Raven Wolf - 04 - The Wounded - Chapter 09 by Kurapika < Submission

Keywords male 1185729, female 1075548, wolf 192111, raccoon 36367, fantasy 26673, sci-fi 4723, series 4622, mink 3040, science fiction 1905, novel 1243, dreams 535, chapter 504, raven wolf 329, vision 75, oracle 59

Chapter Nine

Dolly mumbles to herself as she opens he eyes and stretches her stiff body, the floor just not comfortable enough to stay sleeping on. She looks around her, it not taking her long to realize that they were short two figures. “Snow? Fitz?”

She quickly sits up, her senses now alert as she searches her surroundings for any sign of them, they nowhere in sight. Dolly gets to her feet, making her way over to Chase and shaking him awake. “Chase! Hey Chase wake up!”

Chase grumbles to himself as he opens his eyes. “What is it?” He sleepily looks around him, soon noticing what it was that Dolly had. “Where are the others?”

Dolly shakes her head not sure. “They’re gone, they must have taken off while we were sleeping.” She spots the bracelet she had put on Shiya on the floor, Dolly kneeling down and picking it up to look it over. “How did he get this off?”

Chase looks over to the bracelet recognizing it for what it was. “Fifty Six-Z did it, he was always getting out of these things back at the True Blood labs.” He lets out a yawn as he gets to his feet. “Well, we’d better go after them and see if we can catch up before they reach Earth.”

Dolly looks back to him. “You really think that they would have gone after the source?”

Chase nods his head. “Yeah, Shiya seems the type to try and help out his companions despite his better judgment. He probably could not continue to ignore the calls for help.”

The two walk up to the window looking out of it, Dolly looking unsure, it almost impossible to see anything out there, the fog completely cutting vision short while the rain washed away any tracks that they might be able to use to follow them. “How are we supposed to find them in this?”

Chase shrugs his shoulders. “Who knows, but we can’t just leave them out there can we?”

“Do you possibly know what direction that signal the Earth Source was sending was coming from?”

Chase shakes his head no. “To me it just felt like small tremors… nothing more than that, but the tremors have got to be stronger the closer you are to the source, so we’ll know when we’re in the right place.” He perches himself on the window looking out. “As for what locations to check, I do know all of the strategic locations the military has around here. If it’s a trap like I think it is then it has to be leading them to one of those places, we’ll just go to each of them and see if the tremors are stronger near any of them.”

He jumps down from the window landing on the ground below them, looking back up to Dolly and motioning for her to follow. “Come on, the faster we move the sooner we’ll catch up.”

*******

Fitz and Shiya stay out of sight, the two right now hiding in the doorway of a shop that had been closed for the night, Shiya unsure of where to go next and waiting on the next tremor to give him a clue.

Fitz looks over to Shiya, he a little bit curious on something. “So… there’s something I just don’t get about you… I mean for one you’re supposedly a super powerful Source, and alongside that you have the Raven Wolf curse, which you can apparently only break if you wipe out the Domestics. So… why haven’t you done that yet? After everything us Domestics have done why seek peace?”

Shiya looks back to him. “You would rather me lay waste to this city and everyone in it?”

Fitz shakes his head no, that definitely not what he wanted. “No of course not. I just don’t get why… I mean, if I were in your position… well let’s just say I would have done it.” He seems a little curious. “Maybe you’re not as powerful as your claiming to be, I mean you seem to be having a lot of trouble keeping the military in its place.”

“When one obtains great power it should be used to help others and improve lives, it should not be used to cause misery and suffering.”

Fitz looks over to Shiya. “You’ve been cursed for over three hundred years, you can’t tell me that it’s all just been sunshine and rainbows. Raven Wolf must have and is still enduring much misery and suffering.”

Shiya looks to the side. “We have had our share of such things, many lives have been lost throughout the years and our homes are taken from us every time our location is discovered. I myself have lost my wife and two of my children in these wars against the domestics.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t given in and just slaughtered us all yet. I mean you’re supposedly strong enough to.”

“Being strong is not always the act of overpowering someone, it also takes great strength to hold yourself back from ripping apart those that have hurt you or those you love.”

