Chapter 3
It's been another four years and the child is now about to turn 8, as it is her birthday today. She had this tradition with grandpa Will, where she'd spend her entire day with him. He'd tell her about how her mother came into town, how she kept on pushing through to get somewhere safe, even though she was in a lot of pain and telling her that even if her mother wasn't there, that she'd always look over her. But Lumae's favorite part of her birthday is when she gets to go into a certain area of the forest with grandpa Will, where she can explore as much as she wants, as long as she's in his line of sight.
She'd usually go around searching for plants that she hadn't seen before, sometimes even picking some, to try and plant them back in town. It could keep her busy for hours on end, but she usually gets cut short of her adventures when grandpa Will says that it's time to head back home, so they can eat cake and open her presents. She usually asks for the same thing every year, that pretty blue flower, that she recently discovered, only grows in one part of the forest, the one part she accidentally wandered to as a preschooler. She came back to grandpa Will's house, expecting the same routine they've always followed on her birthday, slice cake, recieve gifts (the blue flower), then retire for the night, but this time instead of getting the usual flower, she was given a little box, confused and curious, she opened it, only to find a pretty silver necklace, with a forged flower pendant, containing pretty blue stones, resembling the flower that she so loves.
Out of surprise and excitement, the girl instantly hugged grandpa Will, thanking him for one of the most beautiful present she had ever gotten. As the excitement radiated from her, the clock struck at midnight, letting both her and grandpa Will know that it was time to go to bed, but for some reason something felt different, she felt different, to be honest she felt kind of odd. Grandpa Will noticed that something was off about Lumae, that she didn't really seem well, he went to check if she was ok, but as she looked up at him, he noticed how strangely her eyes started to glow a vibrant blue, he was completely shocked and didn't know what to do, he was about to go call for the doctor, when he was suddenly stopped by a painful groan from Lumae and all he could hear was gruesome cracks coming from her body, with her screaming in agonising pain along with it. He watched in terror as this little girl started to undergo a strange and painful transformation, he wanted to run, but was frozen from shock. He closed his eyes trying, to cancel out the sound of breaking bones and screams of pain, when suddenly it stopped and was replaced with a whimper.
In the place of the girl now stood a pure white wolf, with the most vibrant blue eyes he had ever seen, but the wolf seemed scared, confused and panicked. Looking closer, the man realized that this wolf had similar facial features to Lumae, noticing that the wolf truly was the girl, he instantly thought about how scared she probably was, he tried calming her down, with calm, gentle movements towards her repeating the words, "It'll be okay, we'll figure this out, don't panic", but to no avail. Instead, Lumae got overwhelmed with all that was going on around her and sprinted between grandpa Will's legs, through an opening in a window and into the forest, hearing every person in town's heartbeat, hearing things miles away from her, seeing things ten times bigger than she'd usually see them. Trying to escape this unbearable feeling of sensory overload, she kept running deeper and deeper into the forest in hopes that it'll all finally go quiet, trying not to focus on anything else, but nothing helped, she kept hearing the smallest sounds from the furthest places, seeing everything in makro, smelling things she'd never smelled before.
Just as she was about to run head first into a tree, a wolf, with a hazelnut coat of fur, leaped towards her from the side, hitting her to the ground, stopping her from hitting the tree just in time, but even with the tree now out of the way, Lumae couldn't focus on anything around her, everything, every sound, sight and smell had hit her in one go. She started to panic again, not knowing what to do about it and in an attempt to calm the girl down, the wolf snorted, trying to get her attention, but Lumae didn't notice. The wolf then finally decided to nudge Lumae in the shoulder, finally drawing her attention to the wolf. Just then Lumae had noticed that she surprisingly recognized this wolf, it was the wolf from four years ago, the one who had smelled that strange bush. The wolf started motioning for Lumae to follow her breathing, slowly moving her chest in and out, helping Lumae to gradually grow calmer and cancel out her surroundings. After a while of doing these breathing exercises, Lumae had finally completely calmed down and had just realized how deep she had actually sprinted into the forest, she didn't recognize anything around her, she felt completely lost. Sensing the newly transformed wolf's worry, the other wolf walked up to Lumae, nodding her head backwards to indicate that Lumae should follow her and they both started walking in the direction Lumae came from.
