Blood Moon Eclipse: The lone wolf

Deep in the hallows of my ancient city; a city situated in the heart of a continent that gave life to the living in flesh; a place where the legendary dragons came into existence,... in that place our ancestors emerged amongst the people of the world as the wolf blooded ones. We neither knew when it happened nor it's reason but we knew we were hated by the pious humans, who considered us to be less human, demons, savage man-eating beasts, and to them, we were just a myth. They neither acknowledged our existence and we considered them mundane.

Our kind had been purged by the humans since the dawn of time and this had brewed the hate between us deeper, that an oracle had been written in the religious books of us werewolves and humans alike, a dark oracle about the destruction of life in an untimely war that would end the existence of the wolf blooded ones. It was a popular prophecy that was known to every heart in Atlantis, except nobody really knew the dawning of the day when the oracle would come true. I was just an ambitious girl, existing looking to weave my dreams and make a place for myself in this uncertain world. My Name is Anathi, and I was born into a family of werewolves. The dark and most hated creatures in this sacred land, where goodness is solely sanctified; my sweet home, Atlantis...

The yellow sandy desert glowed in the scathing sun as my horse paced briskly behind my father who was quickly walking ahead of me. The heat was extremely unbearable and my horse was almost staggering, my white cotton dress was almost brown from the dust lifted by the minor sandstorms that constantly attacked us. Usually the weather didn't change much in Atlantis as it was partly a desert infested area, nevertheless, it was abundant in vegetation. Today though as we proceeded on our journey, it was different. Different that the clouds, were hovering above in the skies in gloom threatening a rainy afternoon. We had travelled far, for many, many miles hoping to reach our destination soon, as we had begun our journey at the peak of dawn, by day break we had reached the beginning of the haunted sacred Kamuri desert lands.

"Come on Anathi, hurry up please or else we will be discovered by the dead spirits of the beasts lurking within this haunted, barren land !" He cautiously called out to me when he noticed I was trailing a bit behind. "Stay close to me! We gotta stick together, just in case!"

I let out a slight laughter to lighten up the dead, calm mood. There was nothing to be seen or heard except our voices, not even the birds trespassed the skies. "Are you scared father! You never told me where we really are going!"

"Scared of what? I'm just looking out for you! I told you we are off to Dragon's heart!" My father began to say.

"You told me you have been there before?" I doubted the credibility of him ever visiting the place.

"Yes, I was there before in that famous place. I was sick, I was about nineteen when I had the honour of seeing the legendary temple with my own eyes. I had just been poisoned with wolfsbane and I was dying. My own uncle brought me through this same desert and a seer healed me. Your uncle also came here when he didn't get his first transformation." He was blubbering about how nice and sacred the temple was.

The journey was long and tiring. The first time I had learned of this place, I was thirteen. It was sacred to just witness the unfathomable beautiful sands considering I had never been in the desert before.

"I got off my horse and stooped on the ground removing my slippers. Although the ground scathed my tender feet, the hot sand felt good seeping through, in-between my toes. I scooped a handful of it in my hands, some of it seeping through my fingers." I gazed into the distance; nothing but golden silky sand dunes.

"Hey! Why did you stop! Come on!". My father called out to me as he turned around.

"Okay, I'm just tired that's all!" I uttered brushing sweat off my brow. I was dizzy. I could not continue. "Dad, can't we rest for a bit somewhere!"

"No, this place is dangerous! The last thing we want is for night to dawn in on us because that's when this place is haunted most." He said to me, But he had drifted away into haziness. I passed out. I woke up later to find my dad and a strange boy looking over me.

"Anathi!" My dad called out.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"You passed out!" He said as the boy who looked to be about nineteen handed me a wooden bottle with crystal clear water. There was something strange about him. It wasn't his green eyes and light yellow/brown smooth skin that alerted me that something was different about him, it was the garb he wore. It was traditionally woven leather pieces with seashells embedded in at the top; he carried a golden dagger, embedded with strange metal.

"Drink, we have a long journey ahead of us!" He said to me and there was something mystical about him.

"He found us!" My dad smiled. "He is also on the same journey we are making and he showed up from nowhere when you fainted. Isn't that great." He smiled at me.

"I'm amun!" He said as he helped me up. (amun, an African word simply meaning a man. It also meant sir, and father )

"So you have no actual name?" I asked.

He just smiled back at me and began walking.

