On Midsummer's Night

"You have no chance.

No chance at all.

Why throw your lives away?"

-Javert, 

"The Final Battle," Les Mis musical

Hi, this is Bree. Good news - we're not dead! We all made it through our fight against the evil superpowered werewolf named John Carrow. Senara is still with us, and wasn't sacrificed to feed the beast's appetite as the fair folk had intended for her.

I just wanted to get that out of the way, for those of you who have been concerned about us. We're still alive, so no worries about us. Now, I'll tell you how it all happened.

***

By the day of the Summer Solstice - the day the fair folk were going to feed Senara to Carrow to keep him from attacking their people for the next seven years, until his next scheduled feeding of an innocent kid - we had the vague outlines of a plan. We knew we had till nightfall, so during the day, we went to the site where the "sacrifice" was supposed to take place, hoping to work out the details of what we were going to do.

What we found was not encouraging. It was basically just a wide open field.

"This is not the ideal place to face an indestructible monster," I said aloud, an understatement. We'd try to hold our line, but all he'd have to do is get behind us once, and... things would become unpleasant. We knew that Carrow wasn't all that bright, at least not in his hungry state. It was pretty much going to be a feeding frenzy. But I didn't think even a crazed hungry werewolf wouldn't consider the advantages that open terrain would give him. We also had no real ideas for how to trap him there.

We didn't give up, though. Giving up is not our strong point. Instead, we walked around the area. About a quarter of a mile away, we found a cave.

"This would be perfect," I said rather wistfully.

Molly made a face. "Yeah," she said. "Assuming your diplomatic skills are good enough to talk Carrow into fighting us over here instead..."

Obviously, my diplomatic skills are not actually up to that challenge. In fact, my diplomatic skills are fairly nonexistent. What Molly said gave me an idea, though. After a moment's thought, I had what I realized might be a fairly workable plan. This made me nervous, because I don't consider myself much of a strategist. A plan created by Bree may, by definition, be doomed to failure. But somehow, some part of me was feeling a little flicker of confidence.

"Felicity, do you think you could use your calming powers on a whole crowd of people at once?" I asked abruptly.

"Um... possibly...?" was Felicity's hesitant reply.

I grimaced. "I was hoping for something more along the lines of 'Absolutely, Bree!' But I guess that will have to do."

Kaya spoke up, and said, "I think I can help her. I can use my power to read the emotions of each of the people in the group in turn. If I notice she's losing anyone, I can point them out so she can focus on them."

"Great!" I replied. I could hear myself sounding a little cheerful. "Senara, have you ever met Carrow?"

She shook her head. Senara had been looking pale all that day, and she'd been pretty quiet.

I beamed at that, which was, in retrospect, probably rather inappropriate. "Excellent! Then he won't know your scent. He'll just be sniffing generically for one of the fair folk. I need to go make a phone call now."

Kirsten said in a rather superior voice, "I don't think this is the time to conform to teenage stereotypes, Bree."

I stuck my tongue out at her. "It's not a social call. I need to call my drama teacher."

The girls all looked confused, since school is out and drama club is over for the summer. "Why do you need to talk to her?" Josefina asked curiously.

"I need something from the costume storage," I said, my brain buzzing with plans. "I need to borrow a blonde wig."


***


When night had fallen, we trailed in a solemn line - almost a procession - to the field we'd surveyed earlier. A dejected blonde figure in a white robe walked between the Greens and Roses, and she stared down at the ground, her posture showing her despair like a beacon. The field was full of the fair folk, who were similarly robed, but in green, black, grey, and dark blue rather than white. There was another figure, too. Carrow. He wasn't easy to see in the low light, but he was hulking and furry. And huge. Very huge. It was hard to tell if he was a werewolf or a small hill, except for the glistening teeth.

Inna stopped, and spoke to them in a sad but confident voice. "We are here to surrender Senara to you. We cannot hope to fight you, John Carrow, and we are not prepared to throw our family's lives away in a futile losing battle to save one teenage girl. There is nothing more we can do. You can have the girl, if you spare the rest of us."

Hearing this, Senara took off at a run, not willing to be werewolf food even if we were willing to give her up. Except... it wasn't actually Senara. Because that was the plan. It was a trick all along. It was me. Senara was safe at home, with Blakeney, Gia, Maia, Summer, Kiwi, and Ev to protect her. I was the one wearing the white robe. And thanks to my drama teacher, I was wearing a blonde wig.

Remember what my super power is? I can run really, really, really fast. Because I'm a descendant of the fair folk too, I was banking on Carrow not being able to tell Senara and me apart. I was right. I took off in the direction of the cave, and Carrow followed me, thinking his sacrifice had gotten scared and had run away.

Felicity, Kaya, and Molly stayed back to deal with the fair folk. We weren't quite sure what the other fairies were going to do. It was unclear what side they would take. Molly hastily started putting up a barrier of ice to slow them down just in case, while Felicity pacified them with Kaya's help.

Kirsten and Josefina were waiting at the cave. Once I had Carrow in position at the mouth of it, I ducked out of the way. Kirsten started using her power to shatter the stones above the mouth of the cave, creating a rockslide and rapidly filling the opening with debris. Carrow hesitated a moment, unsure which direction to go. Josefina helped him decide by blocking his way out with a wall of fire, so his only option to avoid the falling rocks was to go deeper into the cave. Kirsten hastily finished walling him in.

Carrow won't be trapped forever. He doesn't need to be, though. He's weakening rapidly, and as long as he doesn't consume fae blood in the meantime, he'll turn into a normal werewolf. The fair folk are happy to be rid of him and not to have to sacrifice their own to him anymore, so they aren't going to help him. In fact, they offered their enchantments to help keep him in, which we dubiously had to accept.

Obviously, Senara going home after this is out of the question. She doesn't want to live with people who were going to let her die a brutal death at the hands of a werewolf to save their own skins. Senara is going to stay with us, and we're going to adopt her. So that's happy news for everyone.

I wish I could end this on that completely upbeat note. But... this isn't totally a win. Remember Senara's sister, Sakura? The fair folk still have her. Inna was supposed to get her away while the rest of us were busy with Carrow and the audience, but the fairy crowd didn't bring her with them. Sakura is still a prisoner, although they probably won't hurt her. She's more useful as a hostage than she would be as a corpse, even though the fae aren't thrilled with Senara for surviving.

We'll find her, though. We aren't giving up. Not on Senara... and not on Sakura, either.

Love,
Bree

Down to the Wire

Hi, this is Bree again. In all our news of our trip, we may have made our readers forget that Senara is in danger from an evil super-werewolf named John Carrow, and that we don't have much time to decide what to do. In fact, our deadline is tomorrow night. That's when the "sacrifice" of Senara to the werewolf is supposed to happen. As much as we still have that happy post-trip relaxed summer vacation feeling, and as excited as we are about Maia and Gia's news, we haven't forgotten that.

Unfortunately, we're still not quite sure what we're going to do. We have to find some way of preventing Carrow from killing Senara, and then trapping him until his power fades. There has to be some way of containing him. We just... haven't quite thought of one yet.

