Daughter of Pluto | Wattys2017

VII

AIMEE DREAMED OF WOLVES.

She stood with Jason in a clearing in the middle of a redwood forest. In front of them rose the ruins of a stone mansion. Low gray clouds blended with the ground fog, and cold rain hung in the air. A pack of large gray beasts milled around them, brushing against their legs, snarling and baring their teeth. They gently nudged them toward the ruins.

Aimee had no desire to become the world's largest dog biscuit, so she decided to do what they wanted.

The ground squelched under her combat boots as she walked. Stone spires of chimneys, no longer attached to anything, rose up like totem poles. The house must've been enormous once, multi-storied with massive log walls and a soaring gabled roof, but now nothing remained but its stone skeleton. Aimee passed under a crumbling doorway and found herself in a kind of courtyard.

Before them was a drained reflecting pool, long and rectangular. Aimee couldn't tell how deep it was, because the bottom was filled with mist and she didn't plan to find out. A dirt path led all the way around, and the house's uneven walls rose on either side. Wolves paced under the archways of rough red volcanic stone.

At the far end of the pool sat a giant she-wolf, several feet taller than Jason,and way taller than Aimee. Her eyes glowed silver in the fog, and her coat was the same color as the rocks—warm chocolaty red.

"I know this place," Jason said stopping beside her.

"I do too,it feels so familiar,"Aimee said looking around,then meeting the wolf's eyes without any fear at all.

The wolf regarded them. She didn't exactly speak, but they could understand her. The movements of her ears and whiskers, the flash of her eyes, the way she curled her lips—all of these were part of her language.

Of course, the she-wolf said. You began your journey here as a pups. Now you must find your way back. A new quest, a new start.

"That isn't fair," Jason said. But as soon as Jason spoke, Aimee knew there was no point complaining to the she-wolf.

Wolves didn't feel sympathy. They never expected fairness. The wolf said: Conquer or die. This is always our way.

Aimee wanted to protest that she couldn't conquer if she didn't know who she was, or where she was supposed to go. But she knew this wolf. Her name was simply Lupa, the Mother Wolf, the greatest of her kind. Long ago she'd found her in this place, protected her, nurtured her, chosen her, but if Aimee showed weakness, she would tear her to shreds. Rather than being her pup, she would become her dinner. In the wolf pack, weakness was not an option.

"Can you guide us?" Jason asked grabbing hold of his best friend's hand.

Lupa made a rumbling noise deep in her throat, and the mist in the pool dissolved.

At first Aimee wasn't sure what she was seeing. At opposite ends of the pool, two dark spires had erupted from the cement floor like the drill bits of some massive tunneling machines boring through the surface. Aimee couldn't tell if the spires were made of rock or petrified vines, but they were formed of thick tendrils that came together in a point at the top. Each spire was about five feet tall, but they weren't identical. The one closest to Aimee was darker and seemed like a solid mass, its tendrils fused together. As she watched, it pushed a little farther out of the earth and expanded a little wider.

On Lupa's end of the pool, the second spire's tendrils were more open, like the bars of a cage. Inside, Aimee could vaguely see a misty figure struggling, shifting within its confines.

"Hera," Jason said.

"Juno,"Aimee whispered her eyes beginning to light up in the darkness.

Many wolves had surround themselves around her and seemed to be in a protective circle around her.She touched the head of the wolf nearest to her and it pushed its head into her hand allowing her to pet it.She looked up at Lupa.

The she-wolf growled in agreement. Many of the other wolves circled the pool, their fur standing up on their backs as they snarled at the spires.

The enemy has chosen this place to awaken her most powerful son, the giant king, Lupa said. Our sacred place, where demigods are claimed—the place of death or life. The burned house. The house of the wolf. It is an abomination. You must stop her.

"Her?" Jason was confused. "You mean, Hera?"

The she-wolf gnashed her teeth impatiently. Use your senses, pup. I care nothing for Juno, but if she falls, our enemy wakes. And that will be the end for all of us. You know this place. You can find it again. Cleanse our house. Stop this before it is too late.

The dark spire grew slowly larger, like the bulb of some horrible flower. Aimee sensed that if it ever opened, it would release something she did not want to meet.

"Who am I?" Jason asked the she-wolf. "At least tell me that."

Wolves don't have much of a sense of humor, but Aimee could tell the question amused Lupa, as if Jason were a cub just trying out his claws, practicing to be the alpha male.

You are our saving grace and angel, as always. The she-wolf curled her lip, as if she had just made a clever joke. Do not fail, son of Jupiter and daughter of Pluto.