COUNTDOWN: 2 DAYS TO FULL MOON

                “So… Kita…”

                Kita looked up from her bowl of cereal to see Chen looking at her from the archway, a stack of letters in his hands. He noticed her glance and continued, “I found these in the recycling.”

                She swallowed her mouthful, “well I should expect so because that’s where I put them.”

                His eyebrows tilted up in the middle, and Kita was suddenly conscious of how many wolves were in this kitchen. All of them except for Tao, which was kind of to be expected. He seemed simply terrified of her (although she wasn’t quite sure what she’d done to make him that way.)

                Chen continued, “aren’t these the letters that Eunhyuk guy delivered?”

                She nodded, placing another giant spoonful of cereal in so she could avoid responding to the rest of this conversation. She had barely given the letters any thought, but at the time, when Kai had left her room two days ago, she hadn’t been in the mood to read them. What could they tell her, they would either be filled with bad news or they would remind her of the empty void inside her which was the fact she couldn’t go home. She’d thought about keeping them and reading them later once she was allowed back, but she knew she wouldn’t have been able to resist the temptation of reading them.

                Chen sighed, “you have to read them.”

                Kita shook her head wildly, still full.

                “This is from your family, don’t you think they’ll want you to read what they’ve written?” Baekhyun asked hesitantly, and then Kris slammed his hand on the counter.

                “We might not know the whole story behind this mess, but we know you got yourself into it. How do you think your parents feel? Did they even get to say goodbye to you? Through probably no fault of their own they’ve had their daughter taken away from them and they don’t know when they’ll ever see her again. They made the effort to write you these letters, and damn it you owe it to them to read them.”

                The kitchen was silent, but Kris’ sharp eyes were still focused on hers and she knew he was right. But then it was as if he fully saw the reluctance in her eyes and he softened, holding his hand out to Chen. “We’ll read them together.”

                Hastily, the wolves all raced to take the seats around the island, Kris sitting at the end and running his finger along the flap of the first envelope.

                 Luhan was sat next to her, and he gripped her spoon-holding hand and lowered it to the table, his palm folding steadily over hers.

                Baekhyun, on her other side, slid his hand over and laced his fingers with hers, squeezing tightly in reassurance.

                Chanyeol, the giant who had been too slow to claim a seat, stood behind her and rest his hands on her shoulders.

                She noticed that Kai was opposite her, his arm slung around Sehun’s shoulders and he head resting back on D.O.’s chest, who was stood behind him. This pack really was the touchy feely type.

                Kris cleared his throat, and began to read the first letter.

                “My dearest Kitaria,

                I miss you. It has only been a day and I miss you. The thought of you never coming home breaks my heart, and I cannot bear it. They tell me that there is a chance of you returning to us, so I am begging you Kitaria, put aside this quest and do what they ask. Come home. I have always been proud of your spirit and courage, but this has gone too far.

                Please darling, come home.

                Love Mum.”

                He stopped reading and then the entire table looked up to Kita. As much as the letter pulled at her heart, she’d been expecting it. What else would a mother write to her banished daughter?

                “Go on.” She nodded, and silently Kris opened the second.

                “You idiot,

                So I hear you’ve stolen the Moonstone. A little excessive, don’t you think? And now you’ve got yourself banished with a bunch of wolves who will probably rip you to shreds as soon as the first full moon rolls around. So really, you have no other choice but to give it back before then. Besides, surely you’ve learned by now that nothing is worth this much. What you need to do is come home, bind yourself to a nice element, and settle down! No more of this run around searching for ‘the one’ business, clearly it’s not out there!

                I don’t want you to become wolf chow, so come home ASAP!

                Mina”

                Again, the wolves turned to Kita whose lips were twisted up in an ironic smile.

                “Well she’s kind of mean.” Chanyeol mumbled, rubbing Kita’s shoulders soothingly, but Kita shook her head.

                “She’s honest, she’s my closest friend back home. Go on Kris.”

                “Dear Kitaria.

                I cannot say how proud I am of you. Although you may be banished with no means of returning, and you may have brought our family name down a few pegs, I am still so proud to call you my daughter. You have followed your dreams as I have always taught you. Although I always figured you would do it in a more socially-accepted way, you have done nothing more than I have asked of you.

