If I had know that tomorrow was going to be one of the worst days of my life, today would have been a lot more hectic. But seeing as I had not suddenly possessed the ability to see the future, I was pretty chill right now.

    See tomorrow was my birthday, my fifteenth to be exact. It was kind of a big deal here in the wild lands of Zoo. Whenever any individual had been alive for fifteen years, they were finally mature enough to be magically sealed with a familiar. Familiars were animals that usually had striking personalities, they could talk, but only to the human who summoned them. To everyone else it sounded like regular animal noises. The familiars could talk among themselves however. Since I was currently fourteen and three hundred and sixty-four days old, you would probably expect me to be pretty pumped. Especially since I live with the Pack, If you live with the Pack you're guaranteed to summon a wolf as your familiar, and wolves are awesome.

    Ha ha, funny story. I wasn't that pumped. Like not really at all.

    "Personally, I'm extremely jealous." Felix announced.

    I knew he was. Felix has been my best friend since before either of us could walk. It was amazing because his mom was the chieftain, he should have sailed up the ladder of social class and left me in the dust. We were both pathetic dorks however and that's why we were friends.

    I sighed and pulled up my leggings so I could wade into the shallow stream we were camped out by. "Yeah, you'd be great with a wolf."

    "I can't wait until I turn fifteen." He sighed, skipping a rock past my thigh. "Maybe if I summoned a big powerful one my mom would stop looking at me like I was a zit on her face."

    I rolled my eyes. In truth I'm not entirely sure why I didn't want one, the idea just wasn't appealing to me. Not that I was picky. I didn't like choosing between anything, sweet or sour, high or low, girls or boys. I didn't stress over stuff like that. I could live with a wolf, maybe even grow to love it, who knows.

    "Hey Craig." Felix called out to me. "You think I could hit that tree from here?"

    He pointed across the stream at a tree growing hazardously out over the water. I took one look at it and nodded my head.

    "Oh yeah. With your skill, there's no doubt." I replied sarcastically.

    He threw the flat rock and it skipped three times before sinking to the bottom. Just like it had the last twenty-six times.

    "You got farther this time." I mused, finding what I wanted from the river bottom and walking back to the shore.

    "Please." He laughed, I'll die before I hit it."

    The sad thing was he wasn't exactly wrong, but that is for the future to worry about and not me. Right now all I wanted to do was stay fourteen forever.

    "What'd you get this time?" Felix asked, staring down at the rocks in my hands.

    "Same old." I sighed. "Further upstream next time will be better."

    I had a handful of red stones that reminded me of the tales we heard of the desert. I had always wanted to go there. I liked to make different kinds of jewelry out of the stuff I found. I thought it was embarrassing so I didn't tell anyone but Felix urged me to disregard the opinions of my peers, and according to him I was really good at it. I don't know. I guess that's why we were friends.

    We walked back slowly, with the sun at our backs. It had been a good day of avoiding our chores and hanging out by our river. Within a few minutes spotted the collection of small wooden, dome shaped, houses on the horizon. Small kids were running around in the streets. Older teens with their wolves were playing catch on the outskirts. There was a bonfire in the middle were elders chatted and young dreamers listened intently. I glanced over at Felix and followed his gaze towards the woman with the fluffy white cape trailing behind her as she gazed sternly about her tribe.

    "You ever come home and just get the feeling you don't belong?" Felix sighed, already growing more submissive.

"Yeah." I replied honestly.

"Let's go over to yours for a bit, maybe your mom has cookies. I can do with cookies right now."

I grinned. Felix also had a huge sweet tooth that we always seemed to forget about when his mom asked us what we had been up to.

"Hey mom I'm home!" I called out, spotting Maude, my mom's wolf familiar, on the porch, dozing lightly.

"Hey Ms. Anwir I home too." Felix announced behind.

I heard a laugh from inside and found my mom was in the small kitchen portion of our one story house. She slapped the table, where a small pile of cookies sat on a red clay plate. "Hey Craig, hello Felix. Help yourselves boys."

She brushed aside one of her dark locks and focused in on the blanket she was making. Once she was done she would tap into some the Scobi magic nearby and infuse the blanket with some interesting property. My mom was the only one in the village that could could use the power of plants to magically influence thing. It was her job, and she was darn good at it too. She once made a pair of shoes that repelled dirt, and a shirt that got colder or warmer according to what your body wanted. She was also one the small handful of people in the Pack with dark skin. I was proud that I inherited her looks, even if I had a currently incurable disease that made my skin lose it's earthy color in patches. I looked like a giraffe, to put it simply. I didn't mind much, except when I was teased.

    Maude perked up her fluffy ears and suddenly a low horn noise echoed through out the village. Felix winced through all the cookies he had just stuffed in his mouth.

    "Sounds like it's time for me to go." He sigh dejectedly, tucking more cookies into the fold of his tunic. "Don't leave for your ceremony without me Craig, I want to be there to wish you luck."

    "I won't, you always get up earlier than me anyway." I shrugged, taking the few cookies that were left.

