Loverman Prologue
She sat looking up at the stars. The cold Canadian wind blew her red hair across her face, but she just tucked it behind her ear.
"Allanna, get in here." She heard the crone croak. More lessons, more work, more drudgery. As soon as her mother's skill became apparent in her, she was given to the crone to raise. Her mother died giving birth to her, and without a mother figure she was stuck as a maiden.
"I said get in here. You moon and mope at the stars all night and never get your work done. There's herbs for you to gather, mushrooms too, and don't forget to look for fresh doe urine, but make sure it's from one that hasn't been bred yet. We need the virgin urine only." She wasn't mean, she wasn't unkind but with only two of them, the triumvirate was incomplete and she was required to do the work of two.
"Yes, Grandmother, I was just watching for a shooting star." She whispered.
"Shooting stars, what a load of nonsense; real magic is what we make. Real magic is what we do, why wait for a shooting star to wish on, when you can make your wishes come true with a little teaching." She felt the dried hand on the top of her head. "We need to get this done littling, soon it will be too late for gathering what we need."
Allanna shrugged, gather now, and gather more later, it never ended. Lessons on herbs, and tinctures, and potions and lotions and what they were all for; cures for sore joints, potions for true love, tinctures for pain, lotions to sicken the one you were jealous of. They made it all, and Grandmother sold it to townspeople in the dead of night. By day they were reviled, stones and rotten food thrown at them, but at night…they were worshiped like the Goddess they represented.
She knew she only had a few more hours to gather what was needed under the full moon. After that, she would have to wait a whole cycle again, and some wouldn't be available, too ripe, or the doe she'd been following mated and no longer virgin. Grandmother liked that for her love potions, Allanna thought it was just ironic, having people drink deer piss to fall in love.
Grandmother was ancient, but she'd known love once, had to for Mother to have been born. She didn't even know how long it had been since she was born. Grandmother hadn't taught her how to count her years. She knew it had been a long time, longer because Grandmother kept her in her maiden state by force and by reason, and, Allanna suspected by magic.
She quickly gathered what Grandmother needed, the faster she gathered, the more time she had to watch the stars. She was careful though, Grandmother had cuffed her ears fiercely the last time when she returned with yarrow instead of brush sage. It was a silly mistake, but she'd been fascinated by the movement of the sky through the night and just grabbed what was near at hand. She'd learned gather first, stargaze after.
After the herbs were collected, and the precious deer piss, she put her gathering bag down near her favorite place to watch the stars, a small hilltop with a flat stone at the top. She sat on the stone, her fingers tracing over it mindlessly.
"Mother, I don't want to stay a maiden forever. I want a man who is strong and protective, I want a man able to scent danger before it happens, and know how to attack it before it attacks him. I want a man as strong as a bear, as fierce as a mountain lion, who knows what he wants and isn't afraid of anything that could get in his way. I want a man to need me, not just want me, to know I am his and he is mine and nothing can get in the way. So Mote it Be."
She looked up and saw a star dropping from the heavens. "Starlight, bright and sure, find a man to match my power, find a man to match my will, find a man to fight for my honor, and find a man to match my Maiden, Mother and Crone through all time. Find a man I'll never lose to death or decay or disease." She said the last as the star dropped over the horizon.
She knew Grandmother thought that wishing on stars was silly, but that didn't stop her. She picked up her bag, and ran for the little cabin she shared with her only living relative. She didn't know it, but her Grandmother kept her trapped in her Maiden, and would for at least another hundred years.
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"What was that?" Jimmy said as he pointed to the streak of light, watching as it grew brighter, then slammed into the earth nearby.
"A shooting star." Victor said looking at his little brother. "Let's go see what it is."
"You can't pick up a shooting star." Jimmy laughed.
"Sure you can. I'm going to get this one, and keep it in my pocket." Victor laughed, running toward the spot where the object landed.
"It's hot." Jimmy said, as they got closer. Victor just laughed and unfastened his pants.
"Piss on it Jimmy, that will cool it off."
Jimmy laughed and unfastened his pants. Victor watched the steam rising from the twisted piece of rock as both of them directed their stream at it. It was still steaming so he ran to a nearby creek and filled his hat with cold water to dump on it. Jimmy followed and they ended up making several trips before the outside was safe enough to touch without burning his hand to the bone.
It still hurt, but he didn't notice. The rock's shape was different; he could make out a head, two large breasts, a large belly and two spindly legs. Somehow, something had twisted it just the right way to look like a fat woman who was with child. There was no face, just strange swirls where the water cooled the hot rock, they looked like hair. The rock was about the size of Victor's palm as he picked it up. He grinned, this was a star, and he was putting it in his pocket.
"Is that really a star, Vic?" Jimmy asked.
"Yep." He really didn't know why he said the next part but it felt right. "And someday, I'll make its wish come true."
He shoved the rock into his pocket.
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He didn't know why he was in Canada, not really. Oh sure he was born here, sure somewhere around here is where he and Jimmy ran from an angry mob, but he'd never had any desire to return to this God forsaken place. He looked around the small town, probably no more than fifteen hundred people if that. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone looked at him like a freak. He growled at a few kids, and laughed as they took off running, fear wafting back to him in the wind, making him grin even wider.
Fucking frails with their fucking cubs; someone needed to teach them to stay away from monsters. He hadn't eaten a cub in years, and might like to try it again. He laughed at his flight of fancy for a moment. He felt strangely light hearted, he usually only felt that way after a good fuck or a good kill, but he was strangely euphoric, leaning on his bike.
A frail caught his attention, and he watched her. She couldn't be more than eighteen or nineteen years old, just ripe for plucking. Her red hair seemed to glow in the dying sunlight, and he watched as people moved out of her way, as if she were something disgusting. He let out another low growl, and she turned. She seemed to look for something, and then caught his eye. Her eyes were blue, not a summer sky blue, but deep sapphire almost black blue. Her face was delicate, but with a strong nose and chin that usually meant a stubborn disposition. He leered at her, and felt a strange prick against his hip.
He put his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out his keychain for the bike. Well it was his key chain for everything; it had his lucky rock on the end, his star he'd picked up over a century ago.
He looked up and the frail actually smiled at him. He snarled and glared at her, and felt a pinch in his hand. Damned keys pinched him. He climbed onto the bike and went looking for a motel. The place might be worth sticking around for a while, it wasn't like he really wanted to be found, not since running into Jimmy on the top of the damned statue. Maybe that was it, maybe it was the blank look in his brother's eyes that made him want to come back where it all started. He didn't know, but at least one frail around here had his interest, now if he could grab her without anyone noticing he'd find a nice quiet place and have some fun.
This time the shock was through the bike, and he caught a faint glow, it was coming from the star fragment on his key chain. He glared at it as he pulled into the rat nest they called a motel in this town. He switched off the bike, and put the keys in his pocket. He'd deal with the star fragment after he got some kind of shower and got the road grime off.
