Chapter 5
The moon beamed down on the washing area behind the kitchen. The bright blue moonlight glimmered in the murky soapy water splattered on the ground. Curled into a ball in a torn and stained yellow dress Arya had just run out of tears. There would be more purple bruises on her legs, more cuts on her cheeks. Those boys followed her from the lake and beat her up at least she could pull herself off the ground. They took her new glasses and fled. At least Ace wouldn't he upset if he didn't see her wearing them.
Arya sighed reminding herself that this hell wouldn't last long at all. In the glow of the moonlight something sparkled in the water. Arya picked it up thinking it was a stone, it was a coin. Arya smiled looking up at the moon, her only friend in many respects. She held the cents in her fist and wobbled into the kitchen.
Hoping to escape into her room for the night and pocket her money. Those hopes vanished when Cora stumbled into the kitchen. She's had a few drinks with the men.
"Where have you been?" Cora laughed. "You've been disappearing a lot Arya."
Arya bit her tongue, a drunk Cora was no better than a sober one. Cora picked up a plastic jar filled to the brim with black beans. She popped the lid off and emptied the jar on the floor. Beans bounced off the floor, flew under the cabinet and the stove.
"What are you doing?" Arya gasped.
"Pick them up. Every last one. Or else you won't have dinner tonight, if you can call the scraps you eat dinner." Cora laughed and returned to the festive dining hall.
"Oh!" Arya picked a broom and started pushed the beans into a small heap.
"I'll miss her least of all when I'm gone."
The days had gone by slowly yet without a fault. She avoided everyone, when she saw Cora she raw back to her room, when she saw Ace lingering by the river she ran back home and forgot about the washing.
She couldn't ignore the washing anymore. She slipped into her pajamas and carried her massive basin to the river, everyone else was at school and the elders were occupied with business nonetheless.
When she left the pack, she'd go to a nice city far from here she would find a real job and have enough money to buy nicer clothes and have a home of her own. She would never have a reason to come back here. In fact this place wouldn't exist in her mind, the abuse would be hard to erase, though it didn't have to live forever in her body. A fit of coughs snatched Arya away from her daydreams.
"Who's there?" Arya pushed wet hair out of her face.
The river was still, not a person in sight. The coughing didn't stop. She waded into the water until it was up to her waist. She searched the other side of the river which had tall spiky bushes and skinny trees. A piece of floral fabric caught her eye and she rushed out of the water.
"Are you alright?"
A woman wrapped up in a thin blanket lay on the dirt, her eyes closed and her body jerking forward with each cough.
"Ma'am?" Arya whispered. She placed her hand on the woman's wrinkled forehead. Her mother used to do that to her when she was a child.
Arya drew her hand back slowly as if she had just placed her hand on top of a candle. Arya raced back to her room and unearthed her secret stash of cash which was just a handful of coins she picked up by the river or the washing area.
She pulled her hair over her eyes and went to the market to get medicine for the old woman. She stuffed a few of her own herbs in her pocket incase the local medicine didn't work.
Night fell on them and Arya hadn't left the woman's side. She lit a fire to keep them both warm from the biting cold. Arya held her legs up to her chest and wondered if she would ever wake up.
The woman stirred until her eyes fluttered open. Arya shifted back.
"Feeling any better?" Arya asked.
A weak smile formed on the woman's lips. "Thank you my child."
"You don't need to thank me."
The old woman reached for Arya's hand. "Have you been here all day child?"
Arya nodded. She felt better here and didn't care she had abandoned her duties.
"You have magic in your bones." The woman said.
"My mother was a witch, but I barely know how to use magic."
The woman chuckled then released a fit of coughs. "Let me give you a gift for helping me."
"You really don't have to." Her last give had been stolen and left her beaten.
"Don't worry this is a special gift."
The woman took both of Arya's hands in her own and whispered a spell. A white cloud formed by her lips that swirled to their joined hands, dancing between them before it turned emerald and vanished.
"What was that?" Arya asked.
"You'll be able to feel whatever a person feels just by touching them. No one will ever be able to lie to you. You can read their minds and their hearts. The power will grow as you do."
Arya looked at her petite hands and wondered if it was true.
"Now go child. I'll be fine. I'm sure someone is looking for you."
Arya hated to tell her that no one cares whether she drowned in the river or was attacked by wild animals, but she insisted she return home. Arya promised to return in the morning.
The next morning Arya stumbled into a meeting. She cringed and backed out of the dining hall.
"Where do you think you're going?" Leslie barked.
The Luna and Ace sat by a table near the counter while Leslie scribbled on a piece of paper behind the counter.
"No where," Arya said.
She kept her gaze from her Ace, though she caught his sly grin. What was so funny?
"Are you sure this… girl will handle the party? I don't like hiccups." The Luna rolled her eyes.
Leslie shot Arya daggers, "She has no choice. Everything will be fine."
"Time for what?" Arya asked.
"My son's eighteenth birthday party of course." The Luna smiled at him
"This is completely unnecessary." Ace said.
"Of course is it!" The Luna snapped.
Ace sighed.
"You have to find your mate. It's essential and much better you have her before you become Alpha."
The Luna turned to Leslie, "Make sure every girl in the pack is here." Then she turned to Arya. "Make sure the service is perfect. No food fights, and do not provoke the guests. I don't like hiccups."
Arya nodded and left the dining hall. She packed a basket for the sickly woman out in the woods. Cora and her friend strolled into the kitchen laughing. Arya shut her eyes and hoped they wouldn't see her.
"Sometimes Arya I wished you would disappear." Cora laughed.
Her friend Hannah bumped Arya and pushed open the basket. Arya's body rattled with a serge of energy she'd never felt before. She felt Hannah's arrogance, her disgust of Arya and her jealousy of Cora. Arya sucked in a breath and grabbed the basket and scurried to the door.
"What's the matter with you?" Hannah snapped.
"She's weird, let's go. We've got better things to do." Cora said.
Arya rushed to the river, her heart pumping and a smile on her face. It actually worked, she could feel other people's emotions.
She got to the other side of the river. The basket dropped to her feet. Black coal and charred leaves were the only things left from last night's fire. The old woman wasn't there. Arya hugged her small frame. How could the only person to show her true kindness vanish?