COUNTDOWN: 30 DAYS TO FULL MOON #2

                The night before had passed surprisingly uneventfully, once everything was out of the way. Everyone had cuddled up on the couches and watched a movie, Kita wrapped up in limbs that were not her own that had eventually become her bed for the night when she’d dubbed it too much hassle to try and wriggle out of. But that just left a problem for this morning where she really needed to pee, and none of the wolves around her were awake yet.

                After a painstaking 5 minutes she managed to disentangle her feet from Baekhyun’s, remove Luhan’s arm from around her waist, take her completely numb hand back from under Xiumin’s head, and wiggle away from Kai who lay behind her with his arm slung over her shoulder. Tip-toing over the pile of wolves she managed to escape to the bathroom. 

                On the way she caught sight of herself in a hallway mirror. As expected, her hair looked a disaster after sleeping on the floor all night. But as with every night after a full moon, everything else looked healthier. Her eyes had a brighter shine, her skin looked smoother, as if the boosting of her magic had cleansed her in some way. And if she wasn’t mistaken, this morning seemed like more of a difference than most…

                When Kita arrived back in the living room, the wolves were still sleeping. All of them except Kai who was sat up blinking sleepily. He heard her approach and quickly turned to her, scrambling up and running over to her, ignoring the annoyed groans of the people he stepped on on his way.

                “I’m not tired!” He yelled in his loudest whisper, “I’m usually exhausted after a full moon, but I’m not!”

                Kita looked at the wolf. His eyes were bright, his hair was ruffled, and his entire countenance was as if he was trying to impersonate happy-virus Chanyeol. But she didn’t have much time to look as Kai was wrapping her up in his arms and spinning her around.

                But when he put her down his happiness was quickly leaving. He cupped her hands in his and squeezed them tight, finally looking for Kita with such a forlorn expression.

                “You can’t feel my magic anymore Kai, the full moon’s over.” She tried to say it gently but she could still see that it was crushing him.

                “I’ll… I’ll still feel it on the next one right?”

                She nodded, 30 days from now when the next full moon arrived.

                Despite no longer being able to feel her magic, Kai had followed her around all day. His knee was knocking hers as they sat for breakfast, his arm was brushing against hers when they were piled on the couches, it was as if he was waiting for the feel of her magic to come back, like he wasn’t quite ready to let go of it yet.

                That night, he continued to follow her as she went to the back garden and sat quietly on the grass under the moonlight. Having Kai’s magic around her yesterday had been more than she’d ever felt, and without it she felt a little like she was going through withdrawal. Having Kai following her all day helped a little because although he couldn't feel her magic, she could still feel his, just muted.   

                So she sat cross-legged facing the forest, eyes closed as she focused on the current under the ground, the magic that lived there to source the Tree. Kai had sat behind her, but now he had shuffled backwards to lean his back against hers.

                After a while of silence he began fidgiting, and then asked, “What are we doing?”

                Kita smiled, “There’s a magical current in the ground.”

                She almost fell as Kai moved, no longer holding up her weight but now sitting beside her, his keen eyes pointed to the forest.

                “Can I feel it?”

                She shrugged, “Take a look and see.”

                He sat, copying her positioning, and closed his eyes. His brow only furrowed, his lips tipping down into a frown.

                “It should feel like a very faint pulsing.” She said, watching him try to feel the magic of the Fey. It was a long shot, and soon she realised that it wasn’t going to happen. “Maybe at the next full moon.”

                His shoulders slumped in disappointment, “I really wanted to feel it.”

                Quickly, Kita thought of something else. “How about you stop trying to feel Fey magic, and try to feel your own.” She glanced away from the wolf who was staring her down and up to the moon. It wasn’t quite full, but it was close, only a sliver of it caught in shadow. “Wolves take their power from moonlight, you need it more than any other magical creature.”

                She could see his eyes were staring at her, “teach me what to do.”

                “Are you sure about this Kai?” She wanted to make sure he actually knew what he was getting into. And then, Kris wouldn’t be able to blame her for anything later. “Your pack doesn’t seem too friendly with the idea of magic.”

                “This isn’t about magic, this is about me.” He said, “they just… they don’t get it, know what I mean? They’re not affected by the full moon, they don’t feel like a part of themselves is missing.” He quieted, looking down to the grass as he pulled it and began making little piles.

                “Do you… miss being a wolf?” Kita asked tentatively.

                He shook his had quickly, then shrugged, “No, I mean not really, I don’t know. I’m glad that I don’t transform, I’m happy that I’m not hurting people anymore.”

                “But you miss it anyway.”

                He still refused to look at her, as if he was ashamed of admitting it. And she could understand why, the other wolves probably had no idea that he felt this way about the wolf part of him. To them, the wolf was something that hurt people, a disease that they were now cured of. For Kai to tell them he missed it….

                She felt her heart soften, and knew what her next move was. “You feel more moonlight closest to a full moon, a new moon barely gives you anything.”

                He looked up at her, a smile stretching his lips as he accepted her tutelage.  

                “Try and remember how you felt yesterday,” she continued, “you want to feel the magic inside you, and use moonlight as an outlet for it. Make moonlight work for you, use it to boost your magical presence.”

                And Kai stayed there for hours, even after Kita curled up on the ground, comforted by moonlight and Fey magic, drifting off to sleep. Still, Kai kept his eyes locked on the slowly disappearing moon, and for the first time ever, felt a small buzz of magic within him.

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Just a short update about the day after the full moon, and there’ll be another being posted today (since this update is late) so keep a watch for that!

And I’ll be cutting down on the updates, probably to once a week so I’ve got time to actually write something decent for you all.