Chapter 50 A new day;

Chapter 50 A new day;
After descending from the waterfall, Eva and Asia moved swiftly through the forest trail in their wolf forms. Asia's eyes never stopped sweeping the surroundings, casting wary yet curious glances at everything new that crossed her sight.

"So much has changed..." Asia murmured in her wolf's voice, her gaze trailing up one of the utility poles lining the road. The poles rose all the way into the sky, wrapped at their tops with strange, tangled cords. "What are these?" she asked. "Some kind of dragon trap?"

Eva was taken aback. "A dragon trap? What in the..." she called out from her wolf form. She had barely adjusted to the existence of witches, wolves, guardians, and demons and now dragons were being added to the list. She decided that was enough shock for one day and simply shook her head.

She was going to have to explain everything from the very beginning, as if talking to a small child. "Utility poles," Eva said flatly. "But we don't have time for this right now. We need to get to my grandmother's house first." And with that, she broke into a run again, her wolf body cutting through the trees.

Some time later, they arrived at the mountain cabin that had once belonged to Eva's grandmother. The moment Asia stepped through the door after Eva, her eyes began scanning the room. Shifting out of her wolf form left her bare and unclothed. The fireplace in the center of the room was familiar, but the strange, cushioned seats scattered around it, armchairs, she would later learn , held her full attention. Then her gaze snagged on a peculiar device sitting in the corner of the kitchen.

What is that? she asked, edging carefully toward the coffee maker.

"A coffee machine," said Eva, shrugging clothes over her bare body. "You put in water and coffee grounds, press a button, and it makes coffee. My laptop and my coffee machine , those are the only things I brought with me when I came to this town." She murmured it almost to herself, and then her expression fell. The memory of Kael surfaced, unbidden , how he would grind the beans by hand, in ways she still didn't understand, and brew her coffees whose taste she had never once found anywhere else.

Asia crouched down and inspected the machine. She touched it with her fingertips, then drew her hand back. She knew Eva was a witch , witches had been capable of extraordinary things for centuries. But she couldn't understand where this device drew its power from. "No magic?" she asked. "No sacred stone? No totem?"

"No. Electricity," said Eva with a short laugh. She held out a set of clothes. "Put these on. This isn't the warm hollow by the waterfall , it's cold here."

Asia's brows furrowed. As a wolf, cold meant nothing to her , but she supposed that perhaps in this culture, they didn't appreciate nakedness. She dressed quickly. Then, with that same restless curiosity, she asked, "And what is electricity?"

Eva drew a slow, deep breath. "Asia, this conversation would take years to finish. Please... let's take things one at a time. Come, sit down." She gestured toward one of the armchairs.

Asia grumbled under her breath, like a child whose enthusiasm had been cut short. She drifted to the window instead, gazing out, until her eyes landed on the red pickup truck parked in the garden. Her brows drew together further.

"What is that?" she asked, pointing.

"My car," said Eva.

"Your... car?"

"A car. A vehicle. For travel."

Asia let out a sharp laugh. "You travel in that heap of metal? How does it even move? Have you no horses?" She folded her arms across her chest.

Eva was already exhausted by this endless chain of What is this? questions. She felt as though she were educating a three-year-old. "Horses gave way to cars, Asia. I'm sorry, but a great many things have changed over the centuries," she said, with a quiet note of resignation.

Asia shook her head, still refusing to believe it. "In my time, a warrior rode a horse," she muttered. "A warrior did not ride... that." She lowered herself onto the armchair Eva had pointed to. The softness surprised her and pleased her all at once, she nearly asked what was stuffed inside it, but one look at Eva's face told her another question would not be welcome. So she pressed her lips together and sulked in silence.

Eva smiled at her. "Welcome," she said, "to the twenty-first century." And she turned toward the kitchen to prepare something to drink.

Back in the town square, Joe and Elly were still tending to the young wolves who were just beginning to wake. Most of the children had recovered consciousness, but the clouded, vacant look in their eyes had not lifted. Elly, in particular, was doing her best to keep Joe at a distance from the young ones. This whole matter of an alpha was too new for everyone, and she didn't want to make any moves before she understood what was happening.

In the midst of the voices stirring through the forest, Joe stopped. His senses sharpened. He raised his head, something on the wind. A scent. Familiar. Very familiar.

"Eva," he murmured. "She's here. Close."

Elly looked up. "What?" Then it came to her. "Eva's mountain cabin is nearby , but wasn't Eva with Kael at the waterfall hollow?" she asked.

Joe closed his eyes and drew a longer breath, reaching for more detail.

"There's someone with her. Another wolf. I don't recognize them. Powerful... very powerful. An ancient energy." He opened his eyes.

Elly's curiosity sharpened. "What do you mean? Isn't it Kael? Who could be with her?" But her worry had already taken root , with everything strange happening in the town, she needed to see her friend. "Let's go. Where exactly are they?"

Joe tilted his head in the direction of Eva's house. "There. Her grandmother's place."