Het ontwaken begint

Was het toeval dat ze hem ontmoette? Slechts toeval om haar erop te wijzen dat haar leven helemaal niet zo perfect was als Madelyn altijd had gedacht? Dat kon toch niet?! Maar wat het dan wel was, dat wist ze ook niet.

De eerste keer dat Madelyn de jongen op de zwarte motor zag, was vier dagen terug; donderdag. En nu was het maandag en had ze al precies vier dagen constant aan hem gedacht. Wie was hij? Hoe oud was hij? Wat deed hij hier, in Taletown? Madelyn was er zeker van dat ze hem nog nooit eerder had gezien.
Maar behalve die vragen vroeg ze zich vooral af hoe het kwam dat hij niet uit haar hoofd was te krijgen. Voor Madelyn Evermore was alles altijd perfect geweest en nu leek het alsof dat alles er niet meer toe deed.
Het enige wat nog belangrijk was, was om te zorgen dat hij haar ook zou zien!

Na een lange, voortslepende dag waren de lessen eindelijk voorbij en was het voor Madelyn om afscheid te nemen van haar vriendinnen. Ze had er nogal wat, maar het laatste uur had ze alleen met Nora en Lucy.
Zij waren juist uit het zicht verdwenen met een "Doei" en een "Tot morgen, Maddy!" toen Madelyn de hoek om ging en omver werd gelopen. Ze belandde op de grond, haar boeken en papieren dwarrelden door de lucht om vervolgens eveneens in een wanordelijke staat op de tegels neer te vleien.
Haar  wenkbrauwen vormden een frons en een boze schittering lag in haar donkerblauwe ogen toen ze opkeek. "Kun je niet uitkijken of zo?" snauwde ze, terwijl ze overeind krabbelde. Maddy veegde haar lichtbruine haar uit haar gezicht en keek recht in het gezicht van de jongen waar ze heel de tijd aan had zitten denken.
Hij lachte scheef naar haar en bukte om haar boeken op te rapen. "Zeker kan ik wel uitkijken," zei hij, "maar ik kan niet om hoeken kijken."
Stomverbaasd om hem zomaar te ontmoeten wist Maddy niet wat ze moest zeggen. Zwijgend nam ze de boeken en papieren aan die hij haar gaf. De jongen keek even op het laatste papier: een proefwerk was teruggegeven was.
"Madelyn Evermore, huh?"
Ze knikte.
"Hi, ik ben Ian."
"Eh.. ik zou zeggen, leuk je te ontmoeten, maar dat had vast beter gekund." Ha, daar was ze weer met haar scherpe opmerkingen. En zowaar, hij -Ian dus- moest er om lachen! Ze grijnsde.
"Misschien kan ik het goed maken?"
"Oja?" flirtte Maddy terug.
"Ik kan je een ritje naar huis aanbieden, als je wilt?"
"Daar zeg ik geen nee tegen," zei ze en accepteerde al glimlachend zijn voorstel.

Ver weg, maar dichterbij dan je denkt, glimlachte iemand tevreden en wendde zich van de spiegel af.
"Het ontwaken is begonnen," baste zijn stem. De man bleef staan toen hij een ander naderde, welke niet zo blij keek.
"Dat valt te bezien."
"Nee," zei de eerste weer. "Het is begonnen. Ik heb de juiste prins gestuurd."
De tweede snoof vol verachting. "Wat kan één prins nou helemaal uithalen?"
"Meer dan je denkt," antwoordde hij en draaide zich om naar de spiegel. "Meer dan je denkt."

Too Late

She was about to pick the cups and put them with the rest of the dishes, but never got to do that. As Garyl leant towards the crucial thing that was the centre of changes in her life, the lights went out.

Although she couldn’t move or talk, she was aware. Aware of the pain crossing through her veins, aware of the sounds by the door. Aware of Adras, cursing, getting away, coming back in clothes, screaming..

And when his hot tears fall on her skin, it felt like they would burn a hole. Garyl fluttered her eyelashes, then slowly tried to get up. She got a hand from Adras, though his touch felt not as good as before.

“Aaah,” she moaned. “What happened?”

Adras sat on the table, watching her like an insect in a box, and Garyl gave him an angry look.

“What?!”

“How do you feel?”

“In pain, and your presence doesn’t make it better.”

Surprisingly, he just nodded, as if expecting so.

“Garyl, you’ve just been poisoned.”

His words were so calm and so precise, that it took her a while to totally understand it.

“P-poisoned? How? What? Am I dying?”

“Not really… but, in a way, yes…”

Minutes passed and then Garyl felt what Adras had been trying to say. The pain slowly faded away, and all that remained was… a new Garyl.

