Chapter 7
The next morning I was alone as before.
Same as before, I rose and worked out all the kinks from our strenuous lovemaking the night before.
Branwen's sexual appetite was incredible and it was not a case of keeping up, it was more a case of surviving.
I found myself wondering if she really knew her own strength.
While she was muscular in a fitness model sense, her physical strength was far beyond her appearance of strength.
Watching her easily carrying a 21 cubic foot refrigerator from my truck into our kitchen was an eye opener, then she repeated her performance with a stove and a washer/dryer combo machine.
The way she used her apparently very sharp claws to open the large boxes was also educational. (I finally just put my box cutter away and carried away the packing materials.)
Yet not once had she ever cut or even scratched me with her claws and her gentle touch always left me weak at the knees.
It was a total role reversal, our relationship.
She was the strong, dominant partner who took charge in our bedroom antics and always left me feeling utterly spent afterwards.
I turned out to be the domestic partner, the one who made our apartment a home.
I realized I was okay with that.
Branwen couldn't very well go out and work, her appearance alone would cause a near riot.
I had to be the provider, the public face of our relationship.
My philosophical musings ended as I turned off the stove and began serving up the simple breakfast I had made for the three of us.
The steel cut oatmeal was divvied up into three small bowls then served with fresh cream and sugar.
The large omelette was cut into three portions and the coffee was poured.
Mary smiled as I served her first then Branwen and lastly, myself.
Mary said pleasantly, "Tom tells me that we're goin' ter Cerrig Duon an' Maen Mawr then Waen Lleuci ter plan out our processional."
Branwen remarked, "I've never seen them in daylight, only at night."
She smiled at me and said amiably, "Before you came, I would roam these hills and valleys. I made sure no one ever saw me except those who honored the old ways."
"That explains how Tom and his people knew of you. " I remarked.
Mary smiled and said,"Tom an' his family have taken care of us fer generations. I had ter let myself grow auld ter be'ah 'oid myself."
She said ruefully,"I've been auld fer a century an a half, you can't imagine how tired I am of bein' auld!"
After breakfast, Branwen and I packed up our lunches in the cooler and spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the storage room I was going to put my old Norton model 19S in.
It had a nice smooth concrete floor and sturdy shelving for storing spare parts and riding gear on.
Plus it had a stout door to keep out thieves.
Though I had a feeling that any would be thief would quickly regret his choice of targets.
An angry Branwen could be a terrifying sight to see, and with her incredible hearing, night vision and terrible strength, it could end fatally.
She smiled when I rolled the big Norton thumper out of the shipping container and into the Welsh summer sun.
"He's a handsome machine." she said and I grinned at her.
"Out of all the motorcycles I had, this is the one I kept. He needs only gas, oil and a battery charge to be rideable again." I replied.
I paused and grinned at her, "Of course I'll be taking you with me."
She squealed and gave me one of her memorable hugs.
We kissed a couple of times and she murmured, "If we didn't have things to do today..."
The sound of tires crunching on gravel interrupted the moment.
It was Tom driving a van full of people, some of whom I recognized from their parading in front of the house wearing fake wolf ears and tails to annoy the 'Londoners" as they had put it.
Branwen's first instinct was to flee but I seized her by the hand and said firmly, "They're friends, you're okay!"
Tom exited his van and said cheerfully, "Good day to you! I brought most of our group with me so we can all look Cerrig Duon over."
"An' a good day ter you too young Tom, I see you've brought a crowd with you!"
I turned to see Mary coming towards us, a smile on her face and a twinkle in her watery blue eyes.
"All the better to make it harder to see who we are from a distance." Replied Tom with a grin.
Branwen muttered, "I'll get the cooler." and she slipped away, her luxurious tail floofed up in her happiness.
I helped Mary into our truck and belted her in while Branwen, her ears and tail hidden away, secured our lunch behind me.
Climbing into the truck, we were soon following Tom's white van to this Cerrig Duon I kept hearing about.
It proved to be closer than I had realized and we were soon milling about alongside our parked vehicles beside the narrow road we'd driven over.
