Origins

The fire crackled softly in the quiet shack, its flickering light casting shadows that danced on the dirty walls. Nova lay curled near the edge of the room, her golden eyes half-lidded as she watched the man settle by the flames. His movements were slow and deliberate, almost cautious, as if he were trying not to disturb the fragile balance between them.

He leaned forward, carefully adding a small piece of wood to the fire before easing back. The silence between them stretched, heavy but not entirely uncomfortable. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, almost a murmur, as though sharing a secret meant for her ears alone.

"You ever feel like you didn't quite fit in?" he asked, his amber eyes glinting in the firelight. "Like no matter how hard you tried, you were different?"

Nova's ears flicked, but she didn't respond. Her gaze remained on him, wary but intrigued. The question stirred something inside her—a memory of awkward smiles and hollow reassurances, of whispered conversations she was never meant to hear. Such and odd girl, they'd said. Somethings not right with that one.

He continued, his tone steady and reflective. "Our kind... we come from the deep. The dark. Some say we were cursed, others say we were chosen. Depends on who you ask." He glanced at her, gauging her reaction before continuing. "What's certain is that we're not like them. Humans. We're stronger, faster, and we live longer—sometimes much longer"

The words hung in the air, heavy with an unspoken truth that Nova wasn't sure she wanted to confront. She shifted slightly, her body coiled with tension but unable to look away from him.

"A long time ago," he said, his voice taking on a storytelling cadence, "there were whispers about us—what we were, where we came from. Some believed we were born from the union of beasts and men. Others thought we were touched by gods. Or demons." He paused, his gaze drifting into the fire as though seeing something far away. "Regardless, we've always been feared."

Nova's tail twitched involuntarily, her ears pinning back as the weight of his words settled over her. Fear and anger warred within her, but she stayed silent, her body tense.

"When humans learned about us," he continued, "they didn't see us as cursed or chosen. They saw us as monsters. And maybe they were right." His voice softened, a trace of something almost like regret threading through his words. "We did what we had to do to survive. Some of it wasn't pretty."

The crackling fire filled the silence as Nova tried to process what he was telling her. It was too much, too fast, but there was no escaping the truth in his voice. She could feel it in the way her wolf stirred uneasily, like a dormant memory awakening.

"That's your bloodline," he said finally, his gaze shifting back to her. "That's what's inside you. Whether you want it or not."

For a moment, she thought she saw something in his eyes—a flicker of remorse, or perhaps pity. The look made her bristle, a low growl escaping her throat before she could stop it. She hated the vulnerability his words exposed, the way they made her feel small and uncertain. She was used to being on the outside, always different, always alone. But this? This was something else entirely.

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. "I don't expect you to trust me yet. But you should know this: the world out there isn't kind toward us. If you're going to survive, you need to learn who and what you are."

Nova's golden eyes narrowed, her growl deepening. She didn't want his help, she wanted to reject his words and erase the past, but she knew she couldn't. She could feel that there was truth in what he said—truth she wasn't ready to face but couldn't ignore. Her wolf stirred again, not in defiance but in uneasy agreement.

The man rose to his feet, his shadow stretching across the room as he moved toward the door. "I'll be back," he said simply, his voice fading into the night. "Think about what I said."

Nova watched him go, the wooden door creaking shut behind him. The fire crackled on, filling the empty space he left behind. She lay still, her thoughts caught in a storm. The deep, dark place he spoke of felt both distant and disturbingly close, like an echo she couldn't escape.

Her breathing slowed as she stared into the flames, the flickering light calming her as it danced across the walls. She sighed, realizing she didn't have much of a choice. Any more time on her own, and she might not have survived. She needed help, and whether his intentions were pure or not, she would have to take a leap of faith.

As the night wore on, Nova's mind refused to settle. Her thoughts returned to his words—his mention of her bloodline. Her chest tightened as memories of her parents surfaced, the sharp contrast of their warm smiles and the terror in their eyes during her first transformation. She couldn't shake the feeling that her life had been a lie, and that what was left in the aftermath of her tragedy was an empty shell.

The fire dimmed to embers, and the chill of the night crept in. Nova curled tighter into herself. She wasn't ready to trust him, wasn't ready to trust anyone, but for the first time in days, she felt a little bit of the pain in her heart subside. It was fragile, like the embers before her, but it was enough to keep her going.

When she finally drifted off to sleep, her dreams were filled with shadows and whispers, glimpses of a life she had yet to understand. The deep, dark place he spoke of called to her, a haunting melody that echoed in her mind and left her in a restless slumber.