Laying there on the ground with her eyes still closed, trying to process what just happened to her, nothing made sense. Groaning softly as her brows furrowed, her body hurt from the impact of the landing. Lindsay could hear movement nearby but she still didn’t want to try to move.
“Well that was a lot rougher than last time,” came Damian’s voice from not too far off
“That’s an understatement, I think I have a sprain,” whined Alex.
“Princess, are you okay?” Mathew sounded concerned and much closer than the rest.
“I told you-” she opened her eyes as she started to speak, sitting up a bit. Stopping mid-sentence as she came face to face with a very large, black wolf. Lindsay’s eyes grow wide as she stared opened mouthed at pair of golden yellow eyes looking at her. It was like her brain had skipped and stalled out on her. Blinking rapidly a few times as she watched the large animal sit down in front of her, it’s ears twitching before perking forward. Her eyes moved from him to what she saw behind him, three more, very large wolves. One grey stood not too far away looking off somewhere in the distance.
The five of them were on the shoreline of a large lake, two tawny wolves were closer to the water, one holding up its paw and licking the joint tenderly. Lindsay didn’t know what to make of the situation, maybe she had hit her head. Reaching up with one hand and placing her palm against her head. Nothing hurt except her back from the landing, as she recalled she was swallowed by the lake and spat back out. And yet it wasn’t dark here, in fact the sun was high in the sky. Had she lost consciousness? Where did these wolves come from?
“I know this is a shock,” she heard Mathew’s voice, swinging her head back to look at the black wolf in front of her. He sat there staring at her with those yellow eyes, why wasn’t she more afraid. “Shock aside, are you alright?” Lindsay's mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide as she stared at the animal who had just spoken to her.
“A shock,” she squeaked, shaking her head a little “I hit my head, I passed out, this is not happening, not at all,” she rambled and placed her head in her hands, looking down at her lap. Nothing made sense, talking wolves? Night turning miraculously to day? Lifting her head and looking around, the clearing looked the same, though she didn’t remember getting a really good look last night. Where were the boys? Pushing herself up onto her feet, Lindsay swayed a little and stretched out her arms a bit to regain her balance. The world spun a little as she stood there, her body felt bruised.
Closing her eyes for a moment as a wave of nausea washed over her, rubbing her hands over her face before looking around again. The wolves hadn’t moved, in fact they all seemed to be watching her.
“Take it easy,” one of the tawny wolves came forward, with the voice of Damian. Lindsay took a step back as the wolf got closer, those eyes were familiar, but this was crazy.
“Talking wolves don’t exist,” she muttered to herself, shaking her head again, like trying to clear cobwebs that made her brain malfunction.
“No, you’re quite right.” the Damian wolf chuckled, it’s blue eyes twinkling with amusement. “In your realm, they don’t. But here, in Milbar, we do.”
“Don’t go telling her we’re just plain old wolves!” snarled the grey wolf.
“Like she’s going to understand what Lycanthropes are.” snapped the other tawny wolf, who was nursing its front paw. The grey wolf turned on this one and bared its teeth with a growl, hackles raising. The black wolf turned it’s head toward the two, not making a noise, he just looked at them. The grey wolf seeing this backed away with a snort, turning it’s back on the tawny one. It was insane, the entire situation was insane, Lindsay started to laugh, dropping down to sit there with her knees up.
“Talking wolves.” she said breathlessly and laughed some more “Locked up for weeks, I’ve cracked.”
“You haven’t cracked,” Damian laughed, sitting near her and using his left hind paw to scratch at his ear “Oh yeah, that’s perfect, I missed home.” he groaned happily, tongue lolling out and eyes closed blissfully.
“It is good to be home. That place smelled.” Alex agreed giving himself a shake.
“The smell? What about the clothes?” Damian had a large goofy looking smile on his wolf face, shaking himself out as well. “I am going to miss coffee and bacon,”
“Why didn’t we bring any back?” whined Alex, gingerly testing his paw on the ground.
