Disclaimer: Twilight is the property of Stephenie Meyer
Description: Tony Black is happy with his life, he has a wonderfully boring job, he has a place in the community that he thought he'd never have because of his heritage, and after reaching the age of eighteen he can finally be with the love of his life, Grace. But events in the past look set to lock his life in the bleakness of eternal winter, but if he can mend the broken bonds of the past there will be hope when the snows thaw…
So here's where the story starts, or at least where it starts in the modern time, there's some ancient stuff but I'll leave that 'til later. Here's where it starts in the modern time, a little prologue pieced together from the snippets that other people have told me. I wasn't present for these things, but they did affect me later.
First up there was the archaeologist Trevor Tinton-Walter who dug up the stone somewhere in a field just on the Belgian border with France. It was a huge obelisk but it was clearly of Celtic or Gaelic origin. It was carved with writings that nobody was familiar with, but as soon as Aunt Marlin saw it in the paper she was excited, she recognised the carvings immediately as those of her long dead people.
She wanted to go see it and was happy when it was revealed that the stone would be going on tour, making a stop off at the Smithsonian Museum of Anthropology along the way. Will and Marlin decided they would go see it while it was in America.
Meanwhile another person was excited by the find when she read it in Spiritual Weekly as well as The Sunday Times. The name on her birth certificate was Sandra Ferguson, two marriages later she was now Sandra Bobby, but she didn't go by any of these since she had taken over as the Secret Keeper of her vast family. Now she went by the name of Kyelax, a name that had been passed down for many generations to the women who took the place of their ancestors to keep the truth alive.
She had not really believed the old stories until the former Kyelax took her down into the deep caves where there hidden from the world was a stone arm. The stone arm could move of its own accord and from there the new Kyelax knew the old stories were true.
Of course to the Government she was still Sandra Bobby and it was under that name she travelled with the five most senior members of her family who also knew the old legends were true. They were well versed in the ritual they would need to perform now the obelisk had surfaced again. They just had to make sure it was under the right circumstances.
In other words it had to be winter solstice when the moon was at its apex.
I know that's a little cliché, but then it seems rituals tend to work best at certain times and that was one of the best for what they wanted to do.
They had to sneak in past security and luckily the museum had closed before they needed to set up for the ritual.
Unbeknownst to Kyelax and her family the museum had closed early because Aunt Marlin was good at pulling strings and had wanted a private viewing of the stone. For this very purpose it had been set up in the centre of the atrium under the big glass dome that afforded a good view of the sky. Unwittingly Marlin was creating the perfect set-up for Kyelax, and was also providing the last key needed that the old family hadn't realized they would need.
And so Kyelax and the five members of her family began setting up properly in that perfectly round room. They drew the circle with salt and set the torches around at strategic points. There were all the other little things that needed to be done to ensure they didn't attract mischievous spirits instead of the one they sought before they began to build the energy within the circle. What they planned to do would drain them all this evening and they hoped the God and Goddess was with them.
Concentrating her energies Kyelax could sense the movement of the moon as it climbed the dome of heaven. She was waiting until the right point before she began to speak the words all her predecessors had leaned, but none of them had chance to use.
"Awake great warrior. Your time is at hand. Arise and rid this world of the stone men. Purge them like winter and do not rest until the snows thaw."
That's a rough translation because the real words were spoken in a language that was long thought dead. In fact I thought there were only six people in the world at that time that knew it, but I'd been wrong.
At exactly the same moment as Kyelax was building on her spell Marlin and Will were making their way through the silent Museum having convinced the curator that they should view the stone alone.
Marlin was a corridor length away when a shiver ran through her, one she was sure she hadn't felt in a very long time. It was the feeling of great energies being channelled and focused so much that there was a backwash since the wielder had not accounted for the object being enchanted to have its own discharge of energy. She shook it off, knowing it to be Solstice when a lot of amateurs tried their hand at things they didn't understand.
Back in the hall a blast of energy shot out from the obelisk and knocked all the humans unconscious on the floor. An ethereal mist rose up on the floor covering all evidence of ritual other than the torches.
When Marlin opened the door to the hall she thought the floor was covered in dry ice and the torches were flickering in an atmospheric way. She thought it looked nice, if a little gimmicky, but it added magic to the moment as she looked at something that proved her people had once been part of this world.
Will opted to stay by the door to give Marlin the space she needed to commune with her lost people. It was lucky really that he didn't step inside the circle or he would have been a goner. Marlin wasn't, but she didn't realise how lucky she was at the time, just that she felt the sudden thrill of energy through her as she stepped closer to the stone, as if her people were calling to her across the millennia.
She stepped up to the stone and read the first carvings; it was the beginning of a legend. It spoke of a great tragedy that befell the Trailax people on the day the snows thawed. Marlin moved around the stone to follow the story. Monsters from the south had wiped out the entire tribe, but there was hope, for the children of the tribe had survived and vowed to find their vengeance.
There rose amongst them a warrior who channelled the wrath of winter and used it to defeat the men of stone until there were none left in the lands that we know. The warrior vowed to always protect life from the men of stone and would sleep until the world was threatened again. The warrior would return to fight the men of stone with all the fury of winter and would not rest until the snows thawed.
Marlin had to circle the stone three times to read the entire inscription in a clockwise direction. Then she stood for a long time facing the side of the obelisk that faced east, by some weird coincidence the museum had managed to put the stone in exactly the right position, and then she stepped up to it and embraced the stone.
"Thank you." She spoke to the stone in her ancient language and she did not notice at the time that it felt somewhat warm. "You don't know how much happiness you have brought me to know the children of my tribe survived. It's good to know my blood is out there still."
She embraced the stone for a long while before she placed a kiss to the head of the carved warrior.
"Be safe my child. May the gods look favourably upon you in your battles." She whispered to the warrior before she kissed it again.
She stepped back from the stone and bowed to it, as she would have when she was the druid priestess blessing a warrior for battle.
"We shall meet when the snows thaw." She added before stepping out of the room backwards.
Once outside she felt the energy drop away from her and she realised what a potent affect the stone had on her. She smiled sadly as she turned away and took Will's hand. He kissed it softly before he pulled her into an embrace to comfort her. He knew she was upset, real upset, cause the clear night was suddenly turning cloudy.
"Do you want to go to the hotel or shall we head straight home tonight?" He whispered.
"Let's go home." Marlin said softly. "But could we run? I want to be with nature tonight."
"Of course." Will replied and they left the museum without anymore thought.
It was two hours later when the humans finally came around to a room devoid of mist or any sign they had succeeded. The family felt cheated and refused to help Kyelax to clear up the signs that they had been there. They left but she remained to clear everything away.
It was dawn by the time she had finished; the weak sunlight was fighting through the clouds and shone on the obelisk. There was a rumbling sound and Kyelax felt the ground shake beneath her feet. She fell on her butt looking up at the obelisk as it began to split down the centre of its east face.
Kyelax felt her mouth drop open, but she was frozen to the spot as the stone swung slowly open and there sat the warrior, perfectly preserved but not yet awake. But soon the warrior would awaken and would cut a swathe through the vampire population of America, and would finally cross paths with me…
So there's the prologue out of the way. I'll be putting chapter 1 of 'When the Snows Thaw' up on Wednesday so you can read it before chapter 5 of 'Dhampir in Disguise'
Thank you for reading
Gemma x