Authors Note: Sorry for taking so long but here is the next chapter.
Wolf Princess Chapter 7
Outside of the Forbidden Forest everything was calm and quirt. Hogwarts was peaceful with only some of its few occupants still awake at this time of night.
Albus Dumbledore was one of them.
Dumbledore was standing at the top of the Astronomy Tower overlooking the school grounds. Each few minutes his gaze would turn to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Remus hadn't yet returned from his search for the girl. He should've been back when the sun had set, but he hadn't He was worried something may have happened to Remus while he was in there. Lost in his thoughts Dumbledore didn't realize someone was joining him in the tower until they were right behind him.
"Albus?"
Turning Dumbledore found his colleague Minerva McGonagall standing a few feet behind him bearing a concerned expression on her face.
"What troubles you, Minerva," asked Dumbledore.
"I'm worried, Albus," she said. "No one has seen Remus all day and he wasn't at the evening meal."
"I wouldn't be concerned over it, Minerva," said Dumbledore. "I sent Remus out on an errand for me. He'll probably be back my tomorrow."
Relieved, Minerva sighed "That's good to hear. For a while I was thinking something had happened."
Smiling, Dumbledore said "Rest assured that everything is fine. Remus is not in any danger."
Returning the smile, Minerva said "By the way, what are you doing out here, Albus?"
"I came out here to enjoy the fresh air and look at the grounds," said Dumbledore. "Hogwarts is lovely at this time of night. Don't you agree?"
"It most certainly is," concurred McGonagall, looking down at the grounds. She stood there like that for a few minutes, but then decided to take her leave. "I'll be taking my leave. Good night, Albus."
"Good night, Minerva," said Albus. He watched her go and when she was out of sight he let out a big sigh.
Dumbledore didn't want to lie to Minerva, but he couldn't really tell her the truth. At least not at this time. Once Remus came back with the girl all would be explained and answers will be given.
Deep inside the forest Remus was waking up from his slumber. He yawned stretching himself out. He looked around for a minute before he recalled where he was.
Brokefang and White-fang were fast asleep on the other side of the den. Moro was nowhere to be seen. She must still be outside. Remus looked to the side finding Numa a few feet away from him. She was curled wrapped in her cloak. Her body was rising up and down in the steady rhythm of her breathing. A small smile came upon his ace as he looked down at her. She seemed so peaceful while she was asleep. Not feeling like going back to sleep Remus decided to go outside for a little while. Moving quietly so he wouldn't wake anyone he stepped around off of them heading for the den entrance.
As soon as Remus stepped out into the open he spread his arms out wide sucking in a deep breath of air while looking up at the sky. The sky was mostly clear with only a few clouds covering some of the stars the moon shining so brightly through the branches of the trees. The light that came through shined sparkling on the water of the springs.
Remus sighed "It really is beautiful here."
"Such beauty is everywhere," said Moro, "all someone has to do is look for it."
Remus turned to find Moro still perched at the top of the den. He must've forgotten she was there.
"True," conceded Remus, "but these days it's very rare."
"Do you not have beauty like this outside of the forest," asked Moro.
"We do," answered Remus, but with each day it's getting harder to find." His thoughts were on the war that was happening.
Moro sniffed looking back at the trees surrounding the den. "The trees are quiet tonight," she said. "The forest is calm."
"They speak to you," asked Remus, curious.
"At times they do," answered Moto, "the wind helps them to speak."
"I never really knew the forest could be so peaceful," said Remus.
Moro said "Yes, it is. It's one of the reasons of why I've been able to care for Numa so well here."
"I can see that," admitted Remus. With the name Numa mentioned his thoughts returned to the issue at hand.
Somehow Remus had to get Moro to see that letting Numa leave with him was a good idea. Judging by her reaction from earlier bringing it up again wouldn't be a good idea. He had his wand to defend himself if Moro attacked, but he didn't want to take it out causing himself to look like a threat. Either way he still felt compelled to try.
Moro seemed to know what he was thinking. She spoke before him what she said was a dead giveaway. "My daughter will not be going with you," stated Moro.
"Don't you think it should be her decision," asked Remus. "It's her life."
"My daughter is fine where she is," growled Moro.
"Numa is no longer a child," said Remus. "She no longer needs your protection. Whether you like it or not you have to let her go. You can't keep her isolated inside this forest forever."
"That may be so, but I can try," said Moro.
"If she choses to leave freely with me then you must let her go," persisted Remus, not letting up. "By keeping her here in this forest you're suffocating her! She needs the help I can give her not yours!"
