Carina

control,

I'm unable to control this new burst of power running through me and billowing outwards in waves, my brute strength has increased, I realized that after breaking the faucet of my sink when I tried to get some water to wash my face. I awoke alone in bed and I’m now tracking Andre by his scent. I did meet some people on my way, servants of sorts but they are all cowering away from me. I tried to reign in my power and the baleful aura it’s giving off but failed miserably. Now that everything has been unleashed, I feel like a stranger in my own body, everything feels different. I’m quite angry, but mostly hurt, I can’t believe my own mother did this to me twice, I feel so betrayed. Despite my unbridled power, a new sense of Freedom fills me, I feel like I could take on the world, but I do know, that this false bravado has to do with this new power I’m having a hard time controlling. The best thing however is my wolf. My connection to her is strengthened now. I can feel her so strongly now more than ever. As if knowing I’m thinking of her, she stirs awake and stretches in the back of my mind. This is so amazing. I say a soft `Hello’ to her and send a lot of warmth and love through our now strengthened bond. What happens next takes me by surprise. She withdraws my power and it’s chaotic aura which immediately calms my nerves.

“Thank you”. I say softly as a smile appears on my lips in glee.

” You’re welcome”.

I immediately halt in the middle of the hallway in shock. I just heard it speak to me! How?. I hear it chuckle in the back of my mind, something very human to do.

” I am stronger and evolved, I’ll hold onto your power until you’ve learnt to gain control over it. I’ll be here when you need me ”

It immediately shuts me out, a clear sign it does not wish to be disturbed right now but I still feel it and can reach out to it if necessary. I know however that this is not normal. My dad told me our wolf side communicate by projecting their feelings towards us which most of the times, influences our behavior because we experience said feelings with them. They can also project images of what the want us to see, sometimes it’s merely what they are thinking of. Not once did my father mention them capable of speech or reasoning like we do, they mostly act according to their instincts and that’s why we’re thought to learn to control them when we shift. Mine just spoke to me like an actual person, they are now supposed to possess human intellect?

I’m roused from my thoughts when I feel a hand on my shoulder and I realize I zoned out in the middle of the hallway. Andre stands in front of me hold a tray with food and its mouthwatering fragrance causes me to feel the pangs of hunger I failed to notice before.

” Are you alright?”

Andre asks as he leads me back to my room. I don’t answer him until we’re in the bedroom.

“ No I’m not, when I woke up, I couldn’t control my new found power, but my wolf roused out of sleep after sensing my nervousness and withdrew it, but what has me going crazy now is the fact that it spoke. From what my father told me, that’s normal.”

I began pacing in my room unconsciously.

” Calm down, you slept on an empty stomach last night, come eat and I’ll tell you what I know while you eat”

I sigh and sit next to him on the bed, but I wasn’t expecting him to feed me, he doesn’t allow me to eat on my own and when I opened my mouth to protest, he shoved the food in my mouth. I begrudgingly relent and let him feed me.

” About your wolf, well, I believe this feature of theirs is one of the traits that makes them superior, even to royal wolves. While royals wolves are able to speak very little words at a time, which usually comes out very guttural and animalistic, white wolves speak clear and fluently. They are more evolved and have human intellect, all though they have their animal instinct, they are more controllable and understanding. They are not to be underestimated. It’s rather unfortunate that because of your mother’s deeds, you’re estranged to her. Get to know and bond with her. What do you know about the prophecy though?”

I let his words sink in while he fed me and it took me a while to realize he asked me a question. I sip some water and clear my throat.

” I’m not sure what exactly you’re talking about, all my mom ever told me is that I’m the twelfth keeper of a trident belonging to Poseidon and I’ve been blessed by him which will explain my strong affinity to water. I’ve been trained my whole life for a war my mom claims is to come. According to her, I will have to be my strongest for when the time comes.”

He nods and proceeds to feed me some more, soon enough I’m done and he mind links someone to come come for tray.

” Do you know about the last war? And how your mom participated in it?”.

” Yes, I do”

” And are you aware that Raa’hl has escaped?”

” No I’m not. Wait why are you telling this, I mean, even if he has escaped, what has he got to do with me?”

” One ancient oracle of the moon goddess, has requested an audience with us. We’ll set off early to her abode. I’ll explain everything about your connection to Raa’hl. Right now, I need to help you merge with your power, come”.

