are we trying to change that now? At this point, it is best for the majority of humanity and any species close to humans to kneel and admit that it is time for them to accept their demise."
"You must be fun at parties," I muttered.
"I am incredibly offended that you think that I would waste my time with just any inferior race with such trivial activities," she huffed.
"Yep, a real charmer," I grumbled again.
"You best watch your actions and words carefully, girl." She bared her canines as she took an offensive stance, her ears pinned back against her head. "You are the weakest being here. I could easily rip out your throat and gnaw at your boney arms. You wouldn't make much of a meal, but you might satisfy as a mid-morning snack." Traisha walked in between us and held her arms around on both sides so they were in front of both of us.
"You two need to learn how to get along! I don't know what this is all about, but you need to get it together! If you two continue to fight like this and not be able to work with anyone other than yourselves, then we're all completely screwed! Wonderworld will be destroyed and all of us will meet our deaths much faster than fate had intended for us." Traisha's eyes seemed to be electrified. They were glowing, and never before had I seen her stand like this. She wasn't angry, but she was standing her ground. "So, are you two going to get it together and go out there for everyone else instead of yourselves?"
"I'm not the one that has to prove herself. After all, she came to this world and just decided that she didn't need to think ahead. Now she's in this mess and she's looking for someone else to bail her out. I'm not going to stoop down to help someone that can't even help herself." The wolf turned her back to both of us. I gripped my hands into fists.
"Excuse me? I haven't even asked you for anything. Lady Traisha did, and now I'm the one who's being blamed for it? Why am I being blamed? I never asked for your help!" I yelled. She looked back at me.
"Well, if you had some sense about you, then you would have asked."
"You are completely contradicting yourself!" I screamed as I stomped to her.
"Oh my, look at you. Stomping your feet and yelling, as if you are a toddler that is being refused cake. Tell me, how do you think that will affect your point and stance in this situation?"
"Don't you dare speak to me as if you're on my level!" the wolf snapped. "You are a mortal, a mere human! Yet, you think that you can compare to me?"
"Where did this pride come from?" Traisha asked, her voice becoming somewhat small, but determined nonetheless. She waited, letting the pause hang in the air like the tree-branches that were swaying in the slight breeze and whose colors varied from violet and ultramarine. "Where did this pride come from? You were always humble, ready to jump in and help all that needed, and deserved it. So, tell me, where did this pride come from?" When she received no answer, she walked up and looked into the wolf's golden eyes. "Tell me! Tell me, when did you start to speak to me like I was a bug that only gnaws at you and causes irritation? Tell me, because I know that you once understood that I am not a human and that I was destined to walk these lands in pain due to my sins." The wolf only stared at her. "So tell me! Why aren't you saying anything?" Traisha screamed. Her body was trembling as tears streamed down her face. I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Her head snapped towards me. Her eyes were no longer a stormy grey, but rather a ferocious and blood-colored red. I gasped and jumped back in shock.
"Why are you surprised?" the wolf growled. "She is a witch after all. They can barely control their emotions, let alone cope when under extreme amounts of stress or trauma."
"Don't you dare talk about her like that?" I yelled as I turned towards the blue wolf.
"Oh, so that is how you've always seen me." Traisha tilted her head to the right. Her body seemed somewhat lifeless, and her movements were janky and stiff. "I almost thought that you would see me as a friend. I've been so lonely, ever since the rest of my family left. Ever since I led all of them to destruction..." She covered her face with her hands slowly.
"We just talked about this, though," I said. "It wasn't your fault."
"Wasn't my fault... Wasn't my fault... Wasn't my fault..." Then Traisha paused. I felt my hands shake and sweat uncontrollably as I watched her. "You know nothing!" she screamed. As she did so, a surge of energy blasted through the field and forest. Dark clouds began to roll in; the wind picked up; thunder rolled in the distance. "That's right, you don't know anything! You don't know anything about loss!"
"I don't know anything about loss?" I yelled back. "I walked in and saw my father killing my mother, but didn't have any other evidence besides what a little kid was going to say! I don't know anything about loss? Are you serious?" The wolf grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt and began to dash through the trees. "Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!"
"You don't understand anything," she sighed, her mouth not moving even then.
"What don't I understand?" I growled.
