💫

Acacia/Ciarán - Age 12

"Freaking rain..." Holden's voice trails off as the water trickles down the tree leaves surrounding us.

A smile crosses my face when I glance around from beneath the hood of my jacket. I catch Jelena walk closer to him and say, "You're not a cat; the rain isn't going to kill you."

"It's already making me wet!" He exclaims.

"That's what she said," Dexter is holding his stomach and laughing. I hold back a snicker of my own while Holden glances at us all with wide eyes, Jelena unable to control her laughter. Holden has other thoughts though, walking closer to Dexter before turning sharply and stomping on a puddle.

Mud flies everywhere.

I turn away to shield myself, but it still coats the side of my body while Dexter takes it full force from the front. Jelena was quick enough to skip behind Dexter to protect herself, continuing to laugh.

"Hey!" Dexter glances around while wiping the mud off his face and stating, "Seriously?!"

I shake my arm, and some of the mud comes loose from the jacket, turning to see Dexter chasing after Holden up to the marked pathway of the hill in the forest. Jelena is still giggling when she comes over to me and says, "Sorry, Acacia," she looks me up and down from beneath her hood.

"It's alright. It's just mud, and I can take a shower later," I smile at her, quite enjoying the weather as the rain continues to fall. Jelena and I walk up the path together, catching glimpses through the rain of Dexter and Holden continuing to antagonize one another.

Jelena asks, "So does this mean you are going to come back in the summers permanently to visit?"

She catches me off guard with the sudden topic change. Jelena walks ahead a few steps while I catch up with her during a steeper part of our climb. When she turns to me, I tell her, "I don't know right now."

"Don't you miss us though?" She asks with a disheartened look.

"Of course I do, but I have responsibilities to my family and obligations," I try to steer her away from prying any further as there are only so many ways I can say this without me sounding like a broken record.

Jelena suddenly stands in front of me with her hands on her hips and grins, "How can I change your mind?"

Don't allow Sophia or Taron ever to come back.

"Umm..." my voice trails off while I see Holden finally tackle Dexter to the ground, mud, and grass covering them both.

Jelena glances at what I see; the boys are starting to slide and roll down the hill. She laughs and says to me, "Pizza and ice-cream is a good start? Right?"

I do love pizza.

"Sure, let's start with that," I manage to get out before Jelena and I separate, jumping away from each other while the boys are yelling and rolling down the hill.

"Oh good fu..." she mumbles to herself before Jelena sighs, "I'll go help them," she nods in the direction of the hilltop and says, "go on ahead, and I'll get the boys."

It's not that far, seeing the canopies that have been set up over picnic tables at the top of the tall hill. Nodding in return, she runs off down the slope while catching her movements, so she doesn't end up tripping and sliding down as well. My arms are out to my sides as I balance myself when the hill inclines sharply, but I catch something just past the side of my hood.

Turning entirely, I narrow my eyes on the tree trunks. Spider webs are strewn on them, wondering right now if this is just natural or something...

My eyes widen when I see a very, very almost transparent purple mist skate across the forest floor off the side of the hill. Glancing back down the hill, I see Jelena almost fall over the boys while she helps them to their feet.

Quickly, I focus back and draw my hands into fists. My eyes widen when I see almost like a flash of reality breaking through when it has to be Kev's presence that flickers in and out of focus. Moving off the marked path toward the images shifting in and out of my sight, I follow where he goes, noticing a difference this time.

"Keveon?" I ask with caution, walking over a fallen log while holding it with my hands to balance myself. I'm already a reasonable distance away from the path, looking back once before drifting my gaze back.

He doesn't respond to me, watching the way his lips move as if he's saying something to himself in a whisper. Furrowing my brows, I walk closer, the fallen leaves of winter crunching beneath my shoes as I approach calmly. He stops walking widely around a specific area, pacing back and forth while rubbing his forehead.

I see anguish...

I see pain...

Ever so slowly, I move closer once he stops walking.

"Hello?" I call out quietly, the rain dripping off the front of my hood while edging one step at a time. We're only a few feet away, but when he looks out...it's like he's staring through me like he can't see me...I breathe out carefully, "Are you my Uncle Keveon? You look like my daddy...but those marks..." my voice trails off, almost two feet away from him.

His features distort in pain, his hands rising a moment as if he's going to wrap his arms around his body to shield himself from the unseen agony. My heart beats fast as my eyes quickly glance back and forth before both of my hands reach out and I suddenly grasp both of his with my own.

I feel him.

I can touch him.

Keveon Arin is real.

My heart stops for a split second, my eyes widening as I feel his pain. His eyes are no longer seemingly distant staring right through me. Instead, they lock onto my own, my heart restarting and beating fast as I hold my breath.

Within my hands, his own begin to consume with a golden glow slowly, a light shining bright...its radiance reflects off his irises and my own. The warmth floods my body, feeling the hairs on my arms beneath my sweater and jacket stand on end. A prickling sensation creeps up from the base of my spine as I see him breathing evenly, his eyes searching mine as they flicker back and forth.

"Acacia...you're my niece Acacia..." his voice is almost autotuned, but it sounds like daddy's. There are a few seconds of silence, watching as his eyes suddenly widen as if he remembers something...

...but everything in my reality begins to distort.

Where the light once illuminated...it begins to flicker until it goes out altogether. Breathing in sharply, I watch as spider webs start to form between our hands, expanding out, up and downward.

