Chapter 4: So it begins
He heard her chilling scream from where he was. She bursted into a feat of tears and screams, alerting everyone who was nearby. Her tiny face visibly clear with signs of distress.
"Crown! Oh the gods. How did she get here?" A villager who picked her up asked. In minutes her parents arrived on the scene, taking her from the one who found her and offering comfort in the way they knew to do.
"Poppi" she repeated as her cries subsided, pointing in no direction exactly as she was now swayed from side to side by her mother.
Her parents gasped. Her first word!
Her father was happy.
"Papa is here,' her father corrected.
"Poppi," she repeated
"Papa," her father said slowly not believing that she may be referring to something else entirely.
"Papa," she finally said causing her parents to celebrate.
"Did she say Papa or puppy?" Tiran her elder brother whispered to Honey, her sister.
"I dunno!" Honey shrugged. She was silently wondering how strange it was that her sister was found beside their neighbours house. How did she leave their home. And where exactly had she gone for she could see the foot prints of something not human leading up to the path that led to the forest.
She shook it off and finally followed their parents.
They went back to join the rest of the village in the celebration, ignorant of the little adventure their tiny baby girl had just experienced.
_
Somewhere in the dark, just at the edge of the forest, and before the city of Ashford, a lanky old figure rested heavily on a weak and crooked cane. She chewed on a stick to clean her dark stained teeth, as she silently watched all that had been happening from afar.
Her sight clear as crystal, amplified by the mystery of her being, not affected by old age as one might want to assume after taking a look at her. The wind blew around her, carrying the hems of her long dress about her.
"Hmmm," her voice merely a whisper. She looked up to see the butterfly dance around the moon, only to disappear after a nod from her.
"And so it begins," she said, before becoming one with the darkness and disappearing into thin air.
-
"I can smell a human on you!" Adin announced with a frown on his face once Zaccai returned.
"Did you... Did you get to the village?" He queried.
Zaccai shook his head from side to side. Then up and down.
"What!"
Zaccai then tried to demonstrate that he found a baby in the forest.
Adin understood. "A baby? A human child?"
He nodded.
"Alone?" Adin further asked truly surprised.
He nodded again. Looking defeated and guilty. He then showed Adin his tongue looking like a sad puppy.
"You ate something other than raw meat and blood?"
He nodded but then tried to demonstrate that it was the baby that gave him berries.
"Get in!" Adin ordered at once, holding the cage bar open for Zaccai to walk through.
He locked the bars and went out without another word
It wasn't until the wee hours of the morning until he returned.
He knew now that Zaccai was telling the truth. He had found a lost child and returned it. Quite noble of him to do.
Without the transformation he would have simply fed on the human. Anyone of them would. but these years were made for them to go through to control the beast withing while surviving through other means
"Hello your highness."
Zaccai perched up his head from the ball he had curled himself into all night.
"I know you told the truth. And I admire your strength and kindness. But this will be the last time you will leave the confines of your room."
"For your sake," Adin continued. "Your parents need you at your strongest and best. We all do. We cannot complicate the last eighty and seven years like this. We have three more years to go for your training to be complete, then your outward transformation. You will be unstoppable."
"I know you will my prince." He finished.
He crouched down. "We need to focus more, okay."
He gave Zaccai his usual head rub. "Work with me here."
Zaccai gave his hand a friendly lick.
"Did you swallow the berry?"
He shook his head in the negative he didn't know how to say he may have somehow swallowed her saliva and it was better if he didn't tell him at all, he thought at last.
"Great. Then you are safe. Your strength will reach full capacity, I hope. I truly do."
"Sleep well my prince. We have a long day ahead of us."
.....
FOUR YEARS LATER.
Zaccai ran through the open courtyard of his parents mansion bumping into things and destroying them due to his strength.
"Zaccai! Enough!" His mother yelled.
"Hello mother." His front paws was now replaced with human hands so he could stand on his hind legs, but they were next.
His eyes, fangs and feet were going to be the last to be transformed after and he couldn't wait for it to be complete. He wondered what color his eyes would be.
With only 3 weeks to his plus one year day as well as his presentation to the house of royals and the society, he was too excited.
"Mother look." He jumped off the roof of an abandoned building to a cart, breaking it into pieces.
"Get me Sir Adin right now!" Lady Lieve ordered her servants.
"Sir Adin, control your protégé will you. He's flying off roofs and destroying carts. What will be next? Had the last ninety years been for nothing? She asked with a hint of annoyance but one could not deny the excitement in her voice as well. Her son was about to start his life, she was happy about that.
"Well, technically my queen he's only a happy wolf. The last ninety years had not been too easy for the young prince and he's only happy for his full transformation process to be complete."
"Control him." She said before leaving the corridor to go about her business for the day.
"Yes my Lady,"
"Zaccai! Here now!"
"Hello Sir Adin. Have you seen my new quarters? It's impeccable." Zaccai happily announced.
"Impeccable huh?" Admin asked.
"Yes sir Adin. Mama and papa said I will get my own very own home built for me once I turn fifteen. In that very spot." He pointed to a large open field just to the right of his parents home. "Well technically I will be a hundred and five years old." He said with a frown.
"How old are you sir Adin?" He continued.
"I am sixty years--"
"So one hundred and fifty? You are really old sir Adin." He cut him off.
"Thank you Prince Zaccai."
Adin wondered if hadn't done a bad thing teaching the young prince how to use words before his transformation. He was a talker indeed
"But not as old as my father. He's two hundred and fitfteen years old. My mother is only two years younger." He kept on.
"Sir Adin. When will I be introduced to society?"
"In three weeks time my--"
"Will they like me?" He asked genuinely.
"The house of royals will like you, everyone will." Adin assured him.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes prince Zaccai."
"Who seats on the seat of power and order?"
"The house of Ai my prince," Adin answered as he walked up the stairs quietly leading Zaccai back to his room.
"They have four sons?" He asked.
"Yes my prince."
"Are they big like me?"
"They are bigger than you my prince. They are ninety and ten," he explained.
"So they are one hundred years old, and I am..." He counted his fingers. "I am ninety one."
"Yes your highness. You are an old wolf but a boy all in one."
Mama said I am quite tall for my age. She says the other wolf's like Prince Bild is smaller than I am."
"It doesn't matter your highness."
"But prince-"
"Prince zaccai," Sir Adin caught him off You are perfect and unique and your hind legs make you look taller than you normally will be at this level
"Are you lying to me to get me to stop talking?" He asked more serious.
"I would never silent you my prince or lie to you But I want you to never worry about your appearance as well as anyone's thought of you."
"I have spent more years with you than I have with my wife. I can assure you that you are indeed special." Adin assured.
"Thank you sir Adin."
"How is your wife sir Adin?" He continued after a moment silence.
"She is fine sir."
More questions rolled out as he walked Zaccai to his quarters, half smiling that the prince was doing better than him or his parents could have hoped.
He talked like he has spent years around the outside world while his peers were barely able to piece two words together. And his eyes were truly expressive. He never did shy away from any topic of discussion. He wasn't allowed to ask where baby wolves came from though. That he learnt in a very embarrassing way.
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