The group treated Mary and Branwen with reverence and utmost respect.
Tom led the way while I lent an arm to Mary for support during her climb, Branwen took my other arm and smiled at me shyly.
She was not used to being out during broad daylight and even with her ears and tail hidden away, she still knew she would attract attention.
By virtue of her size alone, she stood out.
Being several inches taller than my six feet, she was not a small person even if she wasn't the Hellhound of legend.
Walking slowly to avoid tiring Mary out too much, we carefully made our way up the hill towards Cerrig Duon and Maen Mawr.
Arriving at the site, I saw a rough circle of stones with another larger stone standing apart from the rest.
A separate row of stones pointed towards a distant, single standing stone.
The visible part of the stones was about a foot and a half high, in the past they had likely been much taller.
The entire group mostly stood around and smiled at each other, a wedding was being planned and they were involved.
Mary seemed to look more youthful and Branwen was positively radiant, she looked around and seeing no one nearby, she took off her scarf and freed her wonderful ears, the ones I enjoyed caressing so much when we were alone.
I finally asked," Excuse my ignorance, but what is the significance of this place? I can plainly see that just being here is affecting both Mary and Branwen, why is that?"
Tom smiled at me and replied,"This is one of those rare places where at certain times, there is a way to the faerie realm, a way under the hollow hills of this land. Right here,"
He gestured at the stone circle,"Is where two or more energy or ley lines intersect. We believe that holding our weddings here will bring good fortune to the union. By you two having your wedding here it could bring about a visit from Queen Mab herself."
"This Queen Mab, she's more than just a name in a Shakespearean play I take it?" I asked, "I thought Titania was the fairy queen."
Tom's wife Ann replied, "Titania is what the English called her. We Welsh know her as Queen Mab or Maeve, although Mab is the more familiar term."
She smiled and added,"We Welsh were here long before the Angles and Saxons and many others came over from Europe and called this place Angle land or England. They pushed us into this ancient land and we made it our home.
"Little did we realize that we shared this land with an even more ancient race of peoples we call the Tylwyth Teg or fae. The fae eventually retreated under the hollow hills leaving behind those of us who were sensitive to their presence. Or in Mary's case, of their blood."
At my puzzled look, she grinned and said cheerfully, "How else would you explain her long life? She only looks old because she wants to hide among us."
Ann smiled and said wistfully, "I am hoping that on your wedding night, the way will be open and Mary can go home again."
Branwen's suddenly enveloping me in her arms interrupted our conversation, she was so very happy that I couldn't bring myself to chide her about barging in on a conversation.
She couldn't stop smiling and her eyes were fairly blazing while her tail strained to be freed of its cottony prison, the voluminous skirt she wore to hide it.
She nuzzled and kissed me quite enthusiastically, not caring if there were others nearby seeing us kiss.
Our lips parted reluctantly and she purred, "I want to come back here tonight and be with you under the stars above."
Her eyes flared briefly as I squeezed her in reply.
"...We will have the ceremony here in the Cerrig Duon itself with the couple standing before the Maen Mawn as the altar stone. The consummation will take place at Waen Lleuci which is about a kilometer from here...Don't worry, we won't be watching." said Tom with a grin.
He winked and said with a twinkle in his eye, "I assume you two have been rehearsing for that part of the ceremony already."
Branwen grinned at him and winked in reply.
All of us walked to the standing stone known as Waen Lleuci, which happened to be in alignment with Cerrig Duon.
Whether it was a coincidence or on purpose was not really known.
It was fortuitous for us, Branwen and myself.
I had offered my arm to Mary and was mildly surprised to see how lightly she held on to it.
She did seem noticeably younger in the presence of these ancient stones.
Maybe there really was something to this "old ways" stuff I kept hearing about.
I decided I would try to keep an open mind about it.
The stone itself was this great slab of lichen covered conglomerate placed there some 4,000 years ago.
The entire group gathered around it and stood silently, their hands pressed together and eyes closed in prayer.
Mary and Branwen flattened themselves against the ancient stone as if they were receiving some sort of energy or a message from the silent stone.
