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Chapter 12: New Enemies
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Hearing all of Morgan’s praises after the hunt and hearing him brag about her lifted Aria’s spirits. Especially when Sophia’s scowl made her face twist in ugly shapes. Aria couldn’t have been more pleased at making the woman so unhappy and successfully taking Morgan’s attention from her. Her tail hadn’t stopped wagging since his first positive word toward her. He’d then invited her up onto his horse and she road behind him the entire way back to the castle.
Philip was waiting at the doors standing on the castle portico with his arms crossed over his chest. He had donned a long sleeve shirt that hid the tight wrap he’d covered his forearm with. She was surprised he’d not made a fuss about his arm – a sure way to get her kicked out of the castle. But, she supposed, he may not want her gone. As long as she was within a bowshot, he could get his revenge. A cold chill spread over Aria’s body as he stared her down while M
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Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 13: Gradual Changes
Feeling confident in her gown, but hoping the wrong person wouldn’t see her in it, she strolled out onto the gallery overlooking the mass of guests exiting the dining hall. It would seem she’d missed the meal, but she was counting on Morgan to save her something or at least ordering the servants to bring a tray to his room for her. She stood on the gallery surveying each person. She didn’t see Morgan and assumed he was still in the dining hall talking with other guests that enjoyed extended drinks at any hour. She slowly descended the stairs, her first time doing so with only two legs. One step at a time, she watched her feet and took the descent slowly, careful to hold the banister railing for support. The action felt strange and she was sure she’d trip over the dress and fall the rest of the way at any moment, but no sooner than the thought crossed her mind did she reach the bottom. As she looked up, she noticed a man watching her,
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 14: Poisonous Relationships
Aria woke from her spot on the bed with a stabbing pain in her gut. Her vision blurred as she tried to make out the bed posts and her legs wobbled underneath her as she tried to stand. Eventually she got her balance, but her stomach twisted inside as it pushed its contents up her esophagus. She stumbled to the edge of the bed and hurled. She heard Morgan shoot up behind her as her legs gave out again and she collapsed, falling off the bed to the hard floor below. “Aria!” Morgan threw the bedsheets off his legs and climbed over the bed and hopped down next to her lifting her off the floor to a standing position. “Aria, what’s the matter?” If only she could tell him. She didn’t have the strength to think. Her body felt completely depleted of energy and the world was spinning around her. OH, NO! Again, her stomach clenched in her abdomen and pushed more of its contents up. The action was repeated
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 15: Uncertain Recovery
By the morning of the third day, Aria had regained enough strength to stand up in the bed. She wasn’t about to let Morgan shove that contraption down her throat again, so she decided to try and drink on her own. After he smeared the jelly onto her tongue, she grimaced but set to trying to drink a bowl of water. With his support around her ribcage, she was able to lap up a quarter of the water in the bowl – exactly enough to satisfy his judgement and get him to stop threatening to force more water down her throat. She lay down next to the bowl to give her body a rest while he put everything away and left the room with the promise to send up some food and give her a chance to eat.Food, however, was the last thing on her mind. She was more worried that Morgan didn’t trust her and to be honest, she no longer trusted food from the kitchen. She wondered if it would be horrible to ask Morgan to hunt for her and ju
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 16: If Love Could Kill
Aria pondered at King Aaron’s response to the mention of her homeland as she walked up the stairs back to the safety and solitude of Morgan’s chamber. She’d hoped to get more of a response out of him that might lend some information she’d been missing about Aesop, but instead he’d fled the table as if haunted by a ghost. She huffed as she finally reached the top of the staircase and paused a minute to catch her breath, realizing her body wasn’t yet fully recovered from the poisoning. She hoped it wouldn’t take much longer for her to regain her full strength.“Are you alright?” Aria pulled her gaze away from her feet to meet the onlooking eyes of Philip. Her stomach did a flip, then she remembered he wouldn’t recognize her as she was.“No, I’m only feeling a bit weak just now. I’m sure I’m fine.” She pulled herself to an upright position an
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 17: Into the Darkness
By the time Aria stopped running the pads of her paws were raw, cracked, and bleeding. Her legs quivered beneath her threatening to collapse as her heart pounded the blood through her body at a rapid rate - blood full of panic at the violent attack from Philip and her near failed escape. She stood in the clearing of some trees with her head barely above the ground, gasping for air and resisting the urge to collapse where she was. She knew that if she lay down now, there was a chance she’d never rise again. Her body needed water and food, soon, or it would fail her.As she stood, her breathing slowed but her legs still shook. She lifted her head slightly and took in her surroundings. The forest was dark, almost black. The small bit of moonlight that did break through the canopy of dense tree cover was hardly enough to illuminate more than the few branches it touched on the way down. Her ears twitched atop her head try
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 18: The Voice of Uncertainty