    Felix bolted out the door toward his house. I turned back to my cookie hungrily. I hadn't really had that much of a lunch today and was a bit hungry.

    "You want to do some needle work if I start up a fire?" My mom asked.

    "That sounds great." I admitted, sitting down on the ground next to the hearth and opening up a small box that sat there.

    I dropped the rocks I had collected at the stream today inside and pulled out a few back pebbles on the string that I had been working on. It was a necklace on a thin leather rope with hollowed black stones placed along it, in the center was a bright orange seashell I had bought when a trader came up from the Tropics down south. I had never even seen a seashell before, it was one of the coolest necklaces I had made so far.

    My mother coaxed a fire from the fresh timber and soon I could heat my chisel and carve away at the rock, making a hole through the center. Mom had made the chisel so it could soften whatever it was used on, just so slightly. It wasn't a very powerful infused item, so she had given it to me.

    "Hey honey." She started, sitting cris-cross next to me and warming her hands by the fire. "Do you mind if I talk to you about something?"

    I glanced at her, she looked serious. It was probably some sappy parental message that had to do with my ceremony being tomorrow, and how she was proud of me and everything.

    "Of course." I shrugged, threading the freshly hollowed black stone onto the leather, just a few more to go and I could sell it.

    "Tomorrow's a big day huh?" She breathed, taking in the fire's warmth. "You're going to be fifteen, I'm proud of you."

    I was right, sappy parental hoo ha. Not that I minded of course.

    "Since you're finally going to be fifteen, I think you're finally old enough to know the truth without overreacting." She continued, something about her tone of voice stopped me from thinking this was going to be a happy conversation.

    "The...truth?" I frowned, that didn't sound good.

    She nodded. "I love you, you know that? I consider myself to be your mom, and I love you like a mother does."

    "What are you saying?" I questioned, I had to put down my chisel because my hands had started to shake slightly.

    "I'm not...I'm not your real mom." She strained, as if the words she spoke were bitter.

    I blinked, I didn't believe her at all. "What do you mean you're not my real mom? You gave birth to me! You raised me! You're the closest thing anyone has to a mom, heck, you're the closest thing Felix has to a mom! What do you mean you're not my real mom?" I sputtered, my voice cracking.

    "I adopted you, I never married." She explained. "It's why I never told you about your father."

    My heart skipped a beat. That words replayed in my mind over and over again, but I didn't believe them. "What?"

    "Craig honey." She cooed, reaching out an arm and wiping my face of my tears and pulling me into a hug. "I wanted to tell you, I never wanted to lie to you, but Neve made me promise."

    Neve was the chieftain, the alpha wolf. She was Felix's mom, she watched over the village and would lay down her life for us. I trusted her, even if I disagreed with her parenting skills. Why did I feel so betrayed?

    "Why?" I inquired, because none of this made sense.

    "You want to hear the story of how I found you?" She asked cautiously, entwirling her fingers with mine.

    "I do now." I mentally let out a dry sarcastic laugh.

    "I was fishing in the river with Maude, she found you stowed away on a basket hidden among the bushes. I took you back to Neve to see what we should do. She left for the Grand Council to see if anyone had recently lost a child of your description. While she was gone I nursed you back to health, and when nobody claimed you, you simply stayed with me. Neve made me promise not to tell you because she didn't want word getting out she had taken in a complete stranger." My mom, or rather my...what exactly was she to me now?

    I stayed silent, taking in this information. It was...overwhelming, to say the least. I wasn't frustrated, just mildly upset.

    "So you don't know who my real parents are?" I asked, voice shaky.

    She shook her head. "You just kinda appeared out of nowhere."

    I swallowed dryly. My mom rubbed my back comfortingly. I leaned into her embrace willingly.

"This doesn't change anything, you're still my baby." She insisted. "I'm still here to make sure you stay out of trouble."

    I laughed weakly. She was right, this wasn't the end of the world. It was just something else I could worry about in my free time. I had to convinced myself I didn't care.

    "Thanks for telling me, I guess." I shrugged.

    She patted my back one more time, the firelight flickering warmly off her face. "There's my boy, you don't let anything get you down, do you?"

    I gave her a dorky grin. In truth I just didn't let anyone know the were getting me down. Still, I would rather throw all my problems off a cliff than deal with them. That's what I was doing now, I had a familiar ceremony to unnecessarily analyze right now. I could worry about my real parents later.

    "It's getting pretty late, I don't want you to be sleepy tomorrow." She ruffled my raven-black hair and started cleaning up the day's mess. "You okay?"

    I yawned just as she suggested that. "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't care, really."

     Suddenly realizing how late it was, I put away my projects and walked over to my canvass bed covered in the furs of various non-sentient animals. I pulled up the covers and tried not to think about today's calamities. I just had to get through tomorrow and then I would a have wolf friend who I could talk to about all of this. The thought was somewhat comforting even if I wasn't looking forward to having a wolf familiar, it wasn't long before I passed out cold.

    And that, ladies and gentleman, was the last peaceful day I would have in a long time.