Everyone is pretty on edge about that.

Yesterday, Blakeney wanted to post on AGPT about how we wear the Real Me tunic top, so one of us needed to model it. Senara volunteered, so I took a picture of her wearing it. Then I snapped a closeup of her face, because we didn't really have any pictures of her yet.

When Kirsten saw the photos on the camera, she yelled at me. She said I was being morbid, and accused me of giving up and thinking Senara was going to die. Kirsten thought the photos were supposed to be like an obituary. Something to remember her by.

That's not it at all, though. I still truly believe, no matter what the odds, that we're going to save her. I wanted to post her pictures because I think she's going to be around for a long time, and our friends should have the chance to get to know her.

So this is what Senara looks like. Not because she's going to die, but because she's going to live.

Love,
Bree

But of course, it couldn't be that easy, right?

Hi everyone. This is Bree again. You guys are going to be sick of me writing so many of the posts lately. Since I'm the person Senara has decided to open up to the most (to the extent she's opening up to anyone) though, I've been the one who has a lot of news lately. So here goes. ;-)

Ever since I came up with a couple of ideas to try to help with Senara's frightening situation, I've been feeling pretty good about how things are going to go. As you know, being complacent is a very, very bad thing. Several of our friends who commented reminded us of that, and while we knew it was true, it was hard to see how it could go drastically wrong.

Of course, I knew it couldn't be that easy. I just didn't see exactly where things were going to fall through.

The thing is, I should have been able to, because Senara already told me an important detail I never considered. The whole 'being fed to a werewolf' thing kind of overshadowed the one offhand comment... which turned out to be something very, very crucial.

I'm getting ahead of myself at this point, though. Back to the beginning. Well, not the very beginning - it's not like I'm going to start telling you about my birth or anything - but the beginning of the current major complication. ;-)

We knew that in order to get Senara freed to leave the city, we needed to tell the fair folk about our trip. They aren't the easiest people to contact. It's fairly easy for them to get in touch with us; they either leave something in our mailbox (which various vampire groups tend to do also) or build a fairy ring out of stones somewhere we're likely to see it. Contacting them back isn't all that easy, because we can't just drop a note in the mail, and they don't live in a fixed location but move around, so we can't just drop by.

I wondered if the fairy circle thing would work in reverse, so I went to the nearest local park and tried to build one. There's this small stand of trees - not really the woods, but close enough to provide a little concealment. I found a small clearing, and built a ring of stones. (Fortunately, finding rocks in Newfoundland is not at all difficult. Newfoundland pretty much is one giant rock with some soil clinging to it.) My ring wasn't as symmetrical or tidy as theirs are, but to be fair, I've had less practice. I thought I did alright. Once I'd built it, I sat down to wait, leaning against a tree. After about an hour, I got bored and took out my book to read. It was a couple of hours after that when they finally showed up. I looked up from my book and saw a little group of them there, including our usual fairy rep. I didn't hear them coming, and normally I have pretty good ears.

"Yes, Bree?" the woman asked politely. There was no rudeness in her tone, and although I thought I got a sense she was impatient, I couldn't have pointed to anything in her voice or body language that specifically conveyed that. She certainly wasn't acting threatening. I filed away in my brain that we'd found a way to get in touch with them.

Then, briefly, I explained our trip, and asked that Senara be allowed to come along. Their reaction was not what I had anticipated.

I didn't expect them to say no, mind you. I didn't see how they could. Their ruse was that they had sent Senara here to learn about human culture - so how could they argue against us taking her to experience the culture of Italy, Hungary, and Croatia as well as Canada? They would have to either say yes or drop their charade, and dropping the charade would be a major step I would be surprised if they were willing to take.

I did expect them to be reluctant, though. I expected them to be flustered or taken off guard. I expected them to try to come up with excuses, but ultimately have to give in to my superior logic.

When they gave each other a brief look and then the spokesfairy responded enthusiastically, though, my heart sank - because I knew something was very wrong. I had dramatically miscalculated somehow. I just still couldn't see where or what.

The spokesfairy smiled, in a way that didn't quite reach her eyes. "What a lovely idea, Bree!" she replied cheerfully. Too cheerfully. Like she was calling my bluff... or like what I had done didn't matter. "Of course Senara has our permission. I hope she has a wonderful trip."

"Wow... well... um... thanks," I stammered.

The woman's eyes narrowed, and for an instant she didn't look cheery. She looked predatory. Then the smile returned, and she added, "Tell Senara to be a good girl while she's away. Tell her to make us proud. Senara knows the consequences if she breaks the rules and causes trouble."

Oh. Yeah. I hadn't thought to ask Senara about that. It hadn't occurred to me that the fair folk had to have some kind of backup plan to make their sacrifice stay put. I wondered what.

It wasn't like they were going to tell me, of course, so I just said I'd tell Senara their message, and then thanked them again for letting her come on our trip. I wasn't really feeling all that grateful to them for anything at that point, but I didn't want to be impolite - impoliteness is a huge issue for most of the fair folk, and I didn't want to start a big conflict with them over something so minor.

The fair folk sort of melted back in the scenery as they usually do when it's time for them to go, and I took a moment to scatter the rocks so they wouldn't look so intentional. Then, with my mind still racing from this new development, I set off on the short walk home.

I didn't see much point in procrastinating, so as soon as I was back at the house, I told Senara what had happened.

For the first time, I saw Senara angry. Even when she was talking about her own impending death, she only sounded sad. A couple of times, she got annoyed with me for asking too many questions. She's never been like this with me, though. Really, truly upset.

"I didn't ask for your help, Bree!" she shouted.

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely. "I should have asked you before I talked to them."

"I don't mean that! You're missing the point. I never asked for your help in the first place! I never asked you to save me! And I don't want you to."

This took me aback. I mean, yeah, technically it's true. Senara never has asked us to protect her. She never asked for our help. But I thought it was just... you know, assumed. She obviously doesn't want to die. So I thought wanting our help was just sort of implied.

Apparently not. Yeah, I was admittedly being somewhat presumptuous, just jumping in to try to save the day. It was still hard for me to understand why she would reject our help outright, though. It didn't make a lot of sense.

Then I remembered:

"If I find some way to escape again, someone else will die in my place. Someone I care very much about protecting."


That's what Senara told me when we first talked about the plan the fair folk had for her. Like I said above, at the time it didn't really register. I mean, I was listening, but I saw it as more of a 'cross that bridge when we come to it' issue. I thought we could save Senara, and then worry about protecting her family and friends from retribution. Suddenly I realized that I had completely misunderstood. Senara wasn't just worried about retaliation in the abstract.

The fairy court must already have a hostage.

"Who did they take from you?" I asked.

"My older sister," Senara replied.

I thought she was going to just leave it at that, but I guess she was feeling unusually chatty, because for once Senara kept talking.

"She was supposed to be safe from this," Senara said, sounding like she was talking to herself. "She was being raised by our father among humans. I was kept with my mother in the fairy court. I never knew her very well. Do you understand, Bree?"