The morning revealed a vastly different scenery with abundant light filtering through the branches of the trees in glowing rays. The forest was no longer silent and she watched with humor as a family of rabbits hopped across the pine needles stopping occasionally to munch on leafy morsels that sprung up through the mulch. Birds seemed to dance from branch to branch across the trees as she stretched and shook the debris from her fur.With this much prey roaming so near, catching breakfast would be easy, but what would happen when she did? If the forest was alive and vengeful, would it attack her? Her stomach rumbled as the image of eating one of the fat, juicy rabbits filled her thoughts. She decided it was worth the risk to find out.She watched the rabbits a few more minutes, until they seemed totally oblivious to her movement. Then she crouched down and crawled on her belly to get closer to the rabbits. They continued t
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 19: The Evening Glow
The glow of the sun was beginning to fade and the night before had been black as pitch so Aria set to looking for a safe and hidden place to sleep for the night. She hadn’t eaten a morsal since the rabbit that morning, but it was too late to hunt and with all these strange creatures following her, she was reluctant to risk safety for food. As she walked, the eerie feeling of eyes on her left her flinching at every noise, but she saw and smelled nothing. She wished she could shake that feeling and willed her skin to stop crawling under her fur because it was making her cold, but her skin wouldn’t obey. She gave herself a violent shake, but it only helped for a moment and soon her skin resumed its cascade of shivers under her white coat. She hefted a sigh as she walked past another failed burrow for the evening at the base of a large tree trunk.Aria looked under each bush she passed, shoved her head in various holes, and placed her paw
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 20: Spilled blood! Spilled blood!
She begins to feel her bones shift and snap. It doesn’t hurt, and she is glad for the transformation this time. She’ll make much more progress in her journey with four legs and a reliable way to defend herself. The fur sprouts from her itchy and burning skin and her heightened senses gradually return. With it, the smell of blood, pine, dirt, and… wolf? But it wasn’t her scent. Her blue eyes flash open and her eyes dart around the shack for the source of the smell. The odor was strong, so the source had to be nearby. Once her transformation was finished, she sifted through the odors surrounding her. Dirt, mold, mildew, mulch, flower pollen, fresh leaves, water… then a variety of wolf smells. The majority of the wolf smells were very stale, but one stands out. It is strong and fresh. Aria stood and walked over to the little toy she’d dropped when her transformation began.
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Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 32: Almost Realizing
Absalom took a while to recover from the return of his memories. Aria hated to admit it but she was worried about him. Since she’d met him she’d never seen him so weak. She’d had to help him up from the floor and walk him to one of the tables in the outer room to sit down in what remained of their sunlight. She then walked through the village remains and found a home near the archive building that was still mostly intact and would protect them from the weather and provide some protection from lurking danger as well. After explaining its location to Absalom, she helped his heavy body up from the table and allowed him to lean on her a bit while they walked to the house. His body was hot against her skin and she tried to not notice.“Absalom, did you have a family before the attack?” She hoped she wasn’t bringing up painful memories but she was curious. She feared she was starting to really care about him. He’d been a Duke and Dukes usually had families, didn’t they?“I had a si
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 31: Striving for Truth
“Are you going to help or not?”Absalom’s voice sounded distant and when Aria looked up he was across the room studying a wall. Reluctantly she pushed up from the ground and shuffled her feet to another wall, angry that she’d let him get to her like that; angry that she was now so downcast; angry that her stupid body longed to please him and still longed for his touch. None of it made sense. She set out on this journey to be with Morgan. To become a full human or get control of this shape shifting so she could marry him and displace that stupid whore on his arm. Her chest burned and she held back a sob. She wasn’t sad; she was angry. She couldn’t remember ever being so angry in her life. Her fist pounded the wall but no sound erupted from the solid fortress and for that she was thankful. The last thing she needed was more mocking from Absalom. She could feel his eyes burning into her back now, but refused to give him the satisfaction of her attention and backed away from the
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 30: Give in to This Feeling
The doors opened but that was all. No threat they could see awaited them on the other side, so they cautiously stepped through the archway of the open door leading downward. Cold walls surrounded them and darkness engulfed the hallway they walked down. Soon, blue light began to illuminate their path from ahead and they emerged into a large underground cavern. Above where the walls met the ceiling was a strip of gel glowing blue and illuminating the room. The same was along each of the eleven pillars down the center of the room and at the base of the walls near the floor. There were no books or scrolls covering the walls, but instead what lined the walls were slabs of stone. Over the walls, on pillars, and in rows looking like book cases. Etched into every piece of stone in this cavern were more of the symbols they had discovered in their attempt to get into this place. “I hope there are no more riddles to solve.” Aria looked over to see that Absalom had turned back into his h
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 29: The Blood of a King
