When we come to the small clearing by the river, she drops my clothes before walking over and drinking from the flowing water. Her tongue laps at it thirstily. The sun warms our fur, and she lays down next to the river when we hear something. Kora cocks her head to the side, listening intently for whatever the noise is, before I hear a voice I never thought I would hear in anything but my dreams.
“Hello Katya,” her voice is clear, calm, and almost serene just like from my dreams.
Kora gets to her feet and spins to face the sudden intruder. She looks as regal as ever from where she stands beneath the tree. Her long white gown flows to the ground as she steps toward us, hair flowing freely, not a piece out of place, as if not even the breeze can touch her. She stops in front of Kora, looking down at her, long fingers reaching for us as she gently runs them through our fur.
“Hello, child of mine,” she whispers as if some hidden depth lay beneath her words. Kora sniffs her hand, turning her face into her palm, and licks her wrist. “My child of the Moon, I would like to speak to your human,” she requests, her eyes glistening back at us, saying so much yet so little of how she feels about us. Kora whines and steps back, stretching out her front legs before she shifts back.
I growl at Seline. Our Moon Goddess, a deity, but to me, she is nothing but the woman that cursed my family, generations of death, and endless pain caused by this one woman.
“Ah, ah, ah, don’t be rash, child, I am just here to talk and nothing more,” she warns, and I glare at her. Turning my back to her, I walk over to where my clothes are. Snatching them off the ground, I quickly slip them on while Seline looks around at the trees and the river, breathing in the air deeply before she sighs “I miss this, miss, this place,” she observes as I glare daggers at her. She turns her gaze to me, a knowing smile on her face. “I know you’re angry, I know you don’t understand the meaning of this. I blessed you and cursed you with life and death, not the stink eye child, so save it for someone else.”
“Why are you here?” I ask, making me wonder if this is why Kora wanted to go for a run so desperately. Could she sense her presence in some way? Kora doesn’t seem startled or scared of this woman that is responsible for the horror of my ancestor’s past.
“Yes, she could, I have been calling for her, that is why she has been absent,” Seline explains, reading my thoughts.
It shouldn’t surprise me yet her answer somehow still does.
“I have been watching your family for generations, but you, my child, you are different,” she continues. “Only one other has caught my attention, he was the first to break the curse, the only one to break it, but then made the wrong choices afterward, and it cost not only his life but that of his mates.”
Plagued with confusion, all I can do is stare.
Seline shakes her finger in the air, giving me a pointed look. “But I have watched you grow, morph into something more than your ancestors dreamed of, so I thought I would throw you a bone if you will,” she says with a smile.
“You could always break the curse, you created it, you can take it away,” I insist, walking over to the boulder by the river and sitting on it. She shakes her head.
Seline follows, yet watching her it was almost as if her feet don’t quite touch the earth, yet I can see her standing, the train of her dress slivering behind her. Yet it did not stain despite the soil and grass being moist. “No, I can’t. What’s done is done, only you can figure it out for yourself, but I have been helping along the way, you just didn’t know it.”
“Moon Goddess lady, I have no idea what you are talking about. So instead of speaking in riddles, just spit it out,” I grumble, becoming annoyed.
Seline smiles like she thinks I am amusing in some way. “You remind me of Marabella, the fire inside you, you two are very similar, she had the same fighting spirit, but her love trumped all, even in the end when she gave her life for her son.” she watches me for a second and purses her lips, looking at the water.
I glance at it, seeing my reflection, yet hers did not appear beside me where she stood.
“Have you figured it out yet? I can feel it just sitting on the edge of your mind, trying to put the last pieces of the puzzle together,” she pushes, turning her attention back to me and watching me curiously.
I stare at her.
“Love that has no limit, jealousy with no bounds, pain of the worst kind, sacrifice for the unworthy, and then death. They all go hand in hand with your family. But you are the first to forgive, the first to accept all of it. No tricks, no hidden meanings behind your feelings, you aren’t even trying to break the curse. You just accept it, unfazed by the imminent death the others faced, you don’t fear it.”
Her words tug at some part of me I can’t explain, something ingrained in what I perceive as my soul. But she is wrong, I do fear it, not for myself but for my mates. The damage it could cause them when I eventually meet my end.
“It doesn’t have to be that way, there is no end. There is also no beginning, just a never-ending cycle, a loop, life, and death. You can’t have one without the other, everything and everyone is soul, spirit, recharged, remodeled, and returned to the moon, to the earth, infinite Kat. We are all infinite.” Seline motions around her with her hands, a soft smile playing on her lips.
“All this is just a drop in an ocean, a mere speck of what we truly are. I can show you your future child or show you the past. Everyone has skeletons in their closet, you just need to choose which ones you can live with, which ones will haunt you a little less,” she advises.