"It is a test. You must do as I command. Once you pass the test, we can start with the big tasks."
The golem grunted, eyes big and mouth bigger. "Shhh." someone stood in the dark before him, wrapped in mud and leaves. It was hard to tell who it was, man or woman. The person was short and moved with vigor, a spring in their step. The golem followed after its master. The first step he took, snapped a large branch. The log pulled up into the golem's body. The golem squirmed. The person before it vanished in the dark of the forest. The golem looked around once than started going down the path alone
Ash heard a snap in the forest and Akiye came through the side, "you are here. Did I make you wait long?"
Ash shook her head, "is it allowed to leave the campus without permission?"
Akiye nodded. "yes. Everyone knows that a few of us get out of the campus every full moon to let off some steam. Werewolves always do it. Vance started getting some of the vampires to go too. The selkies, nixies, sirens all go there at different times."
Ash pushed out her phone and found a few signal bars. She texted Mayra, Are you coming to the backwaters with your class?
Myra responded immediately, They asked me to go tomorrow morning after the classes. Would you want to come?
I am already here with one of the high witch in training. Tell me your time, I will wait for you here. It's been a while since I heard yousing.
Around 4 or 5 in the morning. I want to know all about how your day was.
It was after 1 am. Ash could feel the need for rest coursing through her body. Having slept half the day, let her push past the drowziness. Ash asked Akiye, "who is going to be there?"
"Karn and his wolves have gone ahead. Vance may or may not come with the knights. We are going."
From behind them, a few warlocks and witches jumped the tall brick fence while others crawled through the small broken hole. "To celebrate Akiye's big promotion."
A witch in the group folded her arm, the last to float off the wall, "big payoff. You worked hard cleaning up after the high priestess."
The way the witch spoke did not imply any hard work but a whole lot of sarcasm. Ash watched as Akiye ignored her, even smiled slightly and turned her attention towards the forest. "Shall we go?"
Ash asked, "are you not going to say anything?"
Akiye smiled, "what is there to say? I am the priestess rep and they are not. Tonight is to let them get off some steam, so let them."
Ash did not think it was just letting off steam. It was not her place to speak, so she followed the two small group, one led by Akiye and another led by a warlock, whose bad mouthed witch companion wrapped around his arm, head turned to Akiye, watching intently.
It was a short tense walk through the forest. Akiye kept her eyes ahead and Ash followed. Soon, they arrived at, what was a calm river, shadowed by the other side with thick vegetation. There side of the river had been cleared for a long stretch on each side. From on end to the other, she saw students, in all shapes and sizes lounging around the bank. Closest to them, werewolves of the MoonBlessed stretched on their paws, some sleeping, some inside the river swimming, and some playing around in the muddy areas. Down the rive, further than she could see clearly, some cyclopes made camp. The professor from earlier, sat back and enjoyed a campfire as the class worked.
Ash did not see Vance or Bree around. Not even Drew or any of the other vampires was in the area. Though she had seen Vance in the dorm, of the man really wanted to come, he could have ran here before she reached the banks. As if he knew her thoughts, a man, shoulders pulled back, chin up, eyes sharp and glasses gone walked out of the forest, hands in his pocket, a small smile hanging from his lips.
He looked a little drunk, a little to confident and attention seeking. It was a different version of him, confident, swaggering, turning eyes everywhere he went. The woman who had talked down to Akiye squeeked, "hey Vance."
Vance flashed the woman a smile, looked at Akiye, raised a hand in greeting and went on walking past them to Karn. There, he threw his leg out, hands back and flopped beside the big white wolf.
"Hey mate."
Karn picked his wolf head, looked back, looked at Vance and then flopped his head back onto his paws. Down in the stream, some of the playing wolves inched away, downstream and the wolves playing closeby, rough handling each other slipped further too.
"We have a few hours before we head back. Go on," saying Akiye walked over to Vance and asked, "may I?"
Vance looked at Akiye silently and tilted his head before going back to leaned closer to Karn. Akiye held her hand and pulled her to sit beside Vance. Unexpectedly, Ash found herself on the floor, hand brushing over Vance. The man was ignoring her as usual, without any sign that they were, in some manner, members of the same club.
She spoke softly, "thank you for coming to my defense during the council meeting."
Vance looked at her once and looked away again. Akiye leaned forward on her hand, knees together, looking into the water. Ash followed her gaze and saw a few selkies in their seal skin, swimming in the moonlight. Akiye waved slightly. A seal pulled above water and took human form- Arabella, waved back, and went underwater in true selkie shape.
"It looks like everyone is enjoying a good bathe in the moonlight." Ash said. Akiye nodded. "Once the selkies go back, the kelpies will be here, then the nixies and finally the sirens."
"My friend said she will be here close to the morning."
Akiye looked over, "your friend?"
"Mayra. A siren." Ash explained. "I will bring her along to introduce you next time."
Akiye gave her a blank look, "how do you know your friendship is not the work of her siren song?"
Ash paused. It was the first time someone had asked her such a thing bluntly. A small part of her felt uneasy with Akiye's distrust. Yet, she explained, "I am immune to siren songs."
Akiye put a hand to her mouth, "that is some amazing ability."
Ash shook her head, "I simply developed some resistance as we grew up together."
Besides them Karn stood up and walked away from their group. From the corner of her eye, Vance looked at Akiye, who ignored the vampire knight. Her admiring eyes did not dim at all, "it is still some amazing feat."
"Thank you," Ash said. As quickly as Karn had bounded away, he returned and sat down besides Vance.
"Your kind is known to have all ways of resistance. Their oldest ancestor was a sailor who braved the seven seas and settled on Kalai with everything he had, expanding generations of life on the island, worshiping the moon goddess, taking on the believes of his witch husband. Together, they adopted a daughter and a son, who had been washed out on the shore in a shipwreck. That was the only time your lineage had any daughters."
