Chapter Twelve - Puzzle Pieces

Lia took a deep breath, filling her nose with the relaxing scent of sun-warmed pine needles and fresh air tinged with the dampness of a light rain. It was as though a sun shower had just washed over the yard and she was dozing in a lawn chair under a tree in her yard. She felt a gentle breeze coming and retreating like breath through the hair on top of her head She could hear a steady thumping, like the bass of a song beating out a steady rhythm through earbuds that must have slipped from her ear as she slept, just far enough away that she could make out the rhythm, but not hear the tune. She felt warm and tingly from head to toe. Perfectly happy and comfortable. It must have been a good dream, she thought vaguely. She decided to try to go back to sleep and dream it again. Rainbows spread across her closed eyelids and she sighed happily.

“Home,” she whispered softly, snuggling into the warm, pleasant scent with a smile on her lips.

Suddenly the sweet-smelling warmth that enveloped her was replaced by the feel and smell of cool, crisp, clean linen. There was something odd about it niggling at the edges of her consciousness, but she didn’t want to wake up yet so she pushed the thought aside and focused on the fading rainbows, wishing the warmth would return and whisk her away again.

“Lia?” Ellie’s voice almost convinced Lia to open her eyes, but she wasn’t ready for that yet. She snuggled down again, breathing deeply, and froze.

Lemon?

Gran’s homemade laundry soap was always scented like lavender. Lia gasped and sat up so suddenly that her eyes faded to black for a moment. She felt hands on her arms helping to steady her. As her vision cleared she looked around in shock. Where was she?

The walls were all log, just like at home, but it smelled different, like citrus rather than dried flowers. The room was much bigger than any space at home, and the post and beam ceiling was much higher. There weren’t any flowers hanging from it either. There was a large chandelier in the center of the room though, and she had a vague memory of thinking it would be fun to swing from there, but she had no memory of ever being here before so she didn’t know when that thought had occurred to her. Scowling slightly she looked around again, slowly becoming aware of the other people in the room. One of them walked quickly past and when the cool breeze of their passing brushed over her breasts she realized that she was naked. Lia grasped the sheet quickly with both hands and lifted it to cover herself.

“Calm down, Lia,” Elsie said softly, helping her adjust the sheet, “we’re safe here.”

“Wolfsbane...” Lia said softly as the memory came back to her. “There was wolfsbane in Grans attic?”

“Apparently,” Ellie said, “all four of us were poisoned by it. We’re at….er….I guess you could call it another healer’s house? Anyways, Elsie and I woke up a few days ago and you just now. Gran’s doing okay, but still asleep. See?” She pointed to the cot a little closer to the fire. “They think she’ll be fine though, it’s just taking time because...because...”

“She’s old,” Lia supplied. Ellie nodded, but there was something about the look on her face that made Lia narrow her eyes. Was her friend lying to her?

“You’re sure they said she’ll be okay?”

“Well yes, but they can’t know for certain until she wakes up. Her heart rate is more stable than it was so they’re pretty confident that she is over the worst and just needs time. They’ve treated her as much as they can, all we can do now is keep her hydrated and wait.”

Liana nodded, taking in her surroundings again before looking down at the sheet she was holding. “Uhm...”

“They had to take our clothes off, nobody knew what part of us the poison had touched. Besides, my dad said we’d vomited all over ourselves by the time he got us here so we wouldn’t want them anyways. Here,” Ellie pulled a bag out from under the cot. “Mum and I went back to the cottage once they checked it out for poison. They didn’t find any in the attic by the way, which was odd since that’s where we were.

“Gran keeps all her poisons in the chest by the back door, there shouldn’t ever have been any in the attic. It’s too risky with all the edibles up there.”

“That is odd. Anyways, we brought some clothes and stuff for you. I made sure your favourite sweater and jeans are on top. Your hairbrush and bathroom stuff is in the outside pocket.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you want some food? Something to drink maybe? It’s been days since you ate.” Ellie waved her hand to indicate the few people who were scattered around the room. “You can ask any of these people for whatever you want and they’ll bring it. They’re called Omegas, it kind of means waitress, concierge… maid maybe? Basically, you call “Omega” and the closest one to you will come over right away. Talking to one of them is like talking to all of them. Whatever you want just happens. One of them will even come in from another next room if there aren’t any here, you ask them for what you want and another one will show up with it. Whoever, it can get here the fastest. They can hear you from anywhere, sort of like an intercom system or something.”

