Chapter four: AWAKENING SHADOWS

It was night time. The silence in the room was oppressive. Lycia laid on the edge of the bed. She tossed and turned around on her bed, her mind plagued with Cove’s words. Trying to understand what he meant when he said

“For surviving”. 

 What did he mean? Was he going to hurt her?

Different thoughts ran through her mind, but none had answers to them. As the hours dragged on, sleep remained elusive. Slipping just out of reach each time her eyelids grew heavy. But when it finally came, it swept her away like a tide. It brought with it strange, and vivid dreams. 

Lycia stood in a forest. It was vast, bathed in eerie silvery light and the trees seemed impossibly tall, with branches reaching towards the sky as if they were grasping for the glowing moon overhead.  Each leaf shimmered as though dusted with frost. The air was sharp, alive with the scent of damp earth and pine, carrying whispers she couldn’t understand but felt compelled to follow.

 As she walked, barefoot and unarmed, the ground beneath her feet shifted. It was as though the ground was eating itself, crumbling into an abyss 

Lycia was running, the trees blurring around her as she raced forward. Her feet pounding against the hard forest floor, her heart pounded in her chest, adrenaline surging through her veins. Her senses were on fire. She could hear sounds from far distances. 

 She heard a sound. One that sent a strange mixture of fear and deary feelings coursing through her. Forcing her to stop. She followed it. Ahead, a faint glow broke through the mist, revealing two figures locked in battle. The ground beneath them was stained with blood, and each strike they exchanged echoed like thunder. 

And then the blood, it was everywhere, on her hands, on the ground, and when she looked beneath her, it was soaking the fur of a massive wolf lying lifeless before her. 

 The sight sent chills through her, she tried to call out to stop them, but her voice vanished in the roar of a pack of distant wolves howling. She screamed once more, the sound tearing through the air, but it wasn’t her voice. The sound that escaped her lips was guttural, raw and inhuman. A howl that seemed to shake the very ground beneath her. 

 She stumbled back. Walking backwards, hesitant, with a countenance that shows that she was utterly confused, and didn’t understand what was going on. 

 She howled, and didn’t know why. 

The mist around her thicknened, making it hard for her to see. And then, without warning, something cold and firm gripped her shoulders. She spun around, her heart lurching, a startled gasp escaping her lips. 

 A hand had emerged from the mist, pale, and bleeding. The mist swirled violently, pulling back to reveal the figure connected to the hand. It was a woman. She was cloaked in a coat of pure white fur, so thick and radiant, it seemed to consume the surrounding light. 

 The hood was drawn low, casting her face in deep shadows, Lycia could make out fleeting glimpses of the woman; a delicate curve of a cheekbone, the soft line of lips, and eyes that seemed to shimmer like moonlight on water. She looked very familiar, Lycia felt like she knew her. There was something hauntingly familiar about her, a presence that tugged at Lycia’s soul. Her breath hitched as the feeling blossomed, warm and undeniable. It wasn’t just recognition. It was a connection. She felt a deep connection to the strange woman.

 The woman stepped closer, her movements were fluid, almost ghostly, as though she were gliding through the shadows of Lycia’s dream. Lycia’s heart pounded, an inexplicable ache filling her chest.

 “You can end this”, the woman said softly , her voice still. Carrying an echo that seemed to resonate with every fiber of Lycia’s being.

 Lycia froze for a moment. That voice, it was unmistakable. It etched into her very bones, though it had been so long since she had last heard it.

 Her lips parted, trembling, as she tried to form the words.

 “Mother?”, she called out. The single word fell from her mouth, thick with disbelief and emotion, her eyes teary. Her voice cracked, raw and trembling, as the tears that had welled up began to spill down her cheeks. 

 The hooded figure tilted her head, the gesture both tender and sorrowful. The faintest smile from her lips, though her eyes glistened with unspoken pain.

 “Lycia,” she whispered, her voice like a balm and a blade, both soothing and cutting all at once for Lycia. 

 Lycia’s legs felt weak, her very body trembling as a storm of emotions surged within her. Love, grief, longing, confusion and different emotions swirled in a chaotic dance. She stumbled forward, her hands stretched out, reaching out for the woman, desperate to feel her, to confirm that this wasn’t just another cruel twist of her mind.

 Her fingers brushed the edges of the hood, and for a brief moment, the woman’s full face was revealed. She was radiant and strong, but yet her expression was heavy with sadness. Lycia’s breath caught in her throat.

It was her. It was her mother.

“I’ve missed you,” Lycia choked out, her voice breaking under the weight of the years she’d spent without her, reminiscing the moments she shared with her mother before she was gone. 

The woman’s hand reached out, her fingers light as a feather as they brushed against Lycia’s cheek, wiping away the tears that fell freely now. Her touch was cool, yet it sparked something deep within Lycia, an energy that felt both foreign and familiar. 

“My brave girl,” her mother said, her voice thick with emotion. “You’ve carried so much, more than you should have ever had to.”

 Lycia sobbed, the sound torn from her chest like a raw wound.

 “Why did you leave me? Why now? Why here?” Lycia asked with more tears flowing from her eyes, like that very question had unlocked more emotions in her. 

 Her mother’s expression softened, but there was something else behind her gaze; urgency.

“Listen to me Lycia,” she said, her tone firm yet gentle. “You have a choice, Lycia. You have always had a choice. But time is running out.”

 Lycia shook her head, the words were too heavy to grasp. “I don’t understand. What choice mother? What are you talking about?”

 The mist around them seems to thicken and the shadows deepen, the forest fading into a swirling void. Her mother’s figure began to shimmer, as though she were a flame flickering in the wind.

 “You are more powerful than you realize,” her mother said, her voice growing distant even as Lycia tried to hold onto her. “But you must trust yourself. Trust your blood, and trust your heart. Your choices will shape the pack’s gate. Beware the ones who walk in shadow and light , they are never what they seem”. 

 “No!” Lycia cried, clutching at her mother’s hands. “Don’t leave me again!” Tightening her grip on her mother 

 Her mother leaned in, embracing Lycia with arms around her, and retracting with a pressing kiss to Lycia’s forehead. “I am always with you,” she whispered. “You will see me again when the time is right.”

 “Mother!”, Lycia cried out realizing what  was about to happen. “No no no! Don’t leave me again. Please!!”

 The world around them dissolved, the shadows swallowing her mother’s form as Lycia screamed her name.

 “Mother!!!”,She cried out loudly, with more tears flowing out more than ever. Filled with rage and lots of emotions this time. 

 The sound of her own voice jolted her awake. Lycia sat up, her chest heaving, her cheeks wet with tears. The room was still, the fireplace still lit, but casting faint and flickering light on the walls.

Her mind screamed that this was not real. But it felt real. The dream, or whatever it had been, felt too real to ignore. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind, filling the silence around her.

 She took a breath, wiping her face, her resolve hardening. Whatever lay ahead, she wouldn’t face it in fear. She would fight. For her mother. For herself. For the truth buried in her blood.

She sat up, her senses on high alert. The faint crackle of the fire in the hearth sounded sharper, the scent of burning wood filling her nostrils. She could hear the soft scuffle of boots outside her door, the faintest rustle of fabric as someone shifted their weight. Her breath hitched. These weren’t normal sensations. She pressed her hands to her temples, her mind spinning. What was happening to her?

 Her heart ached, her hands trembling as she clutched the sheets. But deep within her, something had shifted; a spark, a whisper of strength she didn’t know she possessed.