Strangely, after drinking his water, I felt better and did not feel tired or anything of that sort throughout the journey, except fear, fear for this unknown young man who had shown up from nowhere.

My heart heaved as I rode my horse. I was filled with fear and there was something in me that did not want to continue, but I just did. If my dad made it the last time, we could make it now too. To comfort myself, I sunk into my own world of thoughts, ruminating about my one and only love, and before I realised it, the unfathomable desert had swallowed us deeper into its land of nothing but golden sands, In the distance, debris of land and rock and dry rocky mountains started to appear. It was the end of the desert, and somewhere deep in that rocky gorge, lay the mythical temple of seers.

I had read about it in papyrus scrolls in the city's library; a place I was notorious for frequenting. I learned it in school. They say this temple was carved into a giant mountain secured by a dry valley of limestone. The dry valley' was shaped like a heart and with it's core as the temple; giving it the name

'Dragon's heart.'

They say in this gorge dwelt a legend even the pharaoh of Atlantis dared to utter with his hallowed mouth. A tale whispered around fires by families during evenings. A story that reigned in the sacred books of Atlantis, existing in the hearts of the people; a legend that dwelt in the voids of time passed down from ancestor to descendant. It was the tale of the Serpent temple of seers that resided at Dragon's heart. A home to the immortal keepers that dwelt within it's very walls, granting the gift of healing, wishes and future to those who took the endeavour to visit. They say only the bravest could come and return alive in one piece, but my father had proven his valiance through coming for the second time.

We proceeded deeper to the end of the desert until we came upon an entrance that signified our journey would be coming to a halt. Beyond the valley lay other rocky mountains, then a little forest began, furthering into unseen horizons where the sea took over. I had seen it on a map.

The valley was large, the limestone mountains stood tall with a large passage in the middle leading to the core. We proceeded in but my horse began to blare out of fear, shying away. I got off and tied her to a rock. The passage ground was dry with cracks revealing deep dark holes throughout.

"Once we had the inauspicious luck of trampling this very ground!" My father began to say.

"Is it safe to walk here? It looks like the ground will collapse anytime soon!" I said to him feeling nervous and scared. I was walking stealthily, as if walking on eggshells. Death was the last thing on my mind.

"The last time I came here, the ground was wet and felt hollow and it shook beneath your feet curving in, as you walked, I was so afraid." He smiled at us lightening up the mood, but amun proceed without any form

of fear. Confidently.

"Don't worry, nothing which you fear will happen!" He said as if he had read my mind. He held my hand and led me through the way

My heart had gone into a rhythmic panic. I had read about the story of Dragon's heart.

Long ago, there was no desert...;

The desert was just a seabed and the limestone gorge was submerged under water. The sacred sea was home to the Serpent deity; the Nyaminyami, (meaning deity of the star beings) once upon a frame in history's time. He dwelt there lying in peace and would only resurface above the waters every lunar eclipse or when the people of Atlantis gave their offerings to him. The sight of him on an inauspicious day was deemed to be bad luck. It is said the serpent's length was unfathomable, endless, more than a hundred metres and no one had ever seen it's tail. Its width was at least fifty metres. It was a serpent with the head of a dragon. The Nyaminyami was the basis of piety in Atlantis as it's figure was worn attached to the headress of a person , in the front just above of the forehead not only in Atlantis but also in Egypt, in Niger and in other kingdoms alike. They say one day when a superior empire conquered our nation in the past, they ran the rivers and that part of the sea dry, leading to the snake deity being chased away into the ocean leaving it's heart, the gorge. That part of the sea became above sea level and became a beautiful desert. The serpent spirit had left it's guardians of the sea, as keepers of his heart. Why was my father bringing me to this place? To heal me.

The sight of him running in the wind, his paws digging into the soil while I followed on horse back when our journey began in the forest showed that, the fact that he had a wolfless daughter really bothered him. He had transformed back to his human form when we first set foot to enter the desert. He did not want to be seen.

"I can't believe you made me skip school just for this." I heard myself say.

"Well if we didn't come here, we wouldn't have the chance to know if you will become normal!"

"Normal?" I was furious. "You consider that normal?" I uttered.

"People think people like us as freaks, monsters, and dad. And I'm happy I'm not yet like you. I'll be happy to never become like any of those born like me."

I wished I had not uttered those words at all because at that moment, he walked back to me, and pushed amun away and he slapped me across the face, drawing blood from my nose. I fell to the ground.