“But… your wife and kids were killed…”

Shiya slowly nods his head. “And those responsible for that are long dead by now. To take vengeance for that now would mean only to hurt those who had nothing to do with it. Destroying innocent lives will not change what had happened, nor will it make me feel better about the situation.”

A small tremor runs through the ground, Shiya stepping out of the spot he had been hiding in and out in and out into the rain, his eyes now set in the direction he knew he should go in. “Let’s go.”

*******

Iuana sighs to herself as she stares out overlooking the village of Raven Wolf from atop the roof of her hut, an uncertain look on her face as she watches at the few figures that still happened to be up at this hour, there actually a lot more than usual as many were afraid of the large soldier that she had brought into the village with her.

Her brother’s voice calls out to her from the ground. “Iuana! What are you doing up there?”

Iuana looks down towards Yula, a smile crossing her face she see the happy and oblivious grin that he carried, he clearly not bothered by the soldiers presence. “I’m just contemplating. Wondering if the decision I made was the right one or not.” She looks out toward the restless members of her tribe that were unable to sleep. “This isn’t the same as when Teddy was brought here… this man terrifies everyone… and keeps them all from a sound sleep. Perhaps it was wrong of me to bring him here…”

Yula looks out to the people behind him, though he like them was aware of the Super Soldier that right now occupied Achak’s time he was not worried like the others. “You’re a smart girl Iuana. Even if he doesn’t change and tries to attack, you wouldn’t just let everyone get hurt by him. You’ve already taken every possibly precaution you could think of, the only one he’s going to hurt if he tries to betray your trust is himself.”

Iuana jumps down from the roof, landing beside Yula. “You have a lot of faith in me brother.”

Yula nods his head. “Of course I do, I trust you more than I do Shiya, and that’s not to say that I don’t trust him, because I do.” He nudges Iuana in the arm. “Those who don’t trust you are just too arrogant to see how dependable you are.”

Iuana looks back to him. “You grew up apart from me for over three hundred years. We’ve hardly spent much time together compared to that.”

Yula nods his head. “Yeah, I know… but it still feels like I’ve known you forever.”

“Do you even remember the time we spent as children?”

“Not all of it… but I’m sure it will come back eventually, I mean some of it already has, it’s only a matter of time until I get the rest of it I’m sure.” He looks to Iuana with a laugh. “I remember that the two of us were the middle kids though, and also that you’re older than me. You were also the only girl, but I was the only one that looked like mom, the rest of you looked like Shiya.”

Iuana nods her head, that indeed right. “Yes…”

Yula grins back at her. “You were always the most difficult for mom, you didn’t like listening to her. You would always listen to what Shiya would say though, even if it was the exact same thing mom had said… you didn’t hate her though, you loved her just the same as anyone else in the family. You just thought she was bossy.”

Iuana looks back to Yula, a rather curious tone in his voice. “Why do you call father by his name? When you talk about mother you refer to her as such, but not father.”

Yula shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know… I guess I’m just not used to calling him my dad yet… While I see and have seen mom practically every day of my life so…” He trails of, seeing his mother get killed every time he slept not really something he liked to recall.

Iuana stares at him, a rather sad look on her face. “Have you ever found the meaning to that vision? I mean, as soon as you find the meaning the visions will stop right?”

Yula shrugs his shoulders. “I guess… that’s what Achak says anyway… I don’t know though… I can’t even remember the whole thing… it’s like I don’t want to see what happens… and I wake myself up before I can see it all. All I remember from it is her dying…”

Iuana places her hand upon his back. “You should try to see it, and remember it, find the meaning and get the vision to stop haunting you.” She looks away from him. “No one should have to see their mother die… especially more than once…”

Yula is about to say something but stops, a noise having caught his attention. “Do you hear that?”

Iuana seems confused. “Hear what?”

Yula looks around him, the sound very soft and almost unnoticeable. “It sounds like someone humming.”

Iuana pauses for a moment to listen, she unable to pick up such a sound. “No, I don’t hear anything at all, are you sure you-” Yula’s body slumps over and falls down, hitting the ground, Iuana running up and kneeling down next to him to see if he was alright. “Yula?” She gives his body a light shake when she gets no response. “Yula, Yula are you alright? Yula!”

