6- Alastor the King

As they arrived at Sirius' villiage, Saoirse grew nervous. Creatures of all kinds surrounded them—dark, shadowy figures with deer antlers and sharp claws walked by, others with bones poking through torn skin, and winged beings with feathers stripped away. Some looked human, with red eyes like Sirius, while others had pitch-black, soulless eyes.

She edged closer to Sirius, hoping his presence would make her invisible to them. Though the darkness covered much of the scene, the moonlight and her werewolf sight let her see everything clearly.

Sirius, unbothered, even waved at a few of the creatures as they neared a castle.

The creatures bowed to him in reverence and kindly aknowledged his presence. "Welcome back, master Sirius." One of the deer-like creatures said.

He smiled at the man and continued forward. The moment they arrived, a woman appeared, fussing over him. "Where have you been all day? I was so worried! You could have been burned by the sun!"

Sirius shrugged her off. "I'm fine, Mom. I found a cave—and this girl was lost there." He gestured to Saoirse, still in wolf form.

The woman smiled warmly at Saoirse, "Oh, a shape-shifter like Sirius!" his mother exclaimed, noticing Saoirse's form. "How wonderful! I've never seen another one like him! But I don't recognize you. Where are you from, dear?"

"She told me she's from a place called…something River of the Dragons," Sirius guessed. He couldn't exactly remember what Saoirse had called her home.

"The River of the dragons, you say?" A man stepped out from the shadows, eyes sharp. Sirius tensed as the man's gaze fell on Saoirse.

"That's quite far. You must have been very frightened," the man said, towering over her. "So that's where the werewolves ran off to." He said smiling.

"What's wrong dad?" Sirius asked noticing his dad recognized the place. Then Sirius looked puzzled. "What's a werewolf?"

His father straightened, ignoring his son's question. "Tomorrow night, we'll make sure to escort you home. You can introduce us to your parents." With that, he turned and walked away.

Saoirse spent the night in one of the rooms in the castle. Sirius' mother had brought her some clothing so she could resume her human form and then she had eaten dinner with them.

They ate meat for dinner which she thought was awesome, they were also drinking blood which she wasn't used to at all, but it was actually quite good. she realized that she hadn't eaten in so long she began scarfing it down.

She tried to have manners like her mom always reminded her to do, especially because Sirius' father was eyeing her carefully. But she couldn't help herself and asked for more. She was like a starved puppy.

Once she felt a little better she had asked to be excused and a servant of the castle led her to her room.

She slept for a while and then heard a knock at the door.

"Hello?" Came a voice from the door as it opened cautiously. It was a child about her age with a deer skull for a face, two small horns pertruding from her head, not really antlers. Saoirse guessed that meant she was a girl.

"Hey." The girl said coming closer and sitting on the bed next to Saoirse. "Is it true you're a princess?" The girl asked.

Saoirse continued staring curiously at this girl who was a creature she had never seen before. Her skin was pitch black and had a slight aura around her frame that shifted as if Saoirse could pass her hand right through her.

As she thought about it, the girl sat waiting for an answer. "Well? Are you a princess then?"

"How did you know that?" Saoirse asked, taking her curiosity away from the girl for a mere minute.

"Well, the king and queen never have guests, so I assumed you were a princess."

Saoirse shook her head, "We don't really have princesses where I live, but my mom is the Luna and my dad is the Alpha. That's basically like the king and queen."

"Wow!!!" The girls eyes glistened. "A real princess from another kingdom!!!!"

"What are you?" Saoirse asked the girl, no longer able to resist her curiosity. "You look like you're a deer person."

"Oh pardon me, I'm Madeleine. I'm a wendigo."

"What is that?" She asked, "Are you like a zombie?"

Madeleine crossed her arms. "I am not a zombie. Just because I eat flesh and blood of the living, that doesn't make me a zombie."

Saoirse didn't mean to offend her. "I'm sorry. I just thought when we die we go to heaven or hell that's all, not run into unfamiliar creatures in a whole other world…."

