The Water Wolf

Long straight jet black hair is Rain of the Eber Isles. She has a pretty vulnerable face, thick full lips, and green expressive eyes. At the first meeting, she could be easily assumed as the kind of girl who's always needing a hero.

" Are ready?" her grandmother asked

She looked at Rain for a while and fix the veil on her head. Today, at age sixteen she was chosen as the sacrificial priestess, which means she'll be in charge of the ceremony later after the dinner feast.

" You're beautiful," he gran smiled.

She was pleased.

This time, Eber Isles is celebrating a festival as they used to do every at the very first glimpse of a full moon. The wolves in the isles are mostly fishermen. It is usually difficult for them to sail during the full moon because fishes are naturally hiding during this time. Fishes like to feed in the dark. And when the full moon is out, there is too much light for a specific to come to the top. Thus, they celebrate this feast as a way of gratitude to the moon goddess for giving them cath during the dark moon.

For these feasts, families, nobles, and visitors in Eber Isles would meet, setting up long trestle tables with benches to accommodate visitors. Pork, oxen, horsemeat, poultry, beef, and a wide variety of fish were served with boiled or roasted vegetables on platters. Freshly made bread, butter, cheeses, sweet sweets, and nuts were among the foods consumed, while the warriors of their pack so with the traders and elders drank the wine in honor of the gods, especially the moon goddess.

After the dinner, the sacrificial priestess is expected to perform some ritual that would embark on their expression of gratitude towards the moon goddess and to the deity of the sea.

And it is Rain who is expected to do this part, for, in the pack, she is the newly chosen sacrificial priestess.

The laughter had faded so are the dancing and the music that's been played. Rain felt her heart racing fast. She's nervous. She's sixteen, and she's the youngest priestess in the history of their pack to handle this kind of task. She glanced at her gran that was standing at her back.

She nodded and give her a smile as if encouraging her.

Okay...there's no other choice. She told herself.

And took a deep breath.

And step forward.

She keep moving until her feet touches the sea water while the pack was at her distant back, watching her.

The deities must respond.

That's the goal.

That's what the pack wants to see.

And that would be a sign to her that she was indeed a chosen priestess.

But what if she's not? What if there's no sign from the deities? Deep inside her, she's scared of that possibility. She doesn't want to fail her gran.

I can do this. She told herself as she was about to begin the ritual.

The chanting began.

The pack uttered some ancient verses in the chorus as they all together stomp the ground with a stick.

That was a signal for her to begin.

She raised her hands, stretched out wide, tilted her head, and close her eyes, as if communing with someone unseen. And she began to utter some ancient language.

Louder and louder like she's summoning.

Then...done.

There was a moment of silence.

The entire isles are waiting for some supernatural activity to take place.

Rain clasped her palms and hold her breath.

Please...she pleads.

A surge of emotions began to arise in her with the thought that she'll gonna disappoint her gran, and also, if this does not work out then, the entire pack would ridicule her.

That can't happen! She thinks.

Cmon...if not from the moon...even just signs from water. She thought to herself.

The pack began to sigh.

They're getting impatient.

The more that she got distressed.

Rain glared at the moon. Her wolf-green eyes glistened as she grit her teeth.

" I just followed the wishes of my pack...would you fail me?" she whispered. She sounds complaining.

But still, nothing happened.

" There's not a response!"

The pack began to murmur.

And some began to leave.

Rain saw her gran's disappointed face.

Seeing all that she felt embarrassed and she screamed in all fury.

The pack was frozen in shock when they saw the sea begin to move violently, then it calmed after such time, the raging again.

Its current was moving as if was confused.

" Rain!!"

She heard her gran yelling.

And so she tried to calm herself too.

But then as she did, the entire water had turned red...bloody red, tainting her white long robe.

The pack rushed closer to the shore.

Ans she turned to the crowd as she drip her fingers on the blood and dabbed her face with it.

The feast was over but her Gran was still doubtful of the ritual that took place last night. And because of it, she decided to send her to Scholaro thinking that there she would see in actuality how the priests are working their gifts.

" But you said it was just for people of special talents!" Rain argued.

She doesn't want to go there.

" Oh...but you are dear...it's just that you don't know how to use yours!" he gran said.

She sighed.

" But Gran..."

" no buts!"

" You see...I was able to make it last night...you were asking for signs..right?" she argued.

" But not blood!" her Gran objected.

" Oh..yes but blood!" she spat.

Rain could no longer contain her annoyance.

" You want to see proof that a deity had answered and then a communion sign was given and you guys don't like it?"

Her Gran began to raise a voice too, " Oh yes but it's supposed to be thanksgiving...not a blood sacrifice!"

Few weeks after

She remembers the fright she felt when she first laid her eyes on that pointed metal gate which for her was more like a prison bar.

She was sent her alone with only the beta of her pack to accompany her.

She is certain that she would be spending half of her life here in this strange school.

" Your coat priestess," the beta muttered.

But she was not in her senses. She didn't hear him. Her attention was on the school that was in front of her, and on the days she would be spending here.

Seeing her gloomy face, the Beta wolf had instead placed the coat on her shoulders, fixing it in her.

" You will be fine there, priestess,"

She heard him say.

Rain turned to him.

" Thanks...please visit me here often, Gamir" she said.

Gamir was five years older than her. He was the Beta in their pack assigned to personally take care of her like an assistant and bodyguard in one.

" Of course," he smiled.

He patted her head and pull the cloak up to cover her hair.

Life for her inside the Scholaro was not easy. The priestess studied differently from the other students. There were times when she would be punished for failing a task, or for disobedience. She also has a hard time doing house chores for she was raised in Eber Isles not doing a thing. Her teacher would always say to her that she is here to learn priesthood, but for her, the stuff done here isn't aligned with it.

" How would gardening be even connected to priests' things?" she whined one time when she was punished to toil the soil under the scorching sun.

And if ever the teacher would hear her whining then her punishment would be added.

There were times when she would cry at night and wanted to go home to Eber Isles. So, one time she felt fed up with all the things in there, and she decided to flee.

She remember the scratches she got from climbing on that pointed metal gate. She was frightened really when she run away without knowing where to go.

Some men in the Scholaro chased her but she's a wolf. She can run faster than them. Until she finally escape from school. She doesn't care what news would her Gran would receive all she wanted at that time is life outside Scholaro. She wanders from town to town. She tried to survive life in the streets as she was too young then, and too innocent to know the life affairs outside the island. Aside from that, public longships are rare.

She would always hang out near the shores hoping that Gamir would accidentally sail along. And also, she knows about fish and so she manages to have a living somehow. The shore was favorable to her.

She worked for the merchants to have a meal for a day and would sleep in boats at night.

Every night as she looks up at the moon she would wish to be found, and Gamir, the beta wolf would come to take her back home. She was sixteen then, but she felt like she was a kid lost strayed in a wide world.

Every night...before she sleeps she would wish for it.

But it was not the Beta wolf who come to her aid.

Instead...the Lycan god has become her answered prayer.

" I can't abandon you. There's something in you that's calling the forces in me...as if you possess a part of my powers...water...yeah water...I can sense that in you,"

Those words of him were still vivid in her memory.

Those were what he said that night when he found her.