Anonymous asked: OH GOOD MORE FICS! Can I request some Cerise (on her own or maybe with Rosabella?) based on Wolf Like Me by Lera Lynn?
A/N: The idea behind this ficlet is that lycans first transform on the first full moon after their sixteenth birthdays and it's a very revered event in lycan families. Cerise's circumstances are a little different, her being away at school and fairly detached from her father's side of the family, and she's anxious about meeting her inner Wolf. I had a lot of fun working on this and I sincerely hope you like it.
Cerise pulled at the edges of her hood as she glided down the front steps of Ever After High. She stiffened cautiously, her ears strained for sound, but there was none other than the nocturnal animals' songs, which melted together in the midnight air. She briefly glanced behind her before bolting around the side of the building, towards the silhouetted treeline of the Enchanted Forest. As she drew nearer, a darkened figure emerged from the forest like a shadow.
Cerise slowed as she approached. She stood before the figure, but didn't meet their gaze.
"I'm glad you're here," they said, voice low and guttural.
Cerise looked up into the piercing yellow eyes of her father. She rubbed her arm unsurely and then shrugged.
The burly man abruptly engulfed her in a big, warm hug, surprising her enough to nearly knock the wind from her. She squirmed for a moment before giving in to the familiar comfort of her father's embrace.
"I'm glad you're here," she said, voice muffled against the flannel shirt that smelled soothingly like pine. "I don't think I could do this without you."
Cerise's father held her at arm's length so that he could look into her eyes. "I'll be with you every step you take, Cerise. I'll make sure everything is okay."
Cerise took a deep breath and smiled. She nodded.
The two turned towards the forest, both feeling the primordial pull to its hidden depths. Cerise and her father were people of few words, but the truth was hundreds of questions were burning holes in her mind tonight. Would it hurt? Would she surrender all control? Was the Wolf a different being altogether? Instead of seeking the answers from her father, however, Cerise simply hushed her anxieties and waited. Everything would be clear soon. She had to believe in that.
The elder lycan stroked the wiry furs of his beard, his gaze cast upward to admire the moon. "She's at her peak. It's time."
Heart pounding, Cerise focused on the moon for comfort. She hoped its still, icy appearance would sooth her nerves. Rather, something inside of her lurched in response. She placed a hand to her chest, startled, when it seemed the Wolf suddenly leapt clean from her skin. A blood-red cloak fluttered to the grass where she once stood.
Smooth pads hit the forest floor in a flurry of dirt as Cerise found herself inexplicably, instantaneously drawn into the forest. She bound from root to root, swifter and more lissome than ever before. The air that rushed over her new, dynamic face excited her, causing her to push herself harder, faster. She left a wake of wind-stirred leaves trailing far behind.
There was no thought as to why or where in her mind, only now. Whatever it was that drew her through the Dark Forest, it pulled at parts of her that she never knew existed.
Cerise bound through the endless groves, silvery moonlight showering down past bare branches. She ran with mind soaring when, suddenly, she heard it. The noise was brief yet wholly powerful. Her ears hooked onto the fleeting sound as she tracked it through the wood. She drove herself nearer to it until she was forced into an unexpected and grinding halt.
Claws grated against bare rock. Pebbles flew from under paws and fell, fell, fell. Cerise had stopped not a moment too soon, for far below her, she could see twenty or so small villages, minuscule from her perspective on the jetting cliffs to which she clung. The trees looked more like a single, soft blanket from here, and the sheer magnitude of the infinite mountain ranges touched something inside of her. She was utterly at the mercy of the wilderness until something called her attention back. It was the sound, much closer now.
Her eyes bored into the nearby mountains until they came into view. Lycans, maybe fifteen, all lingered on the mountainside cliffs, each of them at relatively the same height and distance as herself. Cerise watched as one would lift its muzzle into the air and begin its low, sad song. The others would follow shortly after until they all sang in an odd sort of harmony.
Teeming with a strange mix of relief and contentment, Cerise lifted her own muzzle to an angle where the full moon seemed to sit on the tip of her nose. As the moon surged before her, brighter and lovelier than she had ever thought it to be, Cerise opened her jaws and cried her own Wolf song. The others, having not recognized her unique song, paused curiously.
A large, dark Wolf appeared from the forest behind her like a shadow. He rose to her side and lifted his muzzle, bellowing a song as clear and bright as crystal. The others, now recognizing their pack leader, began to sing once more, and Cerise, recognizing her father, joined him at his flank as the melancholy chant of the Wolves filled the night air.