*******

Yula’s ears perk at the sound of a woman’s voice humming a melody, the soft and comforting sound catches his attention, the tune both beautiful and strangely familiar to him, Yula sits up getting to his feet, turning and searching through his surroundings in search of who it was that was making this sound. He realizing that Iuana was no longer there with him even though he had just been talking to her. “Iuana?”

He looks up, the sky a bright blue as if were the middle of the day, it having been night only seconds before.

Yula brings his attention back to the village as he quickly begins walking through it, it looking to be completely empty without a single person in sight, this strange as the village was usually very lively, Yula not able to spot a single member of his tribe anywhere.

He turns a corner spotting a single figure among the village, a female grey wolf standing before him with her back turned to him, the song that was being hummed coming from her.

The black wolf stares at her, though she was familiar and shared the same clothes as the other wilds within the village he didn’t remember seeing her before, at least not here as a member of Raven Wolf. Yula slowly approaches her, timidly speaking up to get her attention. “Hello… have we met before…?”

The grey wolf stops her humming, she slowly turning back to look at Yula, it clear to him who it was as soon as she was facing him, her expression beaming as she speaks to him with a warm smile on her face. “Yula.”

Yula seems confused, he having to do a double take a first. “Miss. Conner…? Dolly Conner.” He looks around him this not making any sense. “I don’t understand, you’re not a member of Raven Wolf, you’re a member of the Domestic Military.” He stops, the fact that there was no one else in the village settling in. “Where is everyone else? And what happened to Iuana? I was just talking to her a few seconds ago.”

“Don’t be so frightened Yula, it’s only a dream.”

Yula shakes his head as he looks back to Dolly. “A dream…? I fell asleep in the middle of a conversation…?” He stops something more puzzling than that settling in. “No, no, no, no, it can’t be. I’m an oracle, that means that I don’t really have dreams. I have visions, visions of the past, future, present… never dreams…” He shrugs his shoulders. “And well… even if I did have dreams I think they would probably be of Professor Cadrey, not you. No offense to you or anything Miss. Conner, but she was just way better looking and nicer than you ever were.”

Dolly laughs at the comment, she seeming to be more amused by Yula’s comment than offended, Yula beginning to question her. “So… what is this then…? I mean… it can’t be a vision of the past, you were never here in Raven Wolf, or any tribe for that matter. Teddy said that the two of you grew up as Domestics in the city.” Dolly nods her head Yula being correct, Yula continuing. “And… it can’t be a vision of something happening in the present… I mean… you’re not here, you’re still with the Domestics.” He looks around him, the village as clear as it would be if he were awake. “And this isn’t a vision of the future… visions of the future are unclear… like I’m lost in a thick fog.”

Dolly stands still not approaching nor distancing herself from Yula as she spoke to him. “You’re visions have not started yet… but they will soon. Right now your mind is preparing yourself for what you are about to see, not just one vision… not even two, but a series of visions, events that will lead up to a single truth that must be realized.”

Yula shakes his head there no way that he would be able to make sense of that. “A series of visions… no way I can’t do that… I mean just one vision is enough to confuse me, no way I can handle a whole bunch of them.”

“I’ll be your guide, there’s no reason to be afraid.”

Yula looks back to her something confusing about this. “My guide… you…? Out of everyone I know why you? You’re an enemy… and when you were my guard you were never nice to me… you tried to ignore me as much as you could, and you hardly let me do anything. So why would you of all people be my guide?”

Dolly shrugs her shoulders, the smile still on her face as she slowly shakes her head. “I don’t know, I’m not a person you know, nor a being or spirit, all I am is a projection from your own mind. Who I am, how I look, the way that I sound… it’s all your doing, your mind wants you to realize something important by showing my form to you in this way.”

Yula stares at her in silence, what Dolly had said making him realize something. “That clothes your wearing… I’ve never seen you in it before… but it looks familiar why?”

Dolly shakes her head not having an answer for him. “I don’t know.”

