Vision for Sight

Chapter 19: The Final Challenge

There was no skip in Daria's step now as she walked on, no twinkle in her eye at everything she looked at, nor a quizzing thought as to what something new to her was. She was an empty shell as she approached the narrow lake she had previously almost drowned in. All she wanted now as to go home, there she would find the only critter who could offer her company now. It took her until mid-day to get here, waiting for hours to find a sign or hear a sound before doing the only thing she could do, and that was moving on.

With her paws touching the water, she gazed down at her reflection she had come to familiarise herself with, only to think now how alien it looked, almost nothing like her last check. Metaphorically speaking of course, her looks were still there, but they had just lost their interest and colour, if that makes any sense. She sighed and lifted her head, looking at the distance she had to swim now. It was going to be a challenge. "Ok." She said, mustering her courage. "Scratch and kick."

Indeed, it was tricky, and it wasn't exactly the most gracious of swimming styles or techniques, but it worked. Sure, she submerged may times and she felt like she'd swallowed half of the lake, but she crawled out alive on the other side. She shook dry, a lot of her energy spent so next to no little effort was used on the movement. She looked back at the distance she had come, peering over to the other side and scanning the treeline, somewhat in hopes that she'd see something. The pause continued for very little time, and again, she moved on.

Everything was her fault, everything that had happened today was her doing because of her requests. Daria asked Callen to be her guide, she wanted her vision to be restored, the one thing that she had wanted for a long time, but also the same thing that kept her in contact with her mother whom now she had lost also. Alone was something she wasn't used to, not like this anyway. She had always felt connected with her mother, a thread tying them together, hence why the sensation of loneliness was something she hadn't really experienced before. But now the thread had been severed as she plodded along closer to home, following the stale scents she and Callen left behind.

The times she found herself looking back, again all in hopes that she'd spot a familiar wolf walking up behind her, trying to catch her up. At one point she thought she did, but it was merely her imagination, and most of these moments ended with her crying for a bit. Was it love she felt for him? Is that why she acted like this? She'd never know now; Floyd was all the love she needed right now.

Light was starting to become faint as Floyd pondered around his and Daria's home, he hoped spreading his scent around as much as he was and has been these last few days would help Daria find her way home. If she ever planned to return. Whatever made her pursue a thought of running away would remain a mystery for the foreseeable future. Was it something he did or said? He was sure it can't have been, what could he say that would make her do this? He wouldn't say a bad word against her, never has and never will. Did she find something? But he hid nothing for her. Was she bored of him? He thought he was entertaining for her most times. Sure he was strict sometimes, but he had to be for a teenager, any guardian or parent has to. He exhausted his reasons, finding an answer for them all. Only she could answer why. He came to a log just outside of their cave, hollowed out. A memory flashed by his eyes of her as a pup, maybe seven months after he took her in. He was teaching her about the area when she began playing hiding and seek here. He found her in this log, his little lesson abruptly ended to play this game. "Floyd…" He chuckled lightly, her voice playing back in his head as if she was really here. "Floyd!" That time seemed a little more realistic. He was confused, was it? He turned around and walked a little distance to see through the trees. He could not believe his eyes when he saw his grey she-wolf walking towards him. "Daria!" He yelled joyfully and dashing towards her.

Her ears perked and brought her eyes to him, the spiked critter running at him in the distance. This was the first smile she'd had all afternoon. "Floyd, I'm back!" She picked up her speed and when she had almost reached him dropped herself to the ground on her front and reached out her head for him. She always knew to let Floyd doing the hugging. He practically crashed into her, nuzzling her cheeking as she now cried some tears of happiness. "Daria I'm so sorry for whatever it was that I did." He said in relief, almost begging forgiveness.

"You didn't do anything." She sniffed, almost laughing. "I'm sorry for going, I shouldn't have. I'm really sorry."

"Hey, look here." He brought his head away to look at her, also lifting her head up. "You're home now, that's all that matters. Just please don't do that again to me." She nuzzled his paw again, looking into his eyes through the corner of her own.

"It's so good to see you." Now she understood why it hurt to touch his body, his entire back was covered in those "pines" he talked about, painfully, long stingers.

He chuckled a bit. "Don't make me la…" Then he saw it, her eyes, clear as ay others. Instead of a clouded, murky set he had come to know and love, a set of beautiful emerald eyes looked back into his. "Daria, can you see me?"

"Did you always look so old?" She joked, her mind virtually taken off the subject that's been there all day.

"How…How did you do this? Where did you go?"

"I found someone who healed me, she gave my sight back."

"You got there all by yourself?" He questioned, unable to believe this. This was a miracle.

"No, I found another wolf you took me and…" That moment of happiness, gone, shattered as it was replaced with thoughts of this morning, the stinging bruise on her cheek, and Callen.

