Finding Rose

"So here's the kitchen, if you are ever hungry just help yourself. And to the left here is the main lounge, where there are places to mingle, pool tables, a small library......"

She continued to showcase the house, unaware that Rose wouldn't really be able to do those things. Yet she never asked why she was still in her wolf form. It puzzled Rose, but she welcomed it as it was a breathe of fresh air. She could tell the moment Mandy walked up to Sam that they were siblings. She shares the same dark brown hair as her brother and the same eyes. Her skin was on the lighter side, as if she strayed away from the sun, and she was slightly smaller in size. But from the looks of it, she could kick his ass anytime. She smiled at the thought.

"And over here are the co-ed bathrooms. Oh but don't worry! You have your own in your room." She assured Rose.

"Here we are." Mandy pushed the room doors open and walked in. Rose followed.

It was very spacious upon first glance. A king size bed laid smack dab in the middle of the room against the right wall, and was covered by an old wooden canopy with red drapes that flowed to the floor. There was a night stand on each side, and the one wall to the right was lined with closet doors and a full length mirror. On the opposite side of the closets were floor to ceiling windows, that basically lit the room. The room was facing the open field that they walked in earlier, and the sun was already starting to set in the distance.

"It's so beautiful." She thought.

Just as she was taking in the beautiful sight, Sam walked in. She looked at him, and he looked as though he had been through a trauma. A mental trauma. She scanned his face and noticed his left ear was flaming red.

"Jesus....what I miss?" She asked him.

"Mom." Sam replied.

Mandy interrupted. "So are you going to tell me what's going on or do I have to ask Dad?"

"Ugh fine, I'll tell you. But your gonna have to sit down, cus it's a bit long." He stated.

They all gathered on the floor, and Sam ran a play by play of what happened and why they were here. Rosalie watched Mandy's manurisms, and she seemed to be pretty cool about the whole thing. Towards the end of it, she too offered to help. It was a shotty plan at the beginning of the day, but things were starting to look up.

...........................

It was the next morning, and after a hearty breakfast and a cup of joe for Sam, they made there way to Henry's office. As soon as they walked through the doors, they noticed stacks and stacks of books and records sprawled out on the table. Henry was leaning over one of the books, while holding his glasses over some pages, unaware that they had arrived.

"Mornin." Sam said.

Henry looked up at Rosalie, and was already hard at work.

"Rosalie, I've pulled all these books and records that had any mention of any kind about the Ka-Luna pack. As you can see there's alot, so if you don't mind I'm going to ask you some questions and perhaps we can narrow down the year." Henry suggested.

Rosalie took a seat next to Sam.

"Okay, first off, can you remember the year you were born." He asked.

Rosalie looked at Sam to translate for her.

"I want to say around 1994 roughly?" She answered.

"Okay no worries, we can work with that. And how old were you when the night of the attack happened?"

"I was 12." She answered.

She watched as he jotted down the information.

"Okay, so if we guesstimate the year you were born and the night of the event, I'd say you were 12 in 2006, so that would make you........26 years old roughly. Now give or take a couple years, perhaps we can focus our research on the years 2004 through 2008 just to be cautious." He informed them.

26.......26........26. She kept replaying the number in her head.

"Hey. It's not that bad. Your only shy a few years from me." Sam tried to console her, but he too also played the numbers in his head. 14 years, she'd been stuck like this. It's a blessing she hadn't gone feral in all those years.

"I'm here, sorry I'm late." Mandy said.

Mandy looked at the room and she could see a dark aura hovering over Sam and Rose.

"What I miss?" She asked.

"Mandy, get over here. Henry waved her over." He looked over at Sam and Rose who seemed to be stranded in thought. "Hey Lovebirds!" It seemed to break the trance.

"Dad, were not lovebirds." Sam was quick to say.

"Ya ya, now listen, we each are going to take a year, and focus on that year only. This way we won't get mixed up and waste time. Obviously Miss. Rose can't grab the books herself so we will help her with that." Henry specified.

