The Boys in the Woods

The Vitalux are Coming - Crispen

We arrived back seemingly just in time to help set up. I could see my mother walking around, barking orders in her polite tone. When she sees me, she immediately stops everything she is doing to come and hand off some responsibilities to Nikolas and me.

‘Crispen, good you’re here,' my mom says thankfully.

‘Hello mother, anything you need help with?’ She is about to respond before she looks to the side to reprimand someone for a terrible display of flowers and food that, in her words, ‘not even a dog would eat.’ 

‘Mom, take it easy.’ She looks at me, and you can see in her face she hasn’t been sleeping. This was a stressful time for everyone. While our packs were not friendly, we’d grown closer due to the deep divisions that emerged between the year of the prophecy and the present. She quickly apologized to the person she scolded as they walk away. 

‘Are you okay, Mrs. S?’ Nikolas meant well, but my mom wasn’t a fan of him. She assumed that he got me into troubling situations when in all honesty, it was the other way around.

‘Nikolas, why don’t you go and help Tabitha? She’s busy streaming the decorations from the trees, and a strong young wolf like you might come in handy.’ Nikolas looks at me, smiling. He’s got a crush on Tabitha and has been trying to get her to go out with him for months, so he was more than willing to entertain her request.

‘We’ve been doing this festival now for nine years as a combined tribe, and every year it gets more and more stressful.’ I knew the answer to my question, but I was curious about what lies she might incorporate this time.

‘Why, mom?’ I asked with a sly smile.

‘Every year, we come closer to the deadline. It's freaking me out. Soon you're going to be getting married. Also, another year closer to war, another year closer to a combined tribe that couldn’t be more different.’ I was taken aback by the lack of lies conjured up by my mother. I guess when the deadline is now months away, at this point, maybe it is more difficult to lie when facing the looming truth.

‘Why are you afraid? We’re going to win the war.’ I say confidently, maybe more confident than I am in private.

‘Oh my sweet boy, we can win, but who will we lose in order to cross the finish line is the bigger question.’ She stands up and kisses my forehead before regaining her composure and telling me to start working on the festival. She finally adds that I need to bathe before anyone arrives because, and once again, I quote her words, ‘you smell like a dog.’ 

I look over and see Nikolas laughing with Tabitha, my mom cooking with the elders, and a few young girls helping out where they can. People laughing, smiling, living, and enjoying life. Sometimes I wonder what it is like to be free of commitments and have choices instead of having decisions made for you. I try not to think too long and hard about it. I’ve never been one for a fool’s errand.

I was about to make my way towards the rest of the pack and lend a hand to help set up before my father’s hand rested on my shoulder. ‘Dad?’ I asked as I turned to see the tall man standing behind me smiling.

‘Son, do you mind if we take a walk?’ his shadow eclipsed mine as if I barely even existed.

‘Sure.’ I stood up and looked up to him. He was tall, much taller than me. I sometimes wondered if that was something that disappointed him. I’d never dare ask him such a question, but it didn’t mean the question didn’t exist in my mind.

We walk through the trees as the leaves fell around us, ushering in a change in seasons. That was partly why we celebrated the Festival of the Moon. It was something that signified change. I guess this year it is different because the change existed on multiple levels. We also celebrated it to honor ancestors and the very creation of the wolves.

‘I remember when you were a boy, wondering these woods, climbing these trees. So full of wonder and hope.’ His words were seeping in warm nostalgia but with this tinge of dread attached at the ends of his thoughts.

‘Is everything okay, father?’ He sighed and looked down as we walked, his hands holding one another, feeling the skin of his knuckles repeatedly.

‘Honestly, son, I don’t know.’ His tone had worry attached to every word.

‘What do you mean?’ I was getting worried as a result.

‘Soon, very soon, you will be married. You will take your place as the new alpha and-’ I interrupted him and finished his thought for him in case he wasn't willing to say it out loud.

‘You’re worried we’re still going to lose the war.’ I sighed as I realized his concerns.

‘When the Stellagazer made her wisdom clear to us, she never told us who wins the war.’ I thought of this missing piece of information all the time.

‘She didn’t say who lost either,' I added, which was false positivity considering I'd mentioned his point earlier. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we walked, smiling a wide smile. 

‘We need to discuss what needs to happen when you become alpha.’ He seemed excited, but I also wondered if he didn't want to give up his title, and I understood that—I kind of wish he didn't have to either.

‘Okay?’

My father began discussing how he envisioned us going forward, uniting two packs, attempting to reach out to the others, and building an army, training, and devising plans. I didn’t disagree with anything he was saying; I just wondered why he felt he needed to tell me? Was it because he thought he knew better? Or perhaps he thought he’d still be able to be alpha without being alpha all because I’m his son. I never really believed my father, nor Grisham, for that matter, was happy about having to give up their power to someone who just came of age. My father hid it much better than Grisham, mainly because he’s my father. Grisham, on the other hand, was unhappy and was open when it came to his disdain towards me. The laws of our land respect the ruling of the Stellagazer, and even if Grisham was unhappy about her prediction, he still respected it. He sometimes appeared more upset at the idea that his firstborn was a daughter and not a male. Not sure how that would help. It would be two men having to decide who would be alpha.

