New Challenges

It has been several months since Emma left her friends and began travelling the world with her family. Initially, she was hesitant and scared when she realised she was going to be sailing the Pacific Ocean in a yacht.

At first, she tried to hide her secret from everyone but eventually had the courage to show them all her mermaid transformation and her cyrogenic powers.

Upon reaching the California coast, the family decided to settle down and stay in the USA. Elliott had started school again and Emma was looking into starting college. She was relieved to return to a more normal life, but she didn't know that she would face challenges soon.

It started on one night with the full moon lit up brightly. Although she tried her best to limit her exposure to moonlight, it was not enough as she felt something calling her to the water. Her brother saw her being drawn to the moonlight outside the window.

"Please don't go Emma! You know what the moonlight does to you!" exclaimed Elliott.

Emma simply mumbled gibberish and ignored her brother as she headed outside. The Gilberts chose a place that was well away from the water, for obvious reasons. Despite their location, Emma still managed to walk some distance away into a forest.

Elliott tried to catch up with her, and the two reached a spot which had a circle of stones. Emma was intrigued as she continued examining the stones. Elliott was scared as he heard a grunt.

"Emma, we ought to get out of here!"

"What are you scared of? There's no water here and I'm perfectly safe!" Emma shouted back.

Elliott was still worried, as he soon heard the grunts change to loud roars. Emma then turned around and in the distance saw the outline of two wolves. She realised the danger she was in, and grabbed Elliott as the two ran out of the woods. Unfortunately, they were not fast enough as they could feel the wolves rapidly approaching them. Emma slipped and one of the wolves was fast enough to bite her arm. She screamed, which seemed to harm the wolves as they sped away.

Elliott looked back at Emma, and saw the bite wound on her arm. "We ought to take you to the hospital right away."

Later that evening

Emma was with her family in a local hospital, as her bite mark was being treated.

"That's the tenth wild animal case so far," said one of the doctors who was standing beside Emma as she was lying down in a hospital bed.

"Do you know what creature was responsible for this?" asked her mother Lisa.

"I'm not sure but it appears to be an attack from one of the wolves that live around this area," replied the doctor.

"But surely wolves wouldn't randomly attack a person just like that," said Lisa. "From what my daughter told me, a wolf just suddenly pounced on her."

"Yeah, I don't really know why they do that. All our other cases of wolf attacks were reported the same way."

A few days later

Emma had recovered from the wolf bite and had started her college studies at nearby UCLA. She had started a physiotherapy course and had met two of her classmates who appeared to be acting strangely.

"Hey, we scared that young woman really well!" said a blonde-haired lady.

"Yeah, that will teach all those foolish people never to mess with our pack!" replied another brunette woman.

Emma overheard the conversation and walked over to the two other young women. She noticed that the two of them were wearing a special type of ring that had a black gemstone in it.

"Hey, you two wouldn't know about why the local wolves of this place are acting kind of weird lately?" Emma asked.

"Why would you want to know?" questioned the blonde.

"It's just that I was attacked one night whilst I was out in the woods," replied Emma as she showed her arm which still had the bite marks on it.

The brunette simply laughed as the blonde woman answered, "Well it sure wasn't us!"

Emma was hesitant as she probed further, "Why are you two wearing those rings?"

"It was a gift from our elders," said the brunette.

"Yeah, once you develop your skills enough you receive one as part of the initiation ceremony to join the pack." the blonde woman followed up.

Emma was feeling terrified. During her research to find out more about her mermaid powers, she also learnt about other types of supernatural creatures including werewolves. Discreetly, she pointed her hands at the floor and activated her magic powers. The floor became covered with a thin layer of ice, and Emma began walking in the other direction.

The two women she had been talking with left her, and from a distance Emma watched as the two ladies slipped on the ice. Emma giggled as the blonde woman shouted, "Who put that ice there?!"