"A witch is given the power of a necromancer, and that's why they are considered so dangerous. If they aren't in control of their emotions, then they also lose control of their powers." At this point, we were moving so quickly that I could barely make out the trees. The greens, blues, and yellows were slowly dwindling into grey and black. All of the plants were dying. "She comes from an incredibly powerful witch family, so it only makes sense for her to have to deal with even more powers and dangers than the rest of the witch kind."
We quickly reached the top of a steep hill, on which I was thrown and landed with a loud thump and yelp. The wolf then took a stance and let out a loud howl; it echoed throughout the trees and space. I looked at her in confusion, which only grew when I saw a small woman skipping out from behind a large boulder. She looked like she was about eighteen or nineteen, but she only came up to my knee. She had black satin hair and ultramarine eyes. Her skin was a deep chocolate color, but below her torso and chest were all covered with what looked like water. It moved back and forth, never stopping and resting, and was a deep blue (kind of like the shades water always has in cartoons).
They both exchanged nods, and the girl turned around and raised her hands. Water began to seep from the crumbling ground and rose like a wall at the edge of the destruction began to climb high. Other small women began to crawl out of everywhere and anywhere. They wore different kinds of dresses from vines to something that looked like rocks. They all had different spectrums of appearances, but I was left in complete awe. Different elements and objects flew into the air, and they all connected until a large purple shield appeared as a dome around Traisha's house.
"No..." I whispered. "No... No, no no no..."
"This was the only thing that we could do," the wolf chided towards me before she turned to the tiny women and said, "Keep her in there, even a little while after this tantrum ends."
"What are you talking about? We need to help her!"
"No." The wolf stepped in front of me and stared down at me. Never before had I seen her eyes so well. They were bright gold, but there were flecks of dark blue that was almost a navy shade. "It's too dangerous for us to go in there, now. If we were to, then we would die on sight."
"You have to take responsibility for what you just did! You made her go off!"
"If she couldn't take those words, then she was not ready to go out and fight a war. She is shattered mentally and emotionally. She is always trying to find something to make her whole again, but she is stumbling in the dark. She has no idea what she has to do to heal, and she is lying when she thinks that she can return to her past healed state. Once a piece of you is lost, then it will be lost for eternity." She stared down at me. "Am I understood?"
I gripped my fists. "What are you talking about? Parts of you will die only if you let them die!" She slowly shook her head before she started to walk away.
"Such nativity."
"Nativity? Naivity?" My voice was at the point that it was a high screeching and the wolf winced at the frequency. "It is not nativity to worry about someone and to want them to break mentally!"
"You don't know anything about the war, so I don't expect a weakling like you to even start to understand."
"Stop talking to me like that!" I screamed. "I may not have the experience like you claim to, but I have more empathy and heart than you ever will." My heart dropped right as I said that. The wolf slowly turned to me.
She paused, saying nothing. The nymphs and elves around us were watching. It probably wasn't every day that some girl tried to backtalk to a talking wolf. They glanced nervously between us as if they were waiting for me to be pounced upon. Finally, the wolf stepped forward. "Come on. Traisha said that your next step was to go back to the rebellion."
"Do you think that I'm going to go when Traisha is back there suffering?" I yelled. The wolf heaved a sigh and picked me up once more by the collar of my shirt.
"We don't have a choice. Now, come on."
The Princess Goddesses
Queen Claire gave birth to two beautiful daughters: Vielle and Jeune. Vielle was known for being more open as to what she was thinking. She could not have been described as boisterous, but she also refused to shy away from whatever stood in front of her.
Jeune was shyer. She would try to be quieter and hidden of the things that she would say and do. However, she was much more about her emotions than her sister was. People were often sure to hear and understand how she was feeling.
The two sisters grew stronger together. They were trained in the ways of battle and strategy. They were strong, which surprised nearly none before of who their parents were. The family was seen as the strong shield that was to protect Atlas. The family was protective of each other in nearly every and any sense. One could only imagine how dangerous and scary that it must have been when the wolf god, Penible, asked for permission to court Vielle. Her parents were reluctant, but they realized that it was necessary for their children to grow and choose whether or not they wanted to have families of their own. Whilst Vielle and Penible fell in love together, Jeune fell in love with a forest nymph down in Wonderworld.