Crimson Moon

I collapsed onto my sister, my face buried into her fur. I wept as Tiberius came over to me. He grasped my hand, pulling me up. He brought me into an embrace.

“I’m so sorry Calla.” Was all he said to me.

What can someone say to another in a time like this? There really isn’t any kind of words that can express the pain someone feels. No words that can perfectly comfort one who is grieving from such a terrible loss.

Something stirred beside me as I was encased in Tiberius’s arms. I ignored it, not caring about anything at the moment.

Reed's voice yelled, “Uh you guys?”

Tiberius replied as he shot Reed a dirty look, “not now Reed.”

“Seriously look!” Reed said not letting Tiberius tell him to shut up.

“What’s so important?” He asked annoyed at Reed.

He looked around me and gasped. He took my arm and started bringing me farther away from where my sister’s body laid.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him as I looked to the ground. Shock filled my entire body as what I saw was a true miracle come true. “Kat!” I screamed trying to run towards her but was blocked by Tiberius.

She was alive and trying to stand on her four grey paws. She looked exhausted, the change taking the best out of her. Tiberius spoke in an authoritative voice, “Calla, wait. We don’t know what she will do. She is extremely dangerous right now.” I looked over towards Reed who was taking a defensive stance.

“If she is so dangerous, why didn’t we transform ourselves?” I questioned him.

“We know how to defend ourselves against a new wolf.” Was all he said as he watched Katherine’s every move.

A low growl erupted from deep inside Katherine. She was slowly walking towards us hunched down as if she believed we were a threat, or worse, a snack.

“Calla, get behind me,” Tiberius said as he tried to push me behind him.

I slapped his arms away and said “no, I can defend myself. Plus, she won’t attack me. I know she won’t.”

“She doesn’t know any better right now. She isn’t in control.”

“She will be, trust me.”

“Calla.” He tried to reason with me but I ignored him and focused on my sister.

“Katherine, it’s me. Calla, your sister remember.”

As I took a step toward her another growl erupted from her. I stopped moving and slowly brought my hand out for her to smell.

Reed said “Calla, you don’t know what you’re doing. This is very dangerous.”

He was right next to Tiberius ready to jump at me if anything went wrong.

“Kat, please come back to me. I need you,” I said to her.

Slowly she walked over to me, her teeth exposed. Her fur was risen along her back telling us she was ready to attack. My heart pounded as nervousness struck me. I had no idea if she would attack me or not.

“Please Kat,” I said begging her, trying my best for her to understand me.

I closed my eyes and stood frozen right there, with my arm extended. I felt a gentle touch of a soft wet nose that caused my eyes to flutter open. There Kat was pressing her nose into my palm, her fur settled back down. I petted her head as she came over to brush her body against mine, no sign of threat left in her glimmering eyes.

“Hello Kat. I missed you so much, I thought you were dead. I had no idea what I was going to do without you. I love you so much, I hope you know that.”

In response to that, she pounced on me and knocked me over. I heard Tiberius gasp and yell “Calla!” As he attempted to run over to me.

“No, wait!” I yelled back at him.

It was then that she began to lick my face as I laughed. Tiberius stopped his attempt at saving me and relaxed once more.

“Calla, you really are going to give me a heart attack.” He said to me as he began to slowly walk over to me.

Once he made it over to me, he crouched beside me and slowly extended his hand to Kat. He slowly petted her as she allowed him to.

“What now?” I asked him.

“Now we get her to transform back before it gets too late. We have to get back to the castle before people begin to worry where we are.” He told me.

“Alright, and how do we do that?” I asked him.

“We really can’t unless we force her to. Don’t worry we won’t do that.” He said to me once he saw the expression on my face.

“How about we all transform into our wolves and have her follow us back to the castle? I could bring her into the house if she doesn’t transform by then. I could take care of her.” I said trying to reason with Tiberius.

“Having her follow us is a good idea, but I don’t want you alone with her. She is unpredictable at this time.”

“Then stay with me tonight,” I told him.

“Are you sure?” He asked me.

“Yes, plus I know you. You won’t sleep at all tonight if you’re stuck worrying about me.”

“Hmm alright.” He responded. “Let’s all transform.”

“Yes! I was hoping you would say that!” Reed exclaimed throwing off his shirt.

“Reed, I swear you are a unique one, aren’t you,” I said to him laughing.

