Chapter 3: Adrianne

“Shh, don’t be so loud.”

“Don’t push me!”

“I wasn’t pushing you!”

“I think she’s waking up.”

“That’s because you’re so loud.”

“Her eyes are opening! Look, look!”

The young girl’s eyes flutter open still feeling all the aches on her body. She sees that she’s surrounded by what she thinks are 3 kids and 2 teens. A cabin-styled room with horizontal log features. Her bed sitting in the middle with the headboard against the wall, a bedside drawer on each side of the bed, a wooden table on the corner with a matching chair by the window, and another door on her left which she guesses is a bathroom. 

She tries to sit up from the bed angling herself to see them better. She holds her body weight on her elbows and rests her back on the headboard of the bed. Rubbing her eyes, feeling the clotted blood on her forehead scars, she focuses her sight on the kids that surround her.

“Um, hello,” she says, voice weak but audible. Salma points at the glass of water she brought for her, letting her know she can drink it. They all stare at her like she’s the new attraction in the zoo.

“What’s your name?” Larkin asks

“A-Adrianne. Who are you guys?”

“Well, I’m Larkin. These are my brothers Enoch and Emilio and these are my sisters Cora and Salma. Salma’s the one that got you that water.” He excitedly introduces them and moves a little closer to her to see her better.  Enoch watches the interaction from the doorway staying farthest from all of them. Emilio stayed by the foot of the bed holding on to Cora’s shirt. Salma and Larkin are standing on the bedside of Adrianne.

“You don’t look anything different from us,” he continues scowling as he scans her facial features to see if anything that could hopefully tell that she’s not a pure human.

“You’re too close to her, give her some space come on,” Salma scolds her brother.

“Fine. How old are you? How’d you get here to Yord? What happened to you? What’s the last thing you remember?” Larkin bombards her with continuous questions that leave her disoriented and a little scared.

“Kin, knock it off. Sal call mom and tell her Adrianne is awake. Let’s all go before dad scolds us for being here.” Enoch says as he gestures everyone to leave the room. Adrianne watches them as they all follow the oldest boy’s orders. If that happened in her home her siblings would’ve argued first then followed.

Salma hurriedly left the room, followed by Larkin who hesitantly left the bedside then Cora with Emilio in tow. Enoch doesn’t like the girl one bit; her mere presence holds a threat to his family’s safety. He makes sure his siblings leave the room before he looks at Adrianne again. Eyes glowing yellow –flowing with intense anger- he scowls at her slowly shaking his head side to side then says his parting words to her before closing the door.

“Good luck Adrianne, you’ll need it.”

Enoch’s words cut deep in her mind. Lying back down she thinks through what the boy said. What does he mean by that? What’s going to happen to me? Suddenly there’s a knock on the door, a gentle-looking woman comes through the door holding a tray of what she sees as a bowl of porridge, a glass of water, a spoon, and a little plate with cuts of fruits. The woman is followed by a stoic-looking man holding a pitcher of water. The woman sits on her bedside, extends the legs of the tray, and places it on her lap.

“Hi, how do you feel? I’m so sorry about my children they haven’t seen one of your kind before.” Confused as to why she said ‘one of your kind’ Adrianne stares at Maryn hoping for some clarification.

“So my kids tell me your name is Adrianne.”

“Yes, that’s right. Can you tell me where I am? What happened?”

“I’ll explain everything, first eat up. I bet you’re hungry.” Adrianne awkwardly nods and starts eating.

“My name is Maryn, I found you lying on the beach badly injured. My husband Thazar” she points at him sitting on a chair by the window, “and I brought you home to tend to your wounds. You are in Yord. This land is not the same as your home, we’re not pure humans like you. We are wolves, we can transform into wolves.”

Adrianne listens to her with astonishment, eyes wide, some porridge dripping from her agape mouth and frozen in place staring at Maryn. Seeing her reaction Thazar jumps in to assure the girl they mean no harm to her.

“Adrianne? Adrianne.” Her attention caught she immediately tries to fix her mess.

