Terrarias

Writing by Emma Savok-Headington.

Prologue: The Meeting

A little girl with long, creamy white hair that was blowing softly behind her was running around the hill that was about two miles away from her house. She had curious icy blue eyes. She was wearing a jean jacket over a black t-shirt and camouflage pants that were covered in mud and grass. Her feet were covered in so much mud, that from a distance they looked like shoes.

The sky was darkening quickly and the moon was rising with it. The little girl stared at the moon when it was fully visible, she had known it would be a full moon, but tonight it had a little tint of purple in it that she had not expected.

A purple moon Thought the little girl with excitement, she spun in a circle and raced toward it, into the forest and farther away from her house than her parents liked. Even though other people couldn’t see very well in the darkness, the little girl’s sight was even better at night then in the daytime. She weaved in between trees and lept lightly over boulders and stones, the mud was coming off in large chunks from all the rocks underneath.

Then she saw it. The warm light, a beam of the moon in a small clearing in the center of the forest. She dashed toward it, but was stopped short when she noticed there were two forms that looked like they were glowing in the moonlight. She then noticed that if she had stepped any closer that she would have fallen in a ditch.

They were huge black wolves. They were sitting, facing the moon. The little girl stepped forward and fell forward as her foot had rolled over a fallen branch of a tree. She gasped but she couldn’t scream out as she fell into the ditch she had forgotten.

A blur of something soft and black caught her in mid air and suddenly she was riding on of one of the wolves, the other one right beside them, his grey-silver eyes never leaving her as they were moving faster and faster. She clung to the scruff of the wolf that had caught her, with her remaining strength as she felt the wolves muscles moving rhythmically underneath her.

The wind was blowing her hair back fiercely, and it stung her eyes. She shoved the pain away and tried to keep her eyes open to see where they were taking her. She hoped that it was somewhere safe and warm.

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She must have fallen asleep during the ride because the next thing she knew she was outside her house, her older sister on the front steps, staying back with a flame of panic in her light green eyes, but she would not step forward, for fear of the wolves in front of her. They were sitting in front of the little girl, facing the older sister with their fur straight up, and sharp teeth showing but not growling. It was a warning to stay back.

The little girl sat up and the wolves heads snapped to look at her, their fur went down. She glanced at her older sister, her eyes pleading. The older sister shook her head slowly, the little girl’s eyes went wet and glassy and as she started to cry, and the wolves stepped toward her.

They rubbed against her, then laid down as she started to pet them, running her hands through their thick, soft fur in a slow and shaky rhythm. She was still crying, and the wolves licked the tears away. The older sister gasped when she saw them licking her, but quickly recovered and threw the flower pot that had been next to her, at the little girl with all her strength.

The wolves took action immediately, jumping in front of the little girl to protect her. They crushed the flower pot with their paws, growling at the older girl, fur raised, and their muscles were ready to pounce at even the slightest sign of danger.

The older girl sighed, relieved that the wolves wouldn’t harm her younger sister. She nodded to her sobbing younger sister, who cried with happiness now. With a yelp of pure happiness, she threw her arms around the two wolves necks and squeezed as the wolves licked her face, drying her tears.

Chapter 1

A very loud alarm, followed by two dogs that had barked once, woke everyone in Lunaria Town, they all knew, with irritation and love, whomst the alarm belonged to. The alarm sound came from the usually very quiet house numbered 55. The alarm clock and the dogs belonged to a very shy, and kind girl named Rieka Wulfric.

The Wulfric family had the most polite people, by far, the town ever known. The parents were always somewhere else, on either business or vacation, so they were never really around. Even the two dogs, who had one spot each on their foreheads of what kinda looked like a crescent moon pointing in opposite directions, were polite and friendly, they never barked unless someone was in danger, or in the morning when Rieka’s alarm went off. They only ever showed aggression when someone hurt Rieka.

The town had become the two girls' aunts and uncles to them, to their neighbors they had become their nieces in turn. Although their parents sent them money every week, Rieka and her older sister shared the large amount of money with the townspeople for always being kind and caring to them.

Rieka’s older sister was named Ariana. Rieka and Ariana’s ages had 5 years and one day difference. Rieka was 15, and Ariana was 20, born five years and a day before Rieka. They also looked nothing alike.

