Chapter 2 Riddles
Tasha:
A strange chill ran through me as I forced my eyes open. Darkness stretched across the cave like a living thing, but it was not absolute. Faint streaks of the evening sky crept through the cracks near the entrance, casting thin lines of light on the cold stone beneath me.
"How the....hell..did I end up here?" I noticed the change in my voice,grumpy due to my parched throat.
I tried to lift my hands and felt the strange weight of my body. Everything felt unfamiliar, though my senses were alive. My arms were pale, almost unnaturally so, and my skin seemed thinner somehow, more fragile than it had been before.
"What has happened to me?"
I raised a hand to my chest. The steady thump of my heartbeat I always felt was gone, replaced by a sluggish, deep pulse that seemed to stretch time itself. My wolf stirred beneath the surface of my consciousness, but even though she was unnervingly calm, her energy subdued, waiting instead of pushing like she normally would.
The memory of the attack at the warehouse came to me in pieces. The sudden ambush, the rogues lunging from the shadows, the surge of magic I had unleashed, the burning effort to defend myself while my body fought against me, and then the darkness swallowing everything. I tried to recall what had happened after that, but the images were fragmented, broken into flashes too brief to piece together. I could not remember how I had ended up here.
A movement from across the cave drew my attention.
“You are awake,” said a voice,startling me. It was deep, quiet, and carried a weight I could feel in my bones.
I blinked, my eyes still adjusting to the dim light. Across the cavern, a figure sat on a raised stone ledge, barely visible in the shadows. His hair was long and silver, his frame solid though his posture was relaxed. There was something about him that made the space around him tense, as if the air itself acknowledged his presence. I did not recognize him, and yet I sensed I was not alone for the first time in hours.
“Who… who are you?” I asked, my voice raw. It sounded strange to my own ears, hollow in the echoing cave. My throat felt tight, dry in a way that had nothing to do with thirst.
He did not answer at once. He only tilted his head, studying me. “You woke sooner than you were meant to. That is not your doing, and yet it has happened.”
“I… I don’t understand,” I said. My fingers brushed against the cold stone beneath me as I pushed myself upright. Every movement was alien. My body felt lighter, almost weightless, but at the same time every step was strange, stiff, and unbalanced. My arms glimmered faintly under the weak light, almost translucent, and the faintest tingle ran across my skin. I tried to focus, but even my wolf’s presence offered calm instead of her usual restlessness, as if she, too, was aware of the changes I had undergone.
The man finally spoke. “Do not rise so quickly. Your strength is… different. And it will take time before you can trust it.”
I frowned, unsure what he meant. “Different how? What did you do? Where am I?”
“You are in a place that was necessary, and yet not yours to know. You have been brought to safety, though safety in your world has become a relative term,” he said, his voice deliberate, deliberate in a way that made each word land heavier than it should.
I clenched my hands into fists. “I don’t understand. I was attacked. Wolves…rogues…they were there. My friends….they…” My voice faltered. I did not know what had happened to them, and the emptiness in my chest twisted with fear and frustration. “Did they—”
“They are not your concern,” he said calmly. “Your concern is what you became and what you will have to learn to become. You are not meant to follow them, not yet. There is a line you cannot cross, and yet you are standing on its edge.”
“Why? What do you mean? I need to know….” I took a step toward him, and then another, feeling the cold stone under my feet, feeling my muscles respond differently than they had before. My pulse was slow, dragging, yet my mind screamed to push forward.
He raised a hand. “Do not mistake this calm for weakness, child. The body can recover, the mind can hide, and the soul can endure. But every step you take now must be measured. You were not meant to awaken so soon.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, almost to myself. My chest tightened. My wolf stirred slightly under my skin, alert despite the calm she projected. “I survived. Somehow I survived. How is that even possible?”
The man, whose presence filled the space like a shadow in motion, finally stood. He was tall, solid, and moved with a strange grace that seemed at odds with his age. He walked toward the small fire at the cave’s mouth, the flames flickering against his face. “You survived because there was something in you that could not be allowed to end. And because I interfered. That is all you need to know for now.”