"Silence, boy," growled Moro, showing her teeth. "How dare you speak to a god like that?! Firenze found her alone exposed in the forest. He brought Numa to me hoping I would take her in. Instead of eating her I raised her as my own. Now my poor, ugly, beautiful daughter is neither human nor wolf. How could you help her?"
Remus could practically feel the malice coming off of Moro in waves at her demand, but he stood his ground, "I don't know," he admitted, "but at least we can find some way to live."
Revealing her teeth again Moro laughed at his assumption. "How," said Moro, "Will you teach Numa your ways just hoping she'll change?"
"No," said Remus, "but she deserves to know what she's missing on the outside."
There was a large pause of silence in between these two. Moro was the one to break it.
"There is nothing you can do, boy," said Moro. "Numa will not leave this forest. Now leave this place at sunrise. Return and I shall kill you."
Remus wanted to argue further, but the pure aggression on Moro's face deterred him from that option. Seeing no alternative Remus returned to the interior of the den.
At one point during the peaceful night something woke me up from my slumber. I opened my eyes to see Remus settling back down in his bed of moss.
"Can't sleep," I asked.
Hearing my voice Remus turned giving me a small smile. He said "Yes, I'm not used to sleeping in these conditions."
"I'm used to sleeping like this," I said, shrugging, "so it comes easily to me. How do your people sleep?"
Pleased with my display of intrigued curiosity, he said "There are many ways, but we mostly sleep in beds covered in soft sheets. Where I live at the moment the beds are quite soft."
"They sound nice," I said. "What is your home like?"
"It's a grand place," said Remus. "A huge castle that is just filled with numerous wonders." I could tell by his voice he loved it very much.
One word had caught my particular interest when he spoke one that I'd never heard before. "Castle," I said, head tilted to the side, "what's a castle?"
Remus looked surprised at my question. "You've never heard of the castle before," he asked.
Shaking my head, I said "No, no one ever mentioned of it to me before."
"Not even Firenze," asked Remus.
"Not even Firenze," I said, sadly. Firenze had never even once hinted such a thing to me. Mother must've asked him to keep silent about it as she must've done to others in the forest. I was sad about this discovery, but it was quickly pushed aside by my ever growing curiosity. "What is it called?"
"Hogwarts," answered Remus.
"Hogwarts," I repeated, trying the word in my mouth with a small smile on my face. "That's a strange name."
Remus chuckled "It is, but even though it does sound unusual it does fit quite nicely together." A new expression then came into his face. "I could show it to you if you want."
Eyes wide, I said "You'd really do that?"
Nodding, Remus said "I would, that is, if you choose to return with me."
The smile faded from my face as I turned my gaze away from his. "I-I'm not sure," I said.
Leaning forward Remus placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Surely you must want to satisfy your curiosity," said Remus, "something that you wish to have answered."
At his words I began to shake my head, but stopped myself as a thought came to mind. Sitting up in the moss I shifted to the side as Remus just sat there and watched what I was doing. I moved aside a handful of moss and found what I was looking for. From the pile I pulled out a small blanket. I then turned back toward Remus. It looked like he really didn't' understand what I was doing. I held out the blanket to him causing him to take it from my hands.
"What-," he began, but was interrupted.
"This," I said, softly, "is the blanket I was wrapped in when Firenze found me in the forest."
His eyes widened in recognition when Remus stared at what he held in his hands. He carefully observed it in his examination. I watched him the whole time he was doing this. At one point during the observation something seemed to catch his attention.
"A.M," whispered Remus.
"Excuse me," I said, not really catching what he had said.
"A.M," repeated Remus. "Those are the initials that are labeled on the corner of this blanket." Remus showed them to me.
"I've seen them before," I said. "I showed them to Firenze years ago. He told me what they were. Till this day I still don't know what they represent."
Remus said "didn't it ever occur to you that these letters might be the initials of your name?"
"My name," I said, confused. I didn't really know what he was hinting at.
"Your true name," emphasized Remus, "the one you were given by your human family before you were brought to live here."
"I don't know," I said, "the thought never really occurred to me before. I didn't really know there were others like me back then."
"If you decided to return to the human world then it would be a good thing to investigate. You can gain answers to questions in your mind," said Remus.
"That's the thing," I said, "if I decided to leave."
There was an awkward silence shared between the two of us.
"I won't force you to return with me, Numa," said Remus, "but know this. I think you'd be making a big mistake by missing out on an opportunity like this."