"Yes," I replied. And yeah, actually this all sounded very, very familiar.

Some of you probably remember this, but Fiona is my biological sister. We weren't really raised in the same home for any significant period of time, though. When she was a baby and I was little, our parents split up. My mother took Fiona, and my father kept me. Neither of those situations exactly worked out fantastically. Both homes were pretty dysfunctional. At some point while Fiona was a baby, our mother lost custody permanently to the state and my sister was placed in the foster care system. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong; no one ever told me, and Fiona was too young at the time to remember. I'll probably never know, because we're not currently in contact with either of our biological parents. I guess in the end, it doesn't really matter. Fiona and I are sisters who - for whatever reason - were raised pretty much entirely apart.

Would I give my life for Fiona? Would I stay and be a sacrifice, if it meant they'd let her go? Would I have done it before we ever actually had the chance to live together, and I barely knew her?

Yes. Yes, I would. It wouldn't even take a moment's thought. Of course I would do that. I'd do it for any of my sisters, now that my family has grown larger. It's not even a question.

"What's her name?" I asked.

"Sakura," Senara said quietly, as though even speaking the name too loudly would put her sister in more jeopardy.

I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "We'll save her too," I promised. "She won't have to take your place, and this is never going to happen again. We'll find some way to stop Carrow. No more kids are going to have to die for him."

I didn't tell her that it was a promise. I meant it as one, though. This makes things harder, but harder doesn't mean giving up. It just means digging in for a difficult fight, and sticking it out till we win.

Love,
Bree

Nightmares and Ideas

"What can't we face if we're together?

What's in this place that we can't weather? 

Apocalypse?

We've all been there.

The same old trips...

Why should we care?"

-Buffy, the musical episode

Hi, this is Bree again. Ever since my last, rather revealing conversation with Senara, I've been pretty stressed about the whole thing. Senara, on the other hand, seems strangely calm - like by telling us, it was the final acceptance of her fate or something. Which, of course, I'm not alright with. We're going to need her to fight... to "rage, rage against the dying of the light," to quote poet Dylan Thomas... rather than just going along with what they're planning. We'll do our best to save her life, though, whether she helps us or not. It'll just be easier if she cooperates a little.

Because of all my fretting, it's not really all that surprising that I'm having bad dreams, too. I keep having the same nightmare - the giant werewolf attacking Senara, her white robe staining red. I'm not sure why that detail about the robe got so stuck in my head. I guess the whole thing is just so upsetting that I need something more minor to focus on. Somehow, that just seems symbolic of the cruelty of the whole thing; dress her in white, so everyone can see the blood when they make their "sacrifice" of a young girl to be werewolf food.

Fortunately, not all my fretting has been nonproductive. I've actually come up with some ideas that I think may be decently helpful. That is:

Okay, we have the problem of an indestructible fairy-augmented werewolf, right? The whole reason for this sacrifice is that the fair folk couldn't come up with any way to destroy him, so odds are we won't be able to either. For about a day, this stumped me. I was talking to Summer about it... and suddenly I had a brainstorm. We don't have to destroy him, necessarily. We just have to find some way to contain him. If we can just imprison him for awhile - and I don't think it'll need to be for that long, since he's close to the end of the seven year cycle and is due for a feeding - he'll revert to being a regular werewolf. Which, you know, is still fairly daunting under most circumstances... but we have our own werewolf, four vampires, three people with fae blood, and a bunch with super powers. If Carrow's enchantment wears off, we can totally take him. Unless the fair folk get rid of him first, even.

Another potential problem is that because of the vow we made to be Senara's hosts, Senara is confined to our house. There's like an invisible force field thing that keeps her in. We're not sure how far it extends; it's at least far enough that she can attend my school with me, but that's within walking distance. We doubt she can leave the city, though... and keeping her at a distance would be very helpful in protecting her. I had an idea about that too. And luckily for us, all it really involves is telling the truth to the fair folk. They don't even have to know that we know about their plans for Senara.

On the first day of June, we fly to the United States, where we'll meet up with Blakeney's mother, and fly with her to Italy to begin our trip. When we thought Senara might really just be here as an "exchange student," we booked a ticket for her too, because we thought that traveling would be good for her education about humanity. I was thinking about the trip today... and another idea hit me.

We should contact the fair folk and let them know about the trip, but act like we don't know what their game is. If they're going to stick to their story that they sent us Senara so we could teach her about the human world, I don't see how they could say no. We don't know where the force field boundaries are - but they're definitely not as far as Rochester, let alone Italy or Eastern Europe. If they say Senara can travel with us, they have to let her off the leash. And there isn't much excuse for them to say no without dropping their charade, which we don't think they're going to do. All we have to do is act innocent enough that they don't suspect a hidden motive.

I'm still pretty tense about the whole thing. But now that I've actually had a couple of ideas, I feel a lot more confident than I did. The odds no longer seem impossible. Tough, sure... but tough is doable.

Love,
Bree

Bewareness

Hi folks, this is Bree again, with some major werewolf-y (and Senara-related) news. As you probably recall, we'd been trying to track down the werewolf who bit Gia. So far, we'd had no luck besides a blurry photo Josefina managed to snap. We didn't know who the werewolf was, or where he or she lives while in human form.

Today - not for the first time - I was looking on the internet for pictures of werewolves, trying to find a snapshot or even a somewhat realistic drawing that matched ours. Also not for the first time, I was having no luck. Occasionally one would catch my eye as a possibility, but nothing was panning out. After getting excited over nothing for a third or fourth time, I sighed and sat back in my chair.

This change of angle suddenly called to my attention the fact that Senara, who is sharing my room, was watching me instead reading the book she was pretending to be absorbed in. Before I had a chance to ask whether I had food on my face or my shirt inside out or something, Senara noticed me noticing her, and got to the point.

"Your family shouldn't hunt this beast, Bree," Senara said quietly. "This creature is simply too dangerous."

I appreciated her concern. Really I did. And it's not like we don't know we could be blundering into trouble. The problem is... if not us, then who is going to do it? As far as we know, we're the only ones around here who can deal with things like this. Well, technically the fairies could too, but they don't care much about matters that primarily affect humans, so they wouldn't intervene on their own, and we can't become indebted to them every time something goes wrong. For all practical purposes, it's us or no one - and no one isn't an option when there's a bitey werewolf on the loose.

"I know," I replied. "We realize it's dangerous. But we can't just stand by and do nothing."

Senara shook her head. "You have no idea what you are dealing with. This is not a natural creature, but one with more power than you imagine."

"We realize it's a werewolf, Senara," I reminded her, wondering how she had managed to miss that. The 'big dog' story didn't hold up past the first time Gia turned into a wolf after being bitten.

Senara nodded that she was aware. And I suddenly wondered what could be more dangerous than a rogue werewolf.

"You don't need to worry about this, Bree," Senara said. Before I could argue, she went on, "The creature will not attack again."