Yula lifts his hand pointing something else out to himself upon realizing. “That song you were humming, I’ve heard it before, but not from Miss. Conner.” He points to her. “And that expression, that smile you keep giving me, that’s not her either. It’s familiar but I know it doesn’t belong to you. Teddy’s sister hardly ever smiled at me when I knew her.”

The figure that looked like Dolly begins to question him. “If none of these traits are mine, then why are you giving them to me?”

Yula shakes his head not possibly knowing the answer to that. “I don’t know… it doesn’t make sense.”

“Do you want to know?”

Yula is about to say something but stops when he realizes that Dolly had begun walking away from him, Yula quickly starting to follow after her. “Wait! Where are you going?”

Dolly comes to a stop in front of the hut belonging to the chieftain of Raven Wolf and his family, she placing her hand upon the frame of the doorway while looking back to Yula. “I’m going inside. Will you follow me?”

Dolly enters the hut, Yula catching up and following after her. He comes to a stop, the inside of the chieftain’s hut different than how he remembered it, the interior bigger with much more space and even rooms, the one Shiya and his family had now only having one. This place was also a lot more messy and packed with all kinds of things, the amount of belongings making the hut so much more lively then Yula had ever seen it since arriving within the Raven Wolf village. Yula looks from his surroundings and over to Dolly for an explanation. “What happened here?”

Dolly doesn’t respond, another voice speaking up and getting his attention, this voice belonging to a woman. “Iuana please stop making such a fuss and cooperate with me as your brothers do.”

A child’s voice answers the woman. “I don’t want to, I’m not even tired in the least I can stay up for hours more.”

“Iuana listen to me.”

“I don’t have to!”

“Shiya speak to her.”

A tired groan fills the air as Shiya’s voice now joins the conversation. “Iuana listen to your mother…”

The child argues with him. “But I’m not even-”

“Your brothers are all tired, your mother is tired, I’m tired, and your tired too but just don’t want to admit it. So go to sleep.”

Yula follows the noise of the conversation, reaching a room were six figures right now were, four of them already in bed while two right now argued about sleeping. Yula looks the family over, a mother and who’s fur was both as black as night with only one child carrying her colour of coat, the other three including the stubborn girl who didn’t want to sleep like their father, who’s fur was a white as snow.

Yula takes his eyes from them to look back at Dolly. “That’s my family… Mom… Shiya… my brothers… and Iuana and me…”

Dolly also stares at the scene. “A vision of the past.”

Yula smiles as he looks back to it, the whole family slept in the same bed. Shiya already half asleep having had a rather tiring day. “I remember this… this was before Shiya became chieftain… when mom’s parents were still alive leading the tribe… I know it had to be then, because we had the same room as our parents until the day that leadership was passed to the two of them.”

Dolly nods her head. “A found memory I’m sure… but why is this memory important? Why is it coming to you as a vision?”

Yula stares at the scene, Iuana giving in and joining her siblings to go to sleep. “I don’t… I don’t know… how could something like this possibly explain anything…?”

Iuana’s mother smiles wrapping her arms around Iuana and hugging her tightly once she is in bed. “Finally, I don’t know who you get your stubbornness from.”

Shiya looks over to her it really no surprise. “She gets it from you Kanti.”

Kanti gives her husband a frown as she reaches over and hits him lightly on the head, the children laughing at this action. “I am NOT stubborn!”

Shiya simply shakes his head while rolling his eyes, not stupid enough to argue the point with her.

Iuana looks up to her mom. “I’m still not tired.”

Kanti grins at her daughter while rubbing the top of her head with her hand, messing her fur. “Alright then, how about a story to help you sleep? What do you want to hear?”

Iuana smiles as she looks up at her mom, speaking up excitedly. “I want to hear the story of the twins!”

“Again?”

Iuana nods her head yes. “I like that one.” Kanti nods her head as she begins to tell Iuana and her siblings the story that she had requested.

Yula speaks up, he turning from the scene and back to Dolly. “That was Iuana’s favorite story… mom must have told it to us a hundred times…”

Dolly nods her head as she looks back to Yula. “This is a story about a set of twins who loved each other very much, and of a monster that tried to take from them everything that they cared for.”

A child’s voice yells out interrupting the scene. “I found him he’s over here!”

