赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Clara was able to come up with a general radius of where the burial mound should have been. She used what she could remember from the stories and the map that Ashleigh had brought.

Ashleigh herself offered a few clues just from the story her father had shared.

They made their way through the trees: it was a half-day hike from where they had parked the truck, but Clara was sure they were on the right path.

“So, what drew your interest to the fae?” Ashleigh asked.

“I’m not really sure,” Clara said. “I guess maybe just the fact that they are our reason for being?”

Ashleigh chuckled.

“Wouldn’t that mean our lives have no purpose?” she asked. “Since they are all gone?”

“Huh…” Clara answered, stopping for a moment. “Ok, well, that’s depressing. Fine, they aren’t our reason for being, but they are directly tied to the creation of our species. That alone seems like a good reason to try and understand them, right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being interested in them, Clara. I used to want to know all about them myself,” Ashleigh said. “I felt drawn to their secrets and mysteries.”

“What made you stop being interested?” Clara asked.

“I’m not sure I ever stopped being interested,” Ashleigh replied. “But studying them required time I didn’t have. I was too busy trying to earn my place in the Berserkers or my duties. As a result, I had very little free time, and what I did have was given to Granger.”

“I guess you must have really loved him….” Clara commented quietly.

“I really thought I did,” Ashleigh replied. She turned and looked at Clara. “Do you have a mate?”

Clara shook her head.

“Have you ever had feelings for anyone?” Ashleigh asked._.

Clara blushed and looked away.

Ashleigh smiled.

“That, right there,” she said. “I never knew that feeling.”

Clara looked back at Ashleigh, who gave her a kind smile.

“Before I met Granger, I had never met anyone I was romantically interested in. No crushes, no boyfriends,” she said. “I met him and felt this connection right away, so I assumed it was what love was supposed to feel like.”

“What did it feel like?” Clara asked.

“I liked him,” Ashleigh replied honestly. “I felt comfortable with him. For a long time, he really was a great guy.”

Ashleigh thought back on her time with Granger. The early days had been good. He felt like a close friend that she could trust. However, it had taken them three months to have their first kiss.

Before the Blood Moon, before Caleb, their relationship had been good. But it had never felt anything like what she felt with Caleb.

“It wasn’t until I met Caleb that I really… well… that I understood what it meant to be drawn to someone,” Ashleigh laughed.

“I knew Winter was pretty old fashioned in the mating stuff, but I didn’t realize it was quite that far gone,” Clara said.

“I’m not sure you can blame the whole of Winter for my lack of experience,” Ashleigh laughed. “I had a good friend that had a new crush every week. I was just more focused on other things.”

Clara nodded.

“I kind of hope I don’t find my mate,” she said.

“Why?” Ashleigh asked.

“Well…” Clara began, tilting her head a little awkwardly. “I don’t know how open-minded the Goddess is.”

“What do you mean?” Ashleigh asked.

“I’m just not sure how I would handle it if my mate were a boy,” Clara said. “After I have spent most of my life coming to terms with my preference for the fairer sex.”

“I could see how that would be problematic,” Ashleigh laughed. “Well, I hope you find your mate and that she is as great as you are.”

“Thank you,” Clara smiled.

They chatted a bit about Clara’s experience in the human world. Ashleigh was quite interested in hearing about all the places she had gone to and things she had done.

But as they got closer to the area that Clara had predicted, Ashleigh began to grow cautious. There was something strange about this part of the woods.

She put her hand up for Clara to stop moving. Looking around for movement, she could feel a presence near them.

Ashleigh tapped the button on her shirt. The wired mesh grew over her body, wrapping her in her armor. Quietly Clara took a few steps back and positioned herself behind a tree where she could watch without getting in the way.

Ashleigh reached her hand to her back, feeling the familiar tug. The small blades took shape in her hands.

She crouched down and slowly moved forward. It didn’t take long to find the source of her bad feeling.

Not far from where they had stopped, Ashleigh caught sight of one of the creatures she had fought the night of the fae attack.