Thirst made her fingers scratch the couch, overwhelmed instincts made her hiss at Adras. Then she backed away, jumped from the couch towards the door. Into the city she went.

Her eyes saw everything, her ears caught every noise, all the scents there was to smell, gathered in one big cloud of scents.

It was too much, way too much.

She ran. Ran until the city was a vague memory, until the only thing she heard was the wind and the only thing left to smell was tree and animals, and Garyl ran until her legs begged her to stop.

She understood it now.

If there were werewolves, then there also was the opposite.

Getting Later and Later

Although everything screamed to chase Mech down, Adras ignored his instincts and jumped down on the street. If he changed now, Adras would be a butt-naked man, and although there was no one around, he didn’t feel much for it.

So he struggled with the door in his wolfform, closed it when he finally made it in and then changed back. He didn’t hear the soft cursing sounds he’d been expecting to hear, so something was defiantly wrong.

Without worrying about his appearance anymore, he busted in, only to find nothing.

Adras took a closer look, and then he saw her.

Garyl laid half on the couch, half on the floor. Her dark hair in a fan-like form around her head, with a couple of strands on her cheek.

Although she looked peaceful, it was also unnatural static.

Cursing under his breath he laid her on the floor, trying to remember the first-aid lessons.

Appeased that she was still breathing, there was nothing more to do for waiting till she opened her eyes.

Adras went upstairs, knowing she had some of his clothes in case he would drop by. Dressed in jeans and sweater, he did another check on Garyl.

His eye caught the coffee cups on the table and with a bad feeling he picked up Garyls. With his nose almost in the cup, Adras sniffed.

With a scream so loud it would be noticed two blocks away he trashed the thing to the wall.

“NOOOOOOO!”

His chest went up and down quickly, as he knelt by Garyl yet again. Please, don’t let this be true!  

Still Sundayeve

Although surprised to see Mech, Garyl let him in anyway. Not much later they sat on her couch, sipping mocha coffee, and for a moment no one said anything. Garyl’s thoughts became a whirl in her head. She had to think about Adras, and the whole wolf-thing, yet here she was, drinking coffee with a friend she hadn’t spoken to in a while.

“So… how’s school?”

 Mech lifted a shoulder and dropped it again. “Same as usual, I guess. Not much going on lately and it’s quite boring without having you around.”

“Me? What –why?”

“Well… you always say something to a teacher what can make him explode, or start a debate that in fact ís interesting. Just the way you are… You really are a special girl, Garyl.”

She blushed, thought she felt little for Mech beside friendship. “Why- thank you,” she softly said.

And again silence crept over them, holding them in its grip for as long as it takes.

“Mech,” Garyl began, hesitantly.

“Hm?”

“Can I... I was thinking-..” she sighed. “Can I ask you something? As in... You won’t tell anyone, yet you’ll answer it truly?”

“Of course. What’s on your mind?” With a serious look on his face, Mech bended over.

Garyl played with the ruffles of her shirt a while, before she dared to ask.

“What… what do you think of Adras? Do you think that he really is my brother?”

He released a sigh as he leaned back on the couch. “So that is bothering you? Really? Why?”

“You know that homework piece we had to do about our family? I don’t know… It made me thinking. And of course Adras is nowhere near... So I just made something up. But I can’t get it out of my mind.” Her dark eyes glared at him. He didn’t know that she was telling him some lies, for she had told him many lies before this one. What else could she say? Hello, oh by the way, my brother is a werewolf? Ehr- no will do.

“I don’t know, Garyl. I mean, he didn’t really liked me so we never talked much. He seemed always so protective around you; it gave me the creeps, honestly. He somehow didn’t fit the picture quite well. So, if you’re saying he’s not your brother, yeah, I can believe it... There’s really something weird-isch with that dude, I’m telling ye!”

Whatever Garyl might have expected, the harsh reaction of Mech was not really on her top three.

“The one thing you can do is ask him yourself…”

He said it with such an ease that for a moment Garyl couldn’t believe that they were friends. Could he not see how this whole situation made her feel? Her eyes darkened and she drank the last of her coffee.

“Let me get you some more,” Mech offered and Garyl let him be.

He came back and gave her the cup, yet he waited till she met his gaze. “Garyl... I’m sorry if I... was a bit of an asshole... It’s just... Adras and I... we just can’t get along.”

She nodded. “Yeah,” she responded. “I know, and understand... it’s just harsh, you know?”

They drank some more and talked for a couple of hours, till Garyl was yawning and with a sly smile Mech stood up and left her, wishing her ‘sweet dreams’.

