Moral of The Story

One day the sun rose in the west and set in the east. I got used to it. There wasn't any fear anymore. No desire to run from whatever crept around the corner.

  Some things you can't change, no matter how hard you try. My twin sister and I learned that from the moment we discovered what we were. It didn't make us any less human. Instead, it taught us the definition of being human is specific.

  A brain, heart, lungs.

  But what about the soul? Did that define a human? We couldn't see it, touch it, or feel it. But it made us what we are. It gave us our personality.

  Every living thing had one. At least that what I believed. I was still human-we both were.

  We were lying in the middle of the meadow, just like in Zoey's dream. This time it wasn't a nightmare. No storm scared us away. If anything dared to face us, we stood our ground as a family.

  I questioned myself as to why I didn't question the sun. I wondered why I accepted it. I guess that part of me could never be changed. I, as a shapeshifter, should know.

  "Do you think Dad would be proud?" Zoey asked, her hair blew up with the wind as we stared up at the sky.

  "We did everything for our family. I think he would be."

  "Even after everything we went through?" Now she was the one asking the questions.

  I grazed my hand across a daisy beside me feeling its soft petals, "Life never came with a label saying it was fair."

  "And Mom?"

  "Zoey-"

  "I'm serious."

  I sighed, "I can't read minds, Zoey. I wish I could." I had unanswered questions too, but I knew answers were nowhere in sight. It wasn't possible. "We have to live with what we're given and take what we know is ours." I rubbed my hands over my round belly. She was due too soon; I wasn't ready.

  Zoey glanced at my stomach, "You're going to make a great mother, Addison." I could hear the strain in her voice. She wanted kids so badly, but her body didn't. That's the best way I could explain it. She couldn't conceive with Coal.

  "You'll be an amazing aunt." I looked at her. I would miss sitting in the meadow like this. If anything told us we were human, it was time. Yes, we had more, but only to a certain extent. Shapeshifter blood can only help so much. And DNA is…well DNA.

  The sunset wasn't different if it set in the west. The colors were beautiful, crimson reds and light blues.

  The Valley realms were unique. It was the only realm where the sun rose and set the opposite of the way it should. Did that mean the world spun in a different direction? Was this place a planet? Were these realms part of a whole different solar system?

  There I went with the questions again. But if there's anything I learned, its that the realms must be in balance with one another. No wonder there was so much chaos and disorder. The Fire realm was attacking the Shadow realm permanently destroying it. The Water realm killing dozens of fire shifters then taking more revenge by creating an acid swamp that kills anything it touches. It killed dozens of shifters; Death was the last thing on my mind. They made it sound like they were immortal, that nothing could stop them. When really anything could kill them, they just had an extended time warranty stamp.

  "She's kicking," I said, sitting up.

  Zoey smiled, "You feeling okay?"

  "I'm fine. I'm not sure what is going to happen when she gets here. A half-blood and a whole-blood gives you what?"

  "It's never happened before; you know this." Zoey squeezed my shoulder.

  "I know, that's what makes the unknown so alarming."

  "It will be an adventure." Zoey stood up and took my handing, helping me back on my feet. It was beginning to get dark, and my stomach was growling. But the majority of whatever I ate went to the baby.

  We made our way back to the cabin in the valley. Blake was in the kitchen cooking. The smell made my mouth water. Tomato soup and grilled cheese. He knew my favorite foods and everything. I was lucky to have him as my recherche.

  "How was the sunset?" He asked flipping the bread on the stove. He hadn't aged a day. He was still the same teenage boy I fell in love with seven years ago.

  Zoey and I had a choice, stay in the human realm and forced to forget everything that happened. Our mother would have no memory of being trapped or meeting us for the first time. Zoey and I would not remember meeting our shifter relatives or any of the adventures we went on to bring peace to the realms.

  And I would not have a relationship with Blake. I wouldn't have this little girl. She would be here in a month. I hadn't thought of any names. I had a feeling her name would come at birth

It was only a hunch that she was a girl. Once I found out I was pregnant, that's when we had to make a choice: Live your life as a shifter or be human. I knew what I wanted, Zoey did too. We had the same answers. Neither of us wanted to go back o the life we once led. We didn't feel loved or important. Our father raised us, but he didn't spend much time with us. Once Mom left, he lost a piece of himself.

I was worried we would have different answers. But thankfully, we had spent our entire life together that we didn't want to separate-we never did. 

If we stayed in the human world, we would most likely go to college, graduate, and go on with our lives in a 'usual manner. But from the moment Scarlet, our aunt walked through the café door. Our lives had no chance of returning to normal.

This was the new normal, where the sun rose in the west and set in the east.