Fenrir's Daughters: Princess Valencia

The forest was very dark even in the day.
I carried my flashlight and ventured in.
The sky clouded over and it was difficult to see.
I found my camp, next to a bent tree.
The tent looked dirty.
I couldn't hear any birds singing.
My fingers turned numb with cold.
Now it was time.
I gazed around me until water filled my vision.
Then I spewed liquid.
My nose was bleeding.
Not again.
I fell to the ground in pain.
My rucksack was heavy so I took it off.
I dropped my flashlight and compass.
I ripped open the tent and went inside.
I remember crying and screaming in agony.
Blood went everywhere.
I was bleeding from my nose and mouth.
It was the worst pain ever.
Then I wondered what I was doing out here.
As if to kill the pain, I swallowed a pebble.
My throat burned and I couldn't breathe.
Then the pain was gone, and my throat was better.
I swallowed the stone like it was a sweet.
I got up, only I was taller.
Instead of my hair, there was pointed ears.
I had a tail.
Instead of my manicured hands were paws.
My clothes crumpled off on the floor around me.
I could see better, and everything looked sharp.

I woke up in the smeet scented room, with black drapes around my bed. The French windows were open, and a flowering breeze entered on a rainbow of light from the stained glass panes. I found a dish of berries and a thin glass of champagne next to me, left there by someone. My maid? mother? sisters? my knight in shiming armour? It wasn't breakfast. My usual meals consists of red steak and antichoke. This was a sweet.
"You're awake, princess!" the light voice of Naomi, my baby sister, sounded as she entered my room.
"And why aren't you in school?" I asked her.
She wore a shimmering golden hooded jacket and her lovely green eyes pulsated with excitement at seeing my hands.
"You're getting married!"
There is a diamond ring on my finger but it was a birthday present from my knight in shining armour. "No this is just a gift from Faolan."
Sir Faolan was twentyfour and killed beasts as well as demons. He's so handsome and I wait for him to propose to me. I will say little to him.
Then he shall come to visit me again and it will be under the full pink moon this April as blossoms wake me up from my shapeshift pattern. Faolan should still love me as he loves me as a princess.
After the day was over, I waited in the garden. Faolan rode on his white horse, and he shone like the moonlight. The diamonds on my ring sparkled.
I became wolf, in front of him, before I become his wife it is fair that I bare my soul and reval my second half. My wolf self is beautiful, shining and white with a blue sheen. He drops to his knees and lowers his sword. Faolan's long red hair hangs to the soft grass when he looks downcast. Have I upset him?
"My beautiful beloved Valencia," Faolan says sadly. "There's nothing more painful than the death of love between two people. You are not who I thought you were."
His words pain me. I return to my human form and I go to him. My silk dress, diamond ring, golden bangles and tiara feel cheap and love is more precious. Love that is finer than all the golds, diamonds, precious stones and glitter in the world. I know it's more trwasure now. You don't know how worthy love is until it's gone.
"I am the same person you loved," I tell him. There is tears in his eyes. My knight in shining armour. My warrior. My lover. He doesn't love me anymore.
The pain is like death.
He got up and walked away from me as if I wasn't there. He returned to his horse, and rode away. Gone.
I cannot describe the horrors I felt tonight. Losing my dear love. I revealed to him my true self. He didn't love me for who I really am. To him now I am a monster. He couldn't kill me so he left. He ripped my heart to pieces as though it were just paper.
The blossoms fall from the trees around me like tears. I will cherish the empty diamond ring. I will return to my palace and retreat to my room in silence then ride this hurt. It's a pain worse than anything I've ever felt before.  

 ((The Fenrir's Daughters fiction stories belong to author Rayne))
All rights reserved. 
Copyright © 2016 Rayne Herbert.