Vera's Song (Creatures of the Lands Book 2) Read online

  Ionan looked eagerly at Vera. She winced and said quietly, “I’m not sure. For as long as you’ll have me, I suppose.”

  “You can stay here for as long as you like!” Ionan burst, but his enthusiasm was interrupted by mystic voices behind him.

  The adults whirled around. Allie and Kennu sat completely still behind them, with eyes that were glowing brighter than the sun. The forest went dead silent as birds quieted and the leaves on the trees stopped rustling. The skies darkened and the wind whipped up into a storm, spinning around the children in a dangerous whirl.

  “What’s happening?” Kia cried, but the others didn’t know. The children’s mouths opened and they chanted, in voices many years older then they;

  “The peace that has come for many a day,

  will soon be lost to shadow and gray.

  A man with brown eyes, with his slave by his side,

  Will soon the family himself divide.

  One an Accompany, another a Changer,

  One a strong fairy, whose heart fears one danger,

  One a soft mare, whose coat exquisiteness bursts,

  None of these know that they’ve all been cursed

  Four strong wolves, a brave night-pelted male,

  A brown scarred she-wolf with a broken tail

  The wandering loner, his howl that will echo,

  The last, the most loving, silver coat of snow

  Blonde hair and gray eyes, but proudly he walks,

  While lingering the one with wit of a fox.

  One will leave after two broken hearts,

  Then quickly soon after the group is split and departs.

  They must join back together, to save and retrieve,

  The one who has the gift of prophecy.

  Through the bond, the other is strong as well,

  The unknown powers they wield not even the Great One can tell.

  Five young paws will set out to help find,

  Family binds them together in soul, body and mind,

  And found three young orphans who were left behind.

  A curse spreads quickly throughout the land,

  The wicked man’s power reining by hand,

  And when curse does spread and no treatment is found,

  It will be reversed with the death of a Changer,

  its blood spilt upon the ground.

  One more broken heart will beat sadly forever,

  Two lovers who could never truly be together.

  The man will be scarred, on the outside and in,

  And a new legacy will truly begin.”

  The wind slowed as the skies brightened and the storm faded away. Kennu and Allie’s eyes lost their glow, and both collapsed onto the ground behind them. The parents rushed to the children as Ionan stood there, unable to believe it. The gift of prophecy…he thought in wonder. He whipped around to look at Vera but was even more shocked to see an empty space where the Changer once stood. She had vanished.

  Chapter Three

  Reunions of Many Kinds

  Ionan took off into the air, looking for Vera. He had to find her. It had been so many years that one more second without her would be unbearable. He just had to spend more time with her. Keota and Kia could handle the kids just fine on their own. It was his friend that needed help.

  It wasn’t long before he saw her.“Vera!” he called after her.

  “Ionan, what are you doing?” Vera looked behind her and stared at him in midair, still heading forward. “You shouldn’t be following me!”

  “Look out!” Ionan called as Vera ran headfirst into a large tree. She stumbled onto the ground and sat onto her back legs, rubbing her head uselessly. Ionan landed beside her quickly. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine, I think,” she said softly, still rubbing her head. “Why did you follow me?”

  Ionan hesitated. “I have always loved you Vera. You know that.” Ionan looked down towards the ground. “I just couldn’t let you go. Not again.”

  Vera sighed, looking frustrated and hurt.“Oh, Ionan. Don’t you get it? I don’t like you that way. You’re my friend and that’s all you’ll ever be to me. I care about you but we just can’t be together.”

  “I know, I just can’t help myself. I just thought that now that you were free of Wyntier...”

  “It’s all in the past now. We’re not in school anymore Ionan...it’s time to grow up.” Vera looked down and Ionan was surprised to see tears sparking in her eyes.

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset,” Ionan said quickly. “Let’s never speak of this again. Come, we need to get you back to the hut. Don’t go taking off like that. You scared us all.”