It was quite a long, akward and silent walk since Lumae didn't know if and how wolves can communicate with each other, but as they were walking Lumae noticed something familiar about the wolf leading her back home and this time the familiarity felt deeper than just being a random wolf she had met in a forest, it felt like she had actually known this wolf for a long time, but she couldn't quite figure out why, so she just kept walking in silence, questioning almost anything she could think of in her mind. Once she noticed the familiar lights in the distance, she joyfully sprinted towards it, seeing grandpa Will's house, with him waiting for her on the porch, but just before she could run into his embrace out of joy and excitement, she remembered that she wasn't herself and took a saddening step backwards, looking at her pure white paws, that were partially covered with mud. As she did so, the other wolf calmly came from the forest, following the little eager wolf.
Noticing her glum mood, she nudged Lumae in the shoulder again, this time making sure that she's got all of Lumae's attention to show her something. The wolf then layed down onto the ground and started squirming around, but not from pain, but rather from pushing something out, Lumae couldn't quite figure out what she was trying to push out, but she kept her focus on the other wolf, when she started to notice that the wolf was busy transforming back, bit by bit into someone she had recognized, someone she had waited to see for four years, the phytologist, the person she so looked up to as a toddler and it dawned on Lumae that the woman was just like her, they were both wolves. She kept staring at the woman not doing anything, not knowing how to do anything the woman just did, "Hey, it's okay, I know it looks scary at first, but it really isn't that hard to transform back after you've first transformed into your wolf form, you don't even feel pain when transforming back, all you've gotta do is focus on your human form, remember how it feels to stand on both feet, remeber how it felt to be able to use your hands again, remember how it felt being a human again and push it all out, basically force your human self to emerge from the back of your mind, after a while it'll get easier to transform to and from your wolf form, so it'll be as easy as breathing", she reassured Lumae, convinced, Lumae layed down on the ground, and started thinking of her normal human self, she tried pushing the human in the back of her mind out as the woman suggested, but with a great struggle, she was forcing herself to go back to normal, to be human again and the next thing she knew, she looked back at what used to be pure white paws and saw two muddied, human hands, which relieved her completely and she instantly ran towards grandpa Will, into his warm, caring embrace. The woman in the background, motioned to grandpa Will that she wanted to talk to him, so he hugged Lumae tightly, "I think it's time you went to take a bath and go to bed young lady", he said calmly, Lumae was a bit disappointed that she couldn't stay up a bit longer, until she felt the entire day crash down on her and she suddenly felt a burst of exhaustion, so she listened to grandpa Will, took a bath and headed off towards her bed.
Grandpa Will then walked towards the woman hoping for an explanation, "So... Mind telling me what all this is, why I saw a perfectly normal child I raised for 8 years turn into a wolf before my very eyes and why is it that you can also do so?", the woman sighed, "I can explain everything, but first, you need to know that no matter what, what she is, should be kept a secret...she and I are what humans like to call werewolves, we take on the form of humans, usually not transfirming into a wolf until we've reached an age of maturity, but Lumae is clearly different and I can't seem to understand why she's shifted at such a young age. I've last heard of such things as a cub, but those stories came to an end along with the pack that used to be able to do so. I'll have to do some research about this. So until I find more information about her wolftipe, I won't be able to go into much detail about her, but all I can say now, is that no one, and I mean no one, can know about her. I will take on the responsibility of training her and teaching her the wolf ways, but until I find out what pack she exactly belongs to, I can't really teach her anything other than the basics of being a wolf, since each pack has their own way of teaching their cubs," grandpa Will now seemed to be at a loss of words, clearly wanting to ask several questions, but not knowing where to begin, "I will also be sharing some information with you as I find out more about her, so you can also help her become strong and independent, since it seems that she is currently a rogue, she doesn't have a pack that she belongs to, which makes her vulnerable, so she has to at least, be stronger than the other wolves to be able to survive out here, but for now, I must go, I have a lot to find out about Lumae," she said as she turned around, flawlessly transformed into her gorgeous hazelnut wolf form and ran back into the forest, leaving grandpa Will alone and completely puzzled.