I remember feeling horribly nauseated as my gaze was drawn to cracks in the ground. Inside the cracks one could see a river of shiny, curling strands of dark silk, of every kind flowing beneath the ground; a lot of snakes coiling amongst each other. A million of them, probably. I let out a scream and got up pacing backwards. But Amun grabbed my hand.

"No daughter of mine will live on this earth and die like a mundane." My father continued absentmindedly, but I was not paying any attention. He followed my gaze and he squatted to take a closer look. That's when he cringed and I saw he was covered in shivers.

" Come on!" He kept on calling me. "I know you're scared but don't look down. This will be the last time we come here. I promise!"

"Nothing will happen, show no fear!" Amun assured us. In the core of the heart of the gorge, there it stood; gigantic, carved into the limestone mountain, with hundreds of candles lit at the entrance. The serpent temple of seers had it's art engraved into it and as you stepped foot on the first step of the giant entrance into the cave, a mysterious air blew about.

"You see this amun?" I began to say. But he was no were to be seen. He had just disappeared. My dad shouted for him and even traced his steps back but he wasn't there.

"Maybe he decided to stay behind and wait for us."

My dad was surprised to not see the familiar face he once saw when he came, as a different woman stood by the entrance of the temple. The seer my father had consulted. Dineo. She had been the grand seer, in the temple.

Where is she!" My dad asked the strange young woman. Suddenly, the atmosphere was cold in this place. Something about this woman was not right. Something about her showed she was not of this realm. She ignored him and led us into the temple infested with the wealthiest jewels no human had laid eyes upon and lived to tell the tale, because as always the dead that had tried to loot had proven that my father was right after all, that there was always something about mundanes that made them greedy that they would die for wealth, they couldn't resist theft for such a thing like gold and he said we were different because us supernaturals were tied to nature and our origins and that nor form of greed dared to dwell in our hearts. I believed otherwise.

Legend had it, if you stole, your soul would be tied to it. Your body will be bound to the desert with no chance of exit. You would roam the sands to the day of your death.

I awed at all that was in front of me once again. The skeletons of those that came to rob the seers still lay chained to the jewellery.

The alter was situated near a giant fountain in the wall, many many meters away from us and in four neat lines sat young garbed men in a meditative state. To my horror, they all bore the face of amun. And the maidens who served them were similar in looks to the woman.

"This way!" She motioned with her hand, the other holding the lamb light and she led us into another room. The sound of trickling water from the holy shrine could still be heard. This place was horrific enough to scare someone as valiant as my father who never seemed to be afraid of anything because in that moment his eyes were bulged and he was as jumpy as anyone can be.

.

"Wait!" she said to my father who seemed drawn to her beauty like a magnet.

He held her hand as she exited but she uncomfortably pulled away leaving me feeling deeply embarrassed of him.

She went out for a while leaving us in the cold room with it's upper walls aligned with dry human skulls and lit white candles. Beneath the skulls lay a shelf full of containers and feathers and some unidentifiable substances. The floor was naturally made of sapphire, and in the middle was a large woven mat, and a large marble bowl seeping out of the floor filled with crystal clear water.

The wait was long even though she returned after a few minutes. The fear that beheld my heart made each second seem like hours. She paced about the room collecting all the things she would need for the session. Her dress was traditionally woven leather and her hair was worn in long dark braids beaded with blue peacock feathers. Her lips were a light brown just like her skin tone, her devious eyes were a deep green and her figure was slim.

" I never knew there were so many others here besides the few I saw and old wise, Dineo!" My dad began to smile at her, to break the ice, but she ignored him.

"Where is she?"

"Gone! She was not in this place." the young woman answered.

"Gone where? She wasn't a keeper?"

"She went and laid along with her ancestors and she is never to return to this realm because she was a mundane, and not immortal" She said, her scary eyes drilling into my father's.

"Anymore questions?" She seemed annoyed. "We will be your servant from now on and we will help you with your matter!"

"We?"

"Yes, us keepers of the temple."

There was a deathly silence as she ground her roots in front of us, sitting right adjacent to us. She gazed at us and I looked down uncomfortably except for my father who was rubbing his hands nervously.

"What do we call you?" My dad asked her, his voice shaking.

"Isis. We are women! We have no name!"

She answered him.

(Isis, an African word which means ',woman, girl, she, or madam, or goddess.)

"If you really want to know what we are...We are the sun and the protector, we are worshipped. We help as seers. We are the water that runs the wild rivers, the spirit that trails the breeze, the wind that the mountains echo, and the animal that humans fear."