This one was tall, at least six feet. It was thin with an extended round belly and a long face full of moss and leaves that gave the impression of thick curly hair. A thin black tongue like that of a snake peeked out from its mouth. It shuffled back and forth but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Finally, she noticed that it had a strange and severe limp. Looking closer, it was clearly missing a large chunk of its left leg.

Just past where the creature shuffled back and forth, Ashleigh recognized something else. One of the treants, the beast, was gravely injured. All but one of its tentacled roots had already been hacked away, and its lower half was broken into jagged pieces.

She wondered how it had managed to get this far from the battle, had it dragged itself? Perhaps the smaller creature had carried it? The fight had been so long ago. How did no one know it was here?

“Interesting…” Clara whispered.

Ashleigh turned to see that she had moved up not far from her.

“I theorized that the fae had come to Winter as opposed to the other packs because of the burial mounds. Now it seems I might have been right.”

“You think there are more?” Ashleigh asked.

“I would guess so,” Clara said, “I don’t know for sure, but these two look like they probably stopped due to injuries, but they are definitely headed towards Loki’s last stand.”

Clara peeked out at the two creatures ahead of them.

“I think I see some tracks past them. But, honestly, I would say the safe bet is that we will find a lot more as we get closer.”

Ashleigh sighed.

“Guess that ends our adventure,” she said. “These two I could handle on my own, maybe a couple more. But any more than that, and we wouldn’t survive.”

“Yea, I’m no use either… I am very much a lab rat, not a field mouse,” Clara added.

“Let’s go, quietly.”

They made their way back to the truck. The moon was high in the sky by the time they found it, but it didn’t seem that any of the faes had followed them.

A few hours later, Clara was asleep in Ashleigh’s bed. While Ashleigh was waking Axel and her parents.

Corrine turned on a pot of coffee while Ashleigh and the two alphas got comfortable in the living room.

“What’s this about?” Wyatt asked with a heavy yawn.

“We need to organize a few teams of our best fighters and scouts,” Ashleigh began.

“Whoa,” Axel said. “Why?”

“The burial mounds,” Ashleigh said, “we need to send teams to investigate the burial mounds for signs of the fae.”

Wyatt and Axel both looked at her carefully. Corrine sat down next to Wyatt, placing a coffee in front of him.

“We sent teams to the areas around the mounds after the battle was over. But there was no sign that that’s where the creatures came from,” Corrine said.

“I don’t think it’s where they came from, but it seems to be where they were going,” Ashleigh said.

“How do you know that?” Wyatt asked.

Ashleigh looked away.

“I was near the Southern border this afternoon….”

Wyatt closed his eyes and sighed.

“Ashleigh, I told you before, you cannot investigate that mound.”

“You said that you couldn’t ‘let me’ investigate it. I didn’t ask permission or tell you I was going,” Ashleigh defended. “You had no way of knowing if I was investigating there or not.”

“It’s not safe,” Wyatt stated. “In order to keep my word, I laid traps all over that area of the forest.”

“What if someone else was in the area that had nothing to do with this investigation?” Ashleigh asked, concerned.

“There are signs posted about the hazards. They would listen or earn their fate,” Wyatt answered.

“Ashleigh,” Corrine called their attention back, “why do you think the creatures were headed to the mounds, and why do we need to send teams?”

“Because, when I was searching for the mound this afternoon, I saw two of them in the forest. They were injured and barely moving, but tracks were leading in the direction we were pretty sure the mound was in,” Ashleigh said. “We have no way of knowing if any others escaped the battle and continued on their journey.”

“She’s right,” Corrine said.

Wyatt nodded.

“Alright,” Axel said. “I will talk with Saul in the morning and figure out who we can send. We’ll get the teams sent to the three mounds and do a few general sweeps of the forest surrounding the mounds and the gate while we’re at it.”

“That’s a good plan,” Ashleigh said, “I will join the team going to the southern mound.”

“No.”

Ashleigh turned to look at Axel, surprised by his response.

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“No,” he repeated, “You won’t be joining the team headed to the southern mound.”

“Why not?” She demanded.

“Because, as your Alpha, I am forbidding you from investigating the area of the southern mound.”