A/N- Ok, I just finished Half-blood Prince and I'm going to have to change a few things around- please review, my cousin's my muse
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War of the Moon
Prologue: Fey
She sat watching the babe lovingly. She was small! So gloriously small. She was the last hope of a dying world…the only hope of a dying world….
Her father was dead, killed in battle, she would never know him…as she would never know her mother.
Fey Dona Luciarth, was going to die.
She would be leaving River to be misunderstood and hated in a world forever at war. Half Lycan, half Cycat, River, baby River, would be hated for all her days.
Fey herself had never understood the hated war- why two peoples fought over something as stupid as who held power over the moon tides- was completely beyond her understanding.
Fey was Cycat.
A Cycathrope, a Werecat, she had married, and loved, a Lycanthrope, a Werewolf, they had had a child, a forbidden act, a mixing of the bloods, and then Donica Luciarth had been killed- leaving a twenty year old bride and an infant child to live the war.
Soldiers were coming for Fey now, she could hear their steps like distant drums pounding on the ground, drawing ever closer. River had to be kept safe, nothing else mattered but River's safety, not even Fey's.
With abandoned care, Fey threw herself out the nearest window; landing amongst shattered glass and splintered wood. Cut and bleeding, Fey drew herself up and ran, she ran with the lithe grace of the cat she was and the dangerously direct speed of a woman on a mission.
She met the border at breakneck speed, brushing the blanket back from the tiny mound in her arms, she gave her sleeping daughter one last kiss on the forehead before placing her in the bushes beyond the Cycat border, then with empty dignity, she turned and walked slowly back to her home- she knew it was the last time she would ever see anything again.
When the soldiers broke her door down, they were surprised to see Fey sitting at the kitchen table, a china glass of tea in her hands. She was calm, eerily calm. She sat there drinking her tea and humming softly, her golden eyes locked on the lead soldier's face.
"Taros," she whispered softly, "I wondered when I'd get to see my hero brother again."
"Fey, our fight is not with you, though you were traitor to align yourself with such…vermin as that wolf," the word wolf slipped from his tongue like poison, "Give us the mistake and you can live your life," Fey made no attempt to move, angering Taros, "Fey, the child, I know it's here!"
"And why would you presume I had the child here?" she asked softly, "Why do you believe I'd have any such mistakes, here?" Fey again asked levelly, taking a sip of tea, her neon green eyes never leaving Taros', "I'd hoped you had grown out of these fantasies by now."
"Where is the child?" he asked slowly, "It is an abomination, it must be terminated for the good of the people."
"What people?" Fey nearly shouted, jumping from her spot, anger flaring in all her features, "I do not think that any peoples," she sat back visibly trying to calm herself, "insane or other, would call for the blatant murder of a newborn child," she took another sip of tea, noticing that her glass was near empty she drained it, drawing out the action as long as possible. "I will not bring her to you, she deserves life as much as anyone else, and I have given her that chance."
"Fey, what have you done?"
Fey smiled furtively, her green eyes flashing with triumph, "She is beyond borders now, somewhere where you can never harm her, somewhere where she can live free, maybe not without prejudice, but still free."
"The Lycan border!" Taros croaked, "Fey have you gone mad? you've just given them a weapon! She's part Cycat for Salem's sake! She can give them information on us, on all of the people!"
"How?" Fey snapped, "She's only a babe, born only a ten-day ago, how could she possibly do anything to you? She's barely opened her eyes, but yes, I'm sure she could give the Lycanthrope information on you."
"Don't mock me, Fey, this matter is serious."
"Yes," she drawled, "I can see the seriousness of this entire field of stupidity."
"How could you have slept with that monster, Fey, and to have his child…your shame is a sea of loathing," Taros shook his, "I would have let you go had you given me the creature, but your stubborn ignorance seems to say that you would rather die than give away that monstrosity. For shame, Fey, for shame."
"For shame on you, kill me, you seem to need some form of justice for my doing, so kill me, I am, after all, the one that did it."
"Fey, tell me where the child lies, our mother would be greatly grieved if I took her youngest child from her," he held out his hand to her, his heart in his eyes, "please, the child."
The pleading in Taros' eyes nearly opened Fey's mouth, but then she remembered why he had come and the other soldiers standing just beyond her door, and her heart hardened: "Death first, Taros, she lives, may that thought haunt you for all of your days."