At this point, I was very interested in what our fairy 'exchange student' knew about this, and how. I closed the laptop lid, turned my chair around, and looked her straight in the eye. "Senara, what is going on? What is your involvement with this, anyway?"

Senara looked down, breaking eye contact, and said, "It's my fault that Gia got attacked. I... was reluctant in my duties. It will not happen again."

"What duties?" I asked, even more confused now. "What exactly do you mean? You had never even met Gia when she was bitten. How could you blame yourself for not protecting someone you didn't know existed? I think you'd better start from the beginning."

She sighed... and she did. The truth was something I'd never expected in a million years.

"This werewolf was an ordinary werewolf once... nearly four hundred years ago," Senara said. "He was among the first English colonists who came to this island; his name was John Carrow. He disappeared into the forest - killed, his comrades said, but actually bitten and turned into a supernatural creature. His existence was much harder than Gia's. He didn't have a family like yours to support him. But he might have had an ordinary life by werewolf standards, had he not accidentally run right into the middle of a war between two fairy courts."

Senara didn't have to explain - because I knew from Inna already - that the sort of war she was describing happens all the time among the fair folk, unbeknownst to humans. The fairy world is very fragmented into courts and clans, and they often fight about things outsiders wouldn't even understand. I nodded that I got what she was saying.

Senara continued, "One of the courts decided to put the werewolf to good use. Their enchanters augmented his powers with fairy charms, making him all but indestructible, and in exchange he was bound to fight for them in their war..."

I was starting to catch on. "But wars eventually end," I guessed. "And then they were left with an indestructible werewolf and no idea what to do with him?"

She smiled that I had gotten it, and replied, "Exactly. At first, they just let him run wild. The enchantment they had put on him required a death - a fairy sacrificed, blood spilled. With time, this blood enchantment would wear off. If they simply ignored him long enough, he would revert to his original werewolf form."

"How did he feel about it?" I asked.

"Indeed, Bree. Carrow didn't accept that at all. He felt entitled to the new powers he had fought in their war to earn. He started killing, no longer fighting a war but randomly, trying to attract as much attention as possible so he couldn't be ignored. Most of his victims were human, simply because they were easier to find. One night, though, he came upon a solitary group of fae. He ambushed them and spilled their blood, and suddenly, his waning powers were restored to full strength again. Now he knew what to do to keep what he didn't want to lose."

She went on, "I'm sure you're still wondering what this has to do with Gia - or with me. But I will come to that part of the tale soon. When some of their own were killed, the fair folk knew they needed to find some way of containing the beast. They debated ways to destroy him, but no one had any ideas for how that could be accomplished. Instead, they negotiated an agreement with him. A peace treaty, if you will."

With my heart sinking, because I knew I wasn't going to like the answer, I asked, "What did he want?"

Senara smiled again, but this time she looked sad. "I'm sure it won't come as a surprise. He wanted fairies to murder, so he could retain his powers. What he didn't know, though, and what the court who augmented him did, was that he didn't have to kill fairies on a regular basis for his powers to remain fully active. He only had to kill one fairy every seven years. The agreement was that he would be given one at every seven year interval, as a sacrifice. In exchange, he would leave the other fairies alone, and not attract the attention of the humans."

It was all starting to make sense. What Senara is hiding. Why she thinks she knows when she's going to die. And why she blames herself for Carrow's attack on Gia.

"Are you the next sacrifice?" I asked.

Senara nodded her head.

I had known she was going to say yes. I mean, I had already figured it out. But somehow, seeing her nod was still like a punch in the gut.

"Someone is chosen every seven years," Senara said. "Someone young - strong, with powerful blood - works the best, so that is what they provide for him. As time has passed, the ritual has evolved to the point the fair folk choose someone they'd like to be rid of anyway. I caused trouble for them by wanting to learn about humans. They considered that disloyal. So they chose me, and that is the truth of the 'exchange student' story."

"That's terrible!" I said, sputtering and struggling to put together a sentence, upset as I was. "That's...! And what about Gia...?"

Senara looked ashamed. "I... did not accept my role at first. I did not want to die. So I ran away. Carrow heard that his sacrifice had escaped, so he sent a warning. Biting a human. Gia was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It happened because I'm a coward, Bree. I'm sorry."

I shook my head, my brain racing a mile a minute. "It's not your fault," I said. My voice sounded weird, even in my own ears. "Of course you didn't want to die. Who would? But what I don't understand is... why send you to us? The fair folk have to know that we aren't just going to stand back and let you die. So... why involve us at all? Why not just quietly murder you so we'd never know? I don't mean to sound callous, but - if they wanted to sacrifice you, why would they send you to people who would do everything possible to prevent that from happening?"

"Because with you, they could make a binding contract," Senara said. "They didn't believe me that I wouldn't try to run away again. I won't - not after what happened to poor Gia because of me - but they aren't going to risk it again. So they bound me to you. And the 'exchange' part is, they took a hostage, just to be extra sure. If I find some way to escape again, someone else will die in my place. Someone... someone I care very much about protecting. I can't run away from your home. It's as if there's an invisible wall that will keep me in. On Midsummer's Eve, the fair folk will gather. I'll be dressed in a white robe. And... everyone will watch as they give me as a sacrifice to the beast."

I shook my head. "There's one problem with that theory. They gave you to us. And we're going to find some way to protect you. I promise. You aren't going to die."

"Thank you, Bree," Senara replied... but I could tell she didn't actually believe me. She didn't think we'd be able to save her.

I think differently, though. We've prevailed against seemingly impossible odds before. We have a little over a month to figure something out. And I'm confident that - scary indestructible werewolf creature or no scary indestructible werewolf creature - we'll find a way to save Senara.

Love,
Bree

Senara at School

Hi everyone. This is Bree. Sorry it's been so long since we posted. Things were pretty busy for Blakeney at work, and then she got sick with a bad cold, so no one really had a chance or the motivation to do computer stuff. Blakeney is feeling better now (although still coughing enough to tempt us to spray her with Lysol,) but then we had another difficulty... we lost our blog password and couldn't remember it.

No problem, right? Just click the lost password link, and have it sent? It didn't turn out to be quite that easy, though, because Blakeney has a backup e-mail address set as the default for the blog, so her primary account doesn't get so cluttered with blog related messages - and no one could remember the e-mail password, either! :-P

We finally got it all sorted, though, so we're back in business. :-)

A few news updates to share:

Kaya, Fiona, Marie-Grace, and Cécile found out their casting for their spring ballet stuff. Every spring, their dance school does three performances - a recital that all the students are in, a story ballet for the more mature dancers, and a gala performance where the very best in the school get to dance with some professional dancers who come in from out of province for the event. All four girls got parts in the recital and the story ballet - and Kaya even got cast in the gala! Go her! Kaya will be performing ballet and modern. Those four girls are planning to blog soon about their upcoming dance adventures, so I don't want to steal their thunder by spilling too much, but we're all very excited for them!