She said looking down. "We are what we are. "

"And what is that supposed to mean?" My father uttered in confusion but I had sort of understood what she meant. She and those other keepers were just spirits bound to the desert. I had read about that also.

Now my dad probably thought this had been a bad endeavour. I could tell he wanted to leave.

.

"I'm here for my daughter!" My father began.

"You know, we are a family of werewolves and she is the only one in the clan who has reached her menses and isn't able to transform..."

"We already know why you are here!" She answered.

"You did?" He was surprised.

"You shouldn't force it, just so you know! What is meant to come naturally will come to her!" She said as I felt more creeped out.

My father was speechless at first then disappointed and he began to lecture her!

"Ssh!" He cut her short. "Listen to what is told to you. A heart that loves to speak will never learn to listen and therefore it remains oblivious because it will never learn anything but a heart that speaks less and likes to listen remains buried deep in wisdom." She said to him, shutting him up.

She took the powdered dust she had ground from the roots and to my horror, she blew it in my tender face, and I began to choke on it's sting. My eyes were wet, as I rubbed them.

"Open your eyes and see.! Hold your breath!" She uttered as she gazed deeply into my eyes with a serious look. This mysterious woman held me by my long dark locks and slowly pulled my head towards the bowl of water which turned dark. "Open your eyes and see!"

"What do you see?" She asked me.

"Nothing!" I replied horrified, looking at my dad who just sat there frozen, just gazing in shock.

She began to talk. "Try to see into your future, the sacred seeing waters will show it to you!" She said to me!

At that moment, visual images began to appear before me.

"What did you see!" She asked me unmoved.

"I was trotting behind my father walking in the forest as he dragged someone whom I saw transform into a wolf of white form!"

I said to her,

"That is a good thing! She said, "You can go home!"

"That's it ?" My father, who had been watching in shock too afraid to intervene, said.

"I said go home!" That's all she said as we stood ready to begin our long journey back.

My father neither argued nor questioned her any further because he was relieved that at least the future held the solution to 'his' problem.

"Never again!" He uttered as we exited the cave to leave. I hoped it would be the last time my father brought me to this sanctified place of horrors to see a seer and for the very first time in a long time, it rained like never before.

"It is a sign for a new dawn, that your wishes will be answered!" A voice spoke from behind us at the entrance of the temple.

It was probably one of the meditating keepers. He looked like amun. They all looked like amun.

"amun?" My father asked as he gazed at me.

"Yes,"

"What are you?" I asked him.

I'm a guardian of the temple," he said as he looked down on the ground as if disappointed for telling me that very fact.

"It was my obligation that you see your journey through. It is always my duty to help those who seek to find the temple, for a good cause. That's my purpose here. I was sent to you when you fainted." He said to us as he walked up to me.

My dad mumbled to himself under his breath.

At that very moment, he morphed into a black snake and slithered between the cracks into the hollowed pit of snakes. My dad shrieked as we crept away.

As soon as we got home, I collapsed on my warm bed and lay there ruminating on the day's events. The evening was warm and I paced to open my window gazing at the moon for a moment. The same lunar mother that had cursed me with this gift that would see my father going to all ends for it. I had seen it all and I was no longer willing to see how far my father was willing to go in order to have me transform. I sat on my bed. I had a horrible headache from the smelly strange herbs the snake spirit had blown in my face. I still shivered. I was still shaken by the day's events. And to think being a wolf blood and seeing my family transform still does not scare me as much as when I saw the woman changing into a snake.

I lay in the bed as my back ached and my painful ankles and joints tormented me from the long journey we had made back home. We had travelled the rest of the afternoon and evening to reach home and we had made it right before ten pm. Right in time for bed because I would be up for school in the morning. I could hear my dad and my sister arguing.

"Dad, you took her to that awful place to see those demonic seers?" She howled in apprehension.

"They aren't demonic, they helped your uncle when he couldn't transform back then and now look at him. He is the strongest of his pack and also he is now the leader of the council."

"Dad, you don't really have to do that to her, just give her time and it will happen!"

"When, she's almost eighteen and she hasn't even given a hint that something could happen. How will I face the world knowing that I have a mundane, for a daughter." He hauled in rage.

"A mundane, HA! I see! Are you ashamed of her because she can't transform yet? And what's wrong with being mundane?" She asked him, her voice sounding shocked.

