SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Twenty-three
“I need you to call Lori when we get to your car and have her meet us at your house.” I can hear something like fear but also mixed with a bit of aggravation in his voice as he tells me to do this. I nod my head in understanding and pull out my cell to do so.
As I wait for Lori to answer her phone I ask; “could you maybe tell me what in the hell is going on before I end up in a full-blown panic attack because I’m betting that that will not bode well for anyone if I light up in flames at this moment!”
We walked in silence for a minute before Ash began speaking; “within the World of Tenebrosity there are subdivisions. Most supernatural groups tend to stick with their own kind. Witches live in their own community for the most part with some who choose to live apart from the entirety of ’our world’, same with vampires, werewolves, elves, fairies, etc. However, we shapeshifters are a little more complicated.”
“Hello, Sofie?” Dang it! Why did Lori have to answer her phone just then?
“Hey Lori, Ash was wondering if you would be able to meet us at my house in about ten minutes?”
“Yeah, the bell just rang ending school for the day. I didn’t even realize you skipped. What’s going on anyway?”
Ash is maneuvering his hands for me to end the conversation so I tell her; “Ash said he will explain once we are all at my house, okay?”
“Uh, yeah okay. I’ll see you shortly, I guess.” I can hear confusion in Lori’s voice as she says this, but I don’t worry too much about it because we would see each other in just a little bit.
Funny how minutes can feel like hours when anxiety grips you in its clutches...
**
“Okay,” Lori states looking at Ash and I. Her hands are on her hips and her legs are spaced out a bit, her right foot tapping on the kitchen floor as she waits for one of us to give her some answers. Since I have no idea what is going on myself, I look at Ash as well.
“All right, let me finish telling Sofia about shapeshifters and then I will tell you what is going on.” Ash looks at me and then at Lori, waiting until each of us have nodded our head in agreement. “As I was saying, shapeshifters stick to their own kind as well within the shapeshifting world. Bears to themselves, wolves to their packs, lions, panthers, jaguars each to their own pride, birds to their own flocks, etc. There are some of us out there like Charlie and myself who think being divided amongst our own is ridiculous and have come to form our own communities of sorts.
You, Sofie, are considered part of the Windborne shifters. And apparently the Windborne shifters have been searching for you as well, though I don’t know why they are looking for you.”
As Ash finishes speaking a question is running through my head. “That brings up a question I have. Why was anyone searching for me? What indicated that there were to ever be another phoenix borne again?”
“As a Knower, I can tell you what was passed down through generations of why we suspected another phoenix would be born.” Lori looks at me a second before continuing. “This legend was passed down through my family for centuries. I’m not sure how much truth is in the story, nor do I know what other Knower families were told but, as Joan of Arc burned at the stake, her ashes mixed with that of the phoenix ashes and as they blew together, they swirled in the air and a message appeared. ’Even in death there is birth. When the Eagle and the Panther do choose to fight, only then will the Phoenix come to light’.”
I draw out the word ‘okay’ ending the ‘y’ in more of an ‘e’ sound. “That still doesn’t explain why anyone would look for me right now?”
“Well,” Lori clears her throat before speaking further. “There has been only one panther born in the last three decades...” Her eyes slowly drift towards Ash. “And with the Panther born, the Eagle must have been born. That is why my family moved to Ohio in the first place. We have been searching for the Eagle because the Avian Sector informed us that the Panther had been born in Australia. We weren’t even really looking for you. It was just an honest fluke that we found you, the Phoenix because we still have not found the Eagle.” She shrugs her shoulders with a baffled look upon her face.
“Actually,” I hear Ash say; “I think we have found the Eagle. Well maybe not found per se but I know the Eagle is close. If Blake isn’t the Eagle, then he is with the group that the Eagle was born to.”
Lori laughs out loud. “Why in the world would you think Blake is or knows where the Eagle is? I’ve known him my entire life and have never once saw any indications that he is even a shifter!”
I sit at the kitchen table dumbstruck by both Ash and Lori. Everything they have said just seems impossible. Watching Ash, I see him raise a questioning eyebrow at Lori. “You didn’t know your best friend is the Phoenix... are you sure you know Blake?”
“Ouch,” Lori places her hand over her chest dramatically. “You got me there! I guess you’re right, it could possibly be that Blake is the Eagle...”
“Lori, are you able to stay with Sofie? I have to go check on a few things and I don’t want her left alone!” An urgent tone in Ash’s voice didn’t leave room for either myself or Lori to argue.
“Yes, of course.” The words had barely left Lori’s mouth when Ash stood, kissed me briefly on the cheek and then he is gone.
<><><><>
Charlie landed feet away from Ash, “dear boy, what are you doing here?” She, though small in stature, always managed to intimidate Ash with just a look in her eyes.
“I feel that we have a problem,” he states urgently to her. “Did you know the Eagle had been born as well?”
Clucking her tongue in a chuckle, Charlie smiles; “sweet Ash, I am a Seer. Of course, I knew the Eagle had been born. Why do you think I sent your parents to Australia for you to be born and raised?” “I truly have no idea, you old owl,” Ash responds with laugh. “Why did I need to be sent out of the country to be born?”
“Well, at the time there were very few communities such as mine who were like minded in thoughts about how all shifters should live united instead of segregated as most still do. One such community was in Australia where my sister, lived. I thought it wisest to send you out of the country to make sure that you and the Eagle didn’t come across one another before we could find the Phoenix.”
“But would it have mattered if we had met prior to now?” Ash looked into Charlie’s eyes, trying to read her expression because he felt like she wasn’t telling him everything.
“If you two would have come in contact before the phoenix was located, shifters scrolls say that ’a meeting prior to the fire will surely end in disaster, resulting in both thine deaths, which would not bode well for the rest of the world for good can never live without thee bad as well thee reverse.”
“Wait! Are you saying that if we wouldn’t have found Sofia and the Eagle and I would have crossed paths that one of us would have died?” Ash asked baffled. Doing all he could to maintain his calm appearance, he continued; “because that sort of sounds like what you were saying... Actually, if I think about it, it sounds like you are saying both the Eagle and I would have died, and it would have caused the world to die or something to that effect.”
“It is nothing more or less than the truth dear boy. It is predestined that you, the Eagle and the Phoenix are to come together. The outcome is up to which paths you all choose along the way.” Charlie hooted twice and then with a flap of her arms, left Ash to stare after her as she flew away.