Yula turns back around the voice having been unfamiliar to him, the scene that met him no longer the one of his mother trying to get her restless little girl to fall asleep, but of a school yard and building within the domestic city. “What happened…? Where are we now?”

Dolly motion to where a group of boys had gathered, all of them crowding around a figure that had tucked himself into a corner of the school building in hopes of not being found. “It is a little different from the one that your mother told you, but this too is the story of a set of twins.”

The children let out a laugh as they mock the figure that they had surrounded. “Look at him he’s got such sharp claws and teeth, he’s like a monster in a horror movie or something.”

Yula approaches the children, looking over them at the young wolf they were tormenting, though much younger than Yula had ever before seen him he still recognizes him. “Teddy?”

The children that surround Teddy continue to taunt him. “Do you know how ridicules you look? You’re not normal! You’re a freak!”

An angered voice fills the air. “Hey!”

The boys look from Teddy just as a young girl that shared his features runs up to them, a snarl on her face as she bares her fangs and claws at them. “Back off or you’ll learn firsthand why claws and teeth as are so scary.”

One of the boys quickly jumps back upon recognizing her, he fearfully shaking his head while holding his arm. “No! Don’t scratch me with those things again!”

Dolly motions over to him, setting him as an example for the other children. “See he remembers what happened the last time.”

Teddy looks over to his sister this not necessary. “Come on Dolly this isn’t helping.”

One of the boys points to Dolly. “My mom said that if you even think of biting me that she’ll see that you’re thrown out of this school.”

Dolly narrows her eyes as he steps towards them causing them all to jump back. “Tell your mom that if she tries I’ll bite you again, and I’ll bite her in the face!”

She lunges at them, the boys all scattering and running away, one of them yelling back at her. “I’m telling on you!”

Dolly places her hands on her hips. “Do that and I’ll bite the supervisor you tattled to AFTER I bite you!”

Teddy groans as stares over at his sister. “Dolly stop threatening to bite everyone all the time!! You’re really not making things any better! All you’re doing is justifying their stupid behaviour! They’re afraid of use because of how we look, you’re not supposed to feed that fear, that’ll just make even more people afraid of us!”

Dolly looks back to Teddy. “They should be afraid, because it really would hurt if one of us were to bite them.”

“Dolly don’t bite anyone!”

Dolly snaps back at back at Teddy, never liking to be told what to do even from him. “Only if ‘Teddy’ stops letting them walk all over and hurt him like this. Stand up for yourself once and a while, geeze.”

Teddy shakes his head as he turns away from her walking away. “I just want to be normal! I don’t want to be seen as a freak!”

Dolly yells after him as he runs off. “You’re not a freak Teddy!! You’re just special that’s all.” She sighs to herself once he is out of her sight. “Why do you hate that…?”

A deeper voice comments on the scene that had played out in front of Yula. “I always hated when she did that to me… She scared everyone, all the kids in school, the teachers… even the parents of the kids she scared were afraid of her… and in turn afraid of me…”

Yula looks from the children to find another figure watching the scene, Teddy as Yula remembered him now also there. “Teddy?” Yula shakes his head in confusion. “Are you a figment of my subconscious too?”

Teddy looks over to him. “A what…?” He shakes his head as he looks back to the school building. “You know it wasn’t just the kids that used to bully me… the teachers did to, anytime something was stolen or broken, it was my fault and I was punished for it… even though they didn’t have any proof. Sometimes they would just call me to the office and make me sit in the detention room, and they wouldn’t even tell me why…”

Yula stares at Teddy, though Teddy before had mentioned that he had trouble growing up in school he had never said anything like that, and Yula didn’t think that his own mind could make such a thing up. “Teddy… is that really you? Where are you!? Are you okay?”

Teddy hums to himself as he looks his surroundings over to answer Yula’s question. “Well this is the neighborhood I grew up in, and this is the school yard of my old grade school.”

Yula shakes his head. “No, no… I mean where are you right now… or… not right now… I mean when you’re not in my dream, or I mean my vision… Where were you before you were here?” He sighs to himself this sounding stupid. “You’re not even real are you…? I’m just wasting my breath…” He frowns as he looks Teddy over, he wearing clothes that Yula was completely unfamiliar with. “What are you wearing…?”

