赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Clara had been digging through the documents since the moment Ashleigh had granted her access.

All through the night and the morning. As the others said goodbye to their loved ones, Clara continued to read every document, look at every image, and run her own research.

By the afternoon, she was exhausted but enraptured by the things she was learning from Alpha Cain.

Almost three hours after the convoy had left Summer, Clara was deep into a stack of books. Some were written by humans, some by werewolves.

Ashleigh, Caleb, and Alice arrived in a conference room that Clara had commandeered as her personal headquarters for her research mission.

Nessa had created a small corner for herself, complete with a laptop, a couple of sleeping bags, and a box of snacks and water bottles.

She had forced Clara to take a short two-hour nap and eat at least a few snacks during the night.

“Clara?” Ashleigh called out to her.

Clara lifted her head, and Ashleigh's eyes widened at how tired she looked.

“Have you even slept?” she asked.

“Yeah, totally,” Clara replied with an awkward smile.

“Liar…” Nessa replied from her corner as she looked at something on her computer.

“Shhh… you're supposed to be on my side!” Clara snipped.

“I am on your side. Sleep is good for you. Not sleeping is bad,” Nessa replied in a mocking tone.

“Hush, or go back to your room.”

Nessa motioned that she was zipping her lips.

“Clara, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you shouldn't make yourself sick over this,” Caleb said. “Take a break. This data has been sitting for almost three years. I doubt a few hours will change much.”

“I disagree,” Clara said, jumping up from the table.

“Did you find something?” Ashleigh asked.

Clara smiled.

“Alpha Cain… is amazing… he saw so many things, and he had theories, and guesses, and ideas, and he just… wow….”

Ashleigh chuckled. She had almost forgotten how excited Clara could get over research and anything related to the fae or the origins of the wolves.

“Ok, so why don't you think the theories and ideas can wait a few hours while you get some sleep?” she asked.

Clara took a deep breath and grabbed some of the piles of notes.

“Alpha Cain took a lot of samples from the mounds, and he found that some of them were older than us. By years. And the way they were spread out, these things were essentially mass graves. So why were they spread out? Why were there so many and in different places all over the territories?”

“Did my father have a theory about the reason?” Caleb asked.

Clara shook her head and smiled.

“No, but I do.”

“Gotta give her credit,” Alice smiled. “This one knows how to keep you on the line.”

Clara smiled proudly before continuing.

“I have been researching historical records, maps, drawings, anything I could find, both human and werewolf. Trying to figure out what it all meant. I found locations of great battles and hints at even more powerful fae than Loki.”

“What?” Caleb asked, his interest in the conversation increasing tenfold.

“Yep,” Clara nodded.

“Why haven't we ever heard of these powerful fae?” Ashleigh asked.

“Well, a lot of information on them comes from legends and stories from humans and lesser packs. In fact, it looked like the great packs avoided the topic entirely. The old stories from Summer, Winter, Autumn, and Spring all focus on Loki and the part that each played in the final battles. Still, they hold very little about the times before the battles.”

“Stories and legends?” Caleb asked, then how do you know they are true?”

“Well, it's all theoretical still….” Clara replied, chewing her bottom lip nervously.

“What did they say?” Alice asked. “These legends and stories.”

Clara looked up excitedly.

“These fae had complete control over their territory. From the images I found and the stories in the human myths, I think these were the Fae Queens. They were powerful, aggressive, and territorial leaders, believing their clan was the strongest and the greatest.”

“So… alphas?” Alice asked.

Caleb scoffed.

Alice shrugged.

“Actually… yea… the stories I've read… they had very similar powers to those of the Alphas of the great packs. Only… way more powerful. Like compulsion and weather control. They could appear miles away out of thin air.”

“Ok, so very powerful fae. I can see how it's interesting,” Ashleigh commented. “But how does this information change anything? Why is it important to know right now instead of tomorrow or the next day.”

Clara took a deep breath.

“From what I could piece together, I think the fae were already in a war by the time the werewolf was born. And I don't mean their subjugation of humans. I mean amongst themselves, between these Queens. A power struggle, it sounds like at the end, when wolves arrived, there may have only been two of them left in play.”

“Ok…”

Clara swallowed and licked her lips. She was drained, but this was important. She needed them to understand what she understood.

“Some of the stories from the lesser packs talk about these powerful beings fighting each other, about how when one died, their mound would be destroyed in order to prevent their clan from bringing their power back somehow. Sound familiar?”

“The power source in Spring….” Caleb whispered.

“You think Gorn was trying to bring back a Queen?” Ashleigh asked.

“No, I don't think Gorn knows anything about the Queens. Not even Cain knew that,” Clara replied. “And I don't think the mound in Spring belonged to a Queen. But I believe that the mound Alpha Cain found in Moonguard, the one with bone scattered into the roots, might have.”

“Goddess… if Gorn gets ahold of that mound….” Ashleigh whispered.

“Are we sure he hasn't already?” Caleb commented. “The fae that attacked Winter… my father said that Gorn was experimenting with power. Maybe he found a way to bring them back?”

“Alpha Cain has several pages here that talk about seeing something like that. He didn't know for sure, but he suspected that Gorn had been playing with genetics, trying to find a way to make his own fae. Something he could control,” Clara said.

She took a breath and then shook her head.

“But… if he had reached the Moonguard mound, if he had access to the bones of a Queen… No, his starting point is too basic. The creatures we've seen have been mutations at best, not true fae. They are unstable. That's why they fall apart into goo when they get killed.”

“How sure are you about that?” Caleb asked.

“I mean, without his actual data, it's still just a guess,” Clara replied.

“About that…” Alice said with an upbeat note in her voice.

She looked at Clara with a wide grin and mischievous eyes.

“I have a present for you.”