Ultimatum, Anaya Phoenix [classic books for 11 year olds .txt] 📗

I just don’t know what to do, do I give up my children (which I’ve wanted since I was 13), or do I save my mother (who gave birth to me, and loves me)? I toss and turn in bed, I can’t sleep! Even with Micah’s arm wrapped around me and my growing stomach I can’t seem to sleep. So many questions roam through my mind in a never ending tornado. Micah grunts and holds me closer to him; I try to let his scent loll me to sleep. I inhale his tiger scent through my nose and it sends me a buzz, but I don’t need a buzz! I need sleep! I suck my teeth and get up; I put on my socks and walk outside. The air isn’t blowing; it hasn’t been blowing all night, so it’s kinda humid. I see a silhouette of a man and I know its daddy. I think he’s taking it the hardest; this is the third time they’ve taken mom, once when she was carrying me the last time and now this time. He thinks he’s failed her but I know deep in my heart he tried. I didn’t even know they were there and I was closest. He doesn’t hear me come behind him, so when I put my hand on his shoulder he jumps.
“You should be getting some rest” I tell him softly
“So should you” he says grimly, I sigh, I put my head on his shoulder
“Please don’t blame yourself, if anything it was my fault” I tell him softly
“I don’t blame you, and I don’t blame myself, I just wish they would leave us alone”
“You know the price for them to leave us alone, I know Micah knows, hell I think the pack knows” I murmur, when he says nothing I add,
“I can’t sleep; I can’t think I can’t even eat right now. She’s out there with that council and the only way to get her back is for me to give up my children. I would suggest we run away, that’s what you and mom did, but they have her. And I have no doubt they would kill her if we ran”. I let out a breath,
“I really just don’t know what to do, and sometimes I just want to pretend I never existed. What would happen then? Maybe Micah’s mom would still be alive, maybe you and mom would be happy together, who knows what would have been?” I sniff, my head still on his shoulder,
“But I can’t always pretend, then I have to face reality and reality is I either lose my mother or my children. But it’s not just about me anymore; Micah loses his children or his mother-in-law. You lose your wife or your grandchildren mom loses her life or her grandchildren. And I just don’t know what to do daddy” tears flow down my cheek and he wraps me in a hug.
“Do whatever you think is right, baby, and I’ll support you. 100 percent” his voice is muffled by my hair. He rubs my back slowly, comforting me and when I stop crying he pulls back. He gently wipes the tears from my face, and kisses my forehead,
“Go get some sleep, ok?” I nod and he pushes me gently toward the inside of the den. I walk to my compartment and stare at Micah’s sleeping form, his breath is even and uninterrupted. I walk to the mattress and sit down as softly as I can without hurting myself or waking Micah up. I don’t get much sleep, seeing as I slept in a sitting position and when I wake up at what I deem to be 5 I think it’s ok to finally wake up. I get off the bed carefully and wash up; I put on a long white dress. My stomach has grown immensely and it looks like I’ll pop any day soon, which is very possible. I don’t wake Micah up, instead I just take my basket and go out berry picking. The sun is just rising and it gives the world a yellow-orange tint. I head toward the berry bush and rub my fingers over the buds. We don’t have much a variety, only raspberries and blueberries, but we make them count. I hum as many nursery rhymes as I can remember and just as I finish the picking the pack is just beginning to wake up. Only the children have woken up though and as I stroll back to the den I give them a handful of berries. They smile at me, some of them have teeth, some of them are missing a few but all of them have those green eyes. They gather around me and eat their berries; I sit in the dirt ignoring the white dress and eat berries too.
“Did your parents ever tell you the story of the star that could?” I ask them suddenly and they all shake their head.