Teddy thinks the question over giving Yula an answer soon after, he pinching a corner of his shirt while explaining the clothes her right now had. “The clothes they give the test subjects, I was in the True Blood’s laboratory before I came here…”

Yula frowns at that information. “Test subject??”

Teddy seems confused this not making sense, he not sure how he had gotten from the labs to this place. “How did I get here…?” He seems even more confused as he thinks further into it. “How did I escape?” He turns around looking back to Yula. “How did you get here?”

Yula frowns as he holds his hands out to the young girl standing by the side of the school. “Dolly’s like six and you’re not questioning that!?”

Teddy shakes his head no as he motions toward Dolly. “Dolly’s nine.”

“And you’re not questioning this?” He frowns holding his hand out to the older version of Dolly that is accompanying him. “What about the second Dolly, you not gonna question that either?”

Teddy seems confused by the question. “What other Dolly…?”

Yula frowns she hard to miss if you were looking in her direction. “The one standing right beside me!”

“There’s no one there Yula.”

Yula lets out a groan, not even sure why he was bothering with this. “Great… now I’m getting into an argument my own visions.”

Dolly shakes her head no. “He’s not a part of your vision Yula…” She looks back to a group of children playing. “The subjects in your visions have never been able to see you, and will never be able to see you.”

Yula looks back to Teddy. “What? Well then what the heck is he?”

“A lost spirit.”

Yula is horrified to hear this. “You mean like a ghost!? Teddy’s dead!?”

Dolly smiles as she lets out a laugh, it nothing like that. “Teddy is lost, surrounded by things unfamiliar to him and questions he cannot even begin to answer, he may not realize it but his spirit has come to you for help, so that he can get answers and find his way once more. These visions of yours are about him, and what he must do.”

Yula looks back to Teddy. “You’re saying that I’m… kind of like his… spirit guide…?”

Dolly shakes his head, it not something as complicated as that. “It is nothing as intricate as that, you are someone that he trusts and confides in. Someone that he comes to for help when he is upset, confused and lost. You are his friend.”

*******

Yula lays on the floor of Achak’s hut, Iuana having brought her brother to him shortly after he had collapsed, Achak looking over and examining him to try and figure out the problem.

Iuana looks the inside of Achak’s hut over, there no one else in it with him. “Where is Kane?”

Achak opens Yula’s eyelid to stare at his eyeball. “Not here, there’s no point for him to stay here at this moment in time. Eleven and Maigan are keeping an him as he starts his journey.”

“Where did you send him?”

“Not far, his journey will start here, within the village.” He shakes his head lifting his hand from Yula and letting his eyes close, he crawling over to Yula’s feet and beginning to look them over. “He’s not sick.”

Iuana frowns as she stares at Achak. “And you can tell that by staring at his feet…?”

Achak looks back to Iuana. “You asked me to examine every inch of him, that is what I am doing.” He drops Yula’s foot now holding out his hand to him. “He’s just sleeping. It’s perfectly normal.”

“He’s not ‘just’ sleeping, he collapsed in the middle of a conversation with me.”

Achak shrugs his shoulders. “Was what you had to say boring enough to put him to sleep?”

“No!” Iuana frowns as she argues back with him. “If he was sleeping he would be able to wake up!”

She kneels down next to Yula lifting her hand and slapping him hard across the face. Achak panicking as he speaks up. “Why are you waking him up! You know that you mustn’t wake an oracle when he is…” He trails off when he realizes that Yula has not woken from the slap across the face. “Asleep…”

He frowns looking Yula over once again, coming up with an additional explanation to this oddity. “He’s a very heavy sleeper.”

Iuana shakes her head no. “We’ve always been able to wake him up before if we need to. This isn’t right.”

Achak shakes his head trying to think of an explanation. “Maybe he is just very tired…”

Iuana lets out an annoyed groan, she getting to her feet and leaving Achak’s side, Achak still looking Yula over. “Was he more active today than usual? He’s usually very lazy so-”

Iuana returns holding a bucket of water in her hands, she holding it over Yula and turning it over, the water that was being held within it falling and hitting Yula, completely drenching him and splashing Achak, causing the Shaman to scream and scurry away. “What are you doing!? Why would you-” he stops talking as he looks back to Yula, he still sleeping, Achak slowly approaching him once more.

