hope so quickly, my child?” 

The mist lifted, quickly allowing Aleu to recover her eyesight; what she saw in the center of the room was enough to make her fall to the ground in fear.

“You . . .y-y-you’re . . .” Aleu stammered, shaking as she collapsed in front of the creature towering in front of her. 

“Yes, my child,” The white lupine nodded humbly. “It is I, the Great Aniu.” She lowered her head and gently brushed against Aleu’s shoulder with her wide, wet nose; the faint touch caused the yearling to gasp and raise her head, looking eye-to-eye to the snowy-white and light-gray deity. Her face with calm and regal as their heads rose in unison, followed only by a moment of silence.

“Why . . . why are you showing yourself to me now, Aniu?” Aleu asked after a couple of minutes to recover from the shock of seeing the white wolf. “Why didn’t you speak to me in my dreams after Riza left that night a week ago? Didn’t I do your will? Didn’t I prove myself to you like you wanted me to?” 

The lupine shook her head slowly. “I knew that you were expecting me to come to your dreams that night, but because of what was happening that same night, I did not.”

Aleu sat down, perplexed by Aniu’s words. “What . . .” Suddenly, her eyes widened. “You mean . . .?” 

“No, it wasn’t the birth of the elder one’s litter,” Aniu quickly added a small request. “If you get a chance to speak with her, please tell her that I am with her little Niva. He is at peace now, but he will always love her, even though his heart lasted only for couple hours time. I also send my congratulations for her other new arrivals. They shall make their father proud.” Aleu nodded as the deity continued. “Now, it was the stealing of your special friend allowed me to stand aside, allowing things to follow their course.”

“Stealing?” The Alpha gasped. “She was stolen?” Her eyebrows touched and lowered to the tips of her delicate lashes. “Who took her? Please, tell me who took my friend, Aniu? Why did this have to happen to her?” 

“Lorna is a very special child, ever since the day of her birth,” Aniu began to explain. “The power she was bestowed is one that all evil wishes to have under their control, and now, I fear she has been manipulated by her own blood.”

“You mean . . .?” Aleu gasped, remembering what other scent Scarlet had gotten a sniff of. “Does Riza have something to do with this?” 

Aniu nodded. “Yes, but I will not discuss this any further.” Aleu groaned after hearing her sentence; she was hoping that the white wolf would at least confirm something about the missing status of her friend. “The natural flow of fate was meant to be this way, and no one should interfere with how things should be. Right now, your focus should be on your quest. Lorna’s safety will come to greater importance at a later time.”

“But Aniu . . .” The Alpha groaned again, but Aniu only chuckled in a light, royal-like manner as the fog began to engulf the lupine and the room once more. “Aniu, wait! I still have more questions to ask you!” 

Only the voice of the deity could be heard as the now thick fog surrounded Aleu, allowing her to listen carefully to her parting words. “All will be answered in time, my child. You are my grand-daughter after all, and you are just as persistent as your father was when he was young . . . Until next time, farewell . . .”

The fog dispersed, returning to the way it was when Aleu first entered the center room: the dim yet bright sparkling crystal centerpiece was on the stone stab where the brown mouse spirit was standing beside them, continuing to put his prisms carefully in precise place while still humming the same tune that he was singing earlier. 

“Aniu . . . is my . . . grandmother?” Aleu spoke in a whisper, astonished by Aniu’s revelation. The quarter-wolf sat down slowly, still stunned by the words as they rang in her ears. “Well, it could be true,” Aleu talked to herself aloud, still murmuring. “Papa said so himself . . . although he never said her name . . .” She closed her eyes, listening to her father’s words from months ago, moments after confessing his cursed breeding of being both husky and wolf.

“. . . My dad was a husky who had pups with a wolf . . .  

. . . I was accidentally separated from her when I was young . . .

. . . I remember that she was as white as snow, and she had this warm voice that made me feel safe . . .” 

A tear fell down her beige cheek as her mouth began to form a grin. “It all makes sense . . .”

“Yes, it does,” Muru’s voice interrupted, causing Aleu to gasp in fright after a quick silent pause. “but it doesn’t change the fact that what she said was true: Aniu is your grandmother by birth.” 

