Star Keeper

Chapter Four:
I didn’t sleep well that night even though I was exhausted. I didn’t think that I would sleep well, but I really hated laying there in the base of that tree just watching her. I would never admit it aloud—and I hated admitting it to myself—but I was afraid that she was going to disappear, or worse one of the males from my pack might find her and claim her for themselves. I was finding it hard to believe that she was even in my presence let alone real.

I tried not looking at her, but that was hard to do when she was so bright and all I could think about was protecting her. I tried to get comfortable in different positions and as a last resort I even tried counting sheep. It didn't help trying to keep my mind off of her, not looking at her made me anxious. I could not get comfortable in that tree, and the more sheep I counted the hungrier I became.

I sighed as I crawled out of the tree. I sniffed the air, but there was nothing different about the woods other than the slight unexplainable electric scent radiating off of the star. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t manage to get any sleep; I had slept in a tree before with no issues. I was oddly comfortable sleeping inside a tree. It made me feel safe, as if my parents were out there somewhere protecting me. I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I thought about them, so I just sat still and stared at the sky wondering where they were. I hoped with all of my might that they were up in the sky with the Keeper protected by her and was staring down at me while I was staring up at her.

It seemed like a lifetime, but I could see the raise of the sun as it finally rose. The star didn’t seem to appear to wake, so I nudged her a few times. I just wanted to see her smile and her gorgeous silver lined eyes. When I kept nudging her to try to get a response, she swatted at my nose, and I dodged the first two attempts. However, the third time when I stuck my nose to her cheek she hit me square in the forehead.

I stumbled back as I whined a little because she hit me pretty hard; harder than any slap I could imagine coming from a little star. The sound of my whining must have woken her because she jumped to her feet and glared at me evilly. I simply lowered my head and rubbed it a little trying to show her what she had done. She simply glared harder. I rolled my eyes as I gave her my best wolf glare. It didn't seem to phase her. I barked at her when she tried to go back to sleep. Then she started acting like a three year old whose cookie had just been taken away and began squealing again just like when I had first found her. I rolled my eyes again as I grabbed my back of clothes and went behind the tree. She wasn’t going to be happy until I walked her back in human form, and my ears could not take any more of her squalling.

I quickly got dressed in my human form, and I also realized that it wasn’t my wolf hearing this time. She was being loud and screechy. The difference was, the day before I could understand her ranting. Today, she was speaking that other worldly language that she started off with. I stared at her as I walked from behind the tree. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before I finally spoke.

“Would you mind keeping your words in English? I don’t speak whatever that is,” I tried to ask nicely, but I assumed that it came out harsher than it was meant to because she only glared at me harder.

“Why would you wake me?” she hissed as she tried to roll back over.

“It’s morning. We’re going back to the village,” I explained.

“You couldn’t have waited a few hours,” she gripped. I rolled my eyes as I grabbed my bag and grabbed the blanket from under her. She fell on the ground with a big thump and continued to glare at me while she was rubbing the dirt off of the shirt I let her wear the night before

“Forgive me for not being comfortable out here in the middle of the woods with a psycho star that looks like she might have different personalities,” I retorted before putting the rolled up blanket in the bag. She huffed loudly before half pouting at me.

“Why did I get stuck with the mean wolf?” she asked rudely.

“You weren’t calling me mean when I was giving you a place to sleep," I snapped. "Look, you can sleep when we get to the reservation. I would actually like to be able to close my eyes for one second, and for some reason being around you makes me uncomfortable,” I began to explain, “so just keep your mouth shut. It’s about a five mile walk through the wood. Can you be quiet for that long?”

She stared at me wide-eyed as she whispered, “five mile walk.” I nodded and her eyes somehow got bigger, “I hate you!”

“Awe, I hate you too.” I grinned. “The faster we get moving the faster we’ll get there. And to compensate you, I’ll walk as a human,” I mocked.

“Fine!” She huffed as she started to walk south, the opposite of the direction we needed to go.

“We’re going north,” I laughed. She sighed and turned around. I shook my head as I laughed to myself. This was definitely going to be a long walk.

This person in front of me was not the star that I found last night. She looked the same, but was not the same girl who had made my heart flutter. She was moody (more moody than she had been last night) and her attitude sucked. I just looked at her walking and staring as the sun glimmered off of her red hair. Even with her horrible "tantrums" I couldn't move away from her, I was her protector and I will protect this star with everything I have in me, but right now I wanted to strangle her.

The first mile was just her walking along huffing and puffing like a pouty teenager. She was talking under her breath behind me as I took the lead on this journey. The second mile she slowed down a lot more than I expected her to. 'She is even slower than the pups' I thought as I slowed down my pace even further so that I could keep my eyes on her, and by the third mile we had to stop and take a break. There was a small pond on the property, so we stopped and sat by the pond.