  “I’m sure that Kia and Keota are more afraid of what’s happening to the children,” Vera said. “I’m sorry for leaving so hastily. I was frightened.”

  “We should get back, and see if the children are alright,” Ionan added, helping her to her feet.

  “No!” she said loudly, and Ionan cocked his head in surprise. “Let’s just...stay here for a minute. Just...stay with me please. I don’t know if I can handle anymore chaos in my life. What we saw with the children was really scary. I just fled from Wyntier not too long ago. Let me heal. At least, just for a minute.”

  Ionan nodded, moving closer and putting his paw on her own. “I will stay.”

  Keota watched Ionan go and stared after him in wonder. “Kia,” he tapped his wife on the shoulder softly. “I’m going to follow Ionan. I don’t think he’s in his right mind since seeing Vera. Should we move the kids out of the yard and into the house?”

  “It’s better to leave them like this for now, until they wake up. I don’t exactly know what that was, and I don’t want to take any chances.” Kia bent back over her son and the small Changer, who were completely out of it as her husband took off after his Changer.

  Kennu woke up and started screaming as soon as Keota disappeared from view. When Allie heard his voice, she stopped resting, and jumped to her hooves with a loud wail herself.

  “What’s wrong sweet pea? What happened to you?” Kia said softly as she held her son against her chest.

  “My leg hurts,” the young child moaned, grappling at a cut on his knee when he had fallen.

  “Oh, my baby has an owie,” Kia cooed. “Come on, let me pick you up.”

  “No Mommy, it hurts too much!” the child screamed. “Please make it better!”

  Kia sighed. “If you promise to stay here, I’ll run inside quickly and get you a bandage.”

  “Okay.” Kennu stopped crying and Kia set him gently on the ground in front of Allie, who was currently in the form of a young fawn. Kia walked into the house, hurrying to find her supplies.

  “Now where did I put my kit?” she tapped her chin as she began to search the house, wondering how she was going to get her five year old to explain to her what had happened to him. Never in her life had she even heard of a fairy’s eyes glowing, but then again, Allie’s eyes were glowing too. It had to be something to do with Changers, and she resolved to question Ionan the minute he returned.

  Outside, Kennu sat and watched as Allie ran around the yard. Through the shadows of the trees, an Accompany appeared, with merciless brown eyes that glimmered coldly. He walked slowly towards Allie and smiled at her. There was nothing comforting in that smile. It only looked cruel.

  “Hello there, little Changer. Come here,” he cooed softly.

  Allie looked at him suspiciously and began to hop away. “No!” she told him.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” the Accompany replied softly. “I only want to play.”

  “No!” Allie hopped a few more steps away from him. “No strangers!”

  “Well then, I’ll just have to tell you who I am,” he replied. “I’m Wyntier. What’s your name?”

  “Allie,” she said back.

  “Come on over here, Allie.”

  “No, no, no, no, no, no!” Allie kept getting farther from Wyntier, who had begun to chase her around the yard.


  “Get over here you little…” He started before his eyes caught Kennu, who was watching the Accompany with interest. He ran over to the little fairy and snatched him up, flinging him over a shoulder. Wyntier held on to the child’s small legs to keep him steady, and Kennu hung there, unsure of what was going on. “You can’t have him back until you come with me,” he told Allie.

  The little Changer’s eyes narrowed.“Okay.” Allie took the form of a lynx and began to follow him, nipping at Kennu’s small fingers the whole time. Kennu started to wail again but Wyntier covered the child’s mouth with his hand, running into the forest as quickly as he could.

  Five minutes later Kia came out of the cabin with her bag. “Mommy got the bandage, now let’s make the booboo go away,” she said. She took one look at the empty yard, and her face went white. “Kennu!”

  Ionan perked up his ears and listened to the screams lighting up the forest. “That sounds like Kiatana. She’s probably shouting about some sort of nonsense again.” He turned to leave and then looked back at Vera. “Will you come with me?” he asked her nervously.

  “Go ahead, Ionan. I won’t be long,” Vera said softly.