"A wolf? Daria I told you all wolves are…"

"This one wasn't." He interrupted, unsure if she could talk much longer without breaking down. "Callen helped me all the way, Floyd he saved my life and I couldn't have gone all the way if he hadn't taken me."

"Well here is he?" He asked, looking behind her to see if anyone was there.

Her lower lip quivered. "He's…He's gone."

"Gone where?" There was no holding back now, here it came. She suddenly broken down there and then in front of him, dropping her head to the ground and covering her eyes and crying heavily into them. Floyd comforted her, whatever happened was one hell of an ordeal for her clearly.

The remained there, Floyd doing what a guardian should do and comforted her to the best of his ability while Daria sobbed into her paws repeating over and over again how she shouldn't have left and how sorry she was. She never did tell him what happened to this wolf, but putting the pieces together he managed to figure it out. What on earth had happened though to cause this was something he dared not ask, for now he needed to do his job and help her through it. Evidentially she had a strong attachment to this wolf so this wasn't going to be easy.

Night fell and Daria had settled some, she now just lay on the cold stone floor. Her energy was spent today, there was nothing now to do she was home until tomorrow came. Floyd of course continued to try and brighten her up, on a rare occasion in the last few hours did he see a small smile or hear a delicate giggle as they spoke softly. Of course, he asked about her vision and how she came to get it, and of course she responded honestly. Glumly, but honestly. It wasn't exactly the answer he expected to hear, a witch cured her. But what other reason could it have been? To be honest it was the only thing he could say he understood, no other explanation seemed to fit her story. But this then did lead on to other stories later on.

He could see she was hungry, she hadn't eaten today and although she most defiantly wouldn't want to now he had to try. He dragged behind him a branch from a nearby berry bush for them to share, a great amount of effort now needed with the rugged path up the to the cave now. Leaping from ledge to ledge and all without dropping their dinner, a hard feat for his size. "You know…" He said as he approached. "The forest has been a whole lot different since you left?"

Now she grew a little curious. "What do you mean?" She asked lifting her head.

He spat out the branch before here. "More birds for one, damn annoying things." He grumbled. "More sun, more critters seem to just be walking in too. Doesn't look like they're afraid of our forest now." He finished chuckling.

"That was mom." She sighed.

"Mom?"

She nodded gently. "You know that imaginary friend I had as a kid?" He did. "Well it turns out she was my mom, she watched out for me all this time. I tried to tell you a long time ago but that's what all you said it was."

"You mean her ghost?" Today has gone now from amazing to almost back to normal, full of mysteries surrounding this girl!

"I guess." She shrugged, reaching over and plucking a berry from the branch in-between her claws. "She did that outside." She referred to the rubble caused by the lightning strike. "She was the one who told me about the witch in the first place, she even took me out where I found Callen."

Floyd was undecided, whether to pursue this train of thought of to one again dismiss it, putting it to her imagination again or just agree with her and lie. But then again wolves are empathic creatures, intuitive by nature, she'd figure him out sooner rather than later so lying wasn't really an option. "So…is she here now?" It was really all he could think of, not to mention it might help to convince him further.

She swallowed the berry and sighed, shaking her head too. "I lost her too." She started to go quiet and, and right as Floyd was about to try and change the subject to avoid another meltdown she continued. "She went quiet right after I got my sight, I thought she was just mad at me first but it wasn't that."

But then something changed, her face changed as well as her train of thought. Could it be so simple? Could the answer really be that straightforward? The reason for this, she never noticed it but it was so damn obvious. This started when she got her sight back… "I lost her when I could see…" Daria said. "Kasey told me that to hear her guide she had to become blind; that she couldn't when she could see." She pieced it all together, Floyd still tried to understand what she had told her before all this, she had already moved on to another topic so he was yet to catch up!

"Ok…" Floyd said, trying to seem like he understood this. And who was Kasey?! Daria only gunned him down with a simple look that saw straight through his lie.

"What if that was it though?" She queried whilst looking at him, despite the fact he didn't understand any of what she said. "To speak to them I have to be blind."

"But you're not anymore." Floyd stated. "Daria it's ok, you can get through this if you…"

"I've got to go back." She said and quickly standing. "I need the witch to reverse what she did to me."

"What? You can't be serious, you just got back!" Floyd exclaimed.

"Floyd I've got to get back there, how else can I do it?" She turned back to him and snapped, a side he rarely saw of her.

"Daria, you've been given a chance here to live a full life, are you really going to throw it all away?"

"My life can't be complete unless I have mom back, and she can tell me what's happened to Callen." This talk wasn't working for Floyd; a new tact was needed for this.