Once we were all in our werewolf forms, we met back to where Katherine was located. I was so relieved that she turned out to be ok, with no other complications than what happened earlier. I bounded up towards her and brushed my face against hers showing her how much I cared.

I called out to her in my head, “Kat are you ok?” I asked her.

The only answer was an owl who cooed beside us. “Kat?” I asked again tilting my head in confusion, once again there was no answer.

“Why can’t I hear Katherine?” I asked Tiberius and Reed.

They exchanged a glance before Reed took a step towards me.

“Calla, what do you know about being bitten?” He asked me.

I tilted my head towards the air and squinted my eyebrows trying to think.

“Well I know that it is illegal to do, and not everyone survives the change. Other than that, only what I experienced with Katherine.” I said to them.

Reed responded, “If you are bitten by a werewolf, you transform into one. The thing is you belong to the pack who bit you.”

I looked at him as dread plummeted into my stomach.

“No,” I whispered in horror. “I refuse to believe that. You’re saying that Kat belongs with them? With Adolph?” I questioned him not wanting to believe anything that I was asking him.

Reed looked over towards Tiberius for help.

Tiberius answered, “You are correct Calla. Katherine will only be able to hear the thoughts from Adolph’s pack, but we will not make her join them. She will still be able to remain safe with us back at the castle. Even though she won’t truly belong, we will still treat her as one of our own. She may need some training, but I will do my best to help her out. I won’t let anything bad happen to your sister.” I exhaled in relief and walked over to Tiberius and rubbed my face against his showing him my appreciation.

“Thank you so much, Tiberius.”

“Anything for you my dear sweet Calla.” He responded to me.

Katherine’s voice broke the silence. “Would you two quit being so lovey dovely I don’t want to see my younger sister like that.”

A burst of laughter came from me and said “You’re just jealous Kat.”

“Uh-huh sure, I am. Anyway, could you two do me a favor and quit talking in your minds. I think this information is important for me too. But forgetting about everything serious, how do I look?” She asked us as she twirled in a circle.

Reed being the werewolf he is, whistled at her and said, “Dang some wolfie be smoken.”

If only Kat was in her human form I bet her face would have been pitch red like wildfire. I smiled at her and said, “You look nice Kat.”

Tiberius nodded in agreement.

She was a werewolf of a very small frame that looked quite fragile. Her size was a little bit bigger than mine but possessed much less muscle. I had no idea how she would be able to defend herself in a fight. She looked as though she would be very easy to take down, the thought frightening me. Tiberius was right, we were going to have to teach her how to defend herself.

“You really think so?” She asked us.

“I will be honest, I am jealous of all of your coat colors.” She looked at us one by one as she was speaking.

“I mean Reed, you get to be a reddish. Calla, you get to be a gorgeous white. Finally, Tiberius, you get to be the most mysterious color of all. Black as the midnight sky. Now that I think of it, it’s kind of funny.” She said as she laughed to herself.

“What’s so funny?” I asked her thinking she went paranoid.

“Tiberius is black and you are white. You’re like the moon in his sky.” She said still laughing at herself.

“Okay then,” I said very slowly dragging the words out. “No offense Katherine I think you lost your mind.”

“In all seriousness though, there is nothing wrong with the color of your fur. You are gorgeous just the way you are.” I responded to her.

“Thank you, my little sister, it means so much to me.” I nodded accepting her gratitude.

Tiberius padded deeper into the woods, Reed following him. When he noticed we weren’t coming, Tiberius howled trying to get our attention.

We then started padding over to them and I said to him as we caught up, “A little impatient are we, Tiberius?” I flashed him a smile as I spoke.

“Maybe.” He responded his eyes glimmering.

“We are safe here you know that,” I told him as I brushed my tail along his spine. “You can relax now.”

“We may be safe but we may not be as well. Besides the point, there is no way I can relax when you could be in danger.” His eyes searching the woods around us.

“Shh Tiberius. I can handle myself.”

“Possibly,” He responded.

“How about this,” I said trying to reason with him. “I will give you permission to train Kat and me both. That way you know I will be able to defend myself.”

“Hey, I want to help!” Reed yelped next to us.

We all ignored him.

“Hmm okay, I think I can accept that,” Tiberius said as he nodded his head.