  Ionan spread his wings and flew off. Vera knew why the fairy had screamed. A single tear skidded down the dragon’s cheek, closely followed by two others.She quickly took the form of a butterfly and flew to where she was to meet her Accompany.No, not my Accompany, she thought, reprimanding herself. My master.

  When Keota heard Kiatana’s screams, he turned around immediately and ran towards the cabin as fast as he could. When he got there Kia was sitting on the ground bawling. In one hand she held her bag and in the other one of Kennu’s small, leather shoes.

  “Where’s Kennu?” he said worriedly as he sat down next to Kia, completely baffled.

  “I don’t know. He was right here when I went in to get the bandages, and now he’s gone!” she sobbed. “My baby is gone!”

  “They probably just wandered off, like they usually do,” Keota said. “We’ll find them.”

  “No, they always holler when I call. I’ve screamed and screamed and I haven’t heard a sound!”

  Ionan burst into the clearing. “What happened?”

  “Kennu and Allie are missing,” Keota said, choking back tears of his own. “All that’s left of them is Kennu’s shoe.”

  “I will get the animals looking for both of them,” Ionan said, morphing into a stag and alerting the forest. As soon as the forest had been informed of the missing prince and his Changer, chaos erupted, and soon Allie and Kennu’s names were ringing throughout the woods.

  Kennu sat inside the little tent, playing with the blocks the man had found for him. He was building a castle and was almost finished. All of a sudden Allie came zooming towards the tower and ran head long into it. The blocks tumbled to the ground and Kennu began to bawl.

  Vera came into the tent in the form of a dog and sat down beside him. She placed a paw on his small shoulder. “It’s okay,” she soothed. “You can build it again if you want to.”

  “Okay,” Kennu sniffed and began to rebuild his castle, Allie eagerly awaiting the chance to knock it down again.

  “How can you stand the little brat?” Wyntier questioned Vera as she walked back over to him. He was once again cleaning the strange human device he had found in Malaki’s hut, the one he referred to as a gun. Vera had never liked the thing, and although he hadn’t yet used it, she knew he would be more than eager to at the first chance he got.

  “I have patience, unlike some people around here,” she told him.

  “I have plenty of patience. I just refuse to waste it on something that doesn’t listen to a thing I say,” he snapped back. “You’ll just have to take care of the things. I’m not going near them.”

  “They are not things. She is a Changer and he is just as much an Accompany as you are,”she snarled at him.

  “Watch your tongue you miserable beast, or I just may have to cut it out. Now hurry up and scout out the area. I want to make sure we won’t be followed.” He pointed the barrel of his gun at the two younglings as a threat to make her move faster, and Vera shook her head and walked out of the tent. She wasn’t sure if she was more disgusted with Wyntier for stealing the children, or herself for helping him.

  Shadowin and Snapfoot stood together and whispered to each other, hoping their sisters wouldn’t be able to hear them through the bush they were hiding behind.

  “I think we should be able to overpower them and take that little fort,” Shadowin told his smaller brother. “We are bigger than them, after all.”

  “I like that idea,” Snapfoot smiled. “I know we can take them by surprise.”

  The boys went to attack but in an instant Snapfoot and Shadowin were tackled to the ground by three masses of fur. Their sisters squealed in joy as they tumbled into their brothers, claws flailing and teeth sinking into their fur.

  “All right already, you win. Let us up,” Shadowin grumbled.

  “You have to surrender your fort to us first!” Midnightstar commanded.

  “Yeah, surrender the fort and we’ll let you up,” Caini added.

  “Or we could just call Dad and show him how you guys lost to us again,” Jade snarled. Her bright green eyes were locked solidly on Shadowin’s as she spoke.

  “We surrender the fort to you,” Snapfoot said unhappily.

  “Thank you very much.” Caini let Snapfoot up from beneath her. Jade and Midnightstar then released Shadowin. The two boys got up and shook the dirt out of their fur.

