Enigma

Chapter 8

"Does it really disappear?" Lillian asked Robert, her eyes disbelieving saucers. She indicated the lake with a sweep of her hand. Robert called it the Lost Lake. "All of this? It disappears?!"

Robert laughed, standing up from where he'd been crouching near a plant. A straw hat shadowed his smile. She herself was wearing one, the sun too hot to work under for hours on end.

"It does." He dusted his gloved hands unnecessarily since his shirt bore the imprint of his work on the soil. "And before you ask if it has something to do with magic, no, it doesn't. The reason is entirely natural."

"How?" She stood to her full height, her clothes as dirty as Robert's. She loved it. Loved bearing the earth's mark.

"It just drains through a giant hole when summer comes." Robert shrugged. "Nothing magical about it. Nature."

Lillian shifted her gaze again to the glittering water. It seemed impossible for all that mass to simply disappear. Lillian couldn't wait to witness such wonder.

"So we're left with an empty meadow. It fills again once the ice melts, and the cycle continues." Robert looked at his watch. "Shouldn't you be with Anna?"

Lillian gasped. "Oh my God, I completely forgot!"

She scrambled to finish the task on her hands, but Robert waved her off and took over with an amused grin.

Her black sweater and jeans still smudged with dirt, she only had time to wash her hands, forearms and face before she hurried to the school. She spotted Elijah and Ezra with the other pups and one of the warriors.

Besides their shifting lessons, the pups five years and under usually had sessions with pack members of different ranks everyday. Eva had told her it was to make sure the pups understood the importance of every task, the weight of every rank.

So the pups shadowed adult wolves, from warriors to cooks, in their everyday morning lessons.

Lillian waved at members she'd become accustomed to seeing over the past week. There were still some unfriendly people, but over all, most of the wary faces had come to accept her presence in the pack with increasing hospitality.

Her days in the pack settled into a comfortable routine.

After breakfast, she dropped off her kids to their lessons and headed to the garden, where Robert would usually be working already. An hour before noon were her lessons with Anna. The teacher's warm heart and vast knowledge made her one of Lillian's favorite people in the pack.

After parting ways with Anna, Lillian took the pups for lunch then went back to the garden. Sometimes the twins tagged along with her, other times they played with other pups. The three of them spent their evenings together, and they dropped asleep as soon as their shower was done.

It was a simple but fulfilling existence. Lillian loved it, and loved that her boys and their wolves found their freedom to just... be.

Now, Lillian waved at Ezra when he caught her eye and jogged to the classroom.

"I thought you weren't coming," Anna said, wiping off the blackboard. She dusted her hand and sat down. Lillian fell on her chair, panting.

Anna grinned. "Your running sessions aren't paying off, I see."

"Oh, shut up." Lillian replied through her huffing and puffing, her lips twitching up at the other woman's teasing remark.

Anna was aware of Lillian's little escapades. Since she couldn't train with the wolves- yet- Lillian's first step was to wake up her muscles and develop some stamina through running. Everyday at dawn, Anna would come over for an early breakfast, and she'd watch over the boys while Anna went on a long run through the woods.