I was positive I didn’t need Tiberius’s training, I could defend myself well. I didn’t think he could truly be that better at fighting than I was, but I wanted to help him calm down. He seemed too stressed out after the whole Rafiq incident, to which I really didn’t blame him. I mean if I smelled Rafiq on him as well, I too would be worried.

“What makes you think I need training?” I heard Katherine call out from beside us.

Instead of answering, I noticed Reed stalk toward her without her noticing. Stealthily he pounced on her and knocked her off balance as she fell on her back with her stomach exposed. He put his jaws around her neck as I saw her swallow hard and laid there frozen on the green grass. Reed jumped off of her with a content look on his face.

“I think that explains it well.” He simply said to her as she stood back onto her feet and shot him a deadly glare.

He didn’t notice though, he was too busy trotting to catch back up to us.

“Okay, maybe he is right,” Katherine said when she saw the look I was giving her.

“You think?” I asked her as I started laughing. “No offense Kat I think you may need more training than I thought. Good luck with her Tiberius.” She redirected her deadly glare to me instead.

Tiberius took Katherine’s side in the argument and said, “don’t worry I’ll train you to be even better than Calla. She tends to be too big for her own britches.”

I looked over to him and laughed “dang Tiberius, did you turn ninety on me?” I joked with him.

“You would like that wouldn’t you?” He joked right back with me wiggling his eyebrows.

“Eh, probably not,” I responded to him shrugging.

Reed said, “Get a room you two.” As he pushed Kat forward with his nose and they raced toward the gate.

“Be careful with my sister, she is fragile!” I called out after them.

My sister turned around and stuck her tongue out at me and said, “I’ll show you fragile,” as she raced forward. I just rolled my eyes at her and shook my head.

“They will be ok, plus we can see her from here,” Tiberius said to me in a serious tone.

“You really think so?” I questioned him worried.

“I know so.” He simply responded and I gave out a large exhale in relief.

“Ok,” I muttered as Tiberius put his tail over my back.

We then continued on our path to the castle, the place of which we call home.

Once we all arrived at the door to my “house,” I scratched on the oak. Being that we were still in our wolf forms, we couldn’t just open the handle. Not with the rounded style that it was. After a few minutes, just when I thought we were going to have to find another way in, my mother opened the door and looked down.

“Ooh, you brought more with you!” She exclaimed excitedly. “Now there is a red color and a grey color! Who knew that there could be so many different coat colors?!” She clapped her hands as she squealed and jumped in the air like a child.

When she was done clapping she cocked her head sideways her brow furrowed.

“Where is Katherine? I thought she would be with you guys.”

I felt foolish, how stupid could I have been. I didn’t even think about how I was going to break it to my mother that another one of her children wasn’t a normal human anymore. She would probably blame it on me right away, especially for the fact that Katherine is her baby. I dropped my head to the floor, my ears drooping as well as sadness overcame me. Tiberius and Reed avoided my mother's eye contact as Katherine slowly made her way to my mother.

“Katherine? Where are you?” She said looking behind all of us into the hall. “She has to be around here somewhere, she never goes very far.” She said as she looked at us.

Katherine gently tugged at the bottom of my mother’s pants trying to get her attention. She looked down saying “Hello, not now new one. I’m trying to find my daughter. Have you seen her?” She asked Katherine not understanding that she was indeed her daughter. Katherine nodded her wolf head in response to my mom’s question. “Great! Where is she?” She asked Katherine bending down to give her a pat on the head.

I looked up and walked over to my confused mother to try to help her understand what was going on. I pointed my tail in the direction of Katherine as I was looking at my mom.

“I don’t understand. Where did she go?” I dropped my head and flicked my tail from my mother to Katherine’s wolf form.”

I watched the light bulb inside her head went off and her face lit up with horror.

“What happened?!” She yelled making me jump backwards away from her.

I saw Katherine tense up afraid for what was going to happen. She jumped down to give Katherine a bear hug as tears began to spill from her blue eyes. A minute passed by with nothing happening. All of a sudden she turned towards me, her eyes containing an icy stare.

“What did you do!?” She screamed at me. “How could you turn my daughter into a monster like you?!”

I crouched low to the ground. My head dropping as I slowly backed away from her upset that she was accusing me of such a terrible act and even worse calling me a monster. She waved her hand at me and yelled,

“Go, get! I don’t want to see you right now!”