"What's wrong with being mundane?" She retorted after him.

"I can't believe you, of all people, would ask me that question. Soon, the lassie you see in there that is your sister will be eighteen and she will be expected to find her mate. Do you also think she should marry a mundane person?" My dad raged.

I drifted to sleep as my sister's and dads voices lingered in the atmosphere. They always fought and the fights were never ending.

As I layed in my very bed, the fragrance of roses arose from my open window filling my bedroom air, the smell of those beautiful black roses irritatingly filled my nostrils as I was dreaming a lucid dream. It was unlike any of my other dreams. This dream was plaguing me in the form of a nightmare. It was like a premonition my mind was trying to decipher correctly. I dreamt of it vividly and there was blood, lots of it and other people, dead people. The sun had not risen for two days. It was a blood eclipse. The day mankind is doomed to perish at the hands of a terror group of supernatural animalia who call themselves the Alclan beings. I fought, I sought to save my life and at the end through patience, I had attained victory. To have what is mine. I had what I have always wanted. A lover. I woke up startled, heaving greatly. What was this strange dream all about?. The dream was lucidly similar to the seer's vision I had seen in the swing waters. I figured it was because of my experience at the cave and the fact that some of her evil herbs had not worn off that I was still dreaming strange premonitions. Like this one of the sacred Oracle of the wolfmen. A book that spoke of us creatures turning against humans and eliminating them from existence. It was said this day was doomed to happen but no one knew when and how. As far as I was concerned, humans had the upper hand when it came to these supernatural things. Our natural lives were hidden in the shadows of our normal lives as we went by with our daily endeavours, our dreams, our aspirations, our future plans. It seemed there was more chance of a sun not setting and reigning during the night than there was To the prophecy being fulfilled.

At the crack of dawn I woke up to prepare for school. My brother Samuel was already in the kitchen ransacking the cup

boards for food. He was always hungry.

"Leave some for tonight!" My brother Luke began to say but he ignored and continued.

I went to school to find my best friend Kairi waiting for me at my locker.

"Why are you late today?" She was surprised as I was always early, one of the first ones to show up at school.

"I was tired." I informed her. I was still drowsy from my lack of proper sleep, my bones were still aching from the previous day's journey.

"You weren't at school yesterday. What happened?" She was concerned.

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you!" I replied to her.

"Forget that, I have great news, concerning you!" Her face beamed with joy.

"You know that boy you're always talking about what's his name... Dumuzi, he was looking for you."

"Looking for me?" My heart lit up.

Usually when I arrived on some days, the school was locked and not yet open. The buildings stood gigantic and old like an ancient temple. The paintings of all our pharaonic rulers were pasted on the round walls of the veranda along with their giant statues situated in a line along the walls of the temple-like building. From the very first ruler of Atlantis, to the current ruler; Pharaoh Tetis. I would usually sit by the large veranda in a corner waiting for the school to open and that's when I would see him. The boy I had dreamt of from when I first got my scholarship to study at this prestigious academy. The bad boy. He always wore his hair the way liked. He always smirked at me when he passed me and my heart would miss a beat. Too bad he was just mundane. A human my dad would never approve as a mate. Although I was not into dating and all that and he was not a perfect match to consider when looking for a lover, I kind of liked him.

All my life, I have always been the girl who dreamt of finding real love given that all my school years, I had always been the one to seek love from those who never wanted to give it in return. In my school I was nicknamed 'smoochie' because I had thick lips that protruded my mouth and some just called me the loner because I was an introvert who kept all to herself. I had gotten used to being a loner that being unpopular in highschool did not bother me. I had a few friends, I did pretty ok in my classes. I was top of my stream, yet I was considered one of the lowest socially speaking. I was despised and nobody would have ever dared to dream of even giving me a little consideration as a date. The first ever boyfriend I had was in seventh grade. I was twelve and I felt eligible though I still had not hit the peak of puberty, which was what I would consider a tough patch in my life which if I had the power, I would have erased. He told me he loved me which was deep for a twelve year old and I was scared. He then planted a kiss on my cheek behind the school classroom but when we were in class he humiliated me. He told me it was all a joke and no one would ever want to go out with me. Everyone laughed.

Finding out that the boy I had been dreaming of, acknowledged my existence, pleased me very much.

I stood at my locker day dreaming. That's when he emerged amongst the sea of heads in the hallway and seized me from my pleasant thoughts.

