Lycanthropy

A thousand miles south of her mountain:

“Amy, have you found anything so far?” Frida asked me, as she stood up from her chair, looking over the piles of books that stood on her desk.

I stood up as well, to look over my pile of books and huffed a lock of hair out of my face.

“No, and I can’t seem to find my pencil anymore either.” I said while rummaging through the papers on my desk.

“Amy…” Frida chuckled and I looked towards her.

Frida pointed to the back of her head and I reached behind my own.

“Oh, right, thanks.” I said while grabbing the pencil out of the knot in my hair as I had put it in there to keep my hair up while reading through like the millionth book.

I sat myself down again and looked through my papers filled with notes. There was something that was continuously strange throughout the decades. Around every fifty years there was a time where about three months of time was erased out of the history books. Well not erased exactly, but it just wasn’t there.

Nineteen-ninety-two: January to March. No records.

Nineteen-forty-four: September to November. No records.

Eighteen-ninety-one: July to September. No records.

Eighteen-forty: February to April. No records.

And so it went on and on, till the day that men started to document things properly.

No one knew what had happened during those periods of time and apparently there were no records of people missing either. But it must have, just as the warriors from Aron’s pack did. Just as Emerson had been taken away.

I had been going through so many books already, just to keep my mind distracted, that I even forgot to eat sometimes during the day.

But even with all my efforts, all I found where those non-existing details, which only made me feel more desperate to find something that could help us. Though the question remained, how this was possible and why no one else ever noticed it. Why did no one else ever searched through these documents and find the reason as to why those records were missing? It was odd to say the least, but directly looking at these papers wasn’t going to help either. I have to find another way around, to find out about the things that were here. Look beyond what was missing, and see what was here to find.

“Frida, didn’t you have the maps of ancient times with you there somewhere? The ones with the pack names on them?”

“Uhm.. yes… you mean the ones that almost look like leather? Yes, they should be here somewhere, hold on.” She said and I stood up from my chair to look at what she was doing.

Paper flew everywhere and the little basket with pens that stood on her desk fell over. Then her tea on one of the piles of books tipped over as well, but luckily fell on the ground next to the desk, instead of over all of the books.

I smiled while she rummaged through her stuff. She is just the same as me, and I only realised now, how much we looked the same in character.

I walked over to her desk and now I chuckled at her, pointing at the chair she now sat in again. Confused as to where she had put the old maps, she looked at me with scrunched up brows.

“They are right behind me, aren’t they?” She asked me and I nodded.

“Yep.” I popped the ‘p’ and we both laughed out loud now.

We took the maps from the back of her chair and took them over to another empty desk, when Michael and Daniel walked into the library.

“Never have I ever seen such a mess, and heard so many noises going through my library.” Daniel remarked.

“I’m glad you’ve noticed too my King! And I’m not going to clean it all up!” The old historian that had been seated in the back, complained as he walked out of the library.

“Honey really, how is it possible that you could manage to do all of this…” Michael said, while pointing at all the mess. “…in just over a week?” He commented when he gave me a kiss on my cheek.

I didn’t care if I made such a mess, my sister is special to me, and finding information that could help her, is more important than any mess.

I know that Michael understood the importance and only said those words to tease me, so I crawled in his arms and he hugged me tightly.

His shoulder is fully healed again and he wasn’t angry towards Daniel anymore. He on his turn had become himself again too, as accepting Emerson’s rejection has been a good thing after all. It was hard for him the first few days, but ever since I had returned to the palace he had changed more every day.

Though, I was curious if it had something to do with the company I had brought along as well. Frida smiled and had gotten red cheeks every time Daniel had come in the room, and he on his turn had to clear his throat each time he had given himself the chance to look at her.

I guess that Daniel didn’t want to grant himself some love after all the things that had happened with my sister. Maybe he was even a bit ashamed to show affection to someone in the same room as me, as I had been hard on him with all the things he had done to Emerson.

There was nothing that Daniel didn’t want to do for me, as his remorse towards Emerson was still greatly clouding his mind, but I didn’t took advantage of it. Well… sometimes I did, but that was only because it was fun to see him grunt and still did what I had asked him to!

"Sometimes, you say? It is practically a habit of him now to bring you tea twice a day because you didn't stop asking for it, the moment we returned to the palace!" My wolf, Joy, said while smiling greatly.

“What’s this?” Daniel suddenly asked me.

“Well you should know. These are the maps of our planet with all the pack names on it, from ancient times.” I replied.

“And you just put up random names on here to joke with me, right?”

“What?” I asked him while taking a closer look at the maps.

“Here,” He pointed. “Sunwarmth Pack, Olivetree House, Sheathing Dagger and so on. Did you just came up with those packs?” Daniel said and laughed out loud.

I know that I can be a joke sometimes and I am fairly good at thinking up of pack names, but I would never write on old historic papers, of which I wanted to find out what the hell was happening in all those months where there were no records of.

“Daniel, seriously, you don’t know those names from old times, or from what your father has told you?” I asked him with a serious face.

“What? You mean you haven’t written those names down here?”

“No.”

“But how could that be? How can I not remember those packs then?” Daniel said, almost accusingly, as if I did write those names on the old parchment.

“You tell me. I have a list of times where there are no records of, and now you don’t recognise these pack names.” I said as I gave him the list of dates.

He looked down at my notes and it was as if a switch was turned inside of his head. His eyes blackened over and after a moment or two he came back to us.

“You alright Daniel?” Michael asked him.

“Yes, well no. I don’t know how this is possible, but only now that I have seen these dates and realizing what those pack names include, memories came crashing in from what my father had told years ago. He had told me many stories of which he made me repeat over and over again, and to make me promise to never forget. But I did anyway. I- I don’t…” He stammered and we all looked baffled.

“What do you mean? What memories?” I asked him.

“Those people, of whom you call Nightstalkers, they, they…” Daniel said while taking a seat on a chair.

“What Daniel? What did they do?” I asked him with more serious note to it.

“Bluemoon Pack, year fourteen-ninety, six-hundred-twenty-two people taken. Olivetree House, year fifteen-thirty-eight, two-hundred-thirty-six people taken…” Daniel continued on and on with pack names, year of disappearance, and the number of people gone.

He must have been at it for about half an hour, without us being able to stop him from talking. He was reciting the things that his father had burned in his soul with numerous times of making him say the facts out loud. Details of what had been seen in ancient times, people drained from blood to being torn apart with ease, as if they were made out of butter. Anger and fear arose inside of him plenty of times, only to remind him of more things that his father had taught him about.

It was terrifying to hear all these facts, but we just sat there all three, looking at Daniel and what he told us all about. Frida started to cry and Michael took hold of me tightly, knowing that Frida and I could have been taken by these creatures too, if it weren’t for Emerson to have saved us all.

Every fifty years, a random pack from somewhere on the planet was taken, and they somehow had found a way to make all of the people that had known even the littlest of details, forget everything.

“My father said that this information had to be passed on from Alpha to Alpha, as we have the strongest genes and the least likely possibility to forget all these things. It has always been like this, and you don’t know how many times he had made me repeat those numbers and details, to know and be aware of what had to come sooner or later. It’s frustrating to have forgotten about it, I guess I was too young, to keep remembering it.” He said, sadness showing on his face.

“I’m sorry Amy! If I had remembered this, I could have prevented for Emerson to be taken. I’m so sorry.” He pleaded with me.