Solum

Chapter VIII

Part One 

Aria was dying.

Or atleast she felt like she was. Hunched over outside of the canteen, her only thoughts were, I guess this is it huh? Her heart was beating rapidly, so much so that she was convinced it was trying to escape from her chest. She heaved as the contents of her stomach was being emptied and now laid at her feet. Sluggishly, Aria dragged herself towards the set of tress behind the canteen, so as to spare herself the embarassment from onlookers that were beginning to gather.

She closed her eyes hoping that her heartbeat would return to its normal pace. But it didn't help, in fact it only served to make things worse. An image of Reagan's fur trapped within the wolf's jaws came to mind. The sound of his bones cracking echoed in her mind. The sight of him laying in a pool of his own blood was enough to knock the breath right out of her. Her heart continued to beat even faster, thumping, each beat brought with it a throbbing pain that brought her to her knees. 

With every breath she took, it felt like two had somehow managed to escape from her lungs. Had her time really come? Aria wasn't sure of that but she knew one thing: her next breath would probably be her last.

Writhing on the floor, a strange orange glow began to radiate from her body. The glow was soft, starting from the direct source of her pain, her heart then making its way towards the rest of her body. Her fingers tingled as a surge of power rushed throughout her body. She screamed and her chest quickly jerked upwards before violently falling to the ground. This pain was like no other, a stinging sensation that made her want to claw her own skin off. 

By now a crowd had begun to form around her. They looked with wide eyes, confused about the  glow that emitted from her. 

"She's shifting!" Screamed a bystander.

"What's that orange light?" Another questioned.

"Stop standing around and get her to the infirmary!" An old woman cried out, chastising the fit and able bodied young men who were simply watching her suffering.

"Oh who cares! I say we let her die," a young girl yelled, emerging from the crowd. "Did you all just forget the attack that nearly wiped us all out?" She shouted towards the flock of people. The girl's distinguished features looked down at Aria in disgust, "She's a stranger, a solah, whose to say her and her friend aren't here to finish us off?" 

"The girl's right," said a man with crossed arms, "they can't be trusted."

Aria looked at the crowd with weakened eyes, her consciousness was fading. Her eyes fought to stay awake but the pain was consuming her. Eventually she allowed herself to succumb to the darkness that she'd tried to escape.

Aria found herself standing in a large glade hidden deep inside a secluded forest. Moss-covered trees surrounded the quiet clearing on all sides. Everything about it was dark and eery. Vines hung low and branches extended outward, as if yearning to grasp Aria in their clutches. 

The sun, Aria noticed, was peaking itself  through the trees. It's rays settled down on one particular spot while the rest of the clearing had been ignored. In the middle of the  area where the sun was so shamelessly favoring, a wolf stood. 

The wolf, frightening and burly stalked towards her. Its coat had a distinct shine to it, fur seemed to sparkle against the sun. And its eyes, a mixture of various hues, held a pattern of swirls around the pupil similar to her own. If it hadn't been staring her down like the prey she was, she would have went as far as to say that the creature was majestic. 

The wolf leaned its weight onto its hind legs, poised for attack. Aria snapped out of her trance as it did so. Her heart quickened, shear panic rising from within. She froze, as she had done many times before. With each snarl that erupted from the wolf, her body tensed even more. 

Even if she could will her body to move, she barely had time to react before the wolf came charging. In a split second, ithad already closed in on the small space between them. Her window of escape was fleeting. Aria closed her eyes, expecting a death that never came.

Instead she heard the whooshing sound of water flowing. She opened her eyes again. The scenery had changed. She found herself standing on a mountain top. She could see the clouds all around her. They were just close enough to touch. She extended her hand and the cloud disappeared in her grasp. Looking down she could see, the tress and the rest of the ground below. Her breathing hitched. The mountain was upside down.

 In front of her was a water fall, if she could even call it that. Defying all laws of gravity, the waterfall streamed upwards, filling into a stream that floated overhead. Water from the stream would flow downwards, running over the rocks and stones that covered the mountain top before rushing back up into the stream. Strange. 

Through the waterfall, her image stared back at her. She touched the water and the image mirrored her movements. Aria stepped back. The image came forward, stepping out from the curtain of water and stood in front of her. It was then that Aria realized that the image...thing, whatever it was, was ablaze. 

There stood a reflection of herself, fire engulfed the image's entire body. It's eyes were void. Whispers of smoke rose from it. Although it burned, the image seemed to revel in the sensation. It sent a chill through Aria's spine. 

Aria awoke gasping for air. Beads of sweat dripped from her face, her heart was still pounding. Her body still shook from the visions she had seen. A dream, she thought, it was just a dream. Although, it felt like no ordinary dream, more like a glimpse of what was to come. But it couldn't be, what she had seen was far too terrifying. She didn't want to believe that was what the gods had in store for her.