He got out and walked away, but not towards home, he had some business to attend to. In the centre of the city he found the man, just as he had promised Mech.

“Is it done?” the deep, dark voice came towards him, though the man hadn’t looked in his direction yet.

“Yes, I put it in her coffee, just as you asked me to.”

“Good,” the man nodded and pushed himself from the stone wall he was leaning on.

“Wait! You’d promised me…”

The man now turned towards Mech and let out a soft chuckle. “You really thought I would give you your sister back? No... She stays with me; until I’m sure you did what you had to.”

Then he turned again and with two steps he had disappeared in the dark night.

Chapter Four: Astonished

First she just stared at him in astonishment. Was he serious about this? Searching for the dragon together? It was strange even to hear him say ‘dragon’, since she had been living with the thought that she was the only one who knew.

“Eh, yeah, why not?”

Enthusiastically Mayth pointed at the road ahead. “I think we better hurry then, before the traces grow cold.”

Alea, of course, knew this and with a sigh she continued her way up. Mayth had no problem keeping up with her, and followed precisely in her trail. Somehow that annoyed her more than stopping and finding out that there were no more traces. They had just disappeared.

Alea sighed and turned around and started to go back when Mayth -again- came after her.

“Wait! Alea! Where you’re going?!”

“Home. It’s too late, that dragon is gone.” She didn’t wait for him, but she heard him following her downhill a couple of meters behind her.

He seemed to be sobbing about the disappeared traces, but Alea knew that there was a new chance tomorrow. With a bit of luck this dragon came back to this place again, and then she’d be waiting…

She succeeded to get in her little house without Mayth seeing the place. A bit disappointed though, she put her weapons away and started cooking dinner. It was still early, but she was hungry and cooking helped clearing her head. She thought about that strange boy, Mayth -what kind of name was that anyway?- and about school. Would she be in trouble? She didn’t cared much, but still… Mister Sellion wasn’t the most cooperative teacher alive, and Alea somehow felt he was going to make her life a bit harder.

When cooking was done she sat alone at the wooden table, eating fish, potatoes and carrots, while making her homework.

The rest of the evening nothing special happened.

When Alea woke it was still early. Yet she came out immediately, washed her face and body, got dressed, cleaned the house and made herself breakfast. She greeted the cat -which wasn’t hers, but he always came back so Alea named it Elden- and got out. It was quite a walk to school and the last thing she wanted was to arrive late. Most teachers didn’t mind her being absent so much, if she had good grades and schoolwork was done.

This brought her yet again to the topic ‘Sellion’. She had two hours today which he gave –in the morning. She sighed, there was nothing to do about it, and she really wasn’t planning on telling hím that she lived alone and had no parents. Nope, that really wasn’t much of an option. So she stood waiting at the classroom when the rest of her classmates started showing up, and not much later mister Sellion himself strode towards them. He gave her a weird, almost angry look but then something happened.

The hallway was almost empty now, and Alea could clearly see mister Caewan coming closer, and someone was following him, right behind, like he didn’t want to be seen.

Sellion gestured everybody inside and reluctantly so did Alea. She took her seat on the second row in the center of the class. It took some minutes but then Sellion came in and when Alea saw the person who was earlier hiding himself behind mister Caewan, she had to gasp for air...

Sunday II

So, she had found his mistake. Adras saw the girl leaving, and not long after that he watched Garyl going home. Softly he walked with her, as a true gentlemen, only he was in his wolf shape.

He thought about the girl he had taken for Garyl. He had never been so foolish as that night, and yet, he had to bite another human again, this time the right girl, but still… How was is possible that Garyl hadn’t changed? He wanted her to, and she wanted it sure as hell too.

His paws made soft patting sounds on the roofs until he reached Garyls place. He watched her going in, lights went on and Adras was just about to leave when he saw someone knocking on her front door. Not much later, Garyl appeared, a dark figure in a beam of light from the hallway.

“Oh, hi, Mech. What’s up?”

“Not much, haven’t seen you for a while now, wondered if you where alright.”

From across the street, and on top of a building, Adras heard everything and could even see her smiling.

“Yeah, just tired, so I thought I would skip some school and get some sleep. Wanna come in?”

Of course he wants to come in! he thought. Mech was a friend of Garyl, which he didn’t like. But Garyl insisted he was nice and that Mech was just the kind of friend she needed at school, so he had tried not to nag about it too often.

And, indeed, they went in. The delicate, bittersweet aroma of mocha coffee stirred his nose. He began to regret his decision of following her, instead of just talking to her.