“I told you before, nothing from there could travel here, that’s why we needed to bring, her something to wear that was made in Milbar.” Damian watched Alex carefully as he walked around slowly on his injured paw. “Are you alright, brother?” the tawny wolf tilted his head at the other, concern in his voice.
“I landed wrong, I’ll be fine. Why was the transition so rough coming back?” Alex turned his head to look back at the lake as he spoke.
“I don’t know.” was the only response given, they talk among themselves like she wasn’t even sitting there with them. Lindsay just stared in total disbelief, Mathew hadn’t spoken since asking if she was alright, Ian just stood on guard while the twins conversed. Resting her arms on her bent up knees and placing her head in her hands, Lindsay closed her eyes. Mathew had taken her to the lake, it was dark out then. After walking into the water, she had been dragged under. She must have slipped on a rock and gone under, maybe hitting her head.
She must be hallucinating, maybe they had slipped her something at dinner. Her head didn’t hurt like it should if she had hit it on anything. Rubbing the heels of her palms against her forehead as she tried to make sense of what was happening. Magic didn’t exist, talking animals was only something you saw in the movies.
“We need to get a move on, we’re still a long way out from Ionna.” came Mathew’s voice, but Lindsay didn’t lookup. She couldn’t look up, she knew she would still see the impossible.
“I think we might need to just stay here a while, maybe even for the night, Mathew.” Damian was watching her with a kind expression. “We might want to try and explain a few things, don’t you think?” nodding his head in her direction.
“Princess?” the tone Mathew used was kind and soft. One word seemed to bring her out of her thoughts about her sanity.
“How can you explain this?” her voice was high pitched, betraying her stress level without meaning to, her eyes were wide as she looked at the black wolf.
“Not me, Damian.” yellow eyes turning to the tawny wolf next to him.
“Well, there is our realm, Milbar, and your realm. There are others but we don’t need to talk about those right now.” Damian started to ramble, using his back paw to scratch as his ear. “The veil between realms is thin during a full moon, adding water to mix and you create a transference tunnel.” tilting his head to the side and looking at her, not sure if she was quite understanding.
“A transference tunnel,” Lindsay said numbly.
“Adding ruins to the mix and you can travel between the realms. Depending on where the ruins are places and which ruins are used, like a compass.”
“This is totally insane Damian!” exasperated Lindsay pushed herself up to her feet and turned away from him, hands on her hips.
“Look, I understand, after spending so much time in your realm, I understand this is hard. Come with me.” walking off, he paused at the treeline and looked back at her. “Are you coming?” giving himself a shake as he waited.
“Why not? Follow the talking wolf,” she muttered as she started to follow him, they walked for a little while through the trees, not saying a word to one another. How it all started to seem normal was beyond her, walking along with a wolf whose back was as high as her waist. Soon they broke through the trees and were standing on the edge of a field. The sight made her stop and stare, it was like she was looking at the sketch from her father’s book. This was the field that had made Damian so sad all those nights ago. He didn’t have to say anything, she could see it in the flowers that freckled the grass, yellows, pinks and blues. It was breathtaking. Looking down at the wolf who now sat beside her, staring at the same scene.
“My father is from here. From Milbar.” the words were let out like a breath, and though they seemed insane she knew it was true.
“Yes, he is.” looking up at Lindsay with his head tilted to one side.
“He’s not a wolf too, is he?” she let out a nervous laugh as she reached out to scratch behind Damian’s ear as he laughed.
“Oh dear, no, Keagan is not Lycanthrope.” the thought seemed to amuse him, chuckling softly. “Your father is King Keagan, ruler of Ionna.” it was Lindsay’s turn to laugh, shaking her head as she did.
“This is crazy, Damian, come on!” when he had stopped laughing and just looked at her with kind eyes. “No, if he’s a king then I really am a princess,” she smiled mockingly but when she continued to look into his eyes, her smile faded.
“That is indeed the truth of it, Princess Lindsay,” his chuckling was back again as her look of disbelief was quite comical, knowing how much she hated being called princess.
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