"Well what about getting there, do you remember which way it is?"

"East." She answered. "There's a lake to cross, then there's a territory to go around and then it's a straight shot to that fast flowing river and waterfall before…" Her mind went blank; it was that moment her sight was restored, so further beyond then to the swamps she didn't have a clue. Sure, her memory was good, but this was days ago, a route she had only taken once, there was no time to memorise the path they took. She didn't know where to go. "See, you can't go back, it's too dangerous, and I won't let you."

"Then…I won't get to hear her again." She said softly, defeated. "She can't sing me to sleep after nightmares, she won't be there when you're not." Now she was the one who needed a new tac-tic. She NEEDED to hear her mother's voice again!

She looked back, rubbed her paw in dirt to gather it and rubbed it in her face, concentrating on her eyes. She did this violently and quickly, knowing Floyd would say something or try to stop her. She flicked the dirt and the dust up, rubbing her face into the ground to damager her eyes. Of course this didn't work, but she wasn't going to stop trying. Something had to give sooner or later.

Floyd of course could stand to see the young she-wolf he came to love self-harm herself like this. He moved in quickly and held her leg to steady her. "Daria stop." She simply shoved him away and moved deeper into the den, there was more dirt back there. There she continued to furiously wiped and force dirt into her eyes to do something to try. She' pause every few moments to see if anything changed. Nope, she carried on trying harder and harder. Again, Floyd rushed over to her and held her head to stop her and once more Daria pushed him away. This time with more force and pain as one of his pins pierced her cheek. She yelped and Floyd picked himself up, he didn't realise she was this strong, it defiantly surprised him. "Daria, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, but you've got to stop this."

She plucked the long pine out but she didn't throw it away, she starred at it. The amount of times she pulled these out of herself, she thought she was used to it. They could do some damage, but she guessed that was the point, a layer of protection to do some harm. So long, thing…sharp. Daria looked back to the berry branch, dashing over to it and breaking the smaller twigs to reveal the goal underneath. The branch was almost bear when she then it into the end and twisted it, finally, the end was now pointed. She touched it and it hurt, it was sharpened to perfection. She looked to her spikey guardian who couldn't believe what she wanted to do. "Floyd, I don't want you to see this. Get out."

"Daria please don't do this; you can get over it. There's no need for any of this."

"I want to hear mom again; this is the only way." She said. "Don't come back until I say." He couldn't believe she was really going to do this as he walked up to her. She was indeed traumatised by what had happened clearly. He kissed her cheek, he knew once she had her mind set on something it was nearly impossible to turn her from it. And although he couldn't bear to think of her doing such a thing, he didn't want to be around to see it or hear it. She was a chanced wolf now. He turned and left in a hurried pace, not wanting to be anywhere near the cave.

Daria at least gave him some time to get away before thinking this over, really finding the courage to take the plunge. "This isn't going to be easy for you, kiddo." No, it really wasn't, Kasey was right. Did she somehow know of this, of everything? She said everything came as a price, even her own mother said this right before. Was this always going to be the outcome? To lose everything and dive into this without the certainty it will work? It made hence she thought as she moved closer to the stick, eyeing its pointed end. Both she and Kasey needed to be blind to hear their spiritual guardians, Kasey couldn't before, she sacrificed it. Daria's eye was now only an inch away now, her heart raced and her head flooded with thoughts of how much this was going to hurt. The longer she paused the more she wanted to back out, she knew this, so there was only way to get this done, and that was now.

Floyd was a well over one hundred paces away from the cave, he couldn't see it if he looked back, he wanted distance before he heard what he did. Suddenly his ears perked to faint screams, agonized, piercing screams belonging to Daria. He panted, groaning loudly and blocked his ears to try and block out the noise. He wasn't doing his job, she wouldn't let him, damn that teenager! This wasn't the end of it though, that one scream lasted a while, but she had two eyes, another was sure to come soon.

The pain was indescribable, nothing she has experienced so far could compare. But it was now done, what seemed to take an eternity was finally over and the damage was done. She cried loudly, curling up with her back to the cave entrance on the floor with her eyes clamped shut. She could feel the blood running down her cheeks, two little streams mixed in with the tears. It had certainly worked, becoming blind again, deeply scratching her eyes to a severe extent. She needed a minute though, she had to wait a moment to adjust and settle down.

"Mom?" She cried. "Mom are you there?" She lifted her head, waiting for an answer. She took another moment before mustering the strength and energy to sit up, still keeping her eyes clamped shut not wanting Floyd to walk in and see the state of her. "Mom?" She tried again this time a little louder. "Can anyone here me?" It never took her long to answer before, or show a sign. She focused so hard on hearing something that she wasn't focusing on the pain anymore. Her plan failed, there wasn't a sound, a voice or a sign it worked. She dropped her head, quietly sobbing and unsure what to do now.