                I will admit I have spent years doubting your choice, but now I see I was wrong to think that way. For you to go to such lengths, I know that for you, there is no other choice. I can only apologise that I did nothing more to support you earlier.

                Our world is not one that tolerates much deviation, so you have more challenges than the rest of us, but I know you are strong enough to traverse them all. So whether you decide to stay out there or come back to us, know that you have my full support.

                For now, do what you must, stay strong, and know that we will always welcome you home.  

                Love, Dad.”

                Kita felt a dumb smile on her face, her Dad always knew what to say to make her feel better.

                “Last one,” Kris said, opening the last folded letter.

                “Eunhyuk is my friend, you are safe with him.”

                Kita’s eyes met Kris’s as she wordlessly took her hand from Luhan and took the letter from Kris. She didn’t recognise the handwriting, nor were there any there marks to give her a clue who it was from.

                “Any ideas?” Kris asked.

                “None, I don’t even know who would send me a letter other than Mum, Dad, and Mina.” Obviously, this was someone trying to communicate under the General’s radar, but who? Or it could be a trick, trying to get her to reveal the location of the Moonstone to Eunhyuk who would then bring the information back to the Council.

                But as Kita looked over at Kris, and the letters in his hands, her mind turned away from the mystery letter to the one her father had sent, full of encouragement and support. The wolves were right, she’d needed to hear these letters.

                The soft comforting atmosphere surrounded her, the warm hands around her comforting her, but it was gone too soon as Kai stiffened and turned his head to the door.

                What is it?” Kris asked, his voice commanding. Kita saw once again why he was the Alpha.

                Kai had his eyes scrunched closed, focusing hard, “there’s… three of them?” Kai was speaking slowly, but no one was rushing him. As Kita looked around the previously relaxed table, she saw everyone was on edge listening to him, except Chanyeol who was busy pulling packs of matches out of a cupboard.

                “They’re heading to the forest just on the edge of our patrol route, we have to leave now or we’ll miss them.”

                “What are they, Kai?”

                Kai’s brown furrowed, as if trying to remember something, “it’s been a while since I’ve felt this one, just give me a second, I just need a boost….”

                “While he thinks, everyone else ready the bikes, let’s go.” In unison they stood and filed out of the room leaving Kita behind with Kai who now had his head leaning in his hands.

                Was this what he meant by sensing other creatures? The wolves protected the Fey border, she knew that, but she hadn’t really expected to see it in action. But he looked like he was struggling to get a grasp on what the creatures were, as if he just needed to push his range a little further…

                Kita looked at her hand, could she help? She had magic, it was worth a shot at least. Hesitantly, she placed her hand on the bare skin at the back of his neck, immediately feeling a rush through her as Kai unconsciously pulled on her magic.

                “Ogres!” He yelled, standing up. Kita dropped her hand, hoping he hadn’t noticed what she’d done. He rushed out of the room and Kita followed, not really knowing what else to do. She followed him to a shed/barn beside the house and stood stunned in the doorway as he ran off.

                It was their battle station. All of them were donning long sleeve shirts, made of some dark heavy material, and pulling knives and all sorts of other things from the walls which were covered floor to ceiling in weapons.

                “It’s ogres, guys” Kai’s voice yelled from somewhere in the mess, and the others groaned, several of them going to pick up sharper knives.

                “I hate ogres, they smell.”

                “Everyone ready?” Kris’ voice cut off the whining and focused them once again. “Three ogres shouldn’t be much of a problem, but stay on your guard. Split in the usual teams of 4, we’ll reassess when we get there. Kai, lead the way.”

                “What about Kita?” Luhan asked, making Kris pause, “we can’t leave her alone here, everything outside of the forest is out for the Fey, we have to bring her with us.”

                “Absolutely not-”

                “Luhan’s right.” Suho said, “She needs to come with us.”

                Kita wanted to melt into the ground with the intensity of Kris’ next gaze, and felt a familiar shudder as his eyes flashed Alpha red in frustration before he relented. “Fine, she rides with Lay. When we get there you hide and wait until we’re done, got it?”

