Song: Narnia Lullaby (loop) by Age of Chronicles Music Productions

"So, where are we?" Now that I had time to gather my wits, I had the funny feeling there was something familiar about the room we were in. The color scheme was dark with hues of deep blue and a cloudy grey. Even darker were the wooden furniture lining the walls.

There was something tugging at my gut saying that this arrangement wasn't right. Somehow, it felt like this place was supposed to be brighter. Like diaphanous curtains and mismatched bedding...

"It's a remake of the cottage," Leo said. Following my eyes towards the bed that darkly mirrored ours, he approved my wandering eyes with a nod. "Fergus grew up there too. He recreated the cottage when he created Thunder Forest."

"You created Thunder Forest? All of the weird stuff, the river and the sky, that's you?" I asked in disbelief.

From where he sat Fergus nodded. Loose from the braid, his long red hair curtained his face. He still wore his damp maroon clothes so I knew I couldn't have been out for long. That was a relief.

There was just one more thing I needed to check on.

Where are you?

I waited with baited breath as nothing but silence greeted me.

Pride?!

I'm outside with Flora.

I just, I need a minute.

Why?

What happened
while I was out?

Nothing really.

He healed everyone.

But?

I feel weird around him.

Pride pulled back at first, resisting our shared bond. Wavering between our shared link and mentally leaving, Pride begrudgingly chose the former. His rising walls fell as he allowed the conversation to carry on.

When he looks at me,
he doesn't really see me.

It's like he's seeing what
could've been his son and...

It makes me feel sick.

I feel like I'm hurting him
even more by being here.

That's not your fault.

I know.

I just need time out
here for a while.

You and Leo can handle
talking to him, right?

Of course.

Where are Sky and Reign?

Sleeping.

The river really took
a toll on them.

I knew the feeling.

Severing our connection, I squeezed Leo's hand and led him over to the vanity. Unlike ours, it wasn't littered with my various colored scrunchies or Leo's art supplies. This one was barren and cold with nothing but slick darkness resting on top of the mahogany wood.

With Leo standing beside me protectively, I took the seat across from Fergus. Our eyes met and I was a little shocked to see the softness of his emerald green eyes. They were much brighter, and not in a frightening way. His gaze was finally calm.

"You read my mind."

"I did."

"Then you know why we're here," I said. "You know what we're fighting for."

"I do." Fergus's gaze dropped to his weathered golden bracelet. It'd been hundreds of years since Catherine first placed it on him. And yet, there was still a healthy glow hidden beneath the aged twine. "Forgive me for my harshness, but I don't think your quest will end in the way you're all hoping for."

I didn't get offended or reach for anger like the old Venus would. Instead, I held Leo's hand tighter and did what Mother would do. I put aside trivial matters, my own feelings, and focused on the bigger picture.

Getting Fergus to willingly leave with us was the only goal right now. He'd already proven that the six of us were no match for him. Even at our strongest I had little hope that we stood a fair chance against him in a fight. The best thing I could do for us right now was to find a way to get him to leave.

Without manipulating him.

"Why do you say that?"

"I've seen your memories, I've seen what the world has come to. Compared to how things were before, not much has changed," he replied. "The prejudices are still here only, it's swept under the rug. Back in the day you could lynch a Werewolf in the middle of the street and no one would bat an eye. Nowadays you can belittle anyone of magickal descent, tear them apart day by day, and no one cares.

"Prejudice, racism, it won't ever change." Fergus smiled a sad smile, lifting the gauntness of his sunken cheeks. "I saw it then with Cat and I see it now with this war. No matter who wins, the suffering will never end. The division will always exist."

"I disagree."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from someone as stubborn as you."

"Things can change," I insisted.

"Every generation says that. Very few have the will strong enough to make that a reality."

"Well, luckily for you my generation has me," I said. "I have the will to change that. I have the connections too."

There were many aspects of Dion's conversation with the Oracle that needed to be analyzed at a later time. But for now, the only point I was interested in was the mistreatment of those with magick in their blood.

Witches, Warlocks, and Hybrids.

None were safe from the cruel world we lived in.

Pride's own past was proof of that. The way I treated Gamma Fray or always had a slight distrust of her made me realize my own faults. Sure, us wolves weren't the ones that started this war. But that didn't make us entirely innocent in its conception either.

With or without the star's intervention, this second war had been in the making for quite some time.