Wondering if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, I thought I saw a faint glinting of blue light around the edges of the stone.
The glinting faded and the two of them stepped away from the stone while the rest remained in prayer.
Mary came over to me and we embraced fondly.
As I held her she seemed to be taller and more solid than before.
When she looked up at me, her eyes were a clearer shade of blue and her face less wrinkled.
She smiled and said, "You truly are of the blood, I could feel the stone responden to us in a way I haven't felt in nearly tewthree centuries."
We separated just as the rest finished their prayers and opened their eyes again.
Seeing that I was free, Branwen snuggled against me while Ann commented on Mary's condition,"Mother?" she addressed Mary as mother, "Mother, you seem different somehow, you look taller and stronger and younger now."
Mary smiled at her long time disciple, like Tom, Ann's family had known of and cared for Mary and Branwen for many generations.
It turned out many of the group of Gwyddonod living in the Brecon area were descended from the followers of the old ways that had escaped the church sponsored witch hunts of centuries past.
Mary replied,"I am different now dear child, I felt the stones respond ter me fer the fust time in nearly tewthree centuries. I feel stronger than I have in many lung years."
She looked at me and said, "There 'as not been a liven descendant of the ancient Cymru kings in this lan' fer centuries. Terday was the final proof of yer ancestry, the stones responded ter yer presence. On the mid summer's eve, the tewthree lands of Cymru an' Annwn wull be closely aligned an' moy touch. An' these an' all the stones in these hills wull open ter those who are sensitive or of the blood."
Ann startled me by suddenly kneeling before me and declaring, "My lord, you have returned!"
Feeling a bit uncomfortable with this I quickly replied,"Please don't, I'm no king and even if I could make a case for it, the English crown rules over this land now."
Ann rose to her feet again and said firmly, "Yes, that is true but the stones reacted to your presence and Mother Mary is the proof. She looks decades younger now and hopefully at mid summer's eve, our worlds will reconnect and she can be rejoined with her mother Queen Mab.
"That makes you the true king whether you like it or not. I at least accept you as my king, not the upstart sitting on that throne in London."
I looked at the rest of the group and saw a similar look in their eyes...Oh crap, what have I gotten myself into?
"Okay" I said, "Now what? You all do realize I have no authority whatsoever, even if I did inherit that old house. I'm just as subject to British law as you are. So let's not be calling for any uprisings or anything crazy like that."
Tom guffawed and said merrily,"We'll not be doing anything like that! We like being under the radar as they say, a bunch of harmless loonies no one takes seriously."
He held up a hand and said stoutly, "However, we would like to erect a new standing stone near your house, a stone to connect all of the stones in this area."
"Will they allow that?" I asked, "Won't someone ask what we're up to?"
Tom grinned roguishly and replied,"First off, the house on your property is a listed building and cannot be demolished or added to. There's nothing saying we can't add a garden ornament and if anyone asks, that will be our reply!"
I was about to reply when Beatrice, Ann's younger sister hissed, "Hikers!"
Branwen quickly replaced her scarf, dust mask and dark glasses to hide her true appearance.
A Hellhound with great wolflike ears, lambent eyes that seemed to burn and dark gray skin where there wasn't black fur.
Stooping slightly to lessen her height, she blended in among us as the small group of Japanese tourists drew closer.
We started back to our cars as the tourists approached us on their way to the Waen Lleuci stone, one had a guidebook in her hand and she was reading aloud to her fellow travelers, one other woman and two men.
We smiled at them as they trudged past us and they smiled in reply.
Branwen took my hand and held it in her own far larger, clawed hand, she said softly, "I really do want to come back here tonight."
I smiled at her and squeezed her hand in reply.
We had already gone for a long hike one night, during which, she gave me a five minute head start then easily chased me down and ravished me right where she'd caught me.
An experience that left me utterly spent... In a good way.
Getting back to our vehicles, we drove back to the house and once there, Tom led me to a spot on the property where he declared, "Here, is where we'll place the stone!"
He gestured around at the hills surrounding our valley and said, "Right here, legends say, there stood a stone that connected all the standing stones in the Brecknock area that were in sight of this very spot. To test this story, I have brought a surveyor's transit here and used it to sight alignments with all the stones I could see from here."