I inched my way toward her as she turned back to face Katherine, resting her head on hers. As I approached her I nuzzled her arm to show her that I was sorry for what happened. Instead of my mom forgiving me, I just threw gasoline on the fire. She thrashed her elbow back at me, hitting me right in the nose with great force. Blood started dripping from my nose onto the floor as I shook my head to reduce the pain of the blunt hit.

“I mean it Calla, get away from me. Don’t make me hit you even harder.”

I noticed Tiberius try to walk towards me with an angry expression on his face from the corner of my eye. Reed stepped in the way and shook his head in a no position. I was petrified by what was happening, she never acted this way. She was always sweet, just needed us to take care of her.

I heard Tiberius speak in my head, “Please Calla, let’s go. I can’t stand to see you get hurt anymore.”

I turned around to look at him, a pained expression evident on his face. His body was tense and I noticed that he was hardly breathing.

“Please,” he begged me even further.

“What about Katherine?” I said as I nodded in the direction of where she was standing. “She is too dangerous to be left alone.” Adding to what I just said.

Reed responded, “I will stay here and watch her. You and Tiberius get out of here. I will call you when your mother isn’t so dangerous for you to be around. I can’t stand you getting hurt, just like Tiberius can’t. You know how we feel about females.” He said to me.

Tiberius must have seen my hesitation as he begged me once more, “please Calla, I can’t stand here and watch this.”

I slowly nodded, reluctantly agreeing to what Reed said. I walked over to them my tail in between my legs, my ears back. If I was in human form I knew I would have been crying as I couldn’t contain my whimpering noises. “Thank you, Reed,” I said in such a hush manner of which was barely audible.

I continued walking past Tiberius and Reed not looking back to see if Tiberius was following me.

Katherine’s voice spoke out, but it was different than what it usually was. In a way, it was a little sinister as it said “You know what Calla? Now that I think about it, it really was your fault.”

My jaw dropped as I turned to look at her but she didn’t return the gaze. I heard Reed and Tiberius both gasp at what they heard confirming to me that I wasn’t the only one who heard it.

I trotted my way straight out the door and into the wilderness once more. As soon as I felt the fresh air, I collapsed onto the grass. I curled up into a ball and wiped the remaining blood from my face with my paw. Once I was sure all the blood was gone, I covered up my face with my tail and closed my eyes trying desperately to remove the images of what just occurred. Agonizing pain stabbed my bleeding heart, wrenching it, trying to cause as much pain as it could without killing me. I felt a warm body curl up beside me as I clenched my eyes closed not removing my tail. Instead, I smelt the air. It was a scent that helped relax me enough to remove my tail from my eyes and press deeper into him. A scent that smelled of the wilderness that made me dream of home.

“Tiberius,” I said softly in the darkness that surrounded my vision.

We sat like that for what seemed like hours but in reality was only minutes. Not a word was spoken as I accepted the embrace that he was giving me.

“I’m so sorry my dear sweet Calla,” he finally said. “Your sister and your mother should not have said those things to you. It was not your fault, you must believe me.”

I opened my eyes and slowly stood up looking down at him as he was still laying where I was only moments before.

“Thanks,” I said not really believing what he was saying.

How couldn’t it have been my fault? Without me, she wouldn’t have been exposed to any of this.

“I can’t believe she said that to me, it’s not like her. She has always been the perfect angel of the house, always the mediator in situations such as this. My mom and I don’t see eye to eye sometimes and that is when Kat steps in, always wanting the best for the family.” I said as I looked distantly into the woods, not focusing on anything in particular.

Tiberius stood up and walked next to me, sitting down looking into the woods as well.

“Calla, changing affects their personality. She isn’t herself right now, but she will be soon. We just have to give her time and be there for her when she needs us. It will all be ok, she is probably just scared and confused right now.”

“You’re right,” I responded and tucked my head under Tiberius letting him comfort me and feel protected. “What would I do without your support?” I asked him. He simply replied, “You would survive. You are a brave strong fighter Calla, never forget.” “Maybe,” I replied, “but I wouldn’t want to be without you.” “I feel the same way and don’t worry, I don’t have any plans on being without you.” Exhausted, I went from my sitting position to a laying one. Tiberius followed my movements never leaving my side. We closed our eyes as the world disappeared around us, Tiberius’s last spoken words echoing in my ears comforting me. Eventually, sleep drifted over our bodies, knocking us out.