  “I can’t believe they beat us again,” Snapfoot grumbled. “You take too long making the plans!”

  “Why are you blaming me? You’re the one who never likes my plans so you force me to come up with new ones!” Shadowin snapped at the smaller boy.

  “I do not!” The fur on Snapfoot’s back and neck stood up on end.

  “Yes you do! I never change a plan unless you tell me to!” Shadowin crouched down, ready to pounce. Snapfoot beat him to it and the boys went rolling through the underbrush. The three girls ran after them, cheering the boys on and calling out bets on who would win.

  It was a few hours before Midnightstar looked around her and said, “Um...guys? Where are we?”

  The boys stopped fighting when they realized they were in an unfamiliar part of the forest, in a clearing where all was dark and the very plants seemed to wither. Shadowin stood and looked around him. “I don’t know,” he said feebly. The pups had never been here before and the clearing looked frightening.

  “Just look what you two have done!” Jade tackled Snapfoot back to the ground. “You’re so stupid, now all of us are lost! I can’t believe this!” She released Snapfoot and stalked off to the edge of this new clearing, sitting down with a sharp pout.

  “It looks like the trees end over there somewhere,” Caini pointed out. “Maybe we can climb a tree. If we can get high enough we’ll be able to see the whole forest.”

  “Good idea.” Shadowin ran out of the clearing towards the area where the trees ended. “Come on guys, there’s no one else out here.”

  The five pups walked to the edge of the trees and stared.The mountains dominated the horizon. Rich green grass surrounded the forest, filled with flora of all shapes and sizes. “It’s so beautiful.” Midnightstar whispered. “Just look at all the flowers.”

  Shadowin ran up one of the trees and looked out. “I can’t see anything familiar. Nothing stands out. We really are lost,” he moaned. “I miss Mom and Dad!”

  “Let’s go this way!” Snapfoot said. “I think I remember this part!”

  Snapfoot only managed to get them more lost.“Now I really don’t know where we are,”Jade moaned as she sat down on the ground. “I can’t believe this. Mom and Dad are going to be so worried.”

  “I know.” Midnightstar laid her head on her paws and began to cry softly. “I want to go home.”

  “Come with me. I can take you somewhere you’ll be safe until your parents fin
d you,” a soft voice told them. The pups turned to see a small purple dragon looking kindly at them.

  “It’s a dragon! Run!” Jade screamed. The wolves went to run but the dragon stopped them and said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m a friend of Kia’s.”

  “You’re a friend of Kia’s?” Shadowin said. “You must be good then. Where will you take us?”

  “Away from this scary clearing,” she said. “My name’s Vera, by the way.”

  “She seems nice,” Caini said, her tail wagging. “Come on guys! If she’s a friend of Kia’s, we have nothing to fear!”

  The others hesitated, but slowly followed their sister as she climbed upon Vera’s back. Within a few minutes the dragon had landed once again, near a small tent that was cropped up on the edge of the woods.

  “Where are we? This isn’t our den,” Shadowin said in confusion.

  “I have to stop here first,” Vera said, opening the tent flap with her nose and ushering the pups inside. “Make yourselves comfortable. Just try to stay quiet. I don’t want the baby to wake up.”

  “What baby?” Caini asked. “I didn’t know you had a baby.”

  “I’m babysitting for a friend of mine,” Vera said quickly. “She was busy, so I offered to help.”

  The pups swallowed her answer easily and went inside the tent, Vera changing into a dog and following. When the pups saw that the young prince was inside, they all turned in horror to charge out of the tent, but Vera blocked the way. “You must stay for now,” Vera said.

  “What are you going to do to us?” Caini squeaked, and she and her siblings began crying. Vera looked sadly at them, tears welling up in her blue eyes.

  An Accompany walked into the tent, gazing down at the pups in revulsion. “Where the hell did you find those nasty little fleabags?”

  “They were lost so I offered to help them. I couldn’t let them die,” Vera told him. “I thought that we could return them to their pack before we left.”