I didn't respond at all to his words just keeping silent.
Remus held the baby blanket out to me. I took it from his possession. He then laid back down in his bed of moss settling on his side.
I lingered there sitting for a few moments just starting at him. I then settled in my own bed putting the blanket away. I desperately tried to return to sleep, but it was hard practically impossible to do so with this entire going in my head. His words kept on repeating in there. In the end I only got a few hours of sleep. Since I was already used to it my body adjusted to the strange hours I awoke when the sun was rising. While inside the den I might not have been able to see the sun, but I could sense it.
Mother must've spent the whole evening outside because not long after I became fully awake she came walking inside.
"Morning Mother," I greeted, seeing her come in.
Moro nodded in my direction going over to Brokefang and White-fang. She licked them both on the face to wake the two of them. They grumbled at her trying to get her to leave them be. She wasn't tolerating none of it.
"You will rise and you shall do so now," growled Moro, firm, "unless you don't want anything to eat today."
That managed to get their attention. The eyes of my brothers shot right open the two of them jumping up.
"We're up," said the two of them, bursting out of the den.
I chuckled at their antics as did Mother. The two of them would be more comfortable with full stomachs than disobeying our Mother.
Moro's attention turned over to Remus now that Brokefang and White-fang were out of the way. Remus had slept throughout the whole thing. Now it was time for him to wake up whether he liked it or not.
Moro approached Remus poking him hard in the stomach with her paw, growling "Wake up, human."
Stirring in his sleep Remus opened his eyes.
"It's time for you to leave," said Moro, gesturing to the entrance.
Remus was reluctant, but knew he had no choice he needed to lave. I could tell by the expression on his face he didn't want to go just yet, but he had to. Remus gathered his belongings and left the den. Mother was next with me following behind at the rear.
Brokefang and White-fang were wrestling a few feet from the den, but they stopped when they saw what was going on. They sat there watching and listening to what was happening.
Before he left Remus bowed his head a bit in respect to Mother. "Thank you for your time, Moro," said Remus.
"Just make sure it doesn't happen again," said Moro, a hint of warning in her voice.
Like me Remus seemed to catch my mothers warning so he nodded understanding to her. His gaze then turned over to me our eyes locked. By looking into his eyes I could see Remus was slightly sad I wasn't returning with him to the human world, but he didn't dare voice what he was thinking. Not with my mother and brothers standing there around him.
Instead Remus came up to me took my hand and placed a small kiss upon it. "Farewell, Numa," he said.
"Safe journey back," I said, smiling.
Releasing my hand Remus turned walking away. The four of us watched him go. The entire time he didn't glance back over once. We all kept watch on him until he'd left the clearing.
"Well," said Moro, satisfied, "that settles that."
Sensing the tension in the atmosphere had eased Brokefang and White-fang returned to their previous wrestling. As for me I continued staring at the area where Remus had vanished.
Mother noticed what I was doing. "Something wrong, Numa," she asked.
That snapped me out of the trance I was in. I looked to my mother, saying "Did you say something?"
"I asked you if anything was wrong," said Moro, repeating what she had just asked me.
"Oh, no, nothings wrong," I denied, smiling.
"Your mind seemed to be elsewhere," observed Moro.
Shrugging, I sighed "I'm sorry, Mother."
Moro nodded in acknowledgement, but didn't say anything in response to my apology.
"I think I'll go back inside," I said.
Without waiting for my mother to respond I left returning to the confines of the den. I went straight over to my bed of moss sitting while leaning back against the wall. For a couple of minutes I sat there going over everything that occurred during the last day. At one point I dug around through the moss until I found what I was searching for. Pulling out the blanket I held it in my hands. I traced a finger over the initials Remus had pointed out to me. Since now I knew what they represented I couldn't really get their defined meaning out of my head. My true name the link to my past. The thought hadn't come to my mind until now. At the exact second I knew I had a decision to make on that had already been decided.
As quickly as I could I gathered the belongings I wanted to take with me. I placed my knife at its spot on my leg, took up my cloak, picked up my bow and arrows. I put the cloak in a small pack I had which mad of deer skin. The final thing now was the baby blanket. I wasn't going to leave that behind. As soon as I had everything in hand I left the den carrying my possessions and other belongings with me.
My mother and brothers were standing clustered together outside of the den. The strange thing was that the three of them looked to be already waiting for me out there.
My thoughts were proven right when Moro turned to me, sighing "If you're going to catch up with him you might as well leave now."
I looked up at her surprised, saying "How did you-."
