Chasing Paradise-Chap 1:Council

Council

                          “The meeting is now in order, be seated!” Arthur said loudly to the werewolves mingling around.
                          Alex was watching the council's meeting, as usual, hiding in some bushes on the edge of the gathering. He was only a child of ten, and the council thought children shouldn't be involved  with meetings. But, Alex rebelled and listened to the meetings anyway. After they were over he would return to his friends and transpire what he heard to them. From the vibe the four kings were giving off, he could tell that this meeting was going to be very important.
                        “Everyone should know why we're gathered here tonight. The humans have gradually become unfriendly and unfair to our race. For example they will only let a select few of our children to attend their schools.”
                      Alex knew exactly what he was talking about. Most of the kids at school treated him coldly, as if he were not equal to them. He was one of those “most fortunate” children, but it sure didn't feel as if he were special. His once human friends were now terrified of him from the stories their parents had told them about his race. He turned away from his thoughts and tuned into the meeting again.
                  “We also found Maggie dead by them camp. It...it was very gruesome to see....Maggie's he-heart was ripped out of her chest. The four kings are dumbfounded and don't know what or who could have possibly done this to her; obviously, it couldn't have been a bear because we can easily take care of them, so the only plausible answer we could come up with was that humans had killed her,” he said, and mournful moans transpired through the crowd after learning the horrible news.
                  Maggie was a very considerate and kind werewolf to everyone, especially the children. She always loved to take care of the children because she never had any of her own. All the children loved her back and thought of her as their “second mother”.
                  “The four council kings have decided to move from this part of land for now, and we'll be heading out early tomorrow morning. We'll be traveling West; to the 'free zone'. There is little human population there and there is more open land for us to roam without bothering the three other tribes,” Arthur informed everyone firmly,” The meeting is now adjourned.”
         Alex sat there listening to what other werewolves thought of what the four kings had decided. Some of the elders were grumbling and whispering to each other how their bones were too old and fragile to make a long a journey. They wanted to die where their forefathers had lived and died for the past generations. There were others, on the other hand, who were happy to move, saying that they were tired of the way the humans treated them. Others were weeping and mourning for the death of Maggie as well as for the idea of having to move from the place that was most familiar to them.
         This tribe that Alex lived with had never moved for many years and most were sad at the thought of having to leave it. There were three other tribes occupying the territories of the United States besides the one he was born into; there was the North Tribe, The South Tribe, The East Tribe, and the West Tribe. Alex lived with the East Tribe, which was located deep in the woods on the Southern edge of the Northwest Territory, the year was 1801 so most of the territories were owned by various countries and were rather large pieces of land, as far as Alex learned in History class. The North Tribe lived in the Northern part of the Colony of Louisiana, The South Tribe was situated in the South-Eastern part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the West Tribe resided in the North-Western section of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The large piece of land that was in the middle of all four tribes was sort of a “free zone” where a tribe could move to if necessary. If any of the tribes ever wanted to move they always had to make sure that it was in the vicinity of “their” territory or in the “free zone”. One time, long ago when the area wasn't as populated, the West Tribe had tried to move onto the South Tribe's territory and sparks flew; never would that be attempted again.
         After hearing what everyone thought, and after mulling things over in his head, Peter headed back to his group of friends to relay the news he'd just heard to them.
                                                           ~♥~
         Alex's group of friends consisted of four other people, besides himself: Carl, Lily, Jeremy, and Willow.
                   Alex was like the leader of the group; he was the one who always went “undercover” at the councils and the reported the information back to them. He seemed like the natural leader of the group. He had pale white skin that emphasized the olive green color of his deep-set eyes, straight dark auburn hair that looked black except for the ends of his hair that came down to his neck and the tips of his bangs that were cut above his eyes.
                   Jeremy was Alex's best friend; if there were any two people who got in the most trouble in the tribe it was them, they were always pulling pranks on people. Many times they annoyed the adults, especially the elders, but after the first few pranks everyone got used to it and the tribe wouldn't be normal without the daily pranks from the two pranksters. Jeremy had a dark bronze skin tone, the blackest black eyes you'd ever see that had, if you looked closely, dark brown flecks, and an oblong face with black waves that fell to the nape of his dark neck. He, out of the whole group of friends, was probably the strongest even though he was just one year older then Alex.
                   Lily was the peacemaker; she had a sense of calm that always seemed to emanate off of her, for a child of nine many of the werewolves were surprised at how calm she remained in different situations. If there was ever a fight between the five people in the group Lily would step in and would always find a solution to the problem. She had deep, rich red ringlets that were cut just below her ears with long straight bangs that were constantly tied in a loose knot behind her head, olive skin, and brown eyes with amber speckles that had hooded lids.
                   Willow, who was just a few months older then Alex, was the intelligence and cleverness of the whole group. If you needed something done and you didn't know how to go about doing that something she seemed to always have an answer. She had a slightly tanned skin tone, white shoulder length hair that had silver highlights that were visible in the sun with outgrown bangs that were parted down the center of her head, and bright big aqua blue eyes. Willow and Lily were as thick as thieves; with Willow's cleverness and Lily's calmness both could almost always go off someplace without the constant watch of the adults. If they ever got caught Willow would make her big eyes even bigger to give off an innocent look and vibe to weasel themselves out of the tight spot they were in.
                   Carl, on the other hand, was 15 and usually didn't hang around them that often because of the big differences between their age groups, but because his sister, Willow, was part of their group he occasionally talked and discussed different topics with them. He had a light golden skin tone, candescent chestnut hair, and hazel stippled eyes. He was the most mysterious person out of the group, but, nonetheless, he still added to the wild and mischievous gang.
              “We're moving,” Alex announced to Lily, Jeremy, Willow, and Carl after he'd reached his gang of close friends.
              “What?!”
                “Moving....”
                “ Why?!”
              “You know, the humans aren't treating everyone fairly and equally anymore so they decided that we should leave. And....there's also another thing.......Maggie's dead,” Alex told them sorrowfully.
              “Maggie's dead...” Willow whispered in disbelief.
              “No way! There's no way she's dead! She just can't be dead, they made a mistake,” Carl exclaimed angrily, but everyone knew that he was actually breaking inside just like everyone else.
                “He said we must leave tomorrow morning,” Alex confirmed.
                Willow sat rocking back and forth reassuring herself that Maggie was still alive.
                “I'm sorry, Willow, but it seems that Maggie really is dead. I'm so sorry,” Carl told her shakily.
                She looked up at him with pain in her eyes, and then, the little eyes that had been daring to burst with tears, now cracked; Willow sat weeping uncontrollably while Carl held her in his arms. Maggie was the closest thing to a mother she and Carl ever had, and now she was gone forever. She would never hug or see her smiling face again, or even laugh with her again. Now all she had was her older brother, Carl, to cling to but, somehow, it still wasn't the same.
                                                           ~♥~
            “It's time to wake up, darling,” Alex heard his mother's muffled voice say through his slumber.
            “Come on children, let's get up Your parents are looking for you,” his mother said to all of his friends sleeping beside him.
          “Where's Maggie? She usually wakes me up,” Willow said sleepily.
          Alex's mother looked at her with so much pain in her eyes that he thought she would start to cry, and then it hit Willow and her eyes clouded.
          “Oh....that's right....sorry....i forgot.”
            They saw other werewolves start to move about and everyone else went back to their families. It was still dark out, so Alex guessed it was just about dawn.
              For four days the  tribe traveled over hills, through woods, and tramped across meadows. Not once did they see anyone, except when they stepped in a large clearing in the middle of the woods.