"And how is she supposed to turn the pages." Asked Mandy.

"That's easy, she can just lick the page." Henry replied.

"Ew." Said Mandy.

"Enough dilly daling, let's get to work." Henry said as he placed a stack infront of Sam.

..............................

Hours turned into days and days turned into weeks. Sam ended up calling Paul, advising him that he had to go home to help the family and would be taking an extended leave of absence from work. Now that he was covered, there was no time to waste. Henry, Rose and Sam worked all day, scanning through texts, records and old news letters. Mandy made the occasional drop by to help out, but was seen less and less as the days prolonged. In that amount of time, they managed to narrow down to 2 stacks of texts and a brief newslet of a pack meeting held by another pack council that referenced the Ka-Luna pack. But not much else has turned up.

It was a sunny day , and Autumn was in full effect. The three had been non stop working, and the look of fatigue and fustration was starting to set in. Rosalie laid there getting lost in her thoughts, when she could hear several people making there way outside on the field. She could hear a whistle blowing. She perked her head up.

Henry looked over and smiled.

"Come on Miss Rose. How about we stretch them legs?" He motioned to her, and walked towards the back door of the office. "Let's take a break." He said as he walked out.

Sam looked at her with a smile.

"Com'on Rose. Let's go play." He said, and he too went outside.

She didn't waste time making her way outside. She stepped onto the field, and soon joined a huge gathering of shifters. Some were already shifted and they looked to be wearing a belt with coloured flags on them. Some were wearing red and some were wearing yellow flags.

"Hey Rose." Said a woman.

"Hi Rosalie." Said a little girl as she walked along side Sam.

Some people said greetings as she walked past. She nodded as she wasn't able to mind transfer with them yet.

It was only a matter of hours after they first arrived, before word went around the house, about the return of Sam and his friend. Everyone was so welcoming, and understanding of her situation, it made transitioning into a new environment easy.

"Hey Sam! Rosalie!" A voice came from behind.

It was Jesse. Soon after their arrival Jesse made himself accessible to Sam and Roses every need. He was more of the go to person when Henry needed something, but he also would occasionally help with the research when he wasn't busy with anything else. She looked at his hand, he was carrying two belts with him. One with red and one with yellow flags.

"So, you wanna play?" Asked Jesse.

Rose looked at Sam.

"I have no idea how to play. What is it?" She asked.

Jesse could hear Sam tell her the name of the game and interjected.

"It's called Capture the flag. The goal of the game it to capture as many of the opponents flags as possible. Kind of like tag. You essentially have three flags on your belt, and if the other team manages to grab all your flags, your out of the game. Who ever's last remaining on the field with flags still on their belt wins the game for their team." He said.

"Okay, seems easy enough." She replied.

Sam looked at Jesse with a thumbs up, and Jesse smiled.

"Okay come here Rose and I'll place this on you. You can be yellow. Jesse placed the belt across her chest and over her shoulder. He then held up the other belt to Sam.

"Oh no buddy, I'm here to watch." Sam grinned.

"Okay, I guess I'm in. Just know Rose, I won't be going easy on you." He smirked and then shifted with no regards to his clothes. Sam then helped but the belt on him.

Jesse made his way onto the field. Rose stayed behind and looked at Sam.

"Just be careful out there. These guys can be pretty rough." He smirked.

"Easy peasy." She replied before making her way onto the field. She made her way towards the rest of the team who were lined up on one end of the field. She then took her place and saw the amount of people that gathered around to spectate. She looked at her team, and noticed Mandy was all set to go.

"Hmm...figured this would be her kind of sport." Rose chuckled.

On the opposite side of the field, she saw Jesse digging his back paws into the ground. He was itching to go. There were also a few other wolves that she didn't have the chance to meet yet but one stood out. It was Locklin, and he had her in his eye sight.

If wolves could grin.

"Hmph." She bared down and got ready. She didn't take her eyes off him.

The whistle blew, and they charged.