Believe - Chapter 25: Conclusion

When Imya woke up it was dark already. The big white she-wolf was still next to her and warmed her but all the lights, the fires, the people, they all were gone. Even the child was not there anymore. They must have left during the day when she slept and left her with the big she-wolf. Imya got up and stretched. With a yawn, she looked around the house while the she-wolf looked at her with a smile. Something moved at the other side of the house and she saw Liam, Red and Odin who also just got up. "Good evening kiddo." Red greeted her. "Long day for us. We could not sleep as well with all of them running around like you, sure we did not, yo!" He chuckled and Liam got to his hooves. "A think it is time." He said and nodded to Imya. Odin went the few steps to Imya. "It was a pleasure to meet you." He said. Imya was confused. They all acted like they wanted to leave her. Liam looked up to the sky. Imya followed his look and saw that clouds started to close in. The only place where she could see the sky and a few stars was directly above the house but even this quickly vanished with the gathering clouds. There was no sign of her star anywhere.

"Imma saw where da star lead us, sure I did, yo! Time for me to go home, sure it is, yo!" he said and his red eyes looked into the blue eyes of Imya. "Ya will do good, sure you do, yo!" he said and nodded to the she-wolf who also got up now. "Each one of us now needs to go to our own. Imma have been away for too long, sure I did, yo!" "Take care Imya. Never forget to stay out of trouble." Odin said and the polecat smiled to her. Liam closed in and stood directly behind the other two. "Dae no greet! Am sure you will find your maw and da. Mind us toaty." Imya felt sad. She was not even home yet but they wanted to leave her alone. She understood that they had fulfilled their journey. They always said that they just wanted to see where the star led them but she had believed that the star would guide her home. But this was not her home.

"They are right. It is time. Come with me Imya." The warm voice of the she-wolf ripped her out of her thoughts. She turned to the she-wolf who raised to her paws and began to take a few steps towards the hillside. Imya watched her and deep in her heart she knew that this was the final goodbye to Red, Liam and Odin. "Goodbye. Thank you for everything. It was nice to have you as fr..." Imya turned back but the hill was empty. Only the house with the open wall was there. She looked around, ran around the house and looked down the hill but she could not see any signs of her three travel companions. "friends..." she whispered and a deep sadness filled her heart. She let her head hang down and followed the she-wolf that slowly went down the hill. The further they went down; the more snow was lying around. The tracks of the animals and humans of the last night scrambled in all directions and soon there was only the track of Luna and her. Sometimes she imagined to see the big tracks of a stag, then the smaller one of a fox or the tiny of a polecat but when she blinked with her eyes they were gone. She remembered the trees and the rocks to the right and the left. She had seen them before in the nights when they followed the star. There was no light in the sky now. Not the star, nor the moon. Only dark clouds and the wind were following them. For a long time Imya did not say anything but then she took a few faster steps to get next to the she-wolf.

"Luna?" she asked shy. "Can I ask you something?" The she-wolf turned her head to the side while she continued to go step by step down the hill. They already reached the forest and in the distance Imya could see it opening towards the big plain. "You told me yesterday that I followed the star because I believed in myself. I believed that it would bring me home. But that was wrong. It did not lead me home and I did not reach my goal. Does this mean that I was wrong?" Luna smiled. "Imya, it never was about reaching the mountain of your pack. Your journey was never that of reaching home." Imya opened her eyes wide. "It sure was. I really wanted to go home. I wanted to get home to my mother and ... father." The last word was very silent. It was hard for Imya so admit that she even missed her father. The father that she feared and hated so much. Or at least she always thought she did. "It was not the goal of your journey to reach home." Luna repeated. Imya looked at her and there were tears in her eyes. Her blood rang in her ears and her heart started to race. A deep panic to never get home filled her. She did not understand what the she-wolf wanted to say. It made no sense, just like the lectures of her father. She wished Red would be there to explain it to her. He always had found the right words. "The journey itself was the goal." The she-wolf said and Imya blinked with her eyes to get the forming tears out of them. She looked into the silver eyes of the she-wolf but there was no joking wink or other sign that she was making fun of Imya. She really seemed to mean it like she said. "What do you mean with the journey itself was my goal?" she asked when her heart was not beating so hard anymore and her panic slowly calmed down.

