"The spirit of Wolf stands for the path of discovering the deepest levels of self, of inner knowing and intuition, as symbolized by the image of the wolf baying at the moon.

This is a solitary path. To truly come to understand oneself one must be alone, undistracted by the opinions of others. One must learn to listen to the voice within, which in silence speaks as clearly as the sound of a wolf howling in the night.

And the wolf, like the cat and the owl, is a symbol of night, a time which can be frightening and lonely, and also a time when, through dreams, one's most precious discoveries about oneself may arrive."

The sun was bright outside the building which held a complex of small businesses. Cars passed by slowly but eagerly through traffic on the street adjacent to the complex. Only a few cars were parked in the lot outside the building. I walked through the first door of the building and stood in the entrance of my mother's holistic shop.

The shop's grand opening was tomorrow and I came to see how she was doing. It looked like most of everything had moved into the space.

"Hey Michelle! Nice to see my daughter finally come to the shop!" My mother exclaimed.
"Why wouldn't I come?" I asked her as I took a good look at all of her products. The racks were set across the walls, and there were two glass show cases filled with a variety of things. There were two windows in the front room. One was large that overlooked the parking lot, while the other was an average sized window overlooking the busy street outside. The entrance to the back room stood next to the cash register counter.

"Well I don't know, Jake has made you busy. I barely get to see my own daughter anymore!" She said as she unpacked a box full of stones and crystals. They were of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some were beautifully vibrant, while others were dreadfully dull and boring.
"Sorry, we're basically going steady now." I explained.
"Steady?" My mother scoffed. In return I just rolled my eyes as I walked towards one of the shelves and picked up a small velvet bag full of stones the size of little pebbles. "That's pretty cool." I said as I inspected the bag more carefully and looked at the label that read "Chakra Stones".

"By the way, Michelle, I was wondering if you were going to continue your training. You stopped so long ago, and I was wondering if you every wanted to master the healing technique?" My mother stared at me after moving the box she was currently unpacking to the side. It was obviously important to her, though I don't know if it was important enough to me. I broke her irritating stare and looked out the large window, crossing my arms in front of me.

She continued unpacking the box, "I guess that's a no then?"
"I-I don't know mom… It's not like I can use it. Hell I barely believe if it works anymore. Like Jake said, it's all hocusing pocus."

"Tell that boy to quit being so critical. Sometimes I wonder if that boy is right for you."
"Mom!" I turned around and gave her a sharp stare.
"Don't lash out at me. I'm just saying, it's unhealthy to believe what he believes. What does your heart tell you?"
"That it's bull sh-" huh? I stopped once I felt a strange feeling in the air.

"-Excuse me?" we both looked over to find an old woman standing by the door, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She looked warily at my mother and I.

"Oh! No! Of course not!" My mom looked over at me, "We'll finish this later." She muttered under her breath.

"Pft." I sighed and walked off to the back room. It was larger than the front room with a few more windows and a bookshelf. It had to stay pretty empty so my mother could use the room for appointments for services like healing or readings.

I started looking through the bookshelf as I waited for my mother to deal with the customer, wasn't the opening day tomorrow anyways? I pondered but soon let the thought go without a care. I started scanning the titles and authors. None of them were written by any familiar authors, and I didn't know what half of them were written about.

The bell at the front door rang again, most likely the lady left, but as I was looking through the books, I felt as if someone was watching me. That same presence…
"Missy?" I turned around to find that old lady trying to talk to me. She had long grey hair, wore a long gown that went down to her feet, and walked with the support of a cane. That's when I realized she had really long fingernails, almost beastly.

Being polite I took my gaze away from her hands and responded, "Yes, what can I help you with?"
"I think you can help me." She responded. Where is my mom, why is this lady talking to me like this? I screamed mentally.
"You have a very important role. I sense a lot of potential in you. What you need is to find yourself and realize your own power."

"Uh? Power? You can't be serious…" This lady has lost her rocker!
"Ah, a stubborn spirit; exactly what I'd expect from a child of the night." She chuckled. This lady doesn't give up does she?, I was about to interrupt her crazy talk but she continued "I think I have something that will help you find your way…" she started looking through the large leather purse she carried. I stood there watching her timidly as she pulled out a stone figurine.

"The animal of power that you must call upon now is that of the wolf," she said as she handed me a small wolf figurine. "It'll be a long journey to your own self awareness that may prove to have some difficulty. I'll leave you with that." She said as she retrieved her cane and walked out the door. In those moments I felt paralyzed, and completely confused. There's something different about that lady…. I thought to myself realizing a change in the air as she left the room.

The front bell rang as the old woman left and it rang again once my mother entered with yet another box of trinkets that needed to be unpacked.

"Michelle?" She called for me from the other room.
I awoke from my blank stare, "Y-yeah?"
"Where did that old woman go?" She questioned as she set down the box on the front counter and began unpacking it.
"S-She left."
"Did she buy anything?"
"No."
"Strange…"
"Yeah…strange…" I muttered under my breath as I opened my palm to look again at the stone wolf figurine.