Taros shook his head and slipped his bastard sword soundly from it's sheath at his waist, "I had hoped you would see the inhumanity at your fault, but no matter," he moved towards her, the sword gripped tightly in his hands, "You will be forgiven in death, good wind catch you, Fey, may you not be lost." with that he brought the blade down and struck the tip through her breast, straight through her heart…
Taros stared down into his sisters blank, bright green eyes, and felt a sharp stab of guilty pain strike his body, soon a quaking sob followed. He whirled towards the door where his men stood watching and yelled forcefully at them: "Away, all of you, I will take care of this," when they did not move, Taros lunged at them, "Did you or did you not hear me? I said away!"
The men took of like lightning at Taros' fierce tongue, Taros turned back to the comfortable kitchen of his sister's home and began to cry.
He had just killed his baby sister, the girl that had followed him everywhere, that had hero-worshipped him, he had pierced her heart and taken her life, for what? A war that would never end? For a cause that no one could see? For an absent king that ordered dominance over the moon, even though it hung in the same sky that flew over the Lycans' heads?
Why? For a child that had barely begun to live, that was part of the hated race, that might someday destroy them all? She wouldn't have, but now that her mother and her father were dead a fire would start burning in her heart, hatred for the Cycat nation, hatred for her own kind.
That was it. That was exactly it, she had no kind, she was merely floating, and sometime soon, Taros would find her and he would kill her, mistakes did not deserve to live, and whence she was killed, King Alain would reward him greatly…
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Nora Whitetails was going out to find her children, it was half past eleven and they had to be in, it was long past the curfew laid down by King Paragon.
She heard hushed squeals of wonder coming from the brush by the border, and took of at a run. She came to the border panting for breath and gasping for air; Tobias, Lillian, and Ramah sat huddled together over a small bundle of cloth, giggling.
"You three, you had me worried half to death! What do you have there?"
Shamefaced, darling Lillian turned to Nora, "We're sorry, Mama, but we found a baby."
"A baby." Nora remarked skeptically, one eyebrow raised, her hands on her hips.
"Yeah! A baby," Tobias responded, always haughty and arrogant, he pushed his glasses up his nose and wriggled his shoulders, "We found a baby here in the brush, you can look if you don't believe us."
"Don't you talk to Mama like that, Tobey, you be nice," Ramah snapped, always coming to Nora's defense, her little hero. Ramah moved them all out of the way, and Nora peered down at the darkened ground…sure enough she could make out the features of a baby within the muddled mass of bundled fabric.
"Sweet Marrow, Lillian, go back home and get me a warmer blanket," Lillian stood to go when Nora changed her mind again, "No, no, no…we'll take it home with us, Marrow, it must be freezing!" Nora picked the bundle from the ground and cooed over it all the way home.
Once inside, Nora set the babe down on the first couch in the family room, she brushed the blanket back from the child's face and gasped in fear.
Cycat.
The child was a Cycat.
But something wasn't quite right in it's features, it's eyes were slanted with a slight curl to the temple-end, it's cheekbones too well formed for a child of it's seeming age. It looked almost like Lillian had at that age…then the queerly shaped eyes opened and Nora's fears were answered.
Gold.
The child's eyes were gold. Not green, not turquoise, not limey-yellow, but gold.
Lycan gold.
Nora shot back from the infant child like she had been bitten by a large snake. Tobias and the other children looked at her questioningly, Nora opened her arms and motioned them to her, the flew at her in utter confusion.
The babe stayed on the couch, moving it's arms and kicking it's legs, it began to squall in distress, making small squealing gasps of baby anger.
"Mama, I think he's hungry." Nora glanced down at Lillian and gave her a weak smile, "I know, baby, but we have to wait for Daddy before we do anything."
"Is this like a game?" Tobias asked hopefully.
"Yes," Nora responded shrilly, "and to win the game, we all sit here quietly waiting for Daddy." angry groans told her that the children thought she was nuts.
"This game sucks," piped up Ramah, "Can't we play something else?"
"Not until Daddy gets here."
"I wanna play with the baby."
Before Nora could digest that statement, Lillian was at the screaming infant's side, and then she was holding it, and then…she was singing to it, her sweet, high voice floating through the house like mist:
"I wish for you sunshine my dear one, and valleys for you to explore.
"I wish for you innocence, my child, I pray that you don't grow too fast.
"Never know pain, my dear one, nor hunger nor sorrow nor fear.
"Never know war, my child, remember you're the hope of tomorrow."
Lillian rocked the child softly, Nora's fears completely forgotten at Lillian's sweet song.
"Lila," Nora smiled softly at her, "where did you learn that song?"
"From you, Mama, you sing it when Daddy goes out to help the hurt men."
"Oh, of course, I'd forgotten…"
"Wanna hold 'im, Mama? He's really little."
"Alright," Nora took the baby gingerly from Lillian's tiny hands. It was small, and it was no he, the golden eyes and graceful features screamed femininity. Nora caught a corner of parchment tucked into the folds of the babe's blankets and pulled it out.
