Inga✒️

Every night ever since she was a puppy, Inga dreamt these fascinating dreams. Whole stories that sometimes continued nights later. When she woke up, she would try to tell her mother about them, and her mother would smile and listen, and conclude that Inga had the wildest imagination, which is a good thing to have!
And maybe the dreams did help Inga to have a good imagination, she could imagine what others were feeling and going through, she could see things from others perspective, yes. And perhaps this helped her to make up stories of her own. But the dreams, they weren't her creation. Were they her subconcious? She didn't feel like she could take credit for them.
-
She woke up with a gasp and called for her mother, who came to her side, asking what was wrong. Inga wasn't a mommys girl and she was almost grown by this point, but the dream had been so real.
"Mamma I dreamt that you abandoned me and left and that you wanted nothing to do with me anymore," Inga explained, still feeling the pain and resentment from the dream. Her mother assured her it was just a dream, and that she would never leave her. But when Inga drifted off to sleep once more, her mothers golden fur turned grey and Inga was a little puppy waking up alone.
-
"Where am I? Where's Johanna?" Inga got up on her four paws and looked at the wolves around her, but they looked confused, "Stop fucking with me, did something happen?"
She had never sounded so agressive before. As she looked st the confused faces around her, they seemed less and less familiar, she had a feeling of deja vú. But she had a really bad feeling inside. Why wouldn't they tell her where Johanna is? Is she alright? Are the pups alright? Inga dismissed the wolves and ran toward her home, calling for Johanna. But as she reached the cave, someone else was lying in there. Inga felt angry at first, but then she shook her head. She must've gotten the wrong cave. Someone came up to her.
"Are you alright?" The wolf asked.
"Have you seen Johanna and the pups? Did you meet Brand, I'm sure he knows where she is, I must talk to her," Inga pushed past and started looking around the campsite for Brand.
"Inga, are you okay? Hey, listen to me," The wolf followed her and Inga turned around, "Inga-"
"Who is Inga?" She felt offended someone would mistake her for a female, then she became confused, why would she be offended by that, she IS a female, suddenly she remembered her own name. She blinked her eyes and the wolf in front of her started looking familiar.
"Oh gods, I'm sorry Järn, I didn't recognize you," Inga shook her head.
"This is getting out of hand, it's time to get help," Järn looked stern and Inga reluctantly agreed.
-
"Your cousin told me you were looking for Johanna," the herbalist sat in front of Inga, the steamy pool of water next to them felt nostalgic despite Inga never having seen one before, "Can you tell me who Johanna is?"
"I don't know, I don't know any Johanna," Inga said and the herbalist looked at her as if Inga was keeping a secret.
"You need to let me help you."
"I know, I know," Inga sighed, "I just, I don't know.."
"Close your eyes," the herbalist said calmly after a long pause, Inga did as instructed, "and now tell me, the first word that comes to mind when I say Johanna."
"Warmth," the word flowed out of Ingas mouth.
"What do you feel when you hear it; Johanna?"
"Her fur brushing against my nose."
"And what do you hear?"
"Laughter, the most beautiful laughter," the memory came back to her, Johanna.
"Who is Johanna to you?" The herbalists voice sounded familiar but different somehow.
"She is my love, my mate, the most amazing wolf," Inga smiled.
"What does she look like?"
"Grey fur, hazel eyes, she's the most beautiful wolf you'll ever see," Inga opened her eyes and looked at the herbalist and chuckled, "but Astrid, why are you asking me all these questions about Johanna?"
The herbalist looked concerned. The memories from before came back.
"Did something happen? I was looking for her and the pups, but they were nowhere to be found, and no one would help me," Ingas heart started racing.
"Calm down, nothing happened to them, I'm sure they're alright," the herbalist didn't look as friendly as she usually does, "Will you tell me something about yourself?"
"What are you talking about? Astrid, you know me. Are you alright?" Inga became so confused.
"Sit back down and close your eyes, please," the herbalist said and Inga did as she was told purely because the herbalist usually wasn't this serious, "your name is Inga, do you remember? I'm Skivling and your alpha is Borg. Your mothers name was Sol."
Inga started remembering her real name again and opened her eyes, looking at Skivling with confusion.
"Do you see Johanna and other wolves often?" Skivling asked.
"No, no, I never see them."
"But you called me Astrid?"
"Yes, you look so much like her, she's a herbalist too, I guess I got confused," Inga tried to make sense of everything.