“We are here to help you. Trust us. We hope to bring you back to your home.” Maryn passes a napkin to help her wipe her face.

“Don’t worry please, we’ll take care of you until we find a way to get you home. Alright? But please do us a favor, do not leave the house. We cannot risk other creatures to see you, since your kind is not allowed in our land.”

“Why?”

“It is one of our laws in our land. It’s not written in stone but it is engraved in our being” Thazar interjects.

“But we tell the laws to our kids so they don’t get scared when one of the god’s voices speak in their subconsciousness” Maryn shrugs, looks back from her husband, and smiles back to Adrianne.

“Wow, this is a lot of information to process in like what an hour?” she lightly laughs “If it’s okay ma’am, May I have a pen and paper to make sense of all of this?” sheepishly smiles. Adrianne knows nothing about these people except that they’re wolves and that she could trust them. It’s the least she could do after they tended to her wounds and kept her alive.

“Sure, call me Maryn, dear. This is my husband Thazar, and you’ve already met my curious children” She chuckles, “They mean no harm at all they’re all just very… nosy. We’ll leave you for a moment, please try and join us for dinner later tonight if you are well enough to stand.”

She smiles bringing comfort to her. Maryn stands to leave the girl to her meal as Thazar sets a set of papers and a pen on the right bedside drawer. Their eyes don’t glow like Enoch’s, ‘why?’ she thinks. Maryn and Thazar are different, they make her feel like a whole field of protection has been put on her, a whole other level of safety. 

“Maryn?” she calls them as they both move to the door.

“Yes, dear?” Thazar goes ahead and leaves.

“Why’d you save me?”

“As a mother, I couldn’t just leave you injured and half dead.”

“No, I mean why save me if my kind is not allowed on your land.”

Maryn moves closer to Adrianne kneeling to get her on eye level and speaks in an almost whisper.

“Because kindness is what our lands have in common. If not for that then who are we to live in only chaos?” She pats her hand and stands to leave. Maryn looks back and adds

“Despite the challenges we’d face, help is a faith I live to believe in.”

Maryn leaves closing the door after her. Help is a faith I live to believe in, the words echo in her head. Wow, I wish I was like her, Adrianne thinks. The family has done nothing but good to her, she vows to herself to follow their favor for the family’s safety. She didn’t intend to harm these good people but it was something she had no control of. After finishing her meal, she writes on the paper given to her.

‘My name is Adrianne.

I am in a place called Yord.

People who have helped me are Maryn and Thazar.

They have kids.

They’re all wolves.

She writes lines that would let her remember who she is, where she is, and who is with her. She looks down at her clothes looking for anything that she might have brought with her, she checks all her pockets; nothing. She stands and moves into the bathroom and relieves herself. She stands by the sink with a mirror hanging in front. She looks up and sees her wounds healed with light marks reminding her they were there, well-rested brown eyes, dehydrated lips, and black sticky hair on her head. Resting her arms on each side of the sink she starts to really look at the bathroom, it looks similar to the ones pure humans have. A wide bathroom with stone walls, a gray clay sink with plumbing, next to it is a hardened gray clay toilet bowl, a few steps next to it is a large bathtub made of cedar wood.

Adrianne continues to explore the bathroom and bedroom she stays in, happily discovering little trinkets that comfort her need for safety. While the family goes about their day, preparing a big meal for dinner for their unusual guest. In the serene time as they lived the way they knew, little did they know that her presence had made the Celes’ a target in Yord.

Frey watches the girl and the family in the magical Pool of Visions. His eyes glow white with intensity, he breathes deep to calm his nerves, avoiding causing a storm in his land. He moves through his Chamber of Sight, The Pool of Vision occupying the great center of the throne room, pearl floors and walls glistening through the reflection of the water. Four other archways chain to different realms along with a large double doorway that leads to his bed chambers.

He sits on his throne planning the punishment for the disobedient. He looks up at his transparent ceiling and gazes upon the beautiful full moon. Mesmerized by it beauty he formulates an idea as the perfect sanction for the disobedient.