I stared at him, confusion and unease rising. “You interfered? Who are you? What did you do to me? I don’t even know your name.”
He paused at the fire, looking at me over his shoulder. “I am called Noah. Names are just the letters we hang on ourselves. What matters is what you will carry forward.”
I felt a chill creep over me. “Carry forward? I can barely feel my own body. It’s… strange. My skin is pale. My arms feel cold. My heart….it’s… not beating the way it should. Everything feels… different. I can’t…”
“No,” he said softly, “you cannot yet understand the nature of what you have endured. You do not feel pain as you should because the magic that saved you has taken it away, and your wolf, who normally rages and fights, now lies in calm. You will have to relearn your body, or it will betray you.”
I stared at my hands, flexing them, seeing my pale skin in the firelight. Every nerve felt alive, yet muted. The emptiness inside my chest made me shiver involuntarily. “I… I don’t understand how any of this is possible,” I whispered.
He turned to me slowly, his gaze cutting and intent. “Some truths are not given. They are discovered. You will know, and you will wield. But first, you must obey.”
I shook my head, frustration rising. “I need to go back. I need to find Rhett. My friends. I need to make sure they’re safe. You can’t just tell me to sit here and do nothing.”
“No,” he said firmly, stepping closer. “You will not go back, and not because I want it. You cannot. There are forces in motion you do not yet comprehend. Going back would only bring ruin. Hear me when I say it: the world you knew is not the same as the world you remember. You are not the same as you were.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself, feeling my body shiver despite the absence of pain. “Then tell me what I am supposed to do. What am I supposed to become? What happens to me now?”
He crouched slightly, resting one hand on a rock. “You will awaken things you could not before. You will grow in ways you feared. Every wound you have suffered, every loss, every heartbreak from this point on, will feed your strength. You will be forced to face yourself, and only then will you understand the power you carry.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine. “Power? I… I didn’t ask for this. I barely managed what I had before. How am I supposed to control anything now?”
“Control is a lie. You can only choose how you wield what lives in you. There will be no guidance beyond this point. No rules. Only the weight of what you become.”
I struggled to keep my voice steady. “And my friends? Rhett? What if something happens to them because of me?”
“No,” he said sharply. “You do not go after them. It is better for all that you listen. Disobedience now will bring more harm than you imagine. You will not be able to undo what you do once you act. Believe me when I say that.”
I wanted to argue, to fight against him, to demand answers, but the chill in my limbs, the strange heaviness in my chest, and the eerie calm of my wolf made words catch in my throat. Instead, I swallowed hard, nodding slightly though my mind was racing.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “But… I’ll leave.”
He straightened. His eyes glinted in the firelight. “Good. Go. But heed my words: you are changed. You are not as you were. And you must be careful of what you let awaken in you.”
I turned toward the cave’s mouth, the cool evening air brushing my face. My feet moved forward hesitantly, but I did not stop.
Then his voice cut through the shadows once more, low and deliberate. “Beware, Tasha. Every heartache will now give you strength. Every fear will sharpen what sleeps inside you. And when you unleash it, it will not be as you expect.”
I felt the weight of his words settle in my chest, mingling with the chill and the emptiness. I did not look back, though a small part of me longed to.
He spoke one last time, a whisper that carried through the cave and into the approaching night.
“Don’t tell anyone about me.”
I stepped out of the cave, the forest swallowing me in darkness, the fading light of evening stretching into shadow. I did not understand everything he had said. I did not know if I would ever understand. But one thing was certain: I was no longer the same.
I looked at my arms when I came out, the wounds were still there, printed on my body like a tattoo, my clothes tattered the same way, blood stained them. But strangely, I wasn’t feeling any pain right now.
“Did he give me pain relievers?” I pondered.
But whatever awaited me beyond the trees, I knew I had changed in ways I could not yet name yet.
I released a shaky breath, “Screw what he said! I need to see my people."