"Anathi...right?" He smiled adjusting his black leather jacket. His green eyes penetrated into mine, making me shy away in nervousness.

"Yeah!" I said withdrawing my biology book. He drew closer to me, making my back hit against my locker. I could feel his breath on my lips.

" I have always wondered what it would be like to talk to you, but I've never mastered the courage to actually tell you how I feel."

To my utter surprise, he held my hand and pasted it on his chest.

"Feel that? My heart only beats for you. I'm so in love with you that you have become the object that dominates my thoughts, goddess, you are my dreams, my life and if I don't get a glimpse of you, my life is incomplete."

He was a known jerk for how he treated others but somehow his vain cold heart of stone found its way into mine. He was captain of the soccer team. We went out on a first date but when he drove me back in his automobile, he attempted to take advantage of me. He parked his large vehicle behind large fields of tall stalks of green and ripe corn and he said he wanted 'time for us alone'.

"Why can't we go hang out somewhere else? This place is creepy!"I insisted.

But he was adamant about not leaving and I was scared of losing him so I went with the flow even though I was deeply uncomfortable.

He made small talk which I found uninteresting and I was oblivious to the fact that he was doing it because he wanted to hide his true nature because moments later, he had his lips fully planted on mine, forcefully and he was almost lying on top of me. I struggled to get rid of him, to push him away but his firm grip on me was too muscular just as his thirst for me was unquenchable. Sadly that night, I had hidden my true self and dressed in skimpy clothes just to please him, to look cool. I mean it wasn't every day a cool and bad popular guy went for a girl like me. I ended up overpowering him, my wolf instincts came in and I found myself fleeing the scene in rage and feeling hurt and betrayed.

"How dare you?" I knew this was bound to happen but at that moment, I found myself beating at the thought as to why I had agreed to come to this place. Boys like him were no good to people like me. We had no social affiliation whatsoever.

He got out of his car. "Come back baby, we are just getting started!"

"Come on Anathi, are you scared? I won't be telling anybody! "I heard his voice echo as I hid in the field.

I was afraid of going in deeper because I did not know where the fields ended or what was on the other side. He did not seem to give up on searching for me either. The moon was almost up and it would be another night, a full moon where I wouldn't get to transform. I ended up giving up, after all I was far away from home, there were no rides on the road we had taken so I couldn't hitch hike. He was my only ride so I went back.

"Bae , don't be scared, why do you run off just like that?" He feined concern.

I didn't answer, I was at the peak of tears about letting all the rivers within me loose, I was ashamed of letting them loose in his presence. I felt the warm substance dripping from my eyelids and he shook his head and smirked.

"It's okay, bae, we are dating now." he said in a cold and uncaring tone while running his hands on my body and digging his gripping his fingers hard into my hind.

"What? How could you? This date is over. It's over we aren't dating!" It had just hit me.

It was really hard but I needed to learn. Although I regretted this very date, I was not going to let it be another sad highschool romance tragedy but a lesson in life. He did not love me. Anyways, what did a seventeen year old high school bad boy know about love? I was just one of the girls he would use as a sex toy and he would leave me for someone else. I realised my prospects were greater than that. This wasn't me, the make up, the heels, the clothes weren't me, the words were not me. The body was just an empty shell of what I thought I wanted to be but I was not entirely oblivious to who I truly was and I was not going to let this monster take advantage of me just for a story to tell back at school so I escaped and ran along the road. He was behind me in his car shouting at me to get in but I refused. He was enraged to the point that he attempted to hit me several times with his car. His intention was clearly to kill me. Now that I knew what he had tried to do to me, he could have gone to jail for attempted rape. At the face of danger, that is when my very first lucid wolf senses kicked in and my second transformation in my entire young life hit me unexpectedly, I didn't even know it had happened. All I remembered was jumping in the air and the next moment I was as fast as the wind. I don't remember much of what happened but the next thing I knew was waking up next morning lying in my room on the floor naked with my bedroom window open. I rushed to close it. I noticed my body was covered in deep red blotches and marks and I had a bad sneeze and a stuffy nose from the grain pollen. I was allergic to corn, to trees, to grass, to dust so definitely spring was my worst enemy. So yes, I remembered the previous night. I had not just dreamt this nightmarish date from hell but I had willingly snuck out of my home to meet him.

I took a long bath. My body was sore. I had deep marks and fingerprints imprinted on me and the places he had viciously grabbed me were still painful. After my bath I went to my sister and cried as I hugged her and told her the whole story, while she looked at me in bewilderment.