"I need to speak to the alpha about this, and I order you to stay out of hunting and take it easy," Skivling ushered her away. As Inga walked homeward she was disappointed in herself. They had told her when she was young that she couldn't be a hunter or a scout or a pupsitter because of her eyes. As she looked in her reflection now, she felt they looked foreign to her. She could see surprisingly well despite the shape of her pupils, and she proved everyone wrong and joined hunting parties anyway. But now she was proven wrong instead. Some days were spent being depressed in her cave, until she got a visit.
"May I come in?" The deep voice reached her ears before she could see his fiery eyes, and the golden blaze on his forehead. The alpha. She simply nodded, stunned at his presence.
"I heard you've been remembering things that never happened?" He asked and Inga nodded once more, "Come with me, Inga."
The alpha exited the cave and Inga followed. It was night outside but the snow was lit by the white moonlight and the green aurora alike, so it wasn't dark. The alpha led her through the forest, but not very far, before he slowed down. They were entering the burial grounds. The alpha turned around to her and gestured toward the rock beside him. Inga brushed some snow off of it to read the name better. She gasped softly.
"Johanna?" She looked up at the alpha, who nodded.
"Johanna and Vinbär," he said as he placed a small book in front of her, and lit the lantern beside the burial stone. He opened the book and flipped through some pages before stopping. He held his paw over a part of the page and showed her, it was a painted picture of a wolf. Not just any wolf.
"That's her! That's Johanna," Inga looked at the picture and at the stone. The alpha removed his paw and revealed the name written by the image, and Inga breathed out in relief. She had been right all along.
-
"You're getting stuck again," Skivlings voice made her blink until ahe came back to reality and she looked at Skivling, who seemed to ponder something, "try again."
Inga closed her eyes and thought of Astrid and looked into the memories. This lesson had been prompted by what labelled as Inga "getting worse", just because she asked the alpha if he had talked to Ädelöga about becoming a stud, Inga was sure that the alpha was actually a male named Grårygg, who was good friends with Ädelöga. It wasn't Ingas fault they were so similar! As it turned out, Grårygg was actually The alphas grandfather, which Inga felt good about.
"Think of your surroundings, and Astrid, and tell me the differences between your memories and what you can see now," Skivling said, and then she went silent while Inga tried to remember.
"Forest. Stone table," she mumbled, and looked around her to see if Skivling also had a stone table, "hmm.. it wasn't far from the territory, it was right outside.."
Then a memory popped up in her that made her gasp. In the memory she was by Astrids stone table and then she glanced out into the forest where she could see the river and the small waves forming on it.
"It's.. it's clear," she shook her head and couldn't find the right words, "In the memory, I saw far away."
Inga looked up pleadingly at Skivling and then Inga turned around to look at herself in the herbalists pond. She looked at her eyes with pupils formed as slits instead of round like other wolves. She was born with this defect, and still she had memories of seeing her own reflection without it, and this memory of seeing things clearly, far away. Yes, all the memories of Johanna and Astrid and Grårygg, they had been clear!
"They're not your memories," Skivling suddenly said, sounding sure, "and you're not crazy, Inga."
"Whos memories are they?" Inga looked up, "and what do I do about it?"
With finally something to go by, Skivling and Inga started working to help Inga distinguish between the false memories and the real ones, so that Inga wouldn't get lost or confused again.
-
"Inga, what do you mean?" Magnes usage of her name told her about the seriousness of the situation. Inga had control over her memories now, wolves had started coming to her to ask about things from the past and Inga had started collecting information about the past and present, in case her abilities would pass to her pups one day. Wolves didn't call her Inga anymore, they called her Saga: the one who tells. Only Skivling and Ingas friends called her by her real name.
"Four siblings, you said four siblings created four families," She recalled something the young alpha had said, "that's not right, somethings not right."
"But there are four royal families," Magne insisted, and stubbornly hammered down his point, "Ull, Skade, Gerd and Vår. You know that."
"Yes, yes but.." Inga closed her eyes, "I can't recall a memory, but only a scent."
Inga focused. The scent was familiar, smelled like a mother, the good mother. Vinbärs adoptive mother was the first alpha, Tyr. Vinbär knew the four siblings, he could tell apart their smells, but also specifically tell apart the older siblings from the younger siblings. Both smelled like Tyr, but also like their fathers, Vinbär assumed, who he had never met. But Inga could feel it, a smell that was of Tyr, and of someone who Vinbär had indeed met.
"Saga?" Magne was impatient, but respectful.
"Mighty Tyr had a third litter," Inga stated.
"And what happened to them?"
"I don't know, I can't see them, but that's the thing," Inga opened her eyes, "I recognize the smell."
Magnes eyes squinted suspiciously.
"Are you saying there's a fifth lineage?"