“It may be true, but that’s just impossible!” the quarter-wolf stomped one of her front paws to the ground. “How can a Great Spirit like her be my father’s mother?”

“It’s a long story, but it’s happened for many generations . . . ever since the dawning of time,” The field mouse began to explain briefly. “The world is filled with many mysteries, leaving us to wonder why things are the way they are. Why is the sky blue? Why do colors dance in the dark night sky? Why do herds move instead of staying in one place? So many questions, and yet most questions have no real answer . . .” Muru let out a breath, pausing for a moment as he went back to moving his prisms. “When they feel that their presence in the flesh is necessary, the Great Spirits sometimes decide to take on the form of a real creature – usually as a wolf – by assimilating with an embryo inside of a she-wolf’s womb.” 

“A-a-assimilating?” Aleu tilted her head to the side as she stammered the word out, yet she was still quite confused by the spirit guide’s large vocabulary. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. Why would they do that?”

“That, my friend, is one of those questions that can not be truly answered. I suppose the spirits wish to live as we do, and that is exactly what Aniu did many, many moons ago,” The brown mouse replied to the curious yearling. “Aniu became one with a newly-formed puppy, one that had just recently received the spark of life within the place where most life begins,” Muru explained. “Once she was born in this new life as a young ivory she-wolf christened with the ironic name of Anyu – spelt with a ‘Y’ instead of an ‘I’ –  a name that also means ‘snow’, she soon learned of the special abilities that she possessed.” 

“Did she know that she was once a spirit?” Aleu asked, attentively listening to Muru’s tale of her grandmother’s existence.

The rodent shook his head. “She had no memories of being a spirit, but her powers and looks were inherited from her true form as a spirit.” He paused for a moment to clear his throat, then he continued. “The Clan Elder, a former Clan Alpha who happened to be one of her best friends, taught her many things about how to control her magic and use it wisely, mainly for the sake of good; he was the only one in the Clan that could speak to the Spirits personally and knew ahead of time that one of the Great Spirits would be born in his Clan. He prophesized of the birth of a magic-user – a wolf born from the result of Spirit Assimilation – and knew that her power was meant to save their world from destruction. 

“As she grew to be a yearling, Anyu was a very fast learner of the mystical arts, but as all young children are, she got very curious about the world that she was forbidden to roam – the human world. For many months, she had secretly been longing for adventure and a life worth treasuring.”

“Is this when she met my husky grandfather?” Aleu asked with anticipation as she moved her nose closer to the tiny one of the storyteller. “What did she do?” 

Muru laughed. “I’m getting to that, be patient!” He cleared his throat again. “Anyu had always known that she was meant for greatness, but she doubted herself and her power, for she wished her brother had received it instead of her. However, she was glad to have it when she realized her destiny . . . It all began one winter’s night when she was awoken by a sudden urge – a . . . um, what’s the word . . . a force of destiny’s hand, you could say. She ran into the sudden snowstorm outside her Clan’s den and found him, a strayed young black and white sled-dog named Tulugaq.”

“Huh,” Aleu snorted. “What a weird name for a dog.” 

“That name means ‘raven’ in the language of the Inuit Nation of humans, and that ‘dog’ happens to be your grandfather,” Muru clarified.

“Oh . . .” Aleu lowered her ears in respect. “Sorry. Please continue.” 

“Anyway,” Muru continued on. “Tulugaq – called Tulu for short – was part of a dog-sledding team from Nome, your birth town. He had been separated from his team and running blindly into the wild territory of Anyu’s Clan. She, however, found him and immediately took him into custody of trespassing on their land, sentencing him to be a prisoner for life in their Clan. They didn’t want to risk their safety by having a trespasser that knows of their existence to return to their world, thus endangering the well-being of the wolves.”

“How awful! That poor dog!” The quarter-wolf exclaimed. “But as an Alpha myself, I think I understand their actions.” Aleu lowered her voice after a sigh escaped her lips. “One must think of their community’s safety first when danger is in the area.” 

“I’m glad that you do understand,” The mouse complimented. “because that is what Anyu once thought. Unfortunately, the safety of her Clan made her begin to wonder why this stranger was so interested in the wolves. The two of them soon became companions, and after many moons, they fell in love.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Aleu said pleasantly.  

“It may have been sweet at the time, but members of her Clan began to notice her beginning to