" You mean to say you had your first transformation?" She asked me excitedly. "What was it like?"

I felt saddened at the fact that she only cared that I had gotten my wolf sense on, despite what Dumuzi wanted to do to me.

"And the boy saw you?" She was afraid.

"He couldn't have, it was so fast and it was dark," I said. "He didn't say anything!"

She felt remorse for me. I didn't even know that he had seen my transformation until I went to school the next Monday. Rumours were circulating and I was popular and I did not even know why. First people who never ever knew I existed were speaking to me as if we were long time friends; the most popular guy in school wanted to have lunch with me. I agreed but he never showed up. Later I would find out he didn't even know what I looked like so he sent his friends to talk to me and take a photo of me. My friend told me my previous date had gone crazy and that he was telling everybody that I had turned wolf on him, literally and ran away during our date. Had he seen me? I was scared. What if this story got out of hand and I ended up in a lab with scientists conducting experiments on me, my imagination was running wild while I was still oblivious to the fact that maybe this premonition could have a chance at becoming a reality in future. It was in the afternoon while in maths class, I received a note from my previous date, from Friday imprinted in dark ink, cursive handwriting.

It said;

'Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I thought it was okay because we were an item. You should understand that I love you so much.'

My friend's face was pale as she gazed at me. She did not look too happy. I took a pen and replied to her note. I loved Dumuzi but I did not like his personality. I was afraid of starting something which I would regret later. He was not the type of person someone like me was bound to fall in love with.

'I'm sorry but I don't feel the same way. We are just not meant to be! I hope this will be the last time you and I converse. '

I later regret ever writing those words.

'If you don't love me then I'll reveal your secret, witch. I have pictures and I recorded a whole video from the date!'

My heart skipped a beat. I did not want to believe it but if I really had not morphed that fateful Friday night, how would he know about it? In Atlantis, if anything supernatural occured, it was deemed to be witchcraft and that would lead to your house being raided by a crowd with torches and pitchforks, leading to your death. So I replied to his note and returned it.

' I'm no witch. What photos and videos? We never really did anything and you can't blackmail me because you'll just be exposing yourself for being a jerk on our date.'

I passed it to my friend Kairi who gave it to him while winking at me and faking a smile. He looked in my direction and gave me a smirk made me cringe in discomfort. He brushed his hair with his hand. His leather jacket's zippers dangled, making a jiggling sound as he went about his classwork. Our teacher lay sitting on his desk snoring away his hours of work. Gossip had started circulating in class, the popular girls were gazing at me with murderous eyes.

"What did he see in that thing?'' One uttered but I still heard her beneath her breath as my wolf senses were heightened.

"He could have as well just asked my old ungly grandma out. I mean look at her, she has no sense of style. No makeup, she a plain Jane who is living an oldie's life." They continued their gossip while choking their laughter.

The resentment within them sent chills down my spine as my wolf side sensed their ambiances, hate, so much hate and rage; envy. Their hate seeped into me leaving me wondering how a human being can feel so much resentment for someone they don't even know that well. He then passed me another note.

'Dont play dumb with me you filthy dog. I saw what you are, an animal, I recorded you changing into something wild and think about what could happen if people saw it..., with one single button the video is gonna be viral online. Your whole life would be over. Don't test me because I can ruin you, baby'

Tears streamed down my face as I read it. I was deathly afraid. I thought about my whole family.

'Ok Dumuzi, what do you want from me and what will it take for you to delete those pictures and video'

I replied. He then sent another note.

'Well,... come with me, Anathi, after school so we can properly finish our date. Then maybe I can consider deleting them. If you try any tricks on me, you'll see for yourself what I am capable of. Meet me by my car'

I was scared. I did not want anything of that sort to happen to me but the thought of me being the one who exposed the secret of our kind to the world and putting all my kind in danger sent chills down my spine so I was going to let him do whatever he wanted with me.

Being wolf blooded, I had witnessed many executions of young wolf blooded ones like me, by the wolf council and I did not want to go down the same path. I was young with ambitious dreams.

