Descendants of The Moon

Chapter 7: When Moonclaws and Shadows Meet

Ariel was taken through so many stone hallways, corridors and staircases that she had no idea which way to run if the need arose. She was holding her left arm with the piece of cloth from Caleb's jacket, it already being soaked with blood. Her mind had started fogging up when the guard cleared his throat and pushed her through a door, sealing it shut behind her, locking her in. A wave of fear shook off her grogginess, and she pulled at the handle, hitting the wood and yelling at him to let her out. She heard a ruffle behind her and she turned around slowly. An ancient woman was sitting calmly on one of the huge red velvet chairs, reading glasses perched on her nose as she flipped through the pages of an even older book. The pages looked like if they weren't handled delicately, they would crumble to ashes at any moment. The only problem was that...the book was blank. At least, that's how it appeared to be. "Ah yes, the newborn," the woman said in a breathy voice. Ariel felt as if a new fog encircled her head, and that the fog was in a faint shape of a snake. She shut her eyes tightly, and it was gone. The woman in front of her seemed to be tilting her head in wonder. Her eyes were brown, and when she looked at Ariel they appeared to have turned darker. She wanted to tell her something very important, but at the last second changed her mind. "Sit down, my dear. You've been through a lot these past few days." She smiled kindly. Ariel walked hesitantly over to an extra chair. The woman motioned for her to show her her arm, and so she did. She stared at her forearm for a long while, lost in thought before she spoke again. "Changes are coming, young Moonclaw..." she said, and before Ariel could ask her what she meant, she had turned around to the small table and had started rummaging in a big medical bag. "Very difficult to stitch a wolf bite, isn't it?" She murmured. Ariel looked at her, a big question mark on her face. "Am I going to get one straight answer at all in this realm?" She said. The old woman shrugged, taking a vial of clear liquid from her bag. "Hopefully this will get rid of the Shadow venom in the bite, and hopefully the venom hasn't gone very far into your system. Here," she spilled some onto her arm, and she winced. "What is that?" She asked. "So many questions, so little time." She shook her head, cleaning the blood. "This, my dear, is extract from a very very rare plant. This, is noctis umbra." Ariel furrowed her brows in thought before saying, "So, nightshade?" The old woman stopped. "You speak latin?" Ariel smiled awkwardly. "I had a class at school, most of my classmates slept through it but I thought it was interesting." She said. "Ah, so the human realm is not as lost as we thought." Ariel opened her mouth to say something, but the woman cut her off. "No more questions. You're good to go," she said, shooing her off. "Wait no--hold on a second!" The woman stopped in her tracks. "I don't even know your name, I don't know if you're trying to help me, and I don't know what--" The woman had raised a hand, and Ariel's words came out silenced. "Know that I am a friend, dear Moonclaw. And my name," the old woman's eyes seemed to have aged a thousand years before she said anything, and finally she said: "My name is Alcyone." A booming knock was heard from the large wooden door, and Ariel's heart crawled up into her throat. She whirled around, about to plead the old woman to hide, but when she turned around she wasn't there anymore. The door whooshed open, and in came Caleb. His dark metallic sword was out in front of him, as if he came barging in looking for a monster. He looked around the room, and took a while before noticing Ariel there. She furrowed her brows, standing from the chair. Caleb kept rummaging through things, and she snapped her fingers, making him come out of his trance. "What's going on? What are you looking for??" She demanded. His eyes looked like ice. "Weren't you in here with someone?" He said, jutting out his chin to the other chair. A faint whispering filled Ariel's head. "No, your highness. I was here drinking tea by myself, tending to my own wound," she muttered sarcastically. His nostrils flared. "Where is the woman who was in here?" Ariel hesitated for a second. "That, I actually don't know. Why?" He sheathed his sword. "That's not our healer." Ariel staggered backwards. "What? Who was she?" He shook his head. "We don't know, somebody who passed the borders undetected--We have scouts everywhere, but nobody saw her come in. They don't even think she's a werewolf!" he sighed in exasperation, running a