Lair

Indrik

As I led Luna through the winding paths that I had only ever walked by myself, it felt rather surreal. Like I was exposing a part of myself that only I had ever known. A part that I had been too scared to share with anyone else. And the most scary thing was that I did not care. If anything, I wanted to show her even more. Wasn't sure she would want to see more though judging by the hay straws that had threaded their way into her hair.

Stepping out of the oaken door that led out of the other end of the palace, I stared at the row of tall, thick trees that formed a green and brown wall several feet away. I was hit, as I always was by the ethereal aura that filled this place. It had the ambience of a place that had been left untouched by anyone, both human and wolf for a long time. I could see signs of this place having been used by someone or some people before, a four feet wide entrance that was flanked by tree stumps that led into the heart of the trees. This entrance was easy to miss, having long since been concealed by thick creeper plants, an indication that this place did not want to be disturbed. I hoped the trees would not get mad at me for bringing yet another stranger into their territory but then again, I didn't have that many other options.

Beside me, Luna gasped as she took in this place. I couldn't blame her. I had also been speechless when I had first stumbled upon it. Even now, I still could not get over its charm. How had I gotten to know this, you might ask but you will find that there is a lot of things that you do when you have a lot of spare time on your hands and dang, did I have a lot of time on my hands?

As a growing wolfless kid in a wolf's pack, I got excluded out of a lot of activities which meant I spent most of the time in my room, sulking and moaning my fate. Usually, Blaire would show up to keep me company. She generally had more time as well since she blatantly turned down any attempt to train her. Usually, we would spend a whole lot of time out in the garden, playing around, discussing and on some days that I was in a really good mood, I would be a test pig for her make-up experiments which meant I ended up looking like a lost male ghost who could not find his way back to the world of the dead. These generally helped with my endless boredom especially since Jamil and Ulo would also drop by once they were done with training. But even this could not work all the time. There were days when Blaire had to leave me hanging, not to mention that having only one person to keep you company day in and day out over the years while you could do nothing else had a way of tiring you out. On really bad days, I would take a walk, trying my best to stay away from danger (which generally meant my half-brother) while looking for exciting things that took my mind off my troubles and also setting my jumbled thoughts in order. Overtime, these walks became more frequent and limited to the palace grounds. It was on one of these walks that I had stumbled into the stables.

When I had first seen the opening behind the horse in the last stable, I hadn't been certain of what I had been looking at but I had been desperate enough to open the stable and push past the horse to take a closer look. I was both stunned and excited to find that I was staring at a door. It was painted the same color as the walls of the stables which explained the reason why it had not been noticed before. The horse must have unwittingly kicked it open. I had taken a look around the stables, ensuring that no one else was around to see my discovery before slipping into the door and shutting it behind me. Sure, it was reckless and could have put me in danger but at that time, I couldn't care less. Perhaps, a part of me had been hoping death would find me.

Behind the door had been very gloomy and stuffy but I had felt my way along, defying all the spiderwebs that stubbornly clung to me as I moved. All that simply proved that my discovery was truly phenomenal. Luckily, the path had been a very narrow one, hemmed in by walls on both sides, preventing me from straying. I hadn't had to walk for very long either before I felt another door, this one iron. I had been worried that it would be locked but either it was never locked or the wear had become worn-out with time because the door had simply creaked open.

Never had I been happier to see daylight again but my discovery made me even happier. Looking around, I had noticed that I was no longer in the palace. I could still see the massive walls of the palace, painted white once but having turned grey from age. Moss and creepers grew all over the walls. I had been surprised to know that this place even existed. This side of the palace sat at the edge of the territory beyond which were endless woods, unmarked and unclaimed which meant there was no possibility of attack or anything else so this area had pretty much been forgotten. Until I had found it that is. Now that I think of it, I think this place had been designed to never be found because why else would you place a door in a horse's stable?

I turned toward Luna and beamed. "How would you like to visit my lair?"