"I'll be honest, I never cared much for how your people were treated until now," I said. "My entire life all I've ever cared about was taking care of my Pack and being the best leader I could be. I never realized what people with magick go through because I never saw it as a concern worthy of my attention.

"You've seen my memories so you know about the difficult relationship I have with Pride." At the mention of my friend, Fergus stiffened, letting his dimming stare fall to the ground. Regardless of the action, I pushed on with the hope that he would come around. "I never knew about all of the things he had to go through in our Pack. Nor did I care about his mother's troubles."

I hated lacking knowledge in crucial matters. That part of me hadn't changed. But the ability to see my own wrongdoings and acknowledge them openly? That was a new quality of mine and I was keen on developing it.

Admitting to my weaknesses and faults didn't make me a weak person. It made me stronger. For only the strong could acknowledge and grow from that which they try to run from.

I am a strong person.

I'm going to continue being a strong person no matter what.

Giving up wasn't in my vocabulary.

"I don't know exactly how I'm going to change the way our society views those with magick," I admitted. "I don't know how I'm going to change things for the better. All I know is that I will. And when I set my mind to something, I don't stop until I've accomplished my goal."

"Venus-"

"You know what else? You're wrong about there always being a division between our people," I interrupted him. Letting go of Leo's hand, I gave my Mate a small smile and knelt between Fergus's legs. The emptiness in his once lovely eyes made my heart clench. It was heartbreaking to see a shell of the man he used to be when he was with Catherine.

Through Catherine's memories I knew that this man before me, the one that had given up, wasn't who he truly was. There was once a time when Fergus smiled so much his cheeks hurt. On days he became so enthralled in his magickal inventions, Catherine took to feeding him by hand. From the warmth of Catherine's dead heart, I knew that there was a time when all these two ever wanted was to be together.

"Pride is proof that our people can live together peacefully," I said. "He's the reality of both our races. Every strength, weakness, and truth exists within him. He's a bridge to a better future."

Fergus needed to see that. He needed to see the hope that Pride embodied just by breathing every single day. By living to the age of 21, he was everything Fergus and Catherine's son should've been.

Alive and well.

I know I said we'd handle it,
but I need you to come
and talk to Fergus.

You're the only one
he might listen to.

Pride's resistance was palpable but he conceded once he saw the little progress I was making with Fergus. Time was of the essence right now and we couldn't afford to have me keep trying if Fergus wasn't going to bother responding to me.

Ok.

I smiled softly at Fergus and asked, "Will you talk to him?"

"Who?"

The knock on the door interrupted our conversation. When Pride walked in, tattered white clothes and all, I heard Fergus breathe in deeply. His pained eyes remained glued to the man that was the reincarnation of the son he never knew.

I thought I knew pain but never before had I seen such devastation like that before.

"Hi," Pride said awkwardly.

Fergus nodded in greeting, sitting up a little taller than before. "Hello."

You've got this.

I used what little of my gift that had returned to ease Pride's rising nerves. Leo slipped out first with me trailing behind him. As I went to close the door Pride thought, Stay with me.

From the corner of my eye I watched him tap the side of his head inconspicuously. I understood what he meant immediately. Joining Leo in the empty living room, I placed a finger to my lips as I felt my eyes glaze over. Pride opened his mind to me and I watched through his eyes as the scene between Fergus and Pride unfolded.

For what must've been at least five minutes, neither of them said anything.

It was awkward to watch them sneak looks at each other like kids discovering their first crush. It was even more horrendous to watch them flick their gazes away whenever one of them got caught.

"By the Moon Goddess this is..."

"How's it going?" Leo whispered. I winced at his question, deciding to leave it unanswered. "Damn, that bad, huh?"

He had no idea.

With every ounce of power I gained back, I willed it onto Pride's anxiety ridden state.

"Come on, Pride," I murmured. "You can do this."

Pushing the last of my influence over him, I felt Pride's shoulders finally relax as he addressed Fergus. "Are you going to come with us?"

Fergus turned to look at the fidgeting Hybrid with apprehension lining his features. "I don't know," came his weak reply.

For reasons unbeknownst to myself, a sudden rush of anger flared within Pride. The intensity of his emotions made me stiffen in my chair. Never before in my twenty years of life had I felt emotions so raw and powerful like this.

"Why the fuck not? Don't you want to see Catherine again?"

"Of course I do," Fergus sighed. "But how can I? I can't walk onto the land she cursed nor can she leave her body. I'm not going to leave my home just to torture myself with false hope."