“You’re talking too fast Ellie,” Elsie interrupted, drawing Lia’s attention. “The point is they’re at your beck and call and will do whatever you want. They might ask that woman by the fire first, they call her Mother Luna, she’s their...er...chief healer, but usually, you’ll get whatever you’re asking for.”

“Think of it like a hotel with awesome room service!” Ellie said excitedly. “They even made Elsie her favourite mutton stew last night! Everyone else was eating steaks, but she prefers stew, so they made her one! Isn’t that neat? And I said I’d like duck pate for breakfast, I didn’t even ask for it, I just mentioned it to mom in passing and it was waiting for me when I woke up! Here, let me help with that.” Ellie held the sheet up to keep Lia covered while she slid the sweatshirt over her head. “They’d bath and dress you if you asked,” Ellie confided in a whisper, “but that’s just creepy.” Lia shivered. These strangers would think nothing of being asked to give her a bath even when she was awake and able to do it herself? That seemed very strange indeed.

Several hours later, after eating some venison broth and drinking ginseng tea, Liana was sitting on her cot with Ellie and Elsie. They were alone in the room, aside from her unconscious Gran. The two nearly identical girls were looking between each other and back to Liana as though they had something horrible to tell her. Lia glanced to her gran, who still hadn’t moved. Was she not really okay?

“Lia… Damn this is hard.” Ellie sighed, covering her face with her hands for a moment. “I don’t even know where to start. I should have asked mom for ideas about where to start. I think she’s gone home now though, so I can’t ask her.”

“Is Gran-”

“Oh no,” Elsie said taking her hand. “It’s nothing like that I promise. It’s just...well a bit awkward and...” She looked at Ellie, who was usually the more social and talkative of the two.

“Uhm… Okay,” said Ellie quickly, “You know all those wolf pictures on the fridge that you always laugh about? It isn’t just that we like wolves. I mean, that would be kinda weird, right? Sheep farmers, who love wolves? But that’s what we are.”

“Oookaaay...” Lia said skeptically, still not sure what this conversation was about.

“She means we are wolves, no that we are weird sheep farmers.” Elsie supplied into the silence.

“What?”

“Okay, remember that picture beside my bed? The one with all those wolves on it that you thought was a strange picture to have in a frame on a bedside table? Well, it isn't a National Geographic photo I put in there, it’s uhm… It’s a family photo. We’re werewolves.”

“Werewolves?”

“Yep.” Lia looked from one set of grey eyes to the other, trying to decide if they had suffered brain damage from the neuro-toxin, were testing to see if she had, or if by some strange twist they were actually being serious. But they couldn’t be serious, could they? Werewolves? Were werewolves real?

“Remember the picture?” Ellie continued, “Two full-grown grey wolves, The Timberwolf is Mom and the Irish grey wolf is Dad. Then three a bit smaller, that’s me, Eddy, and Elsie. You can tell which one is Elsie because the strawberry birthmark on her right leg grows a different colour fur than the rest of her, her one hind leg it’s reddish brown instead of grey, Eddy and I are just grey and white. Obviously, he’s the one with the dick showing. He was too proud of that thing to stick a leg in front for the photos.” Elsie gave her sister a nudge to get her back on topic. “Okay. So then the smaller ones are the pups, Felicity, Freya, Kassie, and Kevin. That picture was taken right after Kevin’s first shift, he was the last one of us to shift, so it’s our first ever picture with us all in our wolf form! That’s why it’s special to me and why it’s beside the bed.”

Liana was silent for a moment, thinking about what they were saying and remembering a few strange moments that she’d always held in her memory because they never quite made sense, but now they did. Not just the wolf pictures all over the house, but sheep farmers whose lambs were always skittish around people? How their vacations always coinciding with the full moon and how cats would always hiss as they walked past. Was it odd that she wasn’t even questioning this? She just knew it was true somehow.

“That... kinda explains the smell,” she said simply.