Also, we have some werewolf news. Sunday, the 6th of May - the day it was before we hit midnight, which has now come and gone - was the official full moon for the month. Gia transformed into her wolf self then, and Saturday night too. We expect that she will turn tomorrow also, because her general pattern so far seems to be that she turns the day of the maximum full moon, and one day before and after.

But... but... our werewolf hunting for the wolf that bit her was also semi successful. We didn't figure out who it was, and we lost the trail before we figured out where he or she lives (we weren't close enough to even tell if the wolf was male or female,) but we did snap a picture, and comparing it to GiaWolf, we're sure it was the other werewolf.

We took the picture on Tuesday, May 1st.

I know what you're thinking. Not a a full moon. Not even close. Gia wasn't even feeling the itchy twitching yet that tells her it's getting to be time to change, and the other wolf was in full wolf form. So what's going on? Is the other one a different kind of werewolf?

We don't know. It's all just speculation at this point, and even sightings of it are few and far between, so it's hard to figure anything out about that werewolf. It's not like Gia, where we can observe day to day how she adjusts and reacts to things. Speaking of adjusting and reacting, Gia is getting a lot more used to what she is. The shock has worn off. (As, I think, has her initial assumption that werewolves must all be monsters or animals.) This month, she seemed very confident about transforming, and she admitted today that her wolf form is starting to feel as natural as her human one. That's good, I think, since she can't change being a werewolf, so it seems the most healthy for her to accept it rather than fighting it.

There's one other big piece of news, and that's about Senara. Because we're supposed to be teaching her about humanity (which we aren't exactly experts at ourselves, but beggars can't be choosers,) and human kids are required by law in Canada to go to school, we thought it was important for her to try it out if she really wanted to know how we live.

It was just sort of a process of elimination to decide whose class she should join, since we thought it would be easier for her if she was with someone she knew. Senara isn't sure of her exact age because the fair folk don't keep track of those things in the same ways that we do. She looks like she's between fourteen and sixteen or so, though, and that's what the school officials will perceive her as. Fortunately we don't need to worry about paperwork since she isn't staying permanently; we just introduced her as a visiting relative rather than registering her, and that was fine.

Felicity and Josefina go to a French immersion school, and Senara doesn't know French - she's not really here to learn a foreign language, she's here to learn about social stuff, so that school didn't seem like the best place for her because she'd miss so much not understanding what people were saying. Clare is home schooled, which works great for Clare but kind of defeats the purpose of Senara spending time with kids her own age all day. That leaves Kirsten and me as potential company. Kirsten is fiercely competitive and not very patient, so in the name of family harmony we all decided that I would be Senara's escort at school.

So far, it's going well. I think Senara is liking it. It was strange to see her in normal clothes instead of the green robe we're used to, but she wanted to fit in with humans rather than looking like one of the fairy folk. She's quiet at school, and she's made some acquaintances... but she's struggling to make close friends because although she's very interested in other people, she shares almost nothing about herself. Not even with us, and she's living with us, let alone with kids she meets at school. It seems like people aren't quite sure what to make of how tight-lipped she is.

I don't think it's just fear that she'll spill something about her real identity - because we already know she's not human, and she barely tells us more than she tells anyone else. I think there's another secret she doesn't want anyone to know.

We still doesn't know what that secret is. We've gotten two hints, though - one of which is really worrisome.

The first day of school, someone asked Senara how long she's staying. To my surprise, because she's never told us that... she answered. She said, "I'll be gone on Midsummer's Night." Later, I looked up when that would be. I think she means the Summer Solstice, which will be June 20th. I was kind of surprised that she was being that specific. I assumed she didn't know either. Interesting, but I'm not sure what to make of it.

The other thing was the scary thing, and it happened on Friday afternoon at school. Senara and I were partnered up in English class for an essay we were writing about what we want to do when we grow up. I said my career goals - I'd like to be a counselor or a librarian, and a writer too. Senara said that sounded good, but didn't reply with her own, so I asked outright, and she looked at me like I was crazy.

"I'm not going to be around long enough to have career goals," Senara said patiently, like she was talking to a small child.

"Well, yeah, I know you won't be here," I replied, speaking very quietly so the other students wouldn't overhear, but they were all distracted with their own group work. "But you're going to have a... fairy-type career, right? Like dancing or making stone circles or collecting flowers? Or maybe creating mysterious bargains or bestowing horrible curses or eating people, if that's more your speed?"

Senara shook her head. "I'm not going to last that long, Bree. I won't have any kind of career."

Huge alarm bells were ringing in my head. Was this some kind of suicide thing? But no... she sounded regretful and sad about that, like she wished it was different, not like she was depressed and had given up. No, I thought - she must be in danger. Serious danger, if she thinks she's going to die.

I've tried to ask her more about it dozens of times since, but she won't say anything. She's even more clammed up than before. I think she said too much, because she thought I already knew, but it was a total shock to me. Now that I've tipped my hand that I have no idea, she's not talking. We're really worried, but I don't know what to do or how to help.

So... good and bad news. Positive and negative things. Happy and scary. That's life, I guess!

Love,
Bree

She's Here!

Hi, this is Bree. Sorry it's been about a week since our last blog post. We've been busy with school stuff, and not a lot has really happened in the meantime. Gia did her werewolf transformation thing three times, uneventfully. Each time it happens, she seems to adjust more quickly, and to experience less shock over it. I think that gradually, it'll become part of her normal life. Or at least her "new normal," as most of us in this family have had to redefine our sense of what's normal several times.

We had a really nice Easter. Some of us went to mass in the morning, then we had a yummy family dinner. The food was traditional Newfoundland holiday food: turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, vegetables, and salt beef. Then we had lemon meringue pie for dessert. After we ate, we had an egg hunt. It was too rainy and cold to do an outside one, but we had fun hiding and finding our dyed hard boiled eggs indoors. Hunting eggs was followed by lots of Easter candy.

Since the holiday weekend, things have been busy but mundane. School has been hectic, because we're getting toward the end of the semester. We've been doing our usual extracurricular activities. Kaya, Fiona, Marie-Grace, and Cécile are eagerly awaiting the casting for their spring recital and story ballet; they'll find out on Monday what parts they got. All the students are in the recital, but not everyone is cast in the story ballet, so they're excited to find out if they get to do both.

Today, though... we had other big news!

In the afternoon, shortly after we'd gotten home from school, the doorbell rang. Ever since the fair folk told us how we were supposed to repay our debt, we've kind of jumped every time someone comes to the door, wondering who would be there. If it would be... her. Our "exchange student." Would she be nice? Mean? Would we be friends? Would she be indifferent to us? Or would we have an enemy living in the same house with us?

We got apprehensive every time someone knocked or rang the bell. Up till yesterday, it was always just a friend coming over, or a delivery, or someone collecting money for charity. When we opened the door this afternoon, we knew this was something different.

She was about my age. Small, slight, slender. Her hair was blonde and long, and her eyes were hazel, but there was something about the shape of them that suggested she had some East Asian ancestry, in spite of her colouring. She was wearing a sort of robe, green with white designs that looked like flakes of snow, and despite the fact that it's still chilly here in April, her feet were bare.