"Then we bring her to you at the border and you tell her to give us the remaining artifacts," Pride said. His temper was rising excruciatingly fast for reasons unknown to me. It was even more so confusing to feel a little anguish lingering within his non beating heart. "As soon as we destroy the Eight Orbs we can work on getting you two together. Then you can bring back whatever it is that was torn."

"I don't know-"

"Seek the Two Stars where their bond was first broken. For only they can repair what is now torn." Pride's voice quivered a fraction at the end as he recited the fourth stanza of The Prophecy of Lost Hope. "We need you to leave Thunder Forest with us so we can have a fighting chance in this damn prophecy."

"Why do you care what happens?" Fergus stood across from Pride, both men crossing their arms in defiance. "This war, you should be the last one involved in it."

"I don't think you paid attention to Venus's memories," Pride chuckled darkly. "The stars don't give a shit about who should and shouldn't be in the war according to your opinion."

"That's not an answer."

"Why do you care-"

"I'd like to be given a good enough reason to leave Thunder Forest and risk everything by doing so," Fergus hissed. I shivered at his harsh tone but Pride had the completely opposite reaction. All of a sudden a tsunami of emotions were unleashed as wetness gathered over Pride's shaking stare.

"A good enough reason?" Pride repeated. "You want a good enough reason to help us? How about the fact that your fucking Mate is rotting away in a lighthouse waiting for you to come home?!"

"We discussed this-"

"No," Pride snapped. "We didn't discuss anything. You just made half ass excuses not to even give it a try."

"If I leave Thunder Forest once, just once, then that's it! This place won't exist anymore-"

"Then you can build a new fucking forest if we fail tonight!" The sudden image of Pride strangling Fergus filled my mind and I mentally screamed at him not to do it. "We'll try again the next day-"

"Why does this matter to you so much?"

"Why doesn't this matter to you so much?"

"How's it-"

I shushed Leo and ignored the sudden presence of Flora entering the room. Pride was so close, I could feel it. He just needed to keep pushing Fergus a little more to get everything all out in the open.

"Look, I get that you've been through a lot of shit and none of it was fair," Pride continued. "But you gotta get your shit together because Catherine needs you to set her free. Otherwise she's gonna spend the rest of eternity repeating the worst moment of her life over and over again. Don't you care?"

Fergus clenched his jaw, a light sheen of blue pulsing over his chest. The slight bulge of his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly, glaring at Pride with malice in his dark eyes.

"Don't you dare imply that I don't care about Cat. You have no idea what we had-"

"But I do." The inside of Pride's cheek bled from how harshly he was biting down. Every wave of emotion brought with it another crash of turmoil. Years of built up trauma were churning and wailing, begging to be set free. And Pride, broken Pride, was finally ready to let it all go. "I possessed your spirit from that night. I felt the love that Sirius Fergus Whatever-the-fuck-you-wanna-call-yourself Pridesong had for Catherine. And you know what? I don't get it.

"I don't get why you're not over the fucking moon, jumping for joy, when we offer you the chance to be with her again," he scoffed. "You have a chance, a real chance, to be with your Mate. Do you have any idea how lucky you are? Do you?"

Fergus's warring eyes shined with unshed tears. He remained silent in the face of Pride's brewing storm.

"I would give anything in the world to see my Mate again. Just to hold her once or to even know her favorite fucking color." Pride laughed but there was no lightness behind it. His throat stung with all the words he kept to himself for far too long. An ache like no other spread throughout me as I felt myself tear up from Pride's continuous spew of admissions. "I lost her when we were nineteen and there's nothing I can do to get her back. There's no way for me to see her. The only way she exists is in my mind."

A flickering image of a pale she-wolf filled my mind. She was small and petite. Sickly thin in both body and face. But even then, there was a lovely glow to her soft hazel eyes. What little life she had left clung to her irises, illuminating them in the sun's rays. She was sick, she was dying, and she was Tallulah.

Pride's little raven haired Mate that was taken far too soon.

"You have a chance and you're letting it go because of what? Because of fear? Because of-?

"I'm not afraid!" Fergus roared. Strikes of lightning pounded the earth surrounding the cottage. The sparks of blue within Fergus's chest matched Pride's as the two men squared off against each other. "I just don't have any faith. Not in you or that girl or any of this. I don't think this prophecy is going to end the way you want it to. I rather not take the risk and just stay home."

"Home is wherever Catherine is," Pride said. "And she ain't here."