"Remember what happened at the journey." Luna said and her eyes went back to the way in front of them. They just stepped out of the forest into the open plain but there was no animal or human visible anywhere. "You have learned so much. And you got stronger. You even have grown quite a bit." She chuckled. Imya looked down to her paws. She could not see any difference but then she remembered this last look she had on Red when she last saw him. She had looked down on him. She remembered that when she met him she still had to look up but in the end, she had been higher than him. Maybe she grew a bit without noticing it?

"In life ..." Luna continued and her voice again sounded like a melody, just like in the night before. "... you may try to run towards a goal. Or you want to achieve something. You want to win a race, or a fight, or find a comfortable den. It might even be that you want to just follow a star." She smirked and looked to Imya again. The tears stopped running and she looked back with just a bit watery eyes. "Every time when you do, you should look back in the end. If you reach your goal or not will not so important. Important is who you met, what you learned, where you went, what you have seen and what you felt during your way there." Imya pondered over the words. They sounded like one of the old stories she heard from her mother or from Red, Liam and Odin. In these stories, there also had always been some clear storyline but deep under it there was another meaning. The people in the story did not just reach the end but they developed, met others, grew stronger. Just like Cernunnos, the animal with the antlers. His goal had been to make sure that all animals could live in peace but in the end, he himself got stronger and gained his antlers.

"I think I understand that, but what is it good for that I got stronger if I never return home?" Luna smiled and stepped through the trees into a forest. They left the plains and started to climb up a mountain. "Who said you will not return home?" asked Luna after a while and nodded towards a big den. There was a mumbling coming out of it and Imya smelled the spicy smell of the bear. She knew this den. She had woken up here after the storm. "How?" she asked while Luna passed the den and moved further up. "What do you mean Imya?" she asked and Imya rephrased. "It took me weeks to get there. How can we already be here?" She just realized that they had reached the plain much faster and even crossed it within the blink of an eye. In her memory, it had been very vast and big and she needed a full night to cross it. "It is always shorter on the return." Luna just said with a smirk and did not further explain.

Suddenly Imya saw a collection of rocks a bit above and then she saw a silhouette. It looked very familiar to her. Then this figure raised its head to the sky and a loud howl reached her ear. Imya remembered this place and she knew who was howling there. "Should we answer?" Luna asked and threw her head into the neck. Imya also raised her muzzle towards the clouds above and felt the howl leaving her throat. She could however only hear the clear and wonderful melody of Luna's howl. Hers was too tiny to reach through it and the other wolf answered. The howl stopped and Imya looked up. She saw her mother looking down to her and now she started to run. She took long leaps until her head snuggled against the head of her mother. "Come Imya, I missed you so much. You need to tell me everything." Her mother greeted her and she took a few steps up the hill. Something was weird thought Imya. She never could have got here this fast. Also, Luna said she watched her all the time. Imya came to realize that Luna could not have been a normal wolf.

"Who are you really?" she shouted and turned around.

The rock that she just stood together with Luna and howled was empty. There was no sign of the big she-wolf. "Who are you talking to?" her mother asked. Imya was confused again and looked up to her mother and at this moment the clouds opened and made way to the view on the full moon. When Imya looked into the face of the moon her heart leaped and she felt a nostalgic feeling dwell up. Something about the moon felt different than before. She knew this feeling. It was like a friend that traveled with her. "Like I said, the moon will always guide you. I am sure he brought you home." Her mother said after she followed her gaze.

"No!" said Imya and remembered what Luna told her the last night. "I found my way back all by myself!" With a last gaze towards the moon she climbed up the mountain with her mother and when she met all the others, they gave her a warm welcome.

The End!