The girl smiled at us... but there was something hesitant about the smile. She was charming - deliberately so - but I could tell she was pretty nervous, too.

Suddenly, I felt bad for her. We've had a lot of emotions about the fair folk lately  - apprehension, frustration, fear. But we haven't really thought about how our "exchange student" would feel about the exchange. Just about how she would act toward us. In that moment, I realized she was probably a lot more scared than we were. After all, this was our house. We have a big family, and we're quite close knit. This girl was all alone. And that's a lot to walk into.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Bree."

I stuck out my hand, and the girl grasped it lightly and then released it instead of shaking it, like I saw Inna do with the fae woman in the clearing.

"Greetings," she replied. "My name is Senara. Thank you for allowing me into your home."

Senara smiled, but she looked a little grim as she stepped through our door. Since then, she's mostly been in her room - which is also my room. I'm going to be sharing with her. I've been giving her some space, but it's getting to be about bedtime, so I guess we'll kind of have to talk then. I'm looking forward to getting to know her, and finding out why she's really here.

Love,
Bree

The Favour Has Been Called In

Hey there, this is Bree. There is no real news on our werewolf hunt. We've still been doing pretty much the same thing Kaya described when she first told you about our plans, but so far we've had no luck. We're going to keep trying, though, because the werewolf that bit Gia is still out there.

Tonight is the "official" full moon for our time zone, but the moon was full enough last night that Gia had her first transformation of the month. Everything just seemed easier this time. It didn't take as long for her to shift forms - she went into the safe room before sunset, so we didn't have to try to persuade her to go after she shifted - and overall she seemed a lot quieter and less destructive than last month. Last time she destroyed some furniture and caused some serious damage to the walls. Yesterday, the worst that happened to the room was some scratch marks around the door.

When she was human again this morning, Gia confirmed that it has been easier. As well as being faster, the transformation didn't hurt as much this month. It seems like her body is getting used to it. She also said that she felt slightly more in control of the process this time. Although last night she couldn't have fought the change, she thinks that with time, she may learn to be able to decide whether to change or not, or even possibly to change at other times. For the first time, she actually seemed positive about the whole thing, rather than just grimly accepting - so we tried to be positive and encouraging, too.

***

The biggest news today isn't werewolf-related, though. Remember how when we defeated The Elders, we had asked the local fairies for help... and they agreed, but told us we owed them a favour? Well, ever since then we've been kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Whatever they wanted us to do, it was probably going to big, because the favour they did for us was enormous. Inna had also warned us that it was likely to be something pretty odious, because the fair folk take favours seriously and don't waste a favour owed on frivolous things.

When Inna got back from jogging this morning, she told us she'd seen a fairy circle in the local park. We knew this was meant as a message for us, because normally the fair folk don't venture into the city. Even the woods in a city park aren't woodsy enough for them. If they even came this close to our downtown row house, they must really want to talk to us.

What could that mean? Clearly, the favour was getting called in.

I went to the fairy circle with Inna, because both of us have fairy blood, so they prefer to deal with us than with the other family members. (Fiona has fairy blood too, because she and I are biological sisters, but she's only ten years old, so we don't like to bring her to these meetings because we don't totally trust that it would be safe for her.) We waited for about twenty minutes, and then three of the fair folk emerged from the woods.

Last time we met with them, we saw fairies of all shapes and shades and types, but these three were all pretty human-looking like me and Inna, because we were in a more public place and might be spotted by "civilians."

"Greetings, Inna and Bree," the fairy spokesperson said, and we gave our greetings back to her. (She seemed to find it amusing that I greeted her with "hi," rather than something more formal.) The fairies seemed calm and relaxed, which made me nervous. What exactly were they here to ask? They made small talk with Inna for a few minutes, but my mind was focused on our debt to them, and I couldn't really think of anything suitably mundane to say.

Finally, they got to the point. "We have decided how you will repay the favour you owe us," the spokeswoman said. I braced myself, but she continued, "A young relative of ours wishes to learn more of the human ways. She will stay with you as your guest, and observe the activities of the mortals. It will be as though she is... what do the humans call it? An exchange student. Will you accept those terms?"

"Yes, we will," Inna replied... as I knew she would to pretty much whatever they asked. To say no, or even to question it further, would be a major breach of etiquette, and could have bad consequences. She had explained to me in advance that she would have to agree unless they asked us to do something totally immoral.

Inna briefly grasped hands with the woman to seal the bargain, then the fae melted back into the woods so effortlessly that even though I was watching them the whole time, I barely saw them go. As we headed back toward home, I was pretty relieved and elated. That wasn't bad at all! I had expected a task that would put us in life-threatening peril. Putting up with a guest for awhile, even if she was annoying, seemed like nothing in comparison to what I'd anticipated. Once I'd gotten past my initial reaction, though, I noticed Inna was still pensive, and even more visibly worried than before.

"What's going on?" I asked. "It seems like we got off easy..."

"Yes, it does, Bree," Inna replied, biting her lip. "That's what concerns me. What they ask is nothing. The fair folk aren't fools. They know that in exchange for help in a battle, a major favour is owed. Why would they choose something so small, unless...?"

"Unless there was more to it than that?" I guessed.

"Exactly," Inna replied, sighing. "I wish I could have asked, but I would have been pushing my luck after what they did for us. They might have killed us both for such rudeness. We'll just have to wait and see."

I nodded, glad that she hadn't gotten us ripped apart or eaten. "Any idea what the catch might be?"

Inna shook her head. "No idea. I can't think of anything at all. The fair folk can omit information from an agreement of this sort, but they can't outright lie. I can't think of anything they might be hiding, since what they did tell us has to be true. And... that is the part that worries me the most! The not knowing!"

I could see why. We didn't have time to dwell on that, though, because the sun was starting to get low in the sky, and we all try to be home when Gia transforms, so there's more help to control her just in case. I've been thinking about it the whole evening, though.

What do the fairies really want? What is it that could be behind this simple request?

Love,
Bree

Werewolf Hunting

Hello everyone. This is Kaya, with an update on our local werewolf situation.

Since she transformed the first two times at the last full moon, Gia's life has been pretty normal, in spite of being bitten and turned into a lycanthrope. The next full moon is Friday. Gia says she can feel it coming - a sort of itchy feeling in her skin, her fingers, and her toes - but it's not time for her to transform again yet, so it's nothing more than a feeling, at least for a few more days. She says she's eating more since she became a werewolf, but she's... um... never exactly been shy about having a healthy appetite (although she still has a slender figure,) so I'm not sure if she's really eating more, or if she's just noticing more because she's a wolf sometimes.

I know Gia still has moments when she feels odd about her situation. Who wouldn't? Our feline shapeshifters have been that way since birth, so they're pretty used to it, but Gia was a regular human (although one who worked for vampires for awhile, admittedly) up until the bite last month, so she's having to adjust to an entirely new self-concept. I think she's doing pretty well, under the circumstances.