"And?"
"I don't have the map with me, but there is a surprising number of stones visible from right here." Tom replied.
"How large a stone are you talking about? And where will you get it?" I asked.
Tom grinned and replied, "I thought you'd never ask. Many of these stones came from a natural quarry about thiry-five kilometers from here. There is a stone there I've had my eye on for some time. I think it will be perfect for right here. The catch is getting it here, the stone likely weighs about twenty-five tons or so and is roughtly five meters long by about one meter squarish."
"Okay, we'll need some sort of a crane and a flat bed truck to haul it..."
"I wish it were that simple" Interjected Tom, "The quarry is inside the national park boundary and we can't just go in there with any kind of heavy equipment and just pick it up. We'd have to have a damn good reason to go after it."
I smiled at him and said,"Has an archaeologist looked at this spot to determine if there was a stone here at one time? Surely if it was that important, there would be evidence of that."
I glanced around at the massive house and remarked, "There should be some sort of survey report for this house somewhere. Especially since it is a listed building, they would need to know the order in which this place was worked on."
Tom smiled and replied, "I'll betcha a report is tucked in among those papers you got from that Londoner barrister. Let's take a look, shall we?"
Tom stooped and shoved a small wooden stake into the exact spot he had indicated earlier.
Then we went into my apartment where we found the ladies engaged in taking over the kitchen, sipping tea and nibbling on sweet comestibles.
I got out the archival box of papers Nigel had given me after my signing the paperwork, that made me lord of the manor and possessor of the house and property.
Tom chuckled and commented, "And I thought my title deed was complicated!"
I grinned at him and replied,"The actual title deed is in a safety deposit box, these are just copies of the other papers, but they're good enough for our purposes...Ah! Here we are."
I separated a bound report from the rest and laid it on the table for Tom's inspection.
On the cover it read: "Archaeological survey results, Newton Farmhouse, adjacent structures and property in immediate vicinity."
Tom looked through the report while mumbling to himself, "Hmmmmm, House structural changes...Barns...Walls...Okay, here we are."
He looked up at me and pointed to a couple of paragraphs accompanied by some photos.
He said, "This is it, the evidence of early Bronze age 2500-850 BC ritual activity I.E. Standing stone removed during house construction circa 1582 – 85 AD. Stone location unknown at time of survey."
He grinned and said, "I was right! There was a standing stone here after all."
"And this means?"
"It means we may be able to retrieve that stone I mentioned earlier and install it here." replied Tom.
"Do you think it will be sufficient evidence? Shouldn't we contact an astro-archaeologist or something to see if we can make a claim or get more support?"
Tom thought a moment and said quietly," There is someone the park has on call as a consultant. I'll see if I can talk to her and see what she says."
The smells of cooking distracted us and we glanced over at the kitchen area.
Branwen stood at the stove deftly manipulating a spatula while Mary, Beatrice and Ann all supervised her.
The smell was that of breaded pork chops sizzling in the large iron skillet I had inherited from my own Welsh grandmother.
Two other pots held the vegetables and the potatoes also being cooked.
These latter items only required an occasional stirring of the pot while the pork chops were a bit fussier to cook.
Tom smiled at the sight of Branwen in all her Hellhound glory being so domestic as she turned over the pork chops and adjusted the flame while also giving the side dishes a quick turn of the stirring spoon.
"She really does love you, you know." He muttered.
Branwen glanced over at us and said firmly, "If you have the energy to comment, you can use that energy to set the table."
Tom and I grinned and in unison, we said, "Yes, ma'am!"
I laid out the plates, cups and saucers and glasses.
Tom laid out the table ware and everything else.
Soon, we were sitting at the barely adequate for six table and gazing at the food prepared by Branwen.
After a few moment's reflection on the day's events, we began to eat.
The food though simple, was good and there was plenty of it.
Thanks in part, to Tom and Ann stopping by a market before coming back to the house with extra groceries and a most welcome bottle of wine.
In general we had our first dinner party.
After Tