The Birthday

Zephyr was sitting at the table eating breakfast with his mother when he bought it up.

"Mom, can i skip school for today?"

"what? No!"

"Please! I have perfect grades, perfect extracurriculars. my gpa is already way over 5.0. one day of skipping isn't gonna change that."

"All right, but first tell me the reason."

"its Allison's birthday."

"Ohhh~ so both of you planned a date?"

"no, she didn't tell anyone its her birthday because she's turning 17"

"17? did she get held back?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that she had to repeat the year because of all the moving around."

"i see. alright you can skip but come back to school after parents teachers conference."

"all right."

* at school

Zephyr came over to allison who was attempting to push the balloons that lydia left back into her locker.

"happy birthday."

allison turned around and said "you know?"

"of course, I do. but I'm still sad that you didn't tell me yourself."

"thats because I'm turning 17."

"it doesn't matter. you just had to repeat an year because of all the moving around, right?"

"this is the first time, anyone's ever guessed the right reason."

"well other people are idiots. how could i ever believe that you got held back?" he said and kissed her.

"lets get out of here." he said

"I haven't even skipped a class in my whole life and you're asking me to skip the school?"

"come on, it'll be fun." he said and led her outside the school and towards his car.

They first went to a restaurant where they got some fancy dishes. after they'd eaten, he took her to the preserve where they walked around talking about various things, kissing and flirting. they finally ended up near a lake. they were lying on a picnic blanket that Zephyr brought in front of the lake. Allison had her head on Zephyr's chest and Zephyr was stroking her silky hair. he used his other hand to to reach in his pocket and pulled out a small box and handed it to allison

"happy birthday, again."

allison looked at the box and quickly opened it, inside was a platinum bracelet. it had pieces in the shapes of roses and leaves and it looked really pretty."

"its beautiful"

"well, something beautiful for someone beautiful." and kissed her. they just kept lying there for some time before going back to the car. "should we go back to the school, I'm meeting my mom there."

"sure, my car's there too." said allison

*at school

"allison, call me back before the terms of your punishment reach biblical proportions." Mr. argent left a very furious message to allison

it was at this moment that alyce approached them

"Hi chris. and you must be Allison's mom. I'm Zephyr's mother. He actually told me that he was going to skip school with allison to celebrate her birthday."

"And you let them?! thats extremely irresponsible of you as a parent."

This pissed Alyce off so she retorted

"they both have perfect grades, skipping one day isn't a big deal. you know what's a big deal? Allison feeling uncomfortable on her own birthday because she's a year older than her peers. you place more importance to a few classes rather than the happiness of your daughter and I'm the irresponsible parent?"

this shut both the argents up instantly

Mr. argent let out a sigh and said " we're sorry about question your parenting, we're just worried about allison."

"it's alright. and there's no need to worry because here they are." Alyce said pointing towards Allison and Zephyr who were walking towards them.

Zephyr had a calm smile on his face but he was laughing inwardly. Of course he had heard the conversation between the Argents and his mom. His mom was a kind and patient lady but whenever someone insulted him or questioned her parenting she could not tolerate it. it was good that Mr. argent apologized when he did because he knew his mother's words could become real brutal, real fast.

"Allison, you're finally here."

"I'm sorry Ms. argent, it was my idea to skip school."

"just... tell us next time." 

Hearing this allison was surprised. she was expecting to be yelled at or being grounded but this was completely unexpected.

She looked at Zephyr's mother who winked at her and smiled. Then she understood that Zephyr's mom must have calmed her parents down. she gave her a grateful look.

"AHHH!!!"

Suddenly a scream is heard along with a animalistic growl. Mr. argent goes to his SUV to get his gun.

Zephyr and allison looked around to see what was happening. suddenly a car came speeding towards allison. Zephyr saw this and quickly pulled her towards him. 

"you alright?" 

"yeah, I'm fine." 

he looked around and saw the same car backing up towards Sheriff Stilinski. he ran towards him and grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him so that he narrowly avoided getting hit by the the vehicle.