Of course, we still have another werewolf-related problem. There's at least one more werewolf running around town, the one that bit Gia. We don't know who it is, and since that night, we haven't heard any more reports of werewolf activity... or "large dog" activity, as Gia originally thought it was.

We felt a little bit bad going to Florida with that unresolved, in case the werewolf attacked someone else... but we can't be everywhere at once. Even if we were on the wrong side of town, or were just inside when the werewolf was outside, we'd be too late to do anything. We would actually have to get incredibly lucky to manage to intervene even if we were in town, so we decided there wasn't much point cancelling our vacation.

While we were gone, there was no full moon - since like I said, the full moon is on Friday. But the night Gia got bitten wasn't a full moon, either. It was nearly a week before the full moon. Obviously the other werewolf can transform at other times, although so far Gia hasn't been able to control her own wolf form. What we're not sure of is whether the other werewolf can control it or it just happens on its own more often, and whether the other werewolf has to change at the full moon like Gia does, or if she or he can decide not to do it. There are a lot of unknowns... and we don't really have a source of accurate information about werewolves.

Somebody has to do something about the situation anyway, though. And since we know about it and we're involved already, it's looking like it'll have to be us. So we, the Greens and Roses, are going werewolf hunting.

Most people who think of werewolf hunting think of silver bullets and wolfsbane, or maybe torches and pitchforks. That isn't our plan, though, because we aren't trying to kill the werewolf. The werewolf may just be a normal person the rest of the time, with no idea what she or he is doing in wolf form. Maybe the werewolf feels terrible about biting Gia - or doesn't even remember doing it. We're certainly not planning for the werewolf to end up dead. We just want to talk to the person, and help them avoid hurting anyone.

We've gone out "hunting" the past couple of evenings. We didn't really expect to find anything - it's not the full moon, and we don't know the werewolf's turning cycle - but we figured we'd better practice a few times before the weekend, so we have our routines down. We've taken turns going out in teams, taking our dog April for werewolf-scenting purposes, and vampires for werewolf-sensing and also because if the werewolf does decide to attack us, a vampire has the best chance of holding her own in the fight. During the day, we've also been asking around about suspicious "dog" activity.

So far, no luck. But we think maybe as the full moon gets closer, our odds will improve. Life is never too normal around here, is it? ;-)

Love,
Kaya

Departure, Arrival, and Lots of Animals

 

Hi, this is Summer... writing to you from sunny Florida! :-)

Saturday morning was leaving-home-time. On Friday, the temperature in our part of Newfoundland was hovering right at the freezing point. Ice was forming and then melting a little and falling and shattering. It sounded like little explosions were going off all over the place. We worried this might be a problem for our plane taking off. By Saturday morning, though, things were better. It was dismal, with a little bit of rain right on the borderline of freezing, but we got to the airport and in the air without a problem.

Oh, wait, I should backtrack a minute, because there are two things I bet you're wondering:

1.) How were the vampires going to handle Florida?

Well, we got some last minute good news about that. Marie-Grace and Tabitha have their necklaces now that protect them from being harmed by the rays of the sun, but Clare and Cécile were just planning to hole up in the condo during the day, shut out the light, and make do.

Friday's mail brought a surprise, though - another package from our mysterious sender in New Orleans. Unlike the other two parcels, which had been addressed to a specific sister, this one was addressed to the whole family care of Blakeney. Clare and Cécile kind of eyed each other, wondering who would get the necklace... and trying to be charitable by wishing each other good luck.

As it turned out, there wasn't a necklace in the package, and they were both lucky! :-)

We all crowded around to see what was in the box. It was an old-fashioned looking brown bottle, with a thick liquid sloshing around in it. We were confused about what it was, but fortunately there were directions, written in black ink and the same handwriting as before.

It said, "Vampire 'Sunscreen.' Drinking three drops protects for six hours. Mind your time and don't cut it close."

Obviously, this was a huge leap of faith - but our mysterious friend had come through for us in the past, so we decided to try it and hope for the best. It worked, and we're all enjoying the Florida sunshine. Our vampires are safe... at least as long as the bottle lasts. If there's still any left when we get home, Cécile and Clare will continue to use it sparingly to try to preserve it.

So that answers that question.

2.) What about Gia?

Honestly, we were all kind of wondering that. Before everything that happened, we were planning for Gia to come along on our trip, but after it all went down, we weren't sure what the deal was anymore. We were nervous to even ask Maia, because we didn't want to bring up a bad subject. We figured we'd just wait and see. 

Apparently, Gia took the wait and see route, too. On Saturday morning, she showed up at the house with a little suitcase clutched in her hands. Her knuckles were white where she was gripping the handle so hard. She looked nervous to the point of terrified, like a prisoner waiting for a verdict. I felt so bad for her in that moment that I just wanted to hug her. 

Maia didn't actually say anything. She just took Gia's suitcase and put it in the car. Obviously meaning: she still wanted Gia to go. Gia breathed a huge sigh of relief... and frankly, so did the rest of us.

From that moment, things have been easier. Pretty much back to normal, even. Gia seemed relaxed again, for the first time since she spilled her secret. I think she feels even better than she did before, because she can be honest now.

Since we've all been here in the condo together, I've realized that Gia has nightmares. Really bad ones. I think they're called night terrors. I can't really blame her for what she did anymore - now that I've realized The Elders hurt her worse than they ever hurt us, how could I?

I'm glad the family is back to being whole again. Because, yeah, even though it's nothing official, Gia feels like family to me. The way things are again - all of us together, happy - seems like how things should be.

So anyway, back to what I was saying before:

Travel was uneventful, and by Saturday evening we had landed in Florida. We were hungry and tired, but excited and glad to be there. It was amazing to be able to shed our winter coats and long-sleeve layers.

Sunday was a pretty slow day, since we'd just had a long day of travel. Some of us went to church with Blakeney's grandparents, then we went out for lunch and then went to a local symphony group's performance of (allegedly) Irish and Scottish music. The orchestra did a nice job and we liked the show. Then in the evening, we swam in the pool.

Monday we went to the beach! It was so fun. We playing in the sand and swam in the ocean. The water had fish in it, and they came right up to swim around our feet. Then in the evening after supper we went for a walk. It was neat to see palm trees and watch the squirrels, very different from home.

Today we drove to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. It was so totally awesome! (Inky, if you're reading this, the park made us think of you. I think you would have loved it!) It's a park where they have all kinds of wild animals from the local area. These animals weren't captured to be exhibits, but were there because for some reason they would not be able to survive in the wild. Most were injured in some way, and although they've gotten better, they wouldn't be able to move fast enough to hunt or avoid predators. A few others imprinted on humans when they were babies and wouldn't be able to fend for themselves.

One pair of birds we saw was really sweet because the original bird was brought there after it got too badly hurt to be released into the wild, and a wild bird became its mate while it was living in the park; that other bird stays at the park now by choice to be with the one who can't fly away.