“Well that’s a shame, would you like me to tell you?” they all nod their heads
“Well, this was long ago when the sun was young and just learning to shine the right way. And while the sun was learning a couple of rocks were passing by. One rock said to the smaller one ‘I bet you can’t make it pass the sun’ the smaller rock was very upset by what the bigger rock said so he twirled around and said bravely ‘I bet I can’ and then the rock threw himself toward the sun” all the kids gasped and ate their berries, a few of the adults came out and watched us
“While the little rock went toward the sun it became hotter and hotter, and soon the rock realized that he would turn to ash if he kept going, but then the bigger rocks’ voice would play in his mind ‘I bet you can’t, I bet you can’t’ but then the little star pushed himself faster and said ‘I know I can I know I can’ and do you know what happened to the little star” they all shook their head no and I smiled,
“We’re sitting on him” they looked down and one little girl stood up and said “oops”
“It doesn’t hurt him anymore, in fact it tickles. You see the little star got closer and closer to the sun he grew, and he grew, and he grew. He grew so big that he completely missed the sun and hit mars, it bounced right off and landed right here, actually” I picked up a small little boy and put him on my lap,
“If you listen close enough you can hear him talking to you” they were quiet, even I was quiet but we only heard the rustle of the leaves, the running race of the water and the flowers blooming, then from the tree behind me we heard a whisper, a deep whisper “Hello” I smile, I know that voice but the children don’t and if they do they don’t know it by heart. I hear gasps of astonishment and laughter,
“shh, listen harder” I tell them and they quiet down
“I think it’s very nice of you to try to” Micah’s voice booms “but little wolves hurt their ears when they try so hard” they all giggle, then their mothers or fathers come and pick them up. I hear all the ye;;s of happiness and the laughter and the little boy in my lap tugs at my sleeve
“Can you tell us another story, tomorrow?” I smile
“How about tonight?” he smiles and I see he’s missing three teeth
“I’ll go tell everyone” he says then leaps off my lap. I get up and dust off my dress, I walk to the tree behind me and smile,
“Thanks for that” I tell him as I lean on the tree, he looks at me and smiles
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean” he says coyly then kisses my forhead,
“You ok?” he asks
“Yeah, I had a talk with daddy last night, I still don’t know what to do but he says he’ll stick by me no matter what I choose” I blew out a puff of air “but that really doesn’t help me, I’m due any day soon I don’t know where this council is and I still don’t know what to do yet” I slide down and he sits next to me. He holds my hand,
“We can always try again” he tells me and I know what he’s talking about. I grip his hand tighter,
“You mean it?” I ask hopefully and he sends me a weak smile
“Of course”
“Well,” I sigh “that’s one problem, I don’t know where the council is”
“You do, every sprite and fairy knows it, they just have to focus” he says, he kisses my forehead,
“I’m going to go hunting so we can actually eat tonight, ok?” I nod and smile. He helps me up then I dust off my dress. I come from behind the tree and walk back to the den.
I sleep for the rest of the night; sometimes my mind wanders and other times it goes to what Micah said. Maybe if I just focus I’d be able to go to the council. I wake up just as the sun is about to down, my last dream was scary, it involved crying babies screaming women and blood. So. Much. Blood. I rub my face and look around, the letter is crisply folded on the floor next to the mattress. I pick it up and read it but my eyes catch on one line:
Since we could not stop your unfortunate birth,
And then it hit me, it was that simple! That’s all I had to do, in order to save the ones I live I just had to be a martyr. So simple, Micah could have his children mom could have her life and Micah would take over the pack, if not then daddy. So simple! I get up smiling and walk outside. They’ve made a fire and are slow roasting a deer, yummy! The children have gathered in a circle staring at our den waiting for me to come. When they do they whisper amongst themselves. I walk to the center and see a basket of nuts, I smile and give them each a handful. They start to crack them with their teeth and I smile, smart pups, my wolf mutters to me.
“Have you ever heard of the wolf and his mistress?” they all shake their heads and I smile,
“Well long, long ago there were a pack of wolves and they all surrounded the fire every night just to hear the moon sing, they’d listen to her all night even after the last embers of the fire died out. One night a lone wolf wandered into the pack listening to the moon, he did not understand so he asked ‘what are you doing?’ the pack elder looked onto the lone wolf and answered ‘we are listening to the moon’. The lone wolf did not understand, the moon has no sound ‘but how do you do this?’ the lone wolf asks. Without looking upon him the elder said ‘we listen with our hearts not our ears’. The lone wolf sat and thought, he wanted to hear the moon too, so he sat and he sat until the moon went down. He looked at the pack ‘how do you listen with your heart?’ one of the packs youngsters looked to him and said ‘you can listen only if your heart is pure’ the lone wolf did not understand. In his frustration he walked from the pack,