It was Ash's first time hearing Karn speak. At length too. She responded in kind, relieved for the lack of ill feelings between them, "my parents names me after our first ancestor."
Akiye asked, "that's a great story. Your family has a long history too. It must be interesting."
Ash said, "It is."
Karn added, "it is a great responsibility to be born into a family with along lineage. Nothing average or under ever cuts it."
Ash smiled a little. "I know the feeling."
Karn looked at Vance, who stood up, "what's the point of talking about this? I am heading back. S till got to show the new knights around."
Akiye whispered, "he is aiming to be the first year representative for the vampires."
Ash wanted to say something along the lines of good luck or hope you get it but Vance was already walking away in typical Vance fashion. Ash also felt like the sudden spikes in her heart earlier were beginning to calm down. Even as he turned his back to walk away, she lacked to feel disappointed or curious.
Ash looked at the moonlight reflecting on river, the only ripples in it were those by the were wolves playing around. She waited and waited, Vance's face clear in her memory. He had always ignored her, but he had also seemed interested. Tonight, he made his decision. Since he chose to walk away from the interest between them, there was nothing to look forward to.
Akiye stood up too, "I will be back in a moment. Let me check on the warlocks back there."
Ash nodded absently. Karn was not sitting to close and the silence between them was comfortable. Karn said, "apologies for my sister's behavior. I wanted to say that I or my sister hold no enmity towards you for the rejection. Consider the position of the moderators, it was an expected outcome."
Since Karn had taken the first step, she was not about to poke into their interpersonal problems. She said, "I hope our families can see that clearly and put the tension between the two clans to rest."
Karn sighed, eyes still fixed on his wolves. Akiye came back then, flopped besides Ash and asked, "what are you talking about?"
Karn responded, "mates."
Though it was a lie, Ash turned to Akiye and directed the conversation smoothly, "since I have always been on the island, the whole thing feels very legendary."
"It is like a blue moon blessing."
Ash frowned, "how so?"
Akiye put her chin over her knees, eyes far away, "of a 1000 creatures only one pair ever finds each other. There is a large disparity between the races, so it comes after much tribulation to the pair itself. Some of us want to find a mate desperately, want that rare blue moon blessing, want someone to know us in the depth of our soul. But not all. Some of us never want to find a mate. Life is hard as is, finding a mate, finding that rare blue moon blessing makes life more difficult than it already is."
Karn leaned forward, to look at Akiye, "We have had this discussion in the council room last year. Bree, Vance and me wanted it while Drew, Karlene, Sven and Akiye were against it."
"And Arabella?"
"She doesn't mind either way."
"Dwera has the most unique perspective on it." Akiye laughed, "he said he does not want to find a mate but he would fight tooth and nail for those who do. Afterall, if the moon goddess considered someone worthy enough to take that challenege, it would be an honor to go through the trials she set upon them."
Ash couldn't help smile, "very... romantic." There wasn't a more appropriate word for that. "everyone in this world wants someone to stand by their side through thick and thin."
Her heart swelled in respect for the centaur Dwera Rockwish was. She wondered if he knew of his brother's relationship and if he's be willing to stand true to his words.
Akiye asked, "what do you think?"
Ash shrugged. "I don't think moderators, as the human part of them, works that way. Though it would be blessing to find someone who would understand me such, it would be unfair to put that kind of expectation on anyone, even a mate."
"You are a sweetheart," Akiye smiled wider but it did not reach her eyes.
For the rest of the night, they sat in silence. At one point, Ash put her head between her arms, rested her arms on her knees and closed her eyes. Though her body rested, her mind refused to sleep. In the middle of an unknown territory, she could not let sleep take over. She slipped from consious to unconsious as Karn stood up and walked away with a whisper of, "see you tomorrow."
Ash hummed a non verbal response and Akiye said after he was gone, "he is on the quieter side," as if defending Karn. Ash wondered if Akiye liked Karn but did not ask. Mayra had once told her that a normal college was site for romance. She had binged human television shows but Ash never found much interest in them. She was far too busy with court and kingdom duties in those days. Now that she was past the romantic hormonal age, she wondered how much of that was true.
Perhaps it was her sleepy swimming consciousness thinking about unnecessary thing. What she needed to focus on was her relationship with Karn and Karlene to avert the looming dangers on her homeland.
She blinked hard and fast and leaned away from her knees. The urge to stretch her arms and back, washed over her. She stood up, "I should head back too."
The moon was leaning on the top of the trees, half hidden, ready to retire for the night. She checked her phone. The sirens must be on their way.
Akiye was not beside her anymore. She walked around and saw some of the witches and warlocks sitting besides a campfire, practicing their magic. Akiye wasn't among them but there was another group of witches missing. Thinking Akiye must be with them, she turned and headed back into the forest. If she could meet up with the sirens and come back to the backwater, she would let her urge to stretch pass and wash away the sleep from her body too.
She had barely taken a step past the first line of trees when she saw the back of a golem, shrinking into a human shape, smaller and smaller until it was the size of an adolecent. To not disturb the creature, she walked around in an arc. The golem shifted again, a taller frame, a lean waist, his limbs lithe and long. Like Vance. The back of the head had the similar shape with sleeked back hair.
"Ash." she heard Mayra. She turned to look in the direction of the sound. Mayra's eyes wide screamed, "Ash."
Mayra wasn't looking at her. She was looking at the golem. She turned to see and saw the sharp teeth and claws like a sharpened wood coming straight at her.
Fear gripped her heart, slugging her motion as she threw herself to the side. The golem's hollow black eyes followed her motion easily, his log-like arm shifting with her, pointed straight for her gut.