hand through his hair. His shoulders were tensed and he just looked extremely stressed out. Ariel dropped her hatred for the shadow wolves for a second and placed a hand on his arm. He jolted backwards. "I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head low. "It's fine but, you need to relax. Is this because of your father?" He hesitated, putting his guards up for a second, before they crumpled down. "Yes...As his heir I'm the one who directs our legion, and since the royal ball is in a few days we've got extra security up, especially now that this stranger came in." He cleared his throat, standing up straight and dusting off his tailored jacket. "I shouldn't be telling you any of this. I've got to go," he made to leave, but Ariel held him back. "Who am I going to tell, Caleb? I've never even been to Crescent Valley, the only Moonclaws I know are teenagers, we can't do anything." He held her gaze, clenching his jaw. "One of your fellow Moonclaws is the daughter of their Alpha." Ariel didn't get what he was getting at. "So? Thanks to you and your sister I'm well hidden away with no contact to them...or my family." Her voice hitched, but she covered it with a cough. "That still doesn't mean I'm going to leak, as you humans say, all the secrets and battle plans of the Shadow Kingdom, Ariel." She scoffed, crossing her arms and walking towards the window, staring outside once again. Twilight had arrived, and the cobblestone city underneath them had come to life. There was actual laughter, life, and lights, so many lights. Ariel thought of an ironic pun and chuckled to herself. "What is it?" Caleb asked, impatient. "Nothing, it's just that for a Shadow Kingdom, it actually has really nice lights, you know, down in the square." Her answer took him by surprise. "You see now what I am so protective of?" He sighed, propping his elbows on  the windowsill. Ariel thought of another thing. "You'll hate me for this but, you remind me alot of Vidia," she said, still gazing down. He went cold. "The alpha's daughter? Seriously?" Ariel just held up her hands. "You two have a sense of, protection, of the things you love. You, your future kingdom, her, well actually she has no care for ruling Crescent Valley, or following her father's footsteps, but she is very protective of her friends and family, so, yeah." He was silent for a moment, but he turned his gaze to her. Ariel had a buzzing sensation at the back of her skull, and she thought of something. She wondered whether she had given away too much information about the Moonclaws, well, the little info she actually knew. But then she listened to another side of her head, the one that said that maybe, maybe, Caleb was actually the only person in this whole kingdom she could trust, although at the same time, he and his sister were the reason she couldn't meet many others. "There are places in this kingdom that... are not as joyous as it is over here. This is the main square, where the castle is, and the richer folk are. The ones farther away are common folk, maybe middle class, but farther out, that's where the real shadows creep in. We have a dark past, our kind. Always the villain, always the enemy of the rest of the packs, but now we've come so far. There are still some like those, who think in the way of past rulers, and they just want to take back what was once theirs. Claim new land, enslave other packs." Ariel had smiled, hearing the story and it sounding like a tale from an ancient fairytale. At the ending, though, her smile drooped. "I thought you weren't supposed to tell me this," she said softly, the breeze carrying her voice to him. He exhaled slowly. "This, you can." They shared another look, his mixed colored eyes with her brown ones, and something passed between them. He broke the connection of whatever-it-was, and looked away. Ariel had turned her gaze to the door, thinking she had imagined the sounds of footsteps outside. "Somebody's coming," she said. Caleb glowered. "It's too loud to be Rebekah, it's probably one of the guards. One to escort you back to your room, I assume." He walked over, opening the door. The guard on the other side stood a little taller. "I've come to escort her back to her room." Caleb shot her a glance, like told you so, and motioned her forward. Any luck finding the imposter, sire? The guard's voice echoed in his head. Caleb shook his head. Keep looking, I've got to stop by the grand hall. Finally, he turned towards Ariel and held out his arm. "Try not to get killed before the ball. Cedryk will show you the way." She wanted to say something but something held her back, so she just grasped his forearm and followed the guard out.