I followed him after school. I went with him to his grandhome. His father was a billionaire with lots of gold. He worked for the Pentagon, a government company that dominated the scientific and matrix world in Atlantis. It is said the originator was an Atlantic Pharoah, king Mer-tum- Re the first, who descended from the first Egyptian dynasty of pharaohs of the first watchers(Menes) to descend upon the continent. Meanwhile, me and my family were just Atlantic common citizens of Atlantis going about our normal days to attain minimum wage. His home was fancy. It was a palace with many servants and slaves, most which were females bought at the foreign market where foreign goods, and people from conquered kingdoms were vainly sold away. It was grand with expensive wear. His father was not there except for his mother who sat in the green gardens picnicking like a pharaohess. The servants were moving about going about their daily tasks. He took me to his giant kitchen where he poured two glasses of red wine, one for him and one for me and he offered me fancy snacks which I declined at first but then he insisted.

"You seem to like this place?" He asked me. Smiling. "Marry me and you can live in this palace forever as my queen, my heart, my Anathi."

I nodded. "It's nice! Listen, I didn't come for chitchat, let's have our date so that I can leave.What do you want from me, I asked.

"Well , this is it!" He said, looking disappointed. " I just wanted to spend some time with you!"

I began to laugh, I don't know why but I was mostly perplexed.

"You wanting to spend some time with. ..me?"

He began to get be his usual angry self. "You know, if I were you, I wouldn't be rude to me knowing that my life depended on it. But since you insist then come on."

He grabbed me by the hand and dragged me out of the kitchen and upstairs to his room, while I struggled and called out for him to leave me. Sadly the servants just watched in sadness and did not even dare to intervine. The look in their eyes told me they had witnessed their young master go through sad things over and over again. Dumuzi might have looked tough on the outside but inside he was just a broken hearted eighteen years old who pulled a facade of a mean personality.

His room was large with a bed made of pearlstone, diamond and sapphire. There was porcelain furniture furbished with a sacred stone; lapis lazuli. As soon as the giant doors flung open, , he pushed me in the middle of the floor were he just stood there with me staring him. I stood there feeling embarrassed for my lack of sympathy. I regretted laughing at him when he tried to show how he cared about me. He perched his lips up and moved in to kiss me but I blocked him.

"I will always love you, Anathi!"

"I'm sorry, I told you I don't feel the same way, but we can be friends. Can I leave now?" I asked him nicely.

"But why? Everybody loves me!" He insisted.

"I'm not everybody!"

"I'm not deleting those pictures! Have a nice life my queen, because soon your time will come when you will be forced to give up your life for the evil you are!" He had a serious look in his eyes.

My heart was thumping loudly. I was filled with grief as this man was adamant about me falling in love with him.

"What can I do for you to just make the photos disappear for good. Well you could stay over for tonight, with me. "He held my hand and kissed me on the lips passionately.

"Okay, if you keep your promise, I will stay over!" I said. I did not mind that it would probably be the last time he would be seeing me alive because my father was probably going anhialate me for staying out the whole night.

He was ripping my clothes off in a frenzy. I was left naked, covering myself in front of him.

About two minutes later a maid of his popped in. "I have the dress, yloung master.

He smirked while he gazed at her.

"Alright, give it to her!" He motioned his eyes at me. In a few minutes I stood there in front of him wearing an expensive cotton dress, the kind worn by the queens and princesses. I was adorned from head to toe in jewellery. I was not happy about it and he could tell.

"Ungrateful!" He said to me, "But darn do you look like royalty, my queen. He smiled. Come to me!" .

I lay on his bed gazing at the ceiling and ruminating. Music could be heard being played on instruments. He was snoring next to me. The lights were dim and the windows were open blowing in a little breeze. I wished I could stay here and live like him. I was embarrassed for wishing it.

"Just one last question!" He asked me. He wasn't sleeping. We went and we sat on his balcony drinking warm tea. It was already evening and I would not be at home. My father would be mad. My sister would be worried. My brothers would sniff out the whole neighbourhood looking for me. My house was small, in the peasant areas of town, made of cabin wood and small. We had no luxuries like the rich.

"What are you?" He asked me, arousing me from my deep thoughts.

"I'm are wolf blooded." I told him.

"And what's that?"

"It means we are human but also part wolf. We have a human ancestor but our origins are from the wolves. Our religion says we were created by the moon goddess, the moon herself." I replied.

"The moon goddess?" He gazed at me with awe in his eyes. "I thought the pharaoh was the only living god!"

"So are there many like you my, Queen?" He asked. "And your family are also.....?"

"You ask too much!" I said to him.

Sometimes he was kind and caring and then other times, he would be cruel and mean. It was like he had two personalities. Now he was the caring self.

I went home the next morning to find my father fuming with rage by the gate.