A lone tear slipped down Pride's cheek. Shame filled his dead heart and he wiped it away angrily. "You want faith? How about having a little faith in me? How about having faith in the fact that my parents, who were in the same situation as you and Catherine, are Mates? How about you realize that what we're fighting for goes beyond Werewolves dying or being slaves? It's about fixing the world we live in and learning from the damn past!"

It's about everyone having
a place to belong!

Pride choked on his words as the tears flowed freely. They pooled at the bottom of his chin before falling to the floor. Each tear that slipped down Pride's cheeks coincided with a clap of booming thunder. I heard the pounding rain but couldn't see any of them fall.

All Pride focused on was Fergus and his emerald eyes.

"All my life I've never belonged anywhere. Neither race completely accepted me for what I was," Pride whispered. His emotions were raging but his voice came out quiet. Reduced to a silent fury, Pride unleashed his storm of intensity. He stopped caring about hiding himself away. "All my life I've been a freak that my dad's parents want nothing to do with. And now, even though she wants to know me, my Pridesong grandma won't accept me for what I am. All because I'm a filthy, worthless, Hybrid."

"Don't say that," Fergus mumbled. "Don't refer to yourself in that manner."

"Why not? It's what everyone notices when they first see me." Images of what happened at Jericho's Pack flashed through our linked minds. The pure hatred of what Pride was and the soul crushing silence Pride sat in when we left speared my heart. "It's all people only ever care about."

I walked through Pride's open life as he ranted on and on about the mistreatment he faced for 21 years. I saw him as a young pup, friendless because no one wanted their kids to play with the son of a Witch. I saw through his eyes as a young Mera and I were thrust onto him with only one of us bothering to make a real connection. I watched Pride get into numerous fights, all of which he kept from his mother to spare her feelings. Everything he endured silently, I heard them now.

For the first time in 21 years, I saw Pride.

I saw Pride.

"It's all I only used to care about."

"Used to?"

Pride cried, but he also smiled. He smiled a smile that was bitter and happy all at once. I knew not how he managed to find even a sliver of joy through the pain that engulfed him. But he did it. Somehow, he did it.

"My friend made me see something more," he said. "She made me realize that there was more to me than what I thought."

The memory of Pride and I alone in the library entered and I felt myself cry at the warmth enveloping his chest. His internal conflict was still plenty strong but there was a slight change in the wind. The tides were turning and Pride was back in control again, steering the ship with steady hands.

"Catherine said I would be our family's doom. And you know what? I think she's right," he said. "But like Venus said, it won't be in the way anyone thinks."

A plethora of emotions crossed over Fergus's face as he listened intently to Pride's speech. I let myself hope once I saw how enthralled he was by the words of his descendant. He was interested and he was listening.

I could feel Pride breaking through his walls and winning him over.

"I'm not gonna give up until my entire Pack accepts my mom and me for who we are. And if my grandma survives this war then I'm gonna do everything I can to get her to see me too," he swore. An ambition like no other took root in Pride's cold heart. He was serious about this. "I'm gonna spend the rest of my life trying to get the Pridesong clan to accept me. To see more than inferiority and racism when they think of Werewolves or Hybrid's.

"Catherine gave me a chance at life when she deemed your son be reincarnated into our family." Pride watched Fergus wearily, finally feeling his anger subside. "I can be the great person she wanted her son to be. I know I can. But in order to do that, I need to win against the stars. I need you to take a chance and have faith in me when I say that I will find a way to reunite you with Catherine."

Please, Pride begged him. Please.

Minutes of painful silence dragged on until suddenly, there was no more thunder to be heard. The rain went away and no more streaks of unleashed lightning breathed over Fergus's broad chest.

"You will be a bridge," Fergus mumbled. "That's what Cat said before..."

"I remember."

I saw her memories too.

Fergus sighed, wiping away the wetness that began to spill over his eyelids. The dark circles underneath his eyes were more prominent now as he surrendered to Pride. Age creased his face, not physically, but figuratively.

Fergus was so damn tired.

By the look in his exhausted eyes I knew that, regardless of his lack of faith, Fergus was ready to die. I'd seen that very look in the many elders I helped pass into the next life when it was their time to go. I saw it in Fergus right now.

Fergus was finally ready to go home.

"Get your sleeping friends," Fergus said. "We leave in five minutes."

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Vote and/or Comment if you enjoyed this part!

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QOTD: What are your thoughts on Pride now that you've seen him lay everything out in the open? Why do you think Fergus conceded to him in the end? Do you understand Fergus's reluctance to go at the beginning?