“I don’t recognize this one but it is similar to the symbol for blood.” He put his hand to his chin and brushed his goatee. Aria walked around to stand beside him so she could see the symbol he was studying. Instead, her eyes fell on Absalom. His eyes became intense and his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth. Though his features were hard, she couldn’t help but think how handsome he was. It was a different kind of handsome than Morgan. Absalom embodied a type of regal-ness that demanded respect with his edgy jaw and muscular neck. His skin seemed slightly weathered yet healthy. Had he wanted to, he could have been an amazing leader in the human world. Even a king. His demeanor demanded respect. His jaw twitched again and his eyes flickered toward her but his head didn’t move, “Are you going to help me or just stare at me?” A chill shot down Aria's spine and she jerked her nose toward the wall and heard him huff next to her. Then out of her peripheral vision she saw him
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 28: More Riddles
Where is it? Aria’s head spun around looking for the vile creature that had invaded her body. “It’s gone.” Absalom’s voice rumbled through the air and he sighed heavily, then brought a hand up to rub his neck. “You did it.” He rose his eyes to meet hers and lifted one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile. Inside she beamed. “Think you can do it again?” Aria was silent for a moment and dropped her head watching the floor spin. The whole ordeal had taken much of her energy. How did I even do it? At first when she’d changed, Morgan… his smell… his touch… the thought of…! She stopped and looked up. Absalom’s glowing green eyes were pinpointed directly at her. “But it wasn’t your memory of Morgan this time, Aria. I tried that.” Aria huffed and tried to look away but couldn’t pull herself from his fixated gaze. Then her mind wondered back to her fight with the phantom. Flashes of Absalom’s voice commanding her to quiet, listen, and remember flitted through her memory but
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 27: An Unespected Breakthrough
Aria’s mind wrestled with the strong anger inside her. Somehow a surge of it seemed to overtake her along with a great sense of hopelessness. She struggled to open her eyes, but everything was black. Revenge her mind told her. Was it her mind? Her voice sounded different. Death, it said. When she opened her eyes, the world was in faded colors around her… except for him. Who was he? Her eyes honed in on a red form that was… wolf! Aria growled in her throat. She hated wolves. Wolves had trapped her away in a dark place. Wolves had killed her! Heat surged into her chest and she lunged at the large form in front of her. The wolf was quick to dodge out of her way, but she spun around to face him again. A noise sounded in her head, but it was inaudible. Still it tugged at something inside of her but an involuntary reflux pushed it away. Her body seemed to move on its own and she walked to where a scrap piece of a metal rod lay on the ground and picked it up, then began swi
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 26: A Ghost from the Past
Aria looked up and down the wall investigating any etching that resembled a word. On the wall in front of them, there was nothing. Absalom searched the floor around the tiles they’d been stepping on, nothing. Aria backed away from the wall and began to investigate further out on the floor. Other tiles were found with similar words that had also been on the wall mural, but none of them were the one they were looking for. From across the room, she heard a loud growl and raised her eyes to see Absalom with his arm behind his head grabbing a fist full of hair. The sight made her smile in amusement. He hadn’t seemed to be the type that was easily rattled, always so noble and in control of himself, even when he was driving her up the wall with his “tests”. She made it to the opposite wall where empty shelves lined it in elegant stony form and began to walk along it casually glancing up and down the shelves when an idea struck her. “Absalom!” His head snapped toward her and her sto
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 25: A Puzzling Experience
Three days later, Aria was still in her human form. She frowned as she pondered what could possibly be the cause to the seeming eternal human form. Absalom said nothing to her about it and she wondered at that too. Her human form used to last only moments and while two months ago she would have given anything to maintain her transformation this long, now it was hindering her mission. Aria grunted as she tripped over an exposed tree root and Absalom, who had been walking ahead of her, quickly turned around ready to attack, then relaxed as he realized there was no threat.“You should be more careful where you’re stepping.” Aria scowled over his obvious comment. Absalom grunted and turned back to his path. Aria was so deep in thought, she neglected to notice the familiar terrain Absalom was leading them through as she pushed a red leafy bush branch aside. She didn’t realize where they’d been headed until the dark wolf statue materialized in front of them as then entered Absalom’s
Werewolf Origins: Aria The Beginning Chapter 24: The Village of the Unmarked Wolf
After hours of walking, Aria’s feet burned with raw spots and cuts from the ruthless forest floor. Absalom hadn’t slowed since exiting the cave and his quick walk kept her at a slow jog. Her body was tired and though trying to breathe, she hadn’t a moment to ask any of the questions pressing on her mind. Absalom had stayed silent, barely uttering a word besides the occasional this way or watch your step. “I thought you said this village was just up ahead.” “It is.” His rumbling voice immediately silenced her desire to complain. His ability to demand her respect still annoyed her as did the urging from the wolf inside to submit to the desires he drew out in her. They climbed over more fallen trees and emerged onto a well-worn path. Absalom turned his nose up into the air and sniffed. Aria wondered that he could still use his wolf abilities in his human form. He stood still for a moment and then resumed walking. The path began to turn down into what appeared to be a ravine. T