Iuana holds her hand to Yula. “Do you still think that’s normal!?”

Achak shakes his head no as he begins to look Yula over again, this time starting by placing his head against his chest to listen to his heart and make sure that he was still alive, Yula indeed still among the living, just not among those about to wake up. “No… that’s not normal.”

He frowns as he sits back up trying to think over this situation. “This has to have something to do with him being an oracle… I wonder if my father ever mentioned this to me…?”

Iuana bares her teeth becoming frustrated with him. “This is so typical of you! Of course you don’t know what’s going on! You never listened to anything your father had to say about important things like this!”

Achak raises his voice as he yells back at her. “He’s fine! I don’t have to completely understand what’s going on to at least know that.” He leaves Yula’s side, moving to an area of the hut that is covered in papers filled with writing and drawings, these a few of the records his father had written regarding his work before passing away. “You may have forgotten but my father wasn’t always able to give you and your father an answer to your questions the very second that they are asked. Give me some time and I’ll find out what is happening to him.”

*******

Yula sits down on a chair as he watches Dolly as she works, the wolf humming to herself while she worked on repairing a beaded bracelet that had been broken.

“What are you staring at?”

Yula looks next to him, Teddy’s figure sitting on a chair beside him, Yula holding his hand out toward Dolly. “You really don’t see her?”

Teddy turns his head in the direction Yula is gesturing in, squinting his eyes as he tries to look further in hopes of catching onto what Yula was talking about, he eventually shaking his head no. Yula simply letting out a sigh as he shakes his head. “Then to answer your question, I’m staring at a figment of my imagination.”

Dolly glances up from her work to look over at him. “Projection.”

“Projection then!” He looks back to Teddy. “Any more questions for me?”

Teddy nods his head, there indeed something else that had come to mind. “Why are you all wet?”

Yula blinks as he stares at Teddy for a moment, he looking from him and down to himself to find his clothes and fur completely soaked through. “I have no idea…”

He begins to look over his surroundings, the scenery having changed, they no longer within the school yard or anything remotely resembling one, they in a smaller room that seemed convoluted with all kinds of things depicting the culture and native heritage of the wilds in this area. “Here’s a question for you Teddy… where are we now?”

Teddy doesn’t have to think hard to recall this place. “My parent’s house, or I guess… my old house that I used to live in.” He points to the doorway, a small collection of boxes having been stacked there. “This is my eighteenth birthday… the day I moved out. I wanted to leave this house so badly, I did it as soon as I was legally able to.”

Yula looks back to Teddy not understanding. “I thought that even though you didn’t talk to them much that you loved your family.”

Teddy looks back to Yula. “I do love my family, if I didn’t I would have run away or something I’m sure. No, it was their culture, and this house my parents packed to the brim of everything related to our native heritage that they could get their hands on. It was embarrassing. I never wanted anyone I knew to know where I lived, and I absolutely dreaded the possibility that someone I knew might come here. I just… I just wanted to be normal… I always did…”

Yula doesn’t understand, he having never seen anything wrong with Teddy. “Why were you always trying so hard to change who you were? I never thought that there was anything wrong with you.”

Teddy shakes his head. “I didn’t like being a freak, or as Dolly would so nicely phrase it ‘special’ I didn’t want to stand out, I wanted to be like everyone else.”

A very deep voice fills the air. “You are making a mistake.”

Yula and Teddy both stop talking as Teddy’s younger self and his father walks past them, Teddy carrying one last box to the door while his father tries to talk him out of this, Teddy arguing back with him. “And you’re making a bigger deal out of this then it needs to be.” He puts the box down by the door before looking back to his dad. “Kids move out, it’s a perfectly normal and healthy thing.”

Teddy’s father continues to argue with him. “Why won’t you take part in the ceremony?”