                Kita nodded quickly, looking over to Lay who smiled and waved cheerily at her, beckoning her over to him as they all began walking to the back of the barn.

                “Don’t worry,” he smoothed her arm, “I’m a good driver.”

                “Driver? What…” Kita’s question trailed off as she saw the twelve dirtbikes parked in in rows in front of an opening garage door. No way was she getting on one of those… but as Lay handed her a spare helmet it seemed she didn’t have a choice. Lay swung his leg over and scooted forward to make space for her behind him, and she could feel his body shaking with laughter as she wrapped her arms tight around him.

                Up front, she saw –it must have been Kai– make some hand gesture before he set off, Kris and Suho following, and then everyone else piling after. Lay pat her hands once, before returning his hands to the handlebars and speeding off,     

                 She based it on their wolf-y senses, and probably experience with how many times they’d done this, but Lay seemed to have no problem driving over the uneven ground, at speeds that would have killed them if they crashed, well, if they were both human.

                Far too soon Lay was braking to a stop and leaping off the bike, throwing his helmet to the ground, “Stay here”. He pat the top of the helmet she was still wearing and raced off to join his pack who were hidden in the undergrowth, silently waiting.

                Kita, too, was waiting. Although she was learning to doubt everything the Fey had taught her about wolves, those facts were all she had to go on. In times like these, she’d been told that Wolves didn’t need the full moon to reach potential, fights over a mate, protecting boundaries, these were things that tapped into a wolves’ primal urge and triggered a transformation.

                And if that was true, she would soon be seeing twelve fully grown werewolves where the boys used to be.

                Rumbling footsteps distracted her, reminding her that there were still three ogres heading their way. She scrambled to hide behind a bush, and peeked her eyes over to keep watch.

                And then they came into view. Thick, yellow peeling skin, scabs and scars from countless fights, round heads and a bulbous nose. And of course, the putrid smell that hung in the air around them. Oh yes, these were ogres all right. Ogres headed straight for her homeland.

                They kept walking, their footsteps and grunting snorts the only sound around, as if all the animals had received a warning to back away. They were getting too close, too close to the boundary, where were the wolves-

                “ARRGGGHHHHH!” Kris was at the front of his charge, Kai leading his group from the side and - surprisingly D.O. – leading the final group. They acted in unison, each taking an ogre for themselves, manoeuvering around each other with an unnerving kind of grace that only a pack could pull off. The ogre’s skin seemed hard to get through, and Kita idly remembered the wolves picking sharper blades when they’d heard it was ogres.

                But they were wolves, they shouldn’t need blades.

                But they hadn’t transformed, they were still people! Why on earth would they have stayed as people?

                So Kita watched the carnage, and as Baekhyun put the finishing blow in the last Ogre and Chanyeol bent down to set the bodies alight, she stormed over.               

                “What are you doing! Why don’t you have fur and tails! You should have transformed!”

                “Kita,” Lay said, “you know we don’t actually turn into wolves, right?”

                Wait what.

“Of course you do! That’s kinda the defining point of being a werewolf!”

                Suho shook his head, “Lay’s right.”

                Kita’s mind was racing. They had to turn into wolves, what made them different from people if they didn’t? And a group of boys, protecting the border, without any magical help? How were they not dead yet, this wasn’t a job for regular people, what were the Fey thinking?

                “Do they Fey know?” She demanded.

                “That we don’t turn? Yeah, of course.”

                Then why had they lied to her? All the tales she’d been told about the wolves, why would the Fey spread such lies that were so easily torn apart? And why would the Fey trust these people to guard the border?

                Unless it was the wolves who were lying?

                Kita was lost at who to believe, but as she got on the back of Lay’s bike she remembered that soon she wouldn’t have to rely on words.

                The Full moon was only two days away.  

__________________________________

Finally, we’re getting somewhere!

The next chapter will be the Full Moon, and we’ll finally be getting some answers.

But – I’ve got three midterms between here and Wednesday, so I’ll suuper try to get it up before then, but Thursday evening by the latest!!