By the looks of the sun in the sky, it was around 7a.m. We had been walking for about two hours. I looked over at the star, and the sight of her was just stunning. She still seemed bright even as she splashed water on her face to wake her up. She looked up, and I suddenly felt self-conscious for staring at her. I adverted my gaze from her and even as I did I saw the same menacing grin as I got last night when she had found me staring at her while walking back to camp. Instead, I stared off in the direction of the village. I missed it, but I did enjoy the time to myself. I knew we would be there in about another two and a half hours if we kept moving. I seriously doubted that we would keep moving at the same pace.

“Braith. Is that your real name? It is kind of an odd name,” she asked out of the blue. I looked at her for a long moment.

“My mother named me Braith when I was born, however, my Alpha calls me Flood Waters because I seem to mess everything up,” I answered honestly. I could feel her eyes on me. She was probably looking at me like every other human being looked at me. Like was I just a pitiful screw up and a shame to my clan members.

I accidently broke my best friend’s nose by hitting him with a two by four—I was moving the board my dad yelled for me and I turned only to hit my friend in his nose—I could never pass any of my tests in school, and I couldn’t hunt properly. If it didn’t happen by accident, it usually didn’t happen to me.

“Well that’s not nice. You don’t seem like the water type though,” she commented. I shook my head.

“Well, you can pick something else if you want. I want to know what I should call you,” I asked, “because I can’t speak you’re language I’m positive I can’t say your real name.”

“In your language my people call me Air Head, although I like to think they mean it fondly as in Dreamer because I have such big dreams.”

“I don’t like that. I’m going to call you Deyanira. I was thinking Skye because you came from the sky but I didn't think that you would like that. It is much too obvious and I don't think that you would like something obvious... You are too different,” I laughed a little as I watched her think.

“I like Deyanira much better than what they call me,” she continued thinking for a moment. "And you are right. I am different from all of the other stars"
“Alright, now that we have all of that settled Deyanira,” I laughed as I stood up. “Are you ready to keep going?” She looked at me as if I was insane.

“I don’t want too,” she sighed as she slumped over on a rock. I laughed as she gave me a pouty face.

“If we walk more, you could be sleeping in a real bed tonight,” I offered. She stared at me as if that didn’t really matter to her.

“What about running water? Do stars take showers?” I ask aloud although it was more of a thought.

“Meteor showers are nice. They’re really warm, but someone always ends up getting hurt,” She answered looking at me confused.

“Well, this is with warm water. So, it’ll be warm without the danger of someone getting hurt,” I offered once again. She thought about it for a long moment before she nodded and began walking.

We finished the third mile at a bit of a slow pace. I ended up carrying her for most of the forth mile. She whined about her aching, bare feet. My blood burned my veins each time she squealed at a rock since ‘stupid’ followed the squeal. At least I was nice enough to bring her a blanket to sleep on and she got clothes because I willingly gave up the shirt on my back for her. “Are all the stars so whiney?” I felt the heat of her glare between my shoulder blades.

“Are all the wolves idiots and assholes?” She continued to walk, pressing her toes to the even dirt as gently as she could. I rolled my eyes. The scent of the trail I marked flooded my noses as I slowed down and stopped at the rock that meant we’d come another mile. She sat brushing the dirt from her feet and rubbing the sore spots a bit. How could one girl change from such a fun, sweet person into this angry, hateful creature?

By the fifth mile it was starting to get really hot. I assumed it was about noon time. She seemed to cheer up as a very distant view of a building came into sight. She decided she wanted to walk on her own, and by the time we reached the village she was practically jogging. Her pace slowed as the hollow sound of the pack’s howling filled the air. “What’s wrong?” Deyanira questioned as she turned to face me. My eyes wouldn’t focus on her as I listened to the sound echoing around me. I took her by the hand and raced toward the reservation. The sound could only mean one of two things; either the Protector died while we were away or someone found something.

We both froze as the answer to her question hit us. A group of the pack had gathered in the village square where the fire had been the night before. Another female figure as bright as Deyanira was spread in the center of the people. She wasn’t dressed. The markings on her body didn’t flow like Deyanira’s. A different kind of power flowed from her fingertips. The pack watched in awe as she spun and grinned. They bowed to her each time they saw her face.

That’s the moment when I knew something was wrong. I glanced at Deyanira who looked as if she was going to explode. I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or anger, but she shook volatile nonetheless. I tried to grab her arm; she yanked away from me and started running towards the group.

She knelt in front of the girl, and started speaking that other worldly language. At that moment everyone turned to look at me. The group backed slowly away from Deyanira and the other girl. Deyanira and the girl began to glow as stars normally do, but I didn’t know what was going on. There was one thought going through my head, I really messed up this time.