"I may be stubborn, my daughter," said Moro, coming over to me, "but I'm not stupid. Your thoughts weren't really that easy to hide."
My face turned serious and I straightened. "You're not going to stop me, Mother," I stated, firm.
"Who said anything about stopping you," said Moro, coming to stop in front of me brow raised. "I only want to wish you well and caution you to be careful. As I have told you many times in the past the human world is full of many dangers. I want you to be prepared."
My astonishment at my mother's words just increased which was quite apparent on my face. "But I thought that-," I began, but was interrupted.
"…that I would try to stop you," finished Moro, eyes soft as was her voice. "Oh, my daughter, it is true 'd rather have you safe here in the forest, but I, also, want you to be happy. If you have to leave the forest for that to happen then so be it."
Smiling grateful I went over to Moro wrapping my arms tightly around her neck giving her a large hug. "Thank you, Mother," I said, kissing and nuzzling her fur.
Moro returned the gesture by gently licking my face. "Be safe, my dear one," she whispered, tears in her eyes. "I have no doubt you will make us proud."
"I will, Mother," I said. I then let go of my mother instead going overt to my brothers.
Brokefang and White-fang met me in the middle as I moved over to them. I immediately wrapped both of my arms around both of them giving each a big hug as they gently nuzzled me in unison with their heads.
"You two behave while I'm gone," I said. "Now that I won't be here you're going to have to put in a lot more focused effort into your hunting an patrol. You can't be slacking off."
"Don't worry, Sister, we won't," assured Brokefang.
"Yeah," said White-fang, "We'll be catching so much prey that we'll be more than ready for the upcoming winter."
"Not only that," said Brokefang, "but we'll double our patrols. No ones going to be stealing prey here in our territories."
"That's good," I said, "exactly what I wanted to hear. You two take care of yourselves now."
Brokefang and White-fang pressed themselves up against me, but were careful not to crush me. "We'll miss you, Sister," said Brokefang.
"We love you, Numa," said White-fang.
"As I do you," I said, softly. I gave Brokefang and White-fang one last squeeze before I allowed them to go.
A moment later I moved away from the two of them and made my way to the edge of the clearing. Only when I reached the trees did I finally look back at my family. Brokefang and White-fang had now gone up to Moro comforting her by nuzzling her. Moro had her eyes only for me completely filled with sadness. I gave her a gentle smile blowing her a kiss. Without any further delay I turned running directly into the forest. I followed the tracks Remus left behind so I'd be able to locate him. Felling I desired to have a bit of amusement I climbed into a tree jumping from branch to branch to branch while following his trail.
Remus was moving through the forest solemn. He'd come into the forest to find Numa and bring her back with him. With the results he was handed with his mission had obviously failed…or so he thought.
As Remus was getting closer and closer to Hogwarts he heard someone behind him. Before Remus could react at all in defense he nearly had a heart attack from what happened next.
Out of nowhere Numa jumped down from somewhere above him landing right in front of his line of sight.
"Hello, Remus," said Numa, looking smug.
Remus jumped about a foot a hand over his heart. "Bloody hell," he breathed, "did you have to do that?"
"No," said Numa, shaking his head, "but I wanted to." She said the last part with a large grin on her face.
Frowning, Remus said "You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry," apologized Numa, shrugging disinterested look on her face. It was shown to Remus that she didn't really know what a heart attack was so she was dismissing it.
"What are you doing here anyway," asked Remus. "Shouldn't you be back at your den with your family?"
"II should think the answer to both questions would be obvious," said Numa, hands on hips.
Remus didn't really know what Numa was talking about until it came to him. "You've decided to leave," he said, surprised.
Nodding, I said "I decided it was time. I need answers."
For a few moments Remus stood there taking it all in. Then a bright smile came upon his face. "Well then," he said, "I guess we should get going. We have a long walk ahead of us."
"That's just what I was about to say," said Numa. "Come on." Numa went around him and started heading off in the direction he'd originally been walking in.
Remus remained where he was with his arms crossed in front of his chest and an eyebrow raised with an amused expression on his face. He stayed that way until Numa stopped walking turning back to him.
"Uh," said Numa, looking a bit embarrassed, "maybe you should lead the way."
Remus chuckled "Yeah, I should." He uncrossed his arms walking right passed her.
Once Remus had passed Numa turned around quickly moving up beside him. Remus looked at the girl from the corner of his eye the signs of a small brief smile at the corers of his lips. A new dawn had come and he had a feeling Numa was in for one hell of an adventure.
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