Teddy lets out a sigh as he rolls his eyes. “The spirits don’t need to place me dad, I’m fine. I mean, our family isn’t even really in a tribe anymore, so what good will any of that do me?” He shrugs his shoulders. “Besides, I’ll probably just be a warrior like you, mom and everyone else in our family was. Runs in the blood and all that so what else would I be?”

“No Teddy you are different, unique.”

Dolly’s voice interrupts the conversation. “You’re special.”

Teddy looks from his father and toward his sister who had just entered the room, eating from a bag of chips in her hands. she stopping in her tracks when Teddy gives her an annoyed look. “What?”

“Stop saying that.”

Dolly shrugs her shoulders. “It’s true, everyone says so…”

Teddy shakes his head no. “Everyone only says that because the shaman was the first one to say it and everyone believes what that crazy old coot says because he’s a shaman.”

Teddy’s father looks back to his son. “Just do the ritual before you go. Is that too much to ask?”

Teddy’s frustration begins to mount. “Dad! There’s nothing to see! It’s just a dumb superstition and I’m not going to feed it by taking part in this stupid ritual! I’m not doing it, and nothing you say can convince me otherwise.”

His father sighs as he turns away from Teddy giving up and not continuing the conversation, he walking over to Dolly and taking the bag of chips she had been snacking on from her. “Don’t eat junk like this before the ritual.”

Dolly sighs as she watches her father leave the room with her food. “Oh great he’s going to go raid my room and hide all my junk food on me now isn’t he?”

Teddy looks over to her. “Your own fault for eating in front of him like that, I thought you knew better.”

Dolly nods her head as she flops down on the sofa in the living room, laying on it as she stares over at Teddy. “I do know better, I just thought I would try and do something that would distract him so that he might stop bugging you about the ceremony to deal with me.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah I know, but I did it anyway.” She looks back to Teddy. “You know… I don’t see why you’re so scared to know… I mean what harm would it do you? You don’t even believe in all of this anyway.”

Teddy opens the door preparing to move all his things to the truck outside. “Anything great about me is no better than anything that’s great about you. You know that right?”

Dolly shakes her head. “What’s so bad about being more important than me?”

Teddy stops, leaning his back against the door frame as he lets out a sigh. “I’m not more important than you.”

“That’s not what everyone in dad’s tribe says.”

“Yeah? Well dad and his whole tribe are wrong.” Teddy leaves the house beginning to move his things out.

Yula looks back to Teddy. “Why were you so special?”

Teddy shakes his head. “Don’t you start that too, I’m not special.”

Yula frowns. “That’s not the rest of your family is saying.”

“My family didn’t think rationally. Mom and Dad focused too much on outdated and silly beliefs.”

Yula seems rather curious with this. “What was it they believed… and what was that ceremony they were talking about for?”

Teddy begins to explain, it all pretty stupid to him. “It was to find out why the spirits sent me here. What my great task was.” Yula seems very confused, Teddy beginning to explain. “Me and Dolly are twins, in the tribe that my family comes from twins result in one of two scenarios. The first scenario happens when the twins are identical, and look exactly like one another. Supposedly one is the born good and the other evil.”

“The second scenario, happens when the twins are not born to be identical. It happens because the mother is apparently supposed to give birth to a god or a spirit, and because neither of those things are supposed to have flaws, everything that would have made the child flawed or imperfect is pushed away and formed into another child. One is born perfect and without flaw, a decedent of gods and spirits. The second twin, is all the corruption and imperfections that would keep the god like twin from being perfect.” He shakes his head. “Me and Dolly look similar to one another, but seeing as we’re different genders it’s pretty clear that we’re not identical, so that threw us into the other category. I was born healthy without problems, but Dolly was born weak… I was labeled as the special one… while Dolly was said to be all the garbage and imperfections that someone who was considered special shouldn’t have.”

He looks at his sister as she lays on the sofa watching him move his things out, young Teddy having refused her help with moving his things when she had offered, she still though sticking around to keep him company. “Dolly was always looking after me. She was strong, independent, not afraid of anything. She wasn’t garbage, I wasn’t going to take part in some ceremony that was founded on the belief that she was.”

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Raven Wolf - 04 - The Wounded - Chapter 09

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