Home

I decided to completely isolate myself for the night after my strange day. My mind started reeling as the events from the day came back to me.
I hated being in the middle of my parent's views and my boyfriend's views. My beliefs were conflicting each other.

I don't know what to do…! Why can't someone just tell me who's right and who's wrong? My parents or my boyfriend?

I crashed on my bed and cuddled up with my pillows.
*Sigh* I rolled over onto my side and looked over at my desk. My computer desk acted as a night stand next to my bed. I took the wolf figurine that I had placed on the desk and rolled back over into my pillows. As I looked at the wolf figurine in my hand I wondered, what was that lady saying? Had she totally lost it? "What does it all mean? What was up with her hands and the overall air around her?" I pondered as my finger traced the crescent moon carved onto the body of the wolf.
Had I sensed something? Her mere presence? I shook those thoughts away, "I'm starting to sound like my mother…" I felt awful saying that.

I used to believe in everything my mom believed in. I stood up from my bed and walked to my bureau. It opened up to reveal shelves, one in particular that held my collection of prayers, crystals and other various things I once used. I placed the wolf figurine on the shelf with everything else, closed my bureau and went back to my bed. It wasn't long until I locked my bedroom door and shut my lights off. But no one through my twelve years of school believed in spirituality like I did. They isolated me, but I felt better isolated anyway, away from rejection, I shook those thoughts away. I was in my bedroom, or in my cave, as I called it. I chuckled at the thought. Curious, I couldn't help but look again at the wolf figurine that strange woman gave me. I went through my bureau and picked up the wolf figurine again and lay in my bed. I lifted the covers up close to my face. I warmed up in my soft blanket cocoon and took a good look at the work that made the figurine so convincingly a wolf. I watched it as a light started seeping through the crescent moon carving and soon enveloped the form of the moon and the figurine itself…

A strange feeling washed over me.
Had I have fallen asleep?
"Find yourself, realize your power…." An eerie message came to me through my dreams. A bright white light appeared then. It blinded my vision, leaving me in an empty space, void of anyone or anything. I felt as if I was either floating of falling. A vision of the old lady from the shop appeared in the distance. Why is she here? Where are we? I pondered. She came closer as if floating through the air. As she got closer to me I realized she looked different. She wore a grey fur pelt over her long gown, and her hair was in a bun. She had pointed ears and her abnormal fingernails, They are claws!

I soon remembered her eerie message and responded, "What do you mean?" I tried calling out to her. I reached out to her, hoping she could take me out of this nightmare and bring me peace. But she left as soon as she came; she dissipated into dust as if being carried away by the wind. As quickly as she left, the strange void dissipated as well.

The white void was replaced by a deep and dark forest. Not too soon after I saw where I was, I was hit, hard, and felt as though I was floating again. I tried to come back to my senses as I started going in and out of consciousness. I saw nothing, I felt nothing but pain and remnants of the anxiety from being lost in that void.
"Save Her!"
"Help Her!"
I heard from a distance as the pain progressively got worse. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't find the strength. I felt paralyzed again.
I heard a few more voices; none of them were familiar to me. And soon after, the pain stopped getting worse, the feeling of floating finally subsided, and I felt as if I were in my warm cocoon again. I had the strength to open my eyes once again and I noticed people around me that I have never met before in my life.

There were two young women; one holding a cat, a strange little kid, and two men standing in front of me; one of the men was frightening, yet I couldn't take my eyes off of his strange golden eyes and long white locks of hair. Not only that, he had dog ears attached to the top of his head and a massive sword.

The strangest part about this lot was the fact that they were all dressed in weird clothing. What kind of dream is this?

"Are you alright?" a strong voice tore me from my vision of this strange group, interrupting my thoughts.
I tried to find the person who had called upon me, only to look up to find he who had addressed me, another strange looking man with long dark brown hair in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes and pointed ears. He wore a fur headband, armor, and pelts. All he could remind me of was that strange lady from the shop.
They all seemed to be standing above me, when I realized that this man with piercing blue eyes, of which I couldn't tear my gaze away from, was holding me. That warm cocoon was his embrace. A blush would've risen to my cheeks except for the fact that the pain I felt earlier had returned. I winced as I closed my eyes. The bitter sting and stabbing feeling spread from my back to the front of my torso like a belt.

"We'll get you help!" he informed me as he started to run. It was then that I was separated from my nightmare and opened my eyes, only to find that this was all reality, the same man from my "dreams" was looking down on me as he carried me away, the realization hit me harder than whatever had wounded me…

My eyes were open the whole time?... Was I awake this whole time? This hurts really bad. What happened?...to me? My head…no,.. my vision.. is all blurry…and with that I fell into a dark and dreamless sleep.