Excitement bubbled through my entire being. I hadn’t seen anything like the hills of the Isle before. So much open space, so much peaceful silence, so much freedom.

Beside me, and beside our mission, William was grinning madly. He looked around the field, then made eye contact with me. I dug my heels into my horse’s flank and broke into a canter. I went past Tanner, who instantly broke into a gallop to catch up to me.

“Last one to get to that line of trees is bait for the wolves tonight!” Tanner laughed.

“No fair!” Henry protested.

We all broke into gallops, scrambling to be the first to get to the tree line. We didn’t stop at the forrest entrance, instead, we kept going.

A sudden howl piercing the air stopped us in our tracks. We pushed our horses into a circle formation.

“Wolves?” Kate asked, “In the middle of the day?”

“We’re close to the cave.” Lydia whispered, “They’re probably guarding the entrance.”

“Stay close.” Henry murmured as we started in the direction of the howl.

Only having gone a few feet, Lydia stopped, “Leave the horses.”

We nodded and everyone slipped out of their saddles and we continued on foot.

We stopped in the brush, close to the entrance. In the entrance to cave lay three large wolves. I instantly recognized the pale she-wolf, laying directly in the center of the entrance. To her right, a pitch black she-wolf sat back on her haunches, gazing around into the forrest.

“That’s her.” Uthera whispered urgently, “That’s Elizabeth.”

To the large she-wolf’s left, a smaller, ghostly white she-wolf lay. Her head lay in her paws and her eyes were closed.

“That one’s Serah.” Uthera whispered, “But why would the sorceress put them in front of the cave?”

“Bait.” Tanner replied, “They can’t run away, but she thinks we don’t know that.”

Elizabeth lifted her nose in the air and howled; long, deep and sad.

The middle she-wolf lifted her head and snarled until Elizabeth uneasily lowered herself into a lying position.

Serah opened her eyes to watch the larger she-wolf.

Her turquoise eyes flashed with anger, but she made no movement.

“What do we do?” I asked.

“We wait until they leave for the hunt. Then go inside, find the sorceress and have her un-curse all the wolves.” Lydia replied.

“All of them?” Uthera asked.

Lydia nodded, but didn’t elaborate.

So we sat. And waited.

A few hours after we had arrived, Serah pulled herself to her feet. She was slightly smaller than the other she-wolf but didn’t seem bothered by that. She trotted out of the cave entrance and into the small clearing in front of it. She stopped and looked back at the large she-wolf; she hadn’t moved.

So Serah turned around, trotted into the woods and vanished.

“I’ll stay.” Amber whispered, Philip nodded, “Me too.”

We scrambled after Serah, following the broken twig trail that she had created.

We followed her trail to a small stream.

When we came to the stream, we settled down out of sight again.

She lapped up water gently, then stood back and watched the water swirl around in the stream.

Then, with a great sigh, she collapsed, the tips of her paws touching the water.

“Now’s our chance.” Uthera whispered, a bit too loud.

Serah jerked her head around, her white ears perked. She bared her teeth and snarled in our direction.

“Won’t she recognize us?” Rachel whimpered.

“Maybe if she sees us.” Tanner whispered, “Maybe. Or she’ll kill us. I don’t really know.”

Serah pulled herself to her feet and faced us, still snarling.

“But…just in case she doesn’t recognize us…we should run.” Lydia whispered.

“She’ll probably catch us.” Uthera hissed.

“I know, but at least it might give her time to recognize us.”

“Run!” Henry yelped as Serah lunged.

We whirled and sprinted in the opposite direction, scrambling back towards the cave.

We heard Serah crashing through the brush behind us for a few yards, but then the noise faded and we slowed down.

“Did we lose her?” William gasped.

Lydia nodded, “Or she recognized us.”

“Or she just decided we weren’t worth the chase.” Tanner grumbled.

“Stay positive!” Lydia scolded him.

We returned to Amber and Philip, only to find them now out in the open, in the clearing in front of the cave.

“What are you…” Tanner’s voice faded when he noticed their predicament.

In front of them, the large pale she-wolf had her teeth bared, eyes trained on their weapons.

Elizabeth sat in the entrance, un-moving.

A snarl behind us, caused us the scramble into the clearing, joining Amber and Philip. But when we turned around, we realized it was Serah, instead it was a different wolf, with only a single eye, and a nasty scar across his muzzle.

He snarled at us, taking threatening steps until we were pushing together.

The wolf’s eyes met mine and he gathered his feet beneath him. I swallowed as I took a step back.

He lunged for me, jumping nearly eight feet in the air to get at me.

A vicious snarl and a black, torpedo body interrupted his attack.

Elizabeth lunged between us, bracing her paws in front of me, her head lowered, teeth bared in a threatening manner.

The scarred wolf seemed surprised by the attack. He sat back on his haunches and stared at Elizabeth, who didn’t back down.

Finally, he took a few steps back and vanished into the woods.

We turned to the large she-wolf, who didn’t seem bothered by Elizabeth’s attack.

But Elizabeth had built up her confidence, so she lunged straight at the she-wolf. Her jaws clamped around the she-wolf’s muzzle, and she twisted her body around, and pulled the she-wolf with her.

Elizabeth did nearly a full flip, twisting her body to jerk the she-wolf in a wolf-like judo flip.

The she-wolf hit the ground with a loud thud and a grunt.

Elizabeth wriggled away from her, but was back in an instant, dancing around the she-wolf in a taunting manner. The she-wolf snarled at her, but turned her attention back to us. Instantly, Elizabeth lunged again.

This time, the she-wolf was ready for her. She turned her head and clamped her jaws around the soft of Elizabeth’s neck, then easily, threw her across the clearing, against a tree.

Elizabeth yelped painfully as she slammed into the tree, the branches shaking violently with her weight.

Tanner snarled angrily, but didn’t move.

When Elizabeth didn’t get up from where she had fallen, we knew that we were done for.

The she wolf returned to us, her eyes meeting mine intently. I swallowed as I gazed deeply into her eyes.

Then, in the blue, I saw something other than hatred. Sadness took over her gaze as she looked at me, and I struggled to remember where I had seen a forlorn gaze like that before.

Then I remembered: Serah. Only a week or two ago, when she had sat on the cliff and cried, grieving for the reminder of her lost sister.

I choked as I completely recognized the wolf’s eyes from a painting. The painting that a master artist had sold to our kingdom of the princesses of Arcadia.

Serafina and Samantha.

Samantha’s eyes had hypnotized me in the painting.

And now I was sure that I was staring right back into her real eyes.