"Aca-"

He's cut off, almost like the webs create a wall while I stare with my mouth agape at the way the spider webs fork out before separating everything. I don't understand what's happening, confusion flooding through me as I reach out, and my fingertips are touching the strands. They are silky, sticking to my skin slightly and when I pull my hand back gently, the strands come with it for a moment. They detach from my skin, billowing back into place like a light breeze setting an invisible wall into construction.

He's gone.

Furrowing my brows with confusion, I hear the rain pelting around and on me. It bounces off the leaves on the ground, my voice seemingly quiet when I call out, "Hello?"

Like an image fizzling out, the webs before me disintegrate into thin air. I'm still searching...for what exactly, I'm not sure. I'm only drawn from my thoughts when I hear Jelena calling, "Acacia!"

When I turn to look up from beneath my hood, I see her standing off the upper part of the path, waving at me while also looking confused herself as she asks, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing...I thought I saw something," I call back to her. Releasing a sigh, I turn around and move back toward the path, stepping over the fallen log in the process. When I reach her, Jelena and I both walk up the incline until we get to the top of the hill. Dexter and Holden are under the canopies sitting on the benches, talking about something as we move out from the rain ourselves.

Jelena and I flick our hoods down once we are under the safety of the shelter. Dexter grins and asks, "What adventure did you go on?"

"Just exploring," I smile in return, staring out across the expanse, the view from the hill quite beautiful among the mist and rain.

Holden snickers, "At least you didn't get all muddy," he nods at Dexter and laughs, "he just cleaned the grime off his face."

I take a closer look and indeed see that he's brushed away most of the mud, leaving a line around his features where he'd done so. Dexter shakes his head and says, "I don't like mud pies."

"Oh well! I still shoved it in your face anyways," Holden laughs while the boys go at it again front the benches.

There's something I feel in the air, almost able to hear the delicate pinging of the rain landing on the metal of the canopies.

Jelena takes out the sealed lunches from her backpack and starts to set them out on the tables. Staring off into the distance...I feel that warmth trail through me again, breathing out calmly as I walk toward the edges of where the canopy ends its protection from the rain.

The rain begins to pound, storming hard as I feel the wind whip my hair back, and my teeth chattering for a few seconds. Pulling my lips into a tight and thin line, I breathe out the second that familiar golden light clouds my vision.

The darkness consumes everything from what the night brings on a warm summer evening. The crackling flames of the bonfire are but a hazy glow, dulled out by the senses of two figures I see. Their features are distorted..., and when I try to understand clearer, everything becomes that much more blurry.

Trying to see harder makes everything slide out of focus, my heart pounding as I can only see that one of the figures lies on the ground...it's a girl...where the one who hovers over her is a guy. My head moves to the side sharply, feeling a tug at the corners of my mind, that purple hue creeping from the shadows...

...the last I can slip into focus, the image of the guy moving closer to her and perhaps stealing a kiss, but then their figures become nothing but shadows. The warm light is leaving, fading away but I catch a voice, one I can discern from familiarity though it is more masculine than a boy's when he says to the woman, "-don't care. My wolf...he wants you...I want you...I don't-"

Everything shuts down as I exhale sharply; blinking furiously as though the image needs to come back.

What I don't realize and am in complete unawareness...

...Jelena is standing on one side of me where Dexter and Holden are on the other.

All of their eyes are wide open, glancing at one another as I blink my eyelids a few more times and ask, "Wh-What?"

"Your eyes..." Jelena is marveling in disbelief.

"What about my eyes?" I furrow my brows while receiving mimicked reactions of Jelena from Dexter and Holden.

Dexter manages to say, "They were closed, and they were moving so fast beneath your lids...but you opened them..."

"They were golden," Holden shakes his head in confusion.

"Wait what?" I'm bewildered as no one has ever seen me when this type of...thing happens...not my eyes anyway...

Jelena shakes her head and clears it up for me, "No, it wasn't just that...your irises and pupils were golden. It was for a split second...but it was there."

"I..." my voice trails off, unsure of everything as I haven't had this happen for a while. In fact, it only seems to trigger strongly when I am away from home and with Grandpa Keir's pack.

Emotions rush through me, and all I manage to say is, "I need my grandpa..."

"Oh my gosh...!" Jelena's features shift slightly as she begins to realize what Grandpa Keir and Alpha Chris had only speculated once they'd found the moonstone...which my grandpa still has...

Dexter furrows his brows for a moment and even Holden appears confused by her sudden change in demeanor. Jelena rolls her eyes and exclaims, "This means Acacia is one of us! She has to be a dormant wolf! She's a half-breed!"

A lot of assumptions come from her lips...

...after what Lars said, I don't know what to trust and know about myself. He at least appeared to be honest, and with him knowing how to use magic, I wouldn't doubt for a second he might very well know more about me than I do.

Maybe he's the one I should be seeking out...regardless of what daddy says.

"Jelena, how do y-"

Jelena is quick to place her hands on her hips and triumphantly state, "My daddies told me stories about oracles...they're so rare though! Packs that have an oracle can be considered extremely influential and powerful among the rest as they know more than others about what the future holds!"

"Oracle?" Dexter looks very confused, wondering really how much information has been handed down to pups from their parents, especially in regards to what many have been claiming about me.

"Acacia is an oracle!" Jelena squeals with delight once again. Her eyes widen, and she suddenly gasps, "Alpha Keir! We have to tell Alpha Keir!"

Even if Grandpa Keir believes I am what they all say I am...

...how is he going to help me?

How do I begin to make sense and understand what I'm seeing?

💫--To Be Continued--💫