But why wouldn't it? After all they'd shown repeatedly that they didn't give a damn about what happened to her.  Aria shook the thoughts from her mind, there was no way she would allow that to happen. Not a chance. She refused to give the gods that satisfaction. 

As she laid still on the bed beneath her, the circumstances of yesterday's events came back to her. Or atleast she thought it was yesterday's events. Her sense of time had been thrown off so she couldn't recall exactly what day it was.

What she could remember was the crowd looking down at her, some with a great disdain in their eyes and others with curiosity and uneasiness. 

Aria sat up. As soon as she did, a stinging pain coming from her chest forced her back down. She groaned and cursed the gods again. Just another reason to add to her long list of why she despised them. So she laid there staring up at the ceiling . Her mind traced the sharp lines of the vaulted beams, each beam connecting to a small skylight that allowed for sunlight to pour in. Green vines wrapped around the beams, individually showcasing their own array of flowers. 

 Wait. Skylight? Beams? This wasn't her cabin. The panic settling in jostled Aria. She hadn't a clue where she was. From what she could see, the room was white, from the door to the floors to the wall. To her right was a small dresser to match and to her left sat a cream sofa. 

"You're finally awake."

Aria knew that voice, gentle and soothing, enough to pacify her distress. Celene walked in through the door that had been slightly ajar. She wore a comforting smile, a tray of food in hand.

Aria smiled back, Celene was just the person she'd been looking for. "What happened," she asked, her memories of how she got here were limited. 

Celene walked over and placed the tray of food onto the dresser. She was now occupied organizing the utensils and arranging the small vase of flowers that was placed onto the tray for aesthetics purposes. 

"Kieran brought you in after you shifted. He's right outside if you want to see him," Celene let out a small laugh. The sound was filled with much joy and innocence. It was like hearing a child squeal in laughter for the first time. "He wouldn't leave until he knew you were okay, even after my husband offered to relieve him of his duties for the night."

Aria had stopped listening after Celene's first sentence. Had she really? Had she actually shifted? She didn't know why she was so surprised. Reagan had always told her it would happen someday but I guess somewhere deep down inside her, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.  So he was right after all. She could almost hear him now. "Didn't I tell you?" His voice would ring out, eyes would hold an I-told-you-so look, a victory smile playing his lips.  

Knowing him, he would try his hardest to conceal his amusement from being right, so as to not make her feel bad. But as always, he would fail miserably. She grinned. Reagan. 

Aria didn't feel any different but at the same time she wasn't sure exactly what she was supposed to feel. Maybe the change was gradual? Perhaps, it just took time and she would begin to feel thee effects in a couple days time.

"I-I...Shifted," she stuttered. 

Celene was still rambling, completely unaware that she'd been in a one-sided conversation for the most part. She frowned and turned to face Aria. Her face was a stirring pot of puzzlement and a hint of sadness. She was troubled by something, though Aria didn't know what.

"Well, sort of but not quite." 

What did that even mean? Aria couldn't say. She was confused, annoyed that there always seemed to be new questions scratching at her head. Just when she thought she answered the question about the legitimacy of Raegan's claims of her being a werewolf, another one reared its ugly head. Celene's vague mannerism of answering her questions only made matters worse.

"This might be difficult to grasp but you didn't actually transform into a wolf."

Aria sat up, slowly this time. The pain had subsided, just a little. She furrowed her eyebrows still as confused as ever. Her arms crossed over chest, she was exhausted to no end by Celene's tirade of evasive answers. 

"You see, your body underwent the process of a shift without the actual transformation." Celene continued, she picked up the tray and walked over, placing it gently into Aria's lap. She walked over to the, shutting it with a quiet thud. Celene looked down at the floor as she paced around the little room. She looked conflicted, as if an ongoing battle was raging deep within her.

"Its quite unusual," she remarked, "but then again, you're not usual." Her eyes held knowledge that Aria was dying to find out. Having ended her pacing, she plumped herself onto the small sofa seat adjacent to Aria's bed.

She frowned noticing that Aria had barely touched the food she had given her. Celene's motherly nature felt partly guilty for the burden that she was about to drop on the unsuspecting young girl. But alas, it was necessary. A fate that the girl just couldn't run away from. So she leaned back into her seat, her familiar warm smile had settled itself back onto her face.

"Eat up. We have much to discuss."

*******

This chapter was going to be way too long so I decided to split them up and release part one today. Part two of it will be released on Saturday. I know I keep leaving you guys with all of this mystery and you're probably itching to get some answers but don't worry. All of your questions will be answered sooner than you think.. As always drop some votes and let me know what you think in the comments below.