Chapter VI

The meeting adjourned, and I had decided I had needed a bit of fresh air before going back to my room.

Petra had been asleep when I left, and I was now strolling about. I walked around the garden – filled with roses of various colors, tulips, daisies, and waxy green shrubs and hedges.

I walked near forest tree line around the curve of the woods nearest to the palace before I had sat down under an apple tree and leaned back.

I drew in soft breaths as I felt the sun soak into my skin. It was so much warmer here than the alps or the taiga we'd lived in for so long.

A flash of light in my peripheral made me jump as two people had appeared out of thin air. I stood up – scrambling to my feet – and looked round. My eyes met two of the familiar figures from the council room. I met the rouge-hued eyes of princess Glimmer and the maple eyes of her companion – Bow, that was his name if I recalled correctly –.

"Sorry, is this your territory? I'm not lost but... well kind of lost, a little lost... Okay I am very lost." I admitted though trial, and error. I let my arms fall to my sides as I looked down at my shuffling feet.

"Oh, no worries." I looked up at the boy, he was the one from the meeting.

"Bow... Isn't it?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Yes, that's me. And this is princess Glimmer." I nodded down at her, and she shook my hand.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about your kingdom." She said, and I nodded gratefully at her.

"Thank you. And also, I need to express my own apology to you." I said and looked out over the castle grounds; absentmindedly following everything that made any kind of noise, out of habit. "I'm sorry we didn't come sooner, we were afraid, and I don't want to feel like that anymore." I said and Bow gasped.

"That was oddly cool." I smiled at him and stretched my arms in a playful bow.

"Those whispering woods are great, weird... but great." I said as I intertwined my fingers and lifted my arms over my head in a satisfying stretch, and Glimmer squealed excitedly.

I looked down at Glimmer as she stared up at me with wide eyes. "Are you going to turn into a wolf? Please turn into a wolf!" I laughed and placed a hand to my mouth to keep myself from snorting.

"You won't call guard on me, will you?" I asked as my face heated up; no one has ever asked me if I should show them my shifting abilities.

"No!" Glimmer squealed and hopped around. I guessed she had taken my playful question as an actual deterrent in the equation.

I stepped a few feet back, and I took a deep breath before a tingling sensation spread over my body. I felt my skin stretch, and muscle bulge under what was now the beginnings of a pelt. The process continued for its usual ten seconds; and after it was done, I shook out my body, and stared down at Glimmer. She was in complete awe, and Bow's tablet was taking a video. I stared at the little blinking light and I snorted into the face of the electronic, which resulted in the screen fogging up briefly.

"This is awesome!" Glimmer howled and disappeared in a small puff of sparkles before I felt a small weight on my back. I craned my neck to look at the grinning princess that had appeared on my back.

Crouching down on my front legs, I gave permission to Bow and allowed him clamber on excitedly beside Glimmer.

"This is so amazing!" Bow cried, his voice cracking with excitement.

I tested their grip a moment before starting on a walk. I eyed the hedges and was urged by Glimmer to go faster. I pumped my legs until I was in a full-on sprint.

Taking a leap, I extended outwards – my whole body seemed to lengthen as I stretched out my front and hind legs – and leapt over the bushes, my legs just barely nicking the edge of the last bush.

Bow, and Glimmer cheered loudly, as I landed again, and let them off. "That was the best thing that's happened in my entire Life!" Glimmer hollered.

"We were all like: Zoom- Pow!" Bow said and held his hand through the air like a rocket, while whistling before it crash-landed. "Bam!"

I shook out my ruff, and pranced around, absorbing the praise, and whatever Bow had demonstrated for me. I didn't quite understand his strange – yet enthralling – display; but I didn't have time to wrap my head around the statement.

"Ah!" Glimmer jumped as a second shape sped across the grounds and barreled into me.

My whole body rolled about forty yards away from Bow and Glimmer – my body slamming into the ground and tearing up blades of grass – I playfully batted the familiar head of Petra as she tackled me. Her amber eyes were lined with brown, beige, and black fur; the iris of gold and flaxen fields glittered with excitement. I surrendered, and stood up next to her, and we shifted skins.

"Knew you couldn't resist the courtyards. This place is like heaven!" She said spinning around, arms spread wide. "There is actually a straight shot from here to the doors!" She pointed to the large palace doors and the clear path towards them.

Petra had always preferred running in flat plains, which was mostly why she had chosen to stay in Bracken which lay along the wild fields and the beginnings of the frozen tundra of Solace.

"You guys are crazy, and awesome; so very awesome!" I laughed at Glimmer's assessment, and Petra puffed up her chest with pride. "That Horde is going down!"