Blue

Holy freak monkey. I’ve never gotten so many reviews for the first chapter of a story before. Well… wow, you guys know how to make a girl feel special. Hopefully I can keep you all liking this. But seriously, I had half a mind to wait it out before I posted this, to see how many I get. I‘d also reply, but, you know.

Oh and I just love the name Elijah. When I first started this story, it was the first thing that popped into my head, and I didn‘t even try to fight against it.

Thank you for the love :).

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Mama was pissed.

Not that Eli thought she wouldn’t be. It was the better alternative, though, so he wouldn’t complain. What if she had just decided not to care? That would just be the start. Then she wouldn’t talk to him… Wouldn’t look at him… Feed him…

“Are you stupid?!” Eli flinched.

“Ma-”

“Do you have any idea what could have happened to you, boy?”

Mama threw the rag she was using to clean on the ground, not bothering to wipe off her knees as she stood.

“I’m sorry, Mama.”

“Well, sorry isn’t enough. Especially when you could have gotten yourself killed.”

“I know, Mama, I-”

“Do you?! I’m really starting to wonder.” Eli couldn’t stop the wolfish whine as Mama turned her back on him, shaking her head, her long, graying hair swayed with the movement. “What if you’d have been found? What would I do…”

Guilt wracked through Eli’s body. He knew that she was just putting him through a guilt trip. To make sure that he thought before he ever even went into the forest again.

But wait a minute…

“But there was someone.” He admitted softly, and started when Mama turned around quickly.

“What.”

“A wolf. A white one.” He hadn‘t really noticed it, at the time, too afraid to do so, But as he thought about it, there weren’t any white wolves, were there? Mama had only talked about grey and brown and black ones. And, well, his own red.

“White?” Mama repeated, almost as if to herself.

“Yeah.”

“And he saw you?” Eli nodded. “And let you go?”

Again, he nodded.

“Count yourself lucky, then.” She snorted. “And hope he doesn’t come calling.”

Eli stared at her, a blush slowly came up his neck.

“You think…” Another whine.

“Stop doing that, and possibly. More like probably.” She sighed, before pointing to her rag on the floor. “Clean. And afterwards, go to town.”

Eli nodded, relieved. It could have been so much worse, but Mama must have been in a good mood.

“But you know, a white wolf? I haven’t heard about one of those lately.”

“Oh yeah?” Eli urged, curious. Mama knew. She always knew.

“There are a few packs up north, so that’s normal, but one around here? It’s not normal. Unless he’s a lone wolf, or maybe a mate of another… Odd. There’s a legend around these parts, though.”

The red wolf’s ears perked up. Story time?

“I don’t remember much about it, but it’s said that when white wolves are born in a pack, they will be much stronger than a regular wolf.”

The boy huffed. That wasn’t a story. Nothing to it at all.

“Oh hush. Get to cleaning. Not much time till dark.”

Mama went outside, towards the small garden, near the back of the cottage, that she’d started years ago, when Eli was young, not that he quite remembered.

Mama was getting old, too. Her hair had once been a dark brown, the same as her eyes, though Eli remembered, there had always been a little bit of grey. Not as much as now. No, nowhere near as much. It worried him, but Mama said it’d be a while before she bit the dust. He believed her. If anything, she still had that energy.

He finished the floor, Mama had almost finished before he came in, and headed out, carrying a bag of meat to be traded in the town.

He could never figure out why Mama thought making him go to town for her was a punishment. Truthfully, he loved to. He loved to watch the people, see them go about their daily lives, among people that they knew and loved.

It’d be nice to have that one day, too.

But he knew he couldn’t, not with them. Mama told him, all but begged him, not to associate himself with them. She said that they couldn’t be trusted, that they‘d hurt him.

He saw when she said it, that faraway look in her eyes. She knew what she was talking about. But then again, she always knew.

It wasn’t long before he got to the town, trading and getting what he knew that Mama wanted. He was back by the time it got dark, his mind wandering the way.

That white wolf, with the blue eyes. They were pretty eyes, very pretty. He had nothing on them, with his own, plain brown.

But that fur. He felt special just to have seen it the one time. If he could do so again…

Eli shook his head. He’d be home soon, and he needed his head. Mama wasn’t done punishing him. She always came up with something else when she had time to think. Last time, it was getting the eggs from the chickens.

Chickens did not like him. He had scars to prove it.

A noise caught his attention, and he jumped, only to see a squirrel leap from the brush and up a tree.

Oh, good.

No white wolf.

Eli bit his lip. For a moment, he had almost hoped that it had been. To see that sleek, beautiful pelt again, but Mama’s words came to him.

He might come calling. That’s what she said, and it wasn’t sarcastic.

If he thought about it, even if the wolf did come, Eli couldn’t really do anything about it, except tell him no. If he had the mind to, though, then it’d be done, unless Eli could run faster. He was of age, too, not a pup anymore.

Eighteen, was what Mama said.

Though, he’d only been so for about a few weeks.

How old was Mama, then? She never told him. He figured she probably never would. Her hair was greying, but she didn’t move like the old ladies in the town. She was grumpy, though, like they were, so maybe that was a sign of her age?

But then again, Mama had always been grumpy…

Mm…

Enough of it, he didn’t need to be obsessing about it. There were other, more important, things.

Like mating.

Truth be told, he wasn’t all that against getting a mate. Being able to be intimate with another that he would be with forever didn’t seem at all like a bad idea.

Depending on the dominate wolf.

But the white wolf didn’t seem all that bad. He’d let Eli go, didn’t he? Despite the red wolf being in his territory, he hadn’t done anything except scare him a little. Eli was at his mercy, and yet…

Maybe if he asked, Mama might remember a little bit more to tell him.

Or get mad at him for thinking on it so long, and bothering her about it.

…Or congratulate him for keeping on his toes about the whole mess.

Decisions decisions.

He saw the cottage ahead of him, Mama having moved to the front, working in the garden solely made to ‘pretty up the place,’ and to keep it from being so ‘dull and plain,’ as Mama put it.

“Get that inside.” She flapped her hand to the door, flinging dirt. “And come back out. Need you to go to the shed.”

Eli did so without a word, suspicious of her light tone.

“Get the hoe. Need you to get to the barn. Get those damn snakes out.” She grunted as she pulled weed after weed.

The wolf groaned, but did as he was told, going to the ramshackle shed, and quickly finding the old hoe that hadn’t moved in months. Mice squeaked underfoot.

Then to the barn.

It was newer then the shed, but not by much. Mama was always going on about how she wanted to get a cow, maybe some sheep. Milk from town started to spoil quickly, with the heat, and they’d also be able to get their own wool.

Of course, Mama had been saying that for years.

The barn really wasn’t too bad. The walls where still sturdy, and there was quite a bit of room, but he wasn’t sure about allowing them to roam. What would he know, though, about how to take care of livestock, other than the chickens. All he had to go on was the acre of land that the farmers used for their own animals. Horses, maybe…

But never mind it. If Mama wanted it, then she’d get it.

There was hay pushed up in one of the corners, Mama made him replace it every now and then, with the saying that she was going to get her plan going.

An hour of beating at the hay, getting the snakes to slither out, and it was dark out.

He set the hoe back in it’s place, heading back to the cottage, glancing at the moon on his way. Three weeks. The moon would be full in three weeks.

Just thinking about it made his hair stand on end, an urge to change forms to run through the woods as fast as he could, to hell with the consequences if he crossed the boundary every now and then.

Three weeks.