It was a letter. Nora opened it and sank slowly into the couch:
April 13th, 1977
To whoever holds this:
You have done me a great deal if you have taken my child in, if I could repay you, I would give you all the treasure in the Cycathrope hold and the boon that is being brought in, but I cannot repay your kindness, so I ask, I plead…that you please watch after River for me, and be the mother and the father she cannot have. I suppose I should tell you why I must give her up, that should be as obvious as the nose on her face; she is a Mero, and she is forbidden.
My husband was a Lycanthrope, your people have always been kinder on matters such as the Mero, so I took her to the border. But that still does not explain why I have done this, I am to be killed when the sun vanishes from the sky and the stars have yet to appear, my husband was executed on the fortnight, he was killed for being what he was, and I will be killed for refusing to give them the child.
You see, I already have made my choice: River.
You may think I'm crazy, and perhaps I am, but my child's life is far greater then mine and I refuse to let them destroy her, she is the last hope for our world, the only hope for our world. Take care of her, if you have the heart that I know you do, please take care of her, raise her as if she is yours, but never let her forget who she is, and tell her that she is our light in the darkness.
I thank you with everything I am,
Fey Dona Luciarth
Nora wiped a tear from her eye and held the tiny bundle up. She was perfect, like some tiny china doll, all her features were majestically sculpted and her eyes were like fierce beacons shining through a violent storm.
…the last hope for our world, the only hope for our world…
That phrase continued to flash through Nora's mind like a broken record. So her name was River, and her family was dead. Nora looked down at River with gentle eyes, she was beginning to fuss again, she was scared, Nora didn't blame her.
"River Luciarth, I'm pleased to meet you, my name is Nora, you can call me Mama-" Lillian jumped up in glee and rushed to Nora's side, peering down at River she gushed: "Hi River! I'm Lillian, you can call me Lila, or Lil, I don't care, you can call me whatever you want."
Ramah, not wanting to lose to his brother Tobias, rushed over and kissed tiny River on the forehead, "River, I'm Ramah, I'm very glad to meet you."
Tobias trudged over and shouldered Ramah out of the way, his face softened when he looked down on the wiggling baby, "Hey," he mumbled, "You don't gotta worry about nothing anymore, I'm gonna take care of you now." Nora was going to say something to him when the front door opened and Phillip Whitetails, first commander of King Paragon's secret guard walked in.
"Daddy!" All three children screeched in unison, charging and mauling Phillip to the door.
"Wow!" Phillip exclaimed, "Look how big you three have grown."
"Dad, you saw us this morning." Tobias stated with a roll of his eyes.
"It was only this morning! Wow, you kids must have super genes or something." Lillian giggled and whispered something into her father's ear, Nora's blood ran cold as Phillip's eyebrows arched and he turned to her, taking slow, deliberate steps.
"Nora, we can't keep it."
"Phillip, her mother died to save her, we can't just throw her back across the border!"
"We won't put her back across the border, I'll bring her to the academy, I'll see what the guys there think."
"Phillip, no! they'll kill her the moment they see her, I have to protect her, it was something her mother said in the letter: the last hope for our world, the only hope for our world, Phillip, she was killed by her own people for having a half-breed child, her husband was a Lycanthrope, don't go to the academy, please, let me take care of her."
"Nora, this is wrong…"
"The whole war is wrong, Phillip, killing a child won't make it right."
"But if I let you keep it, where will it stop?"
"You don't have to like her, just let her live." Nora watched Phillip's contort with thought, she knew what he was thinking, and she knew that his morals wouldn't let him harm an innocent child.
"Alright, Nora, you can keep her, but when she grows up…if anything leads me to believe that she's corresponding with the Cycats', she will be arrested."
"I never said she wouldn't be," Phillip turned towards the stairs, Nora caught him off guard with: "Thank you, Phil, now I know why I fell in love with you." Nora held River to her and coddled the infant, gazing gently into her bright gold eyes…then the world faded out and swirled into an unconscious delirium,
Remus Lupin awoke covered in a cold sweat, "That was an odd dream," he thought loosely, "Why was I dreaming about the Humanoid War?" he pondered a few more seconds before rolling over, closing his eyes, and falling almost immediately back to sleep, but not before one last thought struck: "River Luciarth, don't I know her?"
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A/N- Yeah, I had to end it as a dream, this a RLOC fic, let us pretend Sirius did not fall behind the veil, because I love him and he will be in this, and I love Remus, wolfishness and all…well the wolfishness makes him even sexier and the guy that played him in PoA was perfect. Please review