5: To Our Girls part 2

Helena stepped into the frozen room and took hold of the small letter and held it close to her heart before reading it

'To our dearest girls, I'm so sorry that we had to leave you. We never meant to hurt you. Please we hope that one day you can come to forgive us. All of you hold a special place in our hearts. Cassandra, know it wasn't intentional, the portal closed up and we couldn't get through but if you and your sister are reading this then this comes to show you that there is magic everywhere. Helena, darling, remember what you see here, believe with all your heart, but be careful what you believe for you just may get hurt in the process. Lucinda, our sweet baby girl. Our magic was drained protecting you from this horrible curse that plagues the kingdoms in hope that you might find your sisters. Cassandra, Helena please find her. And know that we have thought about you everyday. How we wish that we could see you now.

We love you all,

Your Mother and Father,

Virginia and Wolf"

"I have a sister." Helena said

"Yes I know Helena, Cassandra's upstairs." Helena was in a sick mixture of shock, sadness and hunger. "No, another. Here, read this." She placed the note in Jason's chest when she left him in the Ice Chamber that was beginning to melt. She ran she didn't care from what, or to what, she just ran. When Helena finally stopped she was where she first arrived in the kingdoms. She started frantically looking for something. "Where is it?" She screamed. She couldn't find the piece of forest that didn't belong.

She wanted to get out of this place; it was no longer a fairy tale for her. It was a nightmare, a horror story that had no happy ending. She found her satchel that had her laptop in it. She didn't even remember putting it on when she left the apartment. It lay hidden inside trees unearthed roots. She reached for it and placed it over her shoulder. "I know why you are so agitated little one." A voice came from farther inside the forest. "Who's there? Show yourself!" A man came out from behind the tree that had shielded her laptop from the weather. He had a scar that stretched from above his brow to the top of his lip. It went across his eye but it was undamaged. Helena stumbled backward having not expected the man to be so close. Once again he said "I know why you are so agitated little one."

"I'm no child. I'm 18." The mans voice changed from dark and threatening to young and embarrassed. "Very sorry, miss. I must have mistaken you for my little sister. She looks like you and carries a bag like that around with her." He helped Helena up off of the ground. When she pulled herself up with the young mans help she noticed something that came from behind him. It was a TAIL! "What's that!" She was stunned.

"My tail, why? Where's yours?"

"I don't have one."

"Of course you do. I can tell that you're a wolf, you must have a tail."

"No I don't."

"Ahh…you must be one of those quarter wolves. They usually come with tails, but every now and then. You never know." Helena looked confused, wolfs lived on four paws not two feet. And they were covered in fur not pale skin. "What's your name?"

"Thomas or Tommy."

"Helena."

"Pleased to meet you Helena. Mind if I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead." Without knowing it they started walking into the forest "Why were you screaming?"

"I was mad because I couldn't find something."

"What?"

"I don't know."

"If you don't know what your looking for then how do you know you haven't found it already?" Helena giggled "I honestly don't know."

"What's in there?"

"My laptop."

"What's that?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot, it's nothing really. Where are we going?" Thomas stopped and looked where they were "I don't know. Looks like we're just walking to me."

"I have to get back. I left in kind of a bad way and they're probably looking for me."

"Where to? I could help you get back to where ever it is that you need to go."

"To the Castle, my sisters there."

"The Castle! Why are you staying there? That place is for royalty and friends of the family."

"The Prince took us in and we've been there for nearly a week. I don't want to stay there anymore I just want to go home."

They arrived at a small cabin with smoke coming from the stone chimney. "This is my home. Where's yours?"

"New York. Jason called it the 10th kingdom."

"Really! I've always been fascinated with that story. About the 4 who saved the kingdoms 9? Its my favorite."

"Yeah mine too. My mother and Father told me it before I went to bed at night, every night. That was until 10 years ago."

"What happened 10 years ago?"

"They came back here and a witch made time speed up. Now they've been dead for nearly 500 years." Thomas led her into the house, inside was an old kitchen with a wood burning stove. He took her to his bedroom, where he pulled out sheets upon sheets of parchment. "My mom says that I'm obsessing over a stupid make-believe story, but I think Virginia and Wolf were real. My mom says that the history texts are lying that a half wolf and a human could never be together. She's like that though."Helena flipped though the pages; they were tied together like a book.She read some of it; it was very similar toher story. A lost Wolfen prince lost in the forest in a unknown land. "What do you think?" He was anxious to hear her opinion about his story. "It's good, I've written something like it myself. If I show you will you promise not to freak out on me?"

"Why would I do that?" She tried to put it in terms that he would understand "10th kingdom magic." She pulled out her laptop and set it on top of the scattered papers on his desk that was made of various branches. "It's not written by ink and feather but typed up. There's no ink involved." Thomas was so intrigued by the screen; he read her story in no time flat. "Its really good! What happened to the princess in the city of forests?"

"I haven't gotten that far yet. My head keeps clouding up when I get to that part." They were quiet. Exchanging parts of their stories and being total geeks. Helena was a certain type of geek, one of a certain story; she had to go to the origins of the story to even find another one like her. "Tonight's the full moon you know; maybe you should get out of the woods before the moon rises."

"Why I haven't felt this good since I was a kid. What happens on the full moon anyway?" Thomas had never heard a wolf ask that question to him before, people stayed clear of him because he had ideas, dreams. People with those were always the dangerous ones. "When the moon comes out, there's a quick pain, then nothing. You feel nothing and you remember nothing." He was getting dangerously close to Helena, "Wolfs from everywhere come out to celebrate it, to worship it." Helena moved away from Thomas, something changed in him. She looked out the window and saw that it was dark, she had spent the whole day there and now she was trapped.

Whatcha think?