The bloodied tears continued to fall around her eyes and down her cheek, tingling as it brushed her fur there. Or was it? It was unclear to say, but the more she started to remember the pain, the less she felt it. The tingling grew more intense, or was it the crying? She felt warm, face more than anything. She looked up at hearing movement. "Floyd?" She tried opening her eyes in hopes of seeing him. "I told you not to come." But she couldn't see anything, only that cloud she always did. "Wha…" She couldn't finish her gasp, surely she'd either see a little or complete darkness, right? What was this? She felt her cheek, dry, no damp and no blood by the feeling of it. Most importantly, no pain.

"Now I tell ya, I never expected that." A voice chuckled. It wasn't Floyd, there was only one voice that sounded like that and it was far better than any other voice she could hear right now.

"Callen?" She gasped.

"And I tell you something else." He continued. "I can see where you get your looks from, your mom is just as wonderful." He laughed again.

It worked, all of that and it worked. She laughed, but cried as well, all from happiness. He was there, really there as if he was standing in the cave with her. Of course he wasn't, but now she could talk to him again. She started to cry more than laugh, going back to sitting down to brace and steady herself more. "Hey, calm down now." He took a more serious and softer tone. "Everything's alright; your eyes are fine now. A cool trick your mom actually taught me."

"Callen I'm so sorry." She sobbed. "It's all my fault, if I hadn't left home then you'd be ok and…"

"And I wouldn't have met you." He finished. "Daria you're incredible, everything you did to get this far, you're brave to do what you just did. I can't think of anyone who could do what you've done in the last week, and blind!"

"But I…"

"Made me find the home I've been looking for. I' spent over half a year looking to settle down, and now I finally have. I'm happy, and now I can live it out with you too."

"What about my mom though? Where is she?" Daria began to calm down, questions coming to mind more than anything.

"She's resting too, but we've kind of swapped roles. The old girl needed rest, she used so much energy to get you this far."

"Swapped roles?"

"I can protect you here, at home, it's trickier outside the forest."

"So if those wolves came to find me…"

"No-one is going to hurt you while I'm here." Callen chuckled.

"Then can you help me?" She stood up again, walking forwards towards the cave entrance.

"With what?" He was intrigued. Sure, he could do a lot of things, but mind reading wasn't one of them. She felt him walk alongside her, continuing to stay with her like he promised and listen to her.

"Lois." She said. "I promised I'd go back and find her, if mom can't now, she's the only one who can tell me everything that happened to her. I need to find her."

"You can't go." He said. "I can't protect you that far, I'm not as strong as your mom was. I can't let you leave the forest. It's not safe out there."

"Then I'll wait, an opportunity will come, something will come up. I can't leave her there though, and I need you."

"So persistent." He chuckled again. "Maybe one day, but for now, it's just me and you."

So you see, everything comes at a price, and that price even has a price. A ripple effect it's called, one thing causes something and it just carries on. Things are like it for a reason, you are born the way you are meant to be and events happen because they are meant to. Some grand design I suppose, everything was planned out at the start, some are good and some are bad. But hey, deal with it. I was born blind, and when I was told I could get it back I did and everything went wrong. This was because I went against the plan, I changed it, and because of that I lost my best friend and my mother. Because of my foolish ambitions I destroyed everything and changed myself. I experienced loneliness for the first time in my life, it was the worst feeling I can describe. I never want it again, and I press anyone hearing this to heed my words. When you're like me it's hard to be alone, but most aren't and would travel great distances to feel loved and at home. Being able to see was the worst thing that could ever have happened to me because Never Have I Felt More Alone Then When I was Without Those That I Could Not See.

And that Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, is the start to my retirement! *Party poppers, round of applause, confetti* This is probably the longest it's ever taken me to complete a story, thanks work and social life! Now to answer the question of why did I kill off Callen. In the movie, when I looked at the wolf ghost I never thought of it as a female. It looks like a guy! As I said, I was ending this story to how I saw and thought of the movie, and in my eyes Callen needed to be the spirit in the movie. Sorry for those who didn't want it to be this.

Anyway, I need to thank the persistency of my partner in crime Bastard from North for getting me this far. And if he gets his way, which he won't, who knows, maybe I'll be back here one day. For now, I gradually going to be finishing off re-doing my Starnik Series over on FictionPress, so any fans please go and have a look. Only six chapters into the first series right now so the morale would be appreciated.

Thank you all for reading my story "A Vision for Sight" , thank you for being my friend though it and all the amazing comments and I'd love to hear what you think of it all in a Review or a PM, I love chatting. lol

Until Next Time ;)

The FalconWolf