‘Crispen?’ I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard him. Clearly, he’d been talking, and I’d just forgot to respond, as well as listen. ‘Did you hear a word I said, son?’

‘Yes, father, sorry, this is all just weighing on me, and I’m attempting to understand every situation imaginable to ensure we win. That’s all.’ Partly true.

‘Don’t worry, my boy. I will be there to help and guide you every step of the way.’ He patted his hand on my shoulders, trying to reassure me.

‘Thank you, father,’ which he wanted to hear, but his words were the furthest thing away from what I wanted. I didn’t want him to watch over me and judge my every move. I have been training for years to be an alpha. I can’t be training to be an alpha when I become one. ‘I better go and help mom set up for tonight.’

‘Why don’t you and I go and check on the forest together first?’ He wanted to spend a moment together doing something fun, but I needed to walk away from this conversation.

‘I would, dad, but mom will kill me if I don’t help her with the lights.’ He looks at me, slightly disappointed and very understanding that my mother wasn’t a woman made of empty threats. ‘Yeah, that’s true. The great thing about being alpha son, your responsibilities are far-reaching, but not that far.’ He laughs a little before running off and jumping off a rock, transforming mid-air into his wolf form. In seconds he’s gone, and now I’m left to turn and walk back with nothing but my own thoughts, and god, if I didn’t have many.

I walk and hear my father’s words in my ears, on a loop. He probably wants to remain alpha, more than I want to be alpha. Isn’t that a scary thought? I could never tell him the truth though, how would I say to him that his son, who’s destined, literally destined, to be alpha, has reservations. I haven’t even told Rose. I’m supposed to marry her, and we barely have real open and honest conversations. We spent years together under the watchful eyes of our mothers. We were told how to act, speak, think, what to talk about, as well as what our lives would look like after we got married. I never asked Rose, but I believed, and still do, that she too doesn’t want to be married unless she loves who she’s going to marry. The years that followed that day, and night, with the Stellagazer made me a pariah. Nobody treated me the same; girls who once would tell me of their childish crushes fell silent. My friends fell slowly one by one until the only one to remain was Nikolas. I didn’t blame anyone. My father was a powerful voice. While he never said anything to make these people turn away from me, his position as the alpha made them fully aware of who I’d eventually become. As I turn the corner, I see Nikolas still laughing and smiling with Tabitha as they continue to set up. I always had this fear in my heart that Nikolas would eventually fall away as well. He wasn’t just my friend. He was essentially the brother I never had.

Nikolas runs over to me smiling, ‘I’m finally getting somewhere with Tabitha. I’m making her laugh and smile.’ He was excited, but I knew that Nikolas was going to never act on these feelings. He never stuck the landing.

‘Sure she isn’t laughing at you?’ I joke.

‘Would you shut up? Future alpha, or not, I will knock you down.’ I laugh. ‘You think that’s funny?’ He continues.

‘I’m laughing at you, just like Tabitha.’ Now I'm howling with laughter.

‘Okay wise guy, let’s go!’ He’s grinning ear to ear and is locked in the fighting stance, and as I mirror him, we begin to have a go at one another before we’re both hit all over by my mother with a broom.

‘Okay boys, I’ve got the stick, so clearly, I’m wining. Surrender now to avoid humiliation.’ My mother continues whacking us as Tabitha and a growing audience watch as if we’re a sideshow.

‘MOM, STOP!’ We fall apart and shield ourselves before huddling closer to one another, taking turns protecting the other.

‘Come on, Mrs. S.’ Nikolas moans.

‘Say the words, boys.’ With that, we both yell ‘we surrender,’ and she drops the broom laughing before telling us to get back to work. 

Nikolas stands up and holds out a hand, helping me up. ‘If your mom hadn’t beat us up, I would have had you begging for mercy,' his confidence is hilarious.

‘We’ll just have to have a rematch,' I declare.

‘You’re on!’ Nikolas dusts himself off before looking back at me, ‘but next time, far away from your mother.’

‘Agreed.’ We both laugh and get back to work neatening up and ensuring we are ready for what is to be our annual awkward evening where everyone gets drunk to fill the silence with drunken singing and dancing.

After we finish with the setup, my mother sends me away to get dressed. I put on my formal gown. The blue fabric with golden trimmings is something I rarely wear. I hate looking all… formal. I like my regular clothes, but that’s another “benefit” of being the son of the alpha, diplomacy, and the appearance of being diplomatic. 

As I leave my room, I look at the window and remember that night that I ran away for all of thirty minutes. That leads me to think of the boy in the woods like I always do. He roamed my mind on the best and worst days of my life. The memory was never too far from the abyss, always close enough to see his tiny face, which would now be unrecognizable. I always thought maybe I’d see him again, but it had been years at this point, that possibility seemed slim. The likeness was that if I was to see him again, it would be as a human-looking to kill me. I stopped thinking such things and made my way out of my room toward the door where I’d leave to join my parents.

Outside, the lanterns were all lit. Everyone was dressed in their best and most delicate fabrics. My father sat at the table overlooking the pack. I would join him, and my mother before the Vitalux pack joined us. In the distance, we heard their footsteps, saw their torches, and prepared ourselves for yet another Festival of the Moon. Our final one, as two packs separated by the river.