The only animal they have that isn't native to Florida is one random hippo. He was there before the current park. There used to be a park of exotic animals on that land, and he was part of that. When the new park started, he got to stay. He was really interesting to see, too. We got to watch him eat his supper, which was hay and several melons.

The other animals we saw were wolves, foxes, otters, manatees, alligators, bears, a bobcat, a cougar, some snakes and turtles, and a bunch of birds and fish. They have this neat building where you can look at the fish from underwater through glass.

Kaya and Charissa told us lots of cool facts about the animals. Kaya is part of a special environmental science school program, so she knows all about these things, and Charissa just loves animals and has read a lot about them.

Bree discovered she isn't as afraid of bears as she thought she was, now that she's seen them sleepy and sluggish. The bear fear started when, shortly after she moved in with the Greens, Bree read on a website that if you go out in the woods in Newfoundland, basically bears are just going to come and murder you. Which is totally not true. Although we have been hiking and camping dozens of times since then and have not seen one single bear, Bree keeps looking over her shoulder for bear attacks. I think she may have gotten over it somewhat today, when she saw a bear sleeping and said it was "kind of cute and not murderous at all," which for Bree is major progress.

We all joked about taking Gia to see the wolves and foxes because they are her "cousins," and she actually laughed. It's such a relief to be able to laugh with Gia. We can joke again because we've forgiven her and she knows it, and because she's getting more accustomed to the werewolf thing. The truth is, though, she clearly did feel some kinship to the wolves - and seeing how beautiful they were seems like maybe it helped her adapt to what she is now. I can understand how she felt. Maia, Kiwi, and I felt the same kinship with the big cats, since we're feline shapeshifters.

After visiting the park, we had supper and then swam in the pool again. And that brings us up to the present moment! So there's our Florida update so far.

I wonder what will happen next? :-)

Love,
Summer

P.S. We haven't forgotten about the Versatile Blogger thing. (Three people tagged us - wow, thanks!) We'll do our best to get it posted soon. We just wanted to update you guys on our vacation first as we planned, before we lost track of what we wanted to tell you about all the cool stuff we've done. We won't forget we need to do that, though, don't worry. ;-) ~S

The Moon Rises

Hello again, this is Summer. In the last couple of posts, we've talked about Gia's situation - getting bitten by a large animal (which she referred to as a "dog") and then getting very sick but not wanting to go to the doctor. A couple of our readers who commented suggested the possibility that Gia might have been bitten by a werewolf.

It all seemed to fit. It explained what bit her, why there haven't been other sightings of a large predatory animal (since werewolves are human most of the time,) why she got so sick, and why some of our resident vampires had an instinctive negative reaction to her after the bite. 

We talked about it among ourselves, and we decided that a werewolf was the most likely explanation. And yes, in our world there are situations where lycanthropy is the most likely explanation; we're never going to be normal, are we?

The problem is, how were we going to tell Gia? We know things like vampires and fairies are real, which makes it easy to believe werewolves are too... but presumably Gia didn't know about any of this. She probably thought, as most people do, that these are just stories.

So how were we going break the news?

We talked about it over the course of Thursday afternoon - out of Gia's earshot - and we didn't come to an agreement. Molly favoured a direct approach. ("Congratulations, you're a werewolf!") The rest of us thought that was potentially traumatizing, and/or might just make her laugh and not take anything we said seriously. Kiwi suggested that she and I turn into cats in front of her so she would see animal shapeshifters are real - but the verdict from the majority was that this was potentially even more traumatizing, and also might make Gia just think she was insane. Bree suggested we start vague and work up to lycanthropy, which seemed like the best plan... but no one could think of a good conversational direction that would lead us anywhere near that topic.

As far as we knew, there was no hurry. Gia is doing better and seems to be recovering, but doesn't have any intention of leaving yet. No one thought to check the calendar and see when the full moon would be.

Turns out, it was Thursday - as in, that very night.

Us girls were down in the basement of the Rose house, semi-watching television and discussing the werewolf situation, when were heard screams from upstairs. Before we had a chance to respond to the screaming, we heard a crash, followed by more screams and what sounded like furniture being overturned. We ran upstairs, and found a wolf-looking creature, except capable of standing upright, in the living room, crouching behind the now-broken couch. It was not entirely surprising, given our topic of conversation, to see that the werewolf had familiar hazel eyes. Of course, it was Gia.

We weren't sure what to do. With vampires, we were able to get a lot of our information in advance from Clare and Inna. We don't really know what to expect when it comes to werewolves. (Inna confirmed for us that they are real, but knows nothing much else about them.) I'm a feline shapeshifter, and so are Kiwi and Maia, but we're pretty different from werewolves; we were born this way, we were never bitten. Since we didn't have any kind of precedent to draw on, we didn't know what a werewolf would do. Would Gia still act like Gia? Or would she act like a wild animal?

The answer seemed to be somewhere in between. GiaWolf didn't seem to recognize us, but she also didn't seem inclined to harm us at first. She sniffed at us, and paused, as if she wasn't sure what to do.

"Gia?" Maia called. GiaWolf turned to look at her, like she recognized her voice... but then she looked at us girls again, as though she was considering going hunting. This seemed like a problematic situation.

Things got even more problematic when Clare and Tabitha started hissing and snarling at her. Marie-Grace and Cécile also looked upset, but they managed to keep it under control. Our newest vampires didn't seem to be able to handle being around their "natural enemy," though, and they were making their displeasure known. 

GiaWolf dropped down into a crouch, and prepared to charge at the vampires. It was, needless to say, a tense moment.

Maia broke the tension by saying "Gia!" again, but sharply this time, like a command. The instinct to obey the dominant member of the pack overrode the instinct to attack the vampires, and Gia relaxed her stance. It took awhile, but Maia finally managed to talk her down into the basement, into the room we'd fortified for Tabitha when she was a crazy freshly-turned vampire. Once the door shut, we occasionally heard the sound of breaking furniture, and Maia's voice talking to her, calming her down. 

Things quieted down near sunrise, and Maia and Gia (now in fully human form again) came back upstairs. Gia looked a little bruised from her furniture-breaking episodes, a little embarrassed, and a lot shocked, like she couldn't believe what had happened. 

We broke the news to her that werewolves are real - which Gia had already seen for herself. Then we told her about vampires... and she pretended to be surprised, but she wasn't on her game with her acting, and she wasn't really very convincing.

I didn't think about it at the time, but that's kind of weird, isn't it? That she pretended she didn't know about vampires? Why would she do that? Maybe she just figured vampires were plausible after the whole werewolf thing, and didn't already know about them... but why try to pretend it was big news if she'd already figured it out? It seemed like maybe she already knew. I just wonder how she would have...

At the moment, we have bigger problems than Gia being tight-lipped about certain things. Night has fallen again, Gia is currently in wolf form, and is down in our basement. We don't want to be mean by locking her up, but we also don't want her to get out and hurt anybody. We're not sure how long before and after the fullest moon she'll transform, so we don't know how many days to expect this.

It looks like the Greens and the Roses are going to need a crash course on werewolves... the sooner the better!

Love,

Summer