Rieka had milk chocolate skin, some soft wavy, thick, and long, creamy white hair that fell down to her waist. Her irises were an unusual color, they were an icy blue, with a hint of light purple coloring. She was 5 foot 4 in height. Rieka loved to wear brightly colored hoodies, and leggings or sweatpants, with black sneakers. She occasionally wore light colored jeans, that was how she dressed up for fancy occasions. She always wore a pendant necklace she had since she was a baby.

Ariana had a little darker shade of milk chocolate skin, she had thinner, straight hair, the color was a really dark, almost black, brown she had gotten from her mother.

Her eyes were a light green color, she had gotten those from her father. Ariana always had her hair in some sort of a tight, intricate braid that never came undone or touched her neck. She was 5 foot 2 ½ in height. Ariana loved to wear neon, short dresses that only came up right above her knees, a pair of skin colored, very thin pants, and the opposite color of the color she wore her dress in for high-heels.

Rieka was just starting 11th grade today, a high school junior. She had skipped a grade, and she mostly got all A pluses but sometimes she got A’s instead. She was always focused, even when her classmates were being the loudest they could be, she could still hear her teacher’s instructions.

The teacher knew this and would ask Rieka to help quiet the class, as whenever she said, even just one word, people would instantly stop talking and listen to her. Rieka also had a little bit of a strange accent, and her family didn't, that might be a reason why people did this.

“Rieka, how do I look? Should I go out in this?” Ariana asked, coming down the stairs. Ariana’s voice sounded a little like a waterfall, so quiet, yet so powerful at the same time. She was wearing a neon pink dress with a neon yellow-green crop-top, fluffy jacket and neon yellow-green heels.

Rieka cringed, but nodded her approval. She knew her outfit choice was not Rieka’s favorite, but she also knew that Rieka always supported her. Ariana smiled and grabbed her car keys from the counter, and her umbrella. She was going on a date with her boyfriend Hitori, and it was raining hard outside. As she stepped outside, she blew Rieka a kiss and half ran to her car.

Rieka smiled and waved until she couldn’t see her car anymore. She rushed to grab her backpack and her umbrella. She was wearing a light purple rain jacket, with a little realistic embroidered crescent moon over the pocket. Rieka had embroidered it herself. She had light blue jeans, and black sneakers on. She touched the pendant hanging from her neck for good luck.

She had always worn the pendant necklace she had since she was a baby. The pendant looked like an almost see-through hemisphere of a light blue night sky, with clouds, and a little moon that changed phases everyday in the background with a bow and arrow with a galaxy colored arrow head in the center.

No one knew how the little moon change phases within the pendant, nor did they

know how it changed according to the actual moon phase itself.

Rieka went to the back door to let the dogs out, thinking about her most recent encounter with a wolf. She always saw wolves, and they were always silently watching her from afar. The last encounter though, was different.

The large white wolf had come straight to her, stopping when it seemed to notice her fear and bowed its great head in what seemed to be a greeting, never looking away from her eyes. She stared at it, not sure what to do. The wolf had a mark on its forehead, a yellow patch of fur in the shape of a sword.

She step forward once, twice, then stopped. The wolf's wail started to wag slightly, the tea green eyes joyous. It jumped up, spun around and ran towards an abandoned house near where she lived. She was very tempted to run with it but stopped her thoughts, reminding herself that it could kill her easily.

Rieka was brought back to the present as an earsplitting howl erupted from her dogs. They both had gray-silver eyes, black fur, and the same white-silver crescent looking mark on their foreheads with the difference in the marks being one had a waxing crescent, one had waning crescent mark.

Yue was the one with the waxing crescent and Cyrus was the one with the waning crescent moon patch. Rieka had met them when she was a little girl, around 3 years old or so she was told by Ariana, who was 8 at the time. Yue and Cyrus had given her such a fright that the memory stuck with her all these years. Rieka had noticed that sometimes when Ariana was looking at Yue or Cyrus, they still held a little fear, just for a second.

Rieka smiled at them, but she went stiff as a board as she had noticed what they were looking at. The white wolf with the yellow patch of fur was outside her house, gazing at them through the front door, his great head bowed as he sat patiently by the fence. The wolves stood up and stopped howling and bowed their heads in greeting.

The white wolf wagged its tail twice and ran straight for the door where Rieka was still frozen in place. The dogs backed away, and then knocked her down, something, or rather someone took her by her waist and dragged her out of the way. Rieka recovered and tried to fight but the person was too strong.

The white wolf bounded happily inside, but with a yelp and a flash of pale yellow light, a man stood where the wolf had just been.