The cold breeze, the smell of magic.
It was the same spot I’d sensed something at before. Taking a few more steps toward the steep mountain, I could see where new grass had grown over the spot I’d clawed at. The blades were shorter than the grass around it. The closer I got, the more the air felt heavy and the hair on my arms rose with electricity.
‘Trust,’my wolf whispered.
This was it. My instincts had led me there before and here I was again.
Taking in a deep breath, I looked back at Sage and my sweet baby boy, nodded once, and stepped forward, walking straight into the mountain with complete faith that I had found the Cave of Magic and that whatever lay inside was something I could handle. One step, two, three, when I got within six inches of the dirt wall, it began to … flicker. Like a mirage, it became wavy and then transparent, before disappearing completely and revealing a deep, black, open tunnel straight into the mountain.
Sage gasped behind me, and a tear slid down my cheek as the relief of an entire year’s worth of search culminated in this one moment.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Sage without looking over my shoulder. I walked straight into the darkness. Blue flames flared to life at my sides simultaneously, causing me to jump a little.
I got this. I was made for this. I’m ready.I had to talk myself through it.
As I stepped deeper into the cave, the temperature dropped and the smell of magic became pungent. I could nearly taste it, like hot metal and electricity. Astra never actually told me what I would find in this cave or what I was really going to do when I got here.
With each step, more lanterns lit, until a faint blue glow flickered in the very center.
Steeling my breath, I walked into the large opening, toward the blue light.
Holy mother of shifters.
The tunnel had opened up into a giant cavern, too tall and too wide for my brain to fathom. The entire mountain must be hollow…
The sides of the walls were filled with rich, green, creeping vines, and brilliantly colored flowers. Around the border of the space was a ring of weeping willows that glowed with the vibrant blue hue that lit up the entire space. These trees, this place, it was … magic.
My skin buzzed with electricity as my wolf came closer to the surface out of curiosity. Following a stony path, I walked through the outer ring of glowing weeping willows and into the center of the mountain. It was a good ten minute walk through a legit fairytale garden. The white crushed stone path glowed supernaturally as it led me weaving in and out of vibrant ferns and wild dandelions, all growing out of a bright green bed of moss. I ducked under vines and trees until finally I reached an opening that seemed to be in the center of the mountain.
There in the middle of the mossy ground was a flat stone tablet.
I stared at the sentence engraved on the stone and squirmed, scared to read it aloud. But I knew I must. I’d come all this way, been through too much to turn back now.
I also noticed an engraved handprint underneath, where I assumed I was supposed to put my hand. My eyes skimmed over the words as I prepared to say them aloud.
I, NAME, give everything that I am to this land, and to my people, and I pray that I be found worthy of leading them.
What if I wasn’t found worthy? What would happen? Would I never make it home?
Only one way to find out. With a final gulp, I bent on one knee before the gray stone tablet and placed my hand over the impression.
“I, Demi Spirit Moon Hudson-Calloway, give everything that I am to this land, and to my people, and I pray that I be found worthy of leading them,” I said with a healthy mixture of confidence and fear.
The moment the final word left my lips, an electrical jolt shot up my arm and into my body. I was thrown backward as the blue light from the willow trees suddenly snaked out in long, thin, strands and wrapped around me, lifting me into the air.
I gasped then as I felt the consciousness of thousands of people merge with mine.
‘Alpha,’I heard Astra whimper.
‘Alpha,’Rab huffed in awe.
I felt Willow and Arrow and all of the other Paladins, most of whom I didn’t even know their names yet. I felt their love for their people, their land, love for me, and it filled me up until every corner of my soul was completely void of loneliness.
Tears trickled down my cheeks as my wolf howled inside of me.
‘I’m coming home,’I told them.
Still suspended in midair, there was a pulse, a knocking against my sternum, and then more connections invaded my consciousness. Water, trees, soil, it was all alive. The Paladin land was special. It was linked to this cave and I knew that now. The Dark Woods were sacred, only for alphas, and Sage’s presence here was not allowed. It was like the trees were talking to me, telling me all of this.
