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The earth shook; it shook so terribly that one would think that the world itself felt anger and wanted everything destroyed. A great shadow covered the sky as a mass of frightened birds sprung into it. The stone foundations of the ancient city soon also felt the affects of the quake, and started to give way. Then finally, as if it was anticipated- in which case it was- the stones that held the bridge began to crumble.
And then after that…after that…, Larka’s thoughts whispered, does it have to happen this way? Is there no other way for this to end, no way to change it? She recalled the horror that she had felt when looking into the water. The absolute fear she felt when seeing it- her fate- by one of the powers of the Sight, which allowed the future to be seen. What she had saw made her desire to come here none, for here was the place that it would happen- her own death.
The stones soon started to cave in, the bridge now following their example. The terrified yowls of Kar and Larka’s mother, Palla, could be heard from the other side of the chasm. Morgra and Larka were still on the now disintegrating bridge; Morgra growled in protest as she slipped backwards and almost fell. As Larka saw this, a strange frustration engulfed her.
Was it not truth that we are free; her thoughts sang bitterly, that we are able to change our futures? And if this is true, why must I be the one to make the sacrifice? Why must I not have that freedom, and not have the right to live and be happy? Why should I, and my fate, be tied to a legend, a prophecy when I never gave my consent?
She looked up, towards the side of the gorge where everyone was waiting. Pass Morgra, she saw it; a small ledge on that same side of the cliff. And on the natural instinct of any animal not wanting death, she fought back, by hurling herself towards it just as the bridge gave way.
Yet, even when she asked these questions, she already knew the answers. For one to truly love, to fully understand how precious life is, they must understand suffering and sacrifice. As these bittersweet thoughts echoed in her mind, time itself seemed to have slowed down. Larka’s family watched, gripped in terror, as she appeared to float midair for a single second. And in that lone second, past the confusion of if she would fall or reach, one might see the she-wolf looking up into the sky.
When Larka’s eyes observed the sky one last time, she saw something that could cause a miracle.
It was the miracle; one which would let this not be her last time to behold the wondrous skies.
She had seen a bird, a raven, flying just in her sight of vision. A power of the Sight, the power to see through the eyes of birds, and furthermore the power to control and take over the body of the one captured. This was power could come into play right now; and it did.
Larka willed her soul towards the bird, trying to control its own. She closed her eyes, and with opening them, she found herself staring at the ground below. It had worked. And in this borrowed body she gazed down at the gorge, just in time to see her own body miss the ledge. A strange thing it was to see your body fall to its destruction, but to not worry that you would go down with it. That was exactly what that white wolf, forging a solitary raven saw. She watched until her, and Morgra’s bodies broke on the ground below.
A tight pain covered Larka’s new body, and her soul seemed to have almost shifted back out. It felt like it was pulling to go back to its rightful host. As if a magnet was attracting it towards it. The pain stopped for some brief seconds, to only come back again. As if to make sure the two wrecked bodies stayed that way, the rest of the bridge had crashed down on top of them.
Then everything was still.
The raven flapped its wings nervously. Did I do it, she thought, did I escape it, the story? A mournful howl could be heard just on the edge of the gulf. Larka gazed at her family, guilt clawing at her soul. They don’t know what I did; they still think that I just died! But…is it my right to just go and greet them? My existence…it must be unstable now. How long will I be able to trap this raven’s soul, and take its body for my own? She speculated until her little family started to depart, and without hesitation, she followed.
Many suns passed as the wolf pack traveled back to their old boundaries; the place where it had all started. While the wolves traveled, a black raven pursued. It hid in the shadows and trees, not wanting to be seen. The pack passed by familiar places; the river in which Fell had fallen into by breaking the surface of its ice, the grave that Larka, Kar, and Bran had tumbled into; until they finally got back. The lonesome castle stood in the distance just as it had before.
Keen eyes watched as a jet black wolf, Fell, returned the human child back to his true home. The child had done its job, awakened the Man Varg and thus showing the vision to all of nature. Through all the time the child had spent with those strange creatures called wolves, he had become fond of them. When Fell went to take his leave, the child didn’t want to part and wailed pitifully. Fell hushed the child, and then finally made a pact with it- a pact of freedom and the remembrance of nature, of where it all began.
These keen eyes seemed to have sparkled with pride while watching the act below. And as the black wolf padded back into the forest, of which the eyes belonged to got closer. And Fell snarled suddenly,
“Do you plan to keep watching us forever?! What is your goal, filthy scavenger?!” Anger burned in the wolf’s eyes while his jaws parted showing sharp teeth. A raven flew out of the shadows and perched on low branch within the wolf’s view. The bird parted its beak, and Fell pressed his ears back against his head thinking it was about to screech loudly.
“So you noticed me," the raven appeared to have smiled. "It is nice to finally talk to you again, my brother Fell.” Fell looked back up at the bird dumbfounded. He had other species talk to him before, because he too possessed the power of the Sight, and the power to understand them. This was still a different case however, one that included more questions than a being should ask in such a strange moment. So instead, he just asked the simplest and shortest one.
“Larka?”
“Do you really want to leave?”
Suns had passed by since the time Fell had reunited with his sister. He never mentioned her to the pack, by the will of Larka herself. Larka made sure of it, and was always watching; she was even watching now. She watched as Kar questioned again why Fell wanted to leave the pack. After a few more comments of disbelief from Kar, he finally accepted it.
A few days later Fell left the pack, going on his own journey to find answers to his questions. He wasn’t the only one who was searching for answers and explanations though. His sister, currently in the body of a raven, was with him.
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell any of them? Not even Kar?” Fell asked Larka. She stayed quiet for a while, and then spoke. “No, not yet, the time will come when they will find out, but for some time longer, that time is not now.” Fell nodded, and on they went, brother and sister, out to discover the world.
End