Once Upon A Time (20 page)

In a few short
years, a blink of an eye, and things would change again. We were no
longer the only creatures for whom the sky was our natural element.
Mankind had learned to fly, and the world was at war. Death would
surround us, as young human males would march proudly down the
streets, their females waving them on, cheering them, so confident
that they would be home. Instead, they would receive a folded
communication, and they would know that somewhere, that smiling
young face lay dead or even worse, missing, with no enough pieces
to be able to identify him for sure.

This was the
race we tried to protect, and yet for the gain of a small area of
land, they slaughtered their fellow creatures. Yes, I would kill to
protect my Queen, but that was not the same. We could take solace
perhaps that this was called the War to End Wars. Would that it was
that.

But we are
Ddraig, and we knew.

Being able to
see into the future has some pros and cons. Not all is good and not
all is bad. Prophecies are tricky. One can see what can or could
happen but free will plays an important part in the total outcome.
Therefore, one can never predict the future. My second in command
Taliesin has been keeping tabs on the humans. We have done what we
can to help the small villages nearby. Sending little packets of
coin. Making sure that those who will not only survive the war but
plagues as well will continue to thrive. We made sure the cure for
the plague was entered into the minds of those who can take the
information and make it come true.

We have seen
many decades pass us by and have watch the infantile humans grow
and become smarter in some aspects and dumber in other areas. One
being on how they are treating the planet they live on not caring
if they are destroying it. With growth it became apparent that the
humans would learn the magic of flight. And with such progress we
can no longer take to the skies as we did in the old days.

Flying free
above the clouds was something our clan loved doing on moonless
nights or when heavy clouds filled the sky. Hiding us from prying
eyes. Wondering when I would ever be able to feel the air surround
me once again. I turn away from the window as I watch a large metal
bird fly through the clouds over head. I learned from Taliesin
since he is the one who keeps up with human progress that what I
thought of as a metal bird was indeed called an airplane and it
could many humans inside it. I walk to my throne wondering if our
reign was indeed coming to an end. Would the clan be able to
survive these new ways?

We have kept
ourselves hidden from all humans not wanting to interact with them.
But with the progress they are making soon we will be hunted as
they will try to disprove the myth of our existence.

I will need to
take council with Taliesin Llewelyn and hear what his thoughts are
on all this progress. Was there a way that we might rejoin the
world and continue in our age-old duty of protecting those less
able from evil that surrounded them?

My Queen asked
me about the changes in the world around us. I told her that we
needed to become part of the world again. We had hidden ourselves
for centuries, using our human forms, and only taking our Ddraig
form when the need to fly became impossible to resist.

“
I have an idea, my Queen.” I told her. I had thought long and
hard over this plan, and if it worked, it could mean that we could
re-join the world but on our own terms. “The latest batch of
hatchlings are growing. What would you say that they go away to
school … Away from Wales?” I explained. “We could send them to
several schools around this island, where they might board and be
educated. As importantly, they will develop networks of friends.
When they reach the age to attend university, we provide them with
the means to do so, with the intent that they seek careers which
can support us to protect this land, but in a more modern way.” I
showed my Queen the information I had gathered, on the schools and
on the career prospects.

“
My niece, descended from my sister, is one of the hatchlings.
If she were to attend Monmouth, perhaps, and then the University of
Wales, she might work towards a career in the human intelligence
world. It would give us an insight into what is happening, and if
there is something that may need our intervention, we have the
information to do so.” I continued my explanation. “Lili-Meinir is
already showing a talent for languages, and you and I both know
that this is likely to be key.”

Fortunately
for me, my Queen had agreed. This was part of my longer term plan.
Already a room in our unassuming farmhouse in North Wales housed a
computer system which, to use a human phrase, would give a geek a
hard-on. I had many ‘friends’ in the online world already. Some of
them had questionable morals, there was no doubt there, but I knew
that this technology, this hidden way of fighting, would become
key. A war of words was coming, and it has the potential to be no
less bloody than the wars of old.

But we are
Ddraig. We exist to protect against evil, and we will do so to our
last breath.

Twelve moons
in a year, 100 years in a century. That is a lot of full moons when
I have enjoyed the joy and the freedom of running with my Pack.
And, of those moons, it is the ones since 1887 which have meant the
most to me, since those are the moons where I have run with my
Mate, my Aaleahya.

Tonight's full
moon was even more of a reason to celebrate. Our newest Pack member
should have had her first shift tonight, but since when do plans
go, well, according to plan. Either way, we were celebrating having
a new member and the other half of a Mated pair with us
tonight.

As Aaleahya
and I tumbled in the snow, dignity forgotten for just a moment, I
still maintained a 'watch' over my Pack. The younglings, many also
experiencing their first full shift, played amongst the trees,
unaware that our Healer was watching them, ensuring that nine were
injured. Bran and his Alix, still graceful as a wolf, despite the
pup she carried. By the next moon, they would be parents. Owain and
his Merida shared the joy and the pleasure of her first Full Moon:
two sable-dark wolves, racing under the night sky.

Aaleahya
yipped at me, indicating she wanted to run. It was our first run
since the arrival of Matyas and Liszka. As my Mate raced through
the trees, her paws flying over snow, buried trunks, skidding over
icy streams, I ran with her, our pace synchronised in the dance of
the moon.

We may not
have to change like a werewolf of legend, but our Lady Moon still
calls us. And we will answer that call.

We are Cŵn
Annwn.