"What were you, raised by a human? Everyone knows that it's not as simple as that." Madeline scoffed.

"Well, how did I end up here then?"

Madeleine sighed, "How am I supposed to know how you ended up without a body at all? You're like some kind of in between entity I've never seen before."

"Am I a ghost?"

Madeleine decided to try that out. She punched Saoirse in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Saoirse complained rubbing it angrily. She guessed that meant that Madeleine was not someone she could pass her hand right through.

"I don't know what you are." Madeleine concluded. "You should ask the king."

Madeline looked like she was done explaining but Saoirse still had questions.

"So why are we still here then? Like even though we died? Why didn't we go to the complicated version of heaven and hell?"

"For the people in this castle, we did. But then we were sent back by the goddess Hel herself. Rejected by Odin and Rejected by Hel. Cursed to live again until they figure out what to do with us!"

Saoirse didn't think that sounded quite right but she didn't complain. "So wendigos and vampires are the reincarnations of living creatures then?"

"Yeah. If a werewolf reincarnates, they become a vampire or a subclass. And if a human reincarnates, there's more options too, but I for example am a wendigo. Please don't make me explain subclasses. I barely even know this stuff I'm only ten!"

Saoirse shook her head, "It's ok. Vampires and wendigos for now, that's enough for me to remember. I'll just ask people what they are when I meet them."

"Thanks." Madeleine said with a sigh of relief. "And don't call people zombies, maybe they'll bite your head off."

Saoirse laughed but she kind of believed this to be possible. They sat for a moment in silence.

"Do you really remember being alive?" Madeleine asked eventually. "Like you weren't reborn as a baby vampire, so…so you really are still wandering?"

Saoirse was a bit concerned to hear that she was abnormal, "Is it because my body didn't burn?" I asked. Recalling that instead, during the distraction, it had continued floating away. She assumed that the torch hadn't landed on it afterall if she apparently wasn't reborn. "What's going to happen to me like this?" She asked.

Madeleine got closer and said whispering mysteriously, "I've heard when people don't cross over completely it's because Loki chooses people sometimes for certain purposes. Maybe he chose you for something."

Saoirse had no idea. She waited for Madeleine to elaborate.

"Well," Madeleine said as she hopped off the bed. "I think you're pretty special. Even if you're the only person like you, I bet you'll be a good queen someday."

With that, Madeleine went to the door and picked up a bucket she had left there. "Hey tell them I cleaned your room if they ask! That's what I was supposed to do." She giggled and ran away down the hallway.

———

Once the next day was over, and the sun went down, the king had assembled a large amount of men dressed in armour and several black cars pulled up with tinted windows. The men loaded into the cars and led the way onto a highway. Saoirse must have been pretty stressed out the day before not to have noticed that the highway was always right there the whole time.

It was well maintained but overgrown at the same time, because trees loomed overhead. Madeleine and her mother had prepared Saoirse with nice clothing and told her that this visit was to be a visit of peace, to convince the Alpha to perhaps form an alliance with the vampires.

Being creatures of chaos, descended from Loki, the vampire king said he always wanted to unite both species. Surely the werewolves would be happy to know that their little girl was in fact, still around.

They rode for several hours until they reached the end of the property and the men got out and opened a gate that read "Alastor's Christmas tree farm: private property. No trespassing." Once they reached the highway, they asked Saoirse if she recognized her way back home yet. She didn't, so they turned right first.

Driving down the road she looked out the window and tried to recognize where she was. And then she spotted it; there was a logging company along the highway that she knew belonged to her uncle.

"It's there!" She exclaimed excitedly. Jumping in her seat a bit.

The driver turned onto the road and then they drove a ways longer until they reached a town that she also recognized. There was a grocery store where her mom took her shopping. She directed them to a small dirt road leading into the forest again and they drove another 4 hours into the forest. It was far away because they had once also kept away from humans and owned a lot of land.

They finally reached a paved road and a sign that said "Welcome to The River of the Dragons."

Sirius' father chuckled a bit to himself as they passed the sign and a gift shop. "These wolves have gone soft, this will be too easy."