He takes my hand and leads me outside the massive castle to a courtyard.

” You really need to give me a tour of your castle you know?, it’s beautiful.”

” Thank you, but I believe yours is much more…..outstanding. A castle made of ice and does not melt under the sun, that’s impressive.”

He is not wrong, it is impressive. The ice castle was single handedly built by my mother after the previous war when our people moved there.

“ Alright. So I’m going to help you search with yourself for the core of your power so that you merge with it and become one. This is something that should have been than automatically when you were younger but your mother interfered, I’ll talk you through it. Now, I need you to look into my eyes, do not break eye contact until I tell you to, I’ll talk you through the process and don’t be startled when you hear voice in your head.”

With a sigh, I do as he says and I immediately feel a suction force pull me into my mind when I look into his. I could feel his presence in my mind. Soon after I heard him speak in my mind and I’m startled back in to reality and break I contact with him. The very thing he asked me not to do.

” Carina I warned you about hearing my voice in mind and breaking eye contact”.

” I’m sorry”

I sheepishly say and lock gazes with him. Once again we sucked into the deepest parts of my mind where the core of my power should be. I see my wolf coiled up at the side resting while studying me. It closes its eyes later after after realising what is actually going on.

” Do you see the colourful tendrils of your power?”

Andre asks, this time, I comport myself and look out for what he’s talking about. I see it as soon as I began searching, right on cue, it’s like it obeyed my will. These thread like tendrils came in different colours, there are blue, greenish-brown, red, silver.

“ Your kind draw on the power of natural elements. And it seems you have the affinity for four. The blue represents water, which has the thickest strand, it means your connection to water is the strongest, the hazel colour represents earth, the red represents fire and alas, the silver strand represents your affinity for…metals”

I gasped when spoke of the silver strand representing metal. I didn’t know it was possible to have an affinity for metals.

“ Concentrate, I’ll answer your questions later, I can’t stay in your mind for long, it’s draining me, your mind’s defenses are fighting to push me out despite you willingly allowing me in. Now as I was saying before you zoned out, hold one strand and follow it to the end, it will lead you to the core of the element, there you touch it the core and it merges with you. “

I decide to hold onto the blue strand and begin to follow.

” I’ll be with you until you reach the core, but I’ll have to leave before you merge with it, repeat the process for the other strands”

True to his word, he left as I found a glowing blue orb, the core of the water element. I touched the blue orb and it immediately dissolved and all the other blue strands were also dissolved into the mental projection of myself in my mind. I repeated the process and merged with the greenish-brown or hazel (as he called it), red and silver orbs. Soon after, I opened my eyes and immediately felt the changes. Ignoring Andre who had shielded the courtyard with a shadow like dome, I tested my new found abilities. I activated earth and imagined red roses and immediately, the whole courtyard was being filled with red roses rapidly growing and blooming. I gasped in amazement. Next I tried my hands on the water element, I imagined a frozen rose flower and instead of willing it outward like before, I touched a rose single rose and it froze. Knowing how destructive the fire element could be, I chose not to try it out for now and instead, I removed my signet ring, that was a symbol of my royalty and held it in my palm. With the fire element activated, I melted the ring made of pure silver and with metal element, remolded it into a wolf figurine.

“ You’re a fast learner, I guess you won’t really need much help. With the metal element however, you should know that you can make your own weapons and they’ll be quite formidable. You can now be considered a spiritual blacksmith, they possess the metal element and the make the strongest weapons and armors especially when infused with a drop of their blood, congratulations on making your first invention.”

Wow, this could explain why spiritual blacksmith are so rare and expensive come by, you can only become one if you have an affinity for metal, which also seems quite rare judging from the fact that I didn’t know about it.

” Do you have any affinity for any element?”

I asked in curiously, wondering how he created this dome shaped shield around us.

” Fire, shadow, air”

“wow!”

I exclaim, that is so cool.

” Is that how you made this dome shaped shadow like shield ?”

” yes, there are various forms of element, however not all supernaturals are able to draw on its power in the way we do, let’s head inside”

He waits for me to get close to him and he takes hold of my hands and kisses it.

” Thank you, for everything you’ve done for me, I’m truly touched”

using his shoulder for support, I rise onto my toes in order to reach his face and give him a peck on his cheek, but at the last moment, he turns and joins our lips together.