Alice and Jake
couldn’t fall asleep fast enough for me and I ended up pacing the
hall itching to shift. The pull of the full moon grows stronger as
it rises so it was natural that I entertained the thought of
slipping them each something stronger. Thank the goddess it wasn’t
necessary and I finally ran outside and let the moon’s light wash
over me. My shift was fast and I luxuriated in a full stretch
before running to the edge of the wood. My tail wagged as I watched
Merida shift to her wolf. Her joy blends with Owain’s until it is
felt by us all through our link. “Welcome to your first full moon
Merida and welcome to our pack.” My mind link message was joined by
the others of the pack and we turned to the woods. To answer
natures call and run, blessing the goddess and the moon.

I leap over a
log with a loud yip and hear others following my route. Gavril and
Aaleahya head to the East along with Bran and Alix. Both pairs
running shoulder to shoulder and their steps matching perfectly in
an instinctive dance. I slow down as I reach a small hill and watch
the others howl and play in the bright moonlight noting the mated
pairs staying close to Owain and Merida. I bark lightly at a group
of pups getting a little rough near the drop-off and thankfully
they move away from the ledge. I don’t want this night to end with
having to heal a bunch of rambunctious younglings. I turn quickly
when I see Owain and Merida playing and my heart soars to see them
roll around, snapping playfully at each other.

All too soon
the moon dips to the horizon. I run full out chasing it, all alone
in the deep woods as I leave the others behind. I know they are
watching after each other and I feel the link with them, all
watching Merida enjoy her first run. I just needed to…I just needed
something…I don’t know what but I chase the moon like it holds the
answer. I leap over some brush, startling a deer who had nestled in
for the night and I wildly take off after it. Chasing it through
the darkening woods, its frightened heartbeat spurring me on and
making me drool. I won’t catch her but damn I love the wild
bloodlust filling my heart. Predator and prey following natures
dictates. She is tiring so I slow slightly and skirt around to
catch her on the side when Gavril sends a message that the run is
ending. I let the doe escape and stop to howl at the sky and revel
in my racing heart. I bark twice and race back to the pack
wondering who I can sneak up on and jump.

With 23 days,
give or take, until Alix would birth our child, she was two thirds
of the way through her pregnancy and it was borderline as to
whether she would want to run with the Pack at the Full Moon. I
hoped that she would, but at the same time, I had no wish to
endanger my precious Mate or our equally precious child by
insisting that she should shift form.

Even now, with
Alix's belly swelling with our child, I could not believe that this
was happening to me. Deep inside me was the fear that something
might happen to her and that I was not to be forgiven for my past
failures. Yes, I know that so far, I had triumphed in the
Challenges set by her Pack, but it still remained that I had two
more Challenges along with a fight to the death against Laurent
Gosselin. In those remaining Challenges it was still possible that
Alix's sire would have his wish, and succeed in injuring me
sufficiently that when the time came to face Laurent, I would be
disadvantaged. I knew by now that he did not intend to kill me
during the parkour run. The swim was a matter of endurance,
particularly as we knew about their plan to have armed divers in
the water. The deciding event would be the fight against the
Gosselin Pack Beta, Laurent. A fight to the death. If anything was
going to show whether I had been forgiven for my past
transgressions and failures, it would be that final Challenge.

But that was
all to come. Alix and I sat in our suite, watching through the
window as the moon rose, the pull of the moon increasing. I had
looked at Alix, but I had not wanted to force her. She had taken
the decision from me. Smiling, she had stood up, pressing a kiss to
the palm of my hand, before stepping away. Still smiling, she had
shifted to her white wolf form, and my own smile had widened.
Opening the door to our suite, I changed my form also, and together
we had padded down the stairs, and out into the gardens. Looking at
my Mate, we turned to the East and we ran, wanting to make the most
of the time we had to run.

Running
shoulder to shoulder with my Mate, I could feel the soul of our
child in our belly, and extended a mind link between us to include
Bran. He still had not explained why, sometimes, he would have a
look on his face that didn't believe that we were Mated, and that,
in less than a month, our child would be birthed, and we would
become a family in truth, regardless of the best attempts of my
birth Pack.

There was
something. I was guessing that it was something in his past, but
when? That I did not know. Part of me wanted to ask Gavril what
might cause my Mate to have that look on his face, but then another
part of me would hesitate to ask. It was something that Bran would
have to trust me enough to reveal.

In the
meantime, all I could do was answer that silent plea, that he
wanted to run, but feared to risk me or our child by asking me to
shift when I was in the final third of my pregnancy. So, I took the
decision from him. I knew my child shifted within my womb, changing
to its own wolf form, to allow for the change in my physiology, so
when we ran, it was wolves, and no trace of human.

And yet, this
time, there was something different. I was no longer the shifter I
had been at birth. I was mated to a Cŵn Annwn, and I carried a
child who was part shifter and part Cŵn Annwn. It meant that I
changed also. But for now, it did not matter. If my birth Pack
tried to pull any more stunts? Then it would matter, because as
Merida had demonstrated, we females were not without the means to
defend ourselves.

But tonight,
on what would be the last Full Moon before I birthed our child, I
ran with my Mate, towards the rising sun, and we enjoyed the chance
to be together, away from Challenges, away from threats.

Just a black
wolf, and a white wolf. Running together

My first Full
Moon run with my little human, Merida, was always going to be
special. It was always going to be more magical than any other full
moon run. This was the first time when my beautiful little human
would take her wolf form of her own volition, because she wanted
to, rather than because instinct drove her to protect herself.

I had wanted
to show my little human how much more there was to the world around
us, when we ran as wolves. The scents, the sounds, the sights. The
little susurration that told us of small game running in the
undergrowth. The feel of the soft forest floor under our paws,
contrasted with the slick ice over streams. We did not need to
hunt. We were not running patrol. We were enjoying ourselves, plain
and simple.