"thanks, kid."

"No problem sir."

And then they suddenly heard two consecutive gunshots. they ran towards the direction and saw Mr. argent with a gun in his hand walking towards the now dying mountain lion.

Afterwards, the panic was stopped and everyone went home.

*Beacon hills high school, after midnight

two people were standing in front the the Highschool sign.

"All right, Derek. time to pay what you owe." Zephyr said to derek

Derek didn't say anything and took out his claws. he took out his claws and put them on the sign and opened the vault. 

They both walked in the vault.

"so what are you looking for and where is it?"

"I'll tell you when i find it." and then he started walking around the the vault. He reached a corner and then suddenly his eyes started glowing Purple and claws started to appear on his hands.

"Found it." He said in a rough animalistic voice and then forcefully suppressed his transformation.

he looked around and found a sleek rectangular box. he took out his gloves and wore them and opened the box. inside was a single thorn. it was extremely sharp and looked like it was able to easily pierce skin. it war pretty big too. as big as an arrowhead.

"man, that brings back bad memories."

He took out tongs from his bag and used it to grab the thorn and made his way back to Derek.

"alright, lets go."

"whats this" he asked 

"I'll tell you, for now just follow me"

and then they both left the vault and went inside the school. Zephyr led them to the bathrooms. after getting there he pulled out a bottle of gasoline and poured it over the thorn then he took out a lighter and lit the thorn on fire. he just watched as the thorn burnt. he remembered how he had burned another thorn just like this. the image was imprinted in his mind. He was crying his eyes out while watching a thorn just like this covered by a handkerchief, burning. there was only one difference the thorn that he burnt back then was covered in blood.

"hey!" Derek yelled 

"Huh? oh, yeah." Zephyr broke out of his stupor

"it done." 

he looked at the tongs and saw that there was not thorn left and there were ashes on the floor. he carefully collected the ashes and flushed them down the toilet. then he turned around and his eyes met derek's. who was waiting to get some answers.

"I guess I should explain." He sighed 

"yeah, that would be good."

"that was a celestial thistle thorn. the last one in this world."

"And what's a celestial thistle?"

"it's the only known weakness of weretigers in the world. at least it was. there were only two pieces of celestial thistle in the world. I destroyed the first one and this was the second and the last one." Zephyr didn't mind telling this to derek because it didn't matter now. the celstial thistle was already extinct.

"What do mean the only weakness? what about wolfsbane? or the lunar eclipse?"

"I think you're confused about something derek. these are the weaknesses of shape shifters who are descended from lycaon."

"what does that mean? weretigers are not descended from the same place as other shape shifters?"

"exactly. there is a fundamental difference between weretigers and other shape shifters. first being that others are descended from lycaon while weretigers are descended from byakko."

"Who's that?" 

"I'm getting there. byakko is one of the five tiger gods in chinese mythology and my ancestor."

"so you're saying that you're descended from a god?"

"pretty much. thats the difference between us derek. lycaon was cursed by zeus. thats why you have so many weaknesses but my ancestors were sons of god. while you are cursed by a god we are blessed. that's why weretigers are faster, stronger and have no weaknesses."

"so whats with the thorn."

"Alright so let me start from the beginning. Byakko is the protector of west and held court there. in his court were his children. he had many sons and daughters. and they had eyes as silver as the moon. but there were some who he particularly favored and these were the children with the same eye color as his eyes, purple."

"Rex."

"exactly. they were stronger, faster, stealthier than their other siblings. but there was one among them who wanted even more power. the power his father wielded. so he attacked byakko in an attempt to steal his power with some of his siblings but he was brutally defeated and killed for his treachery. but before he died he managed to create a wound on byakko, out of which two drops of blood dropped. byakko was enraged at this betrayal but he loved his children too much and couldn't bring himself to kill them. in the end he just turned the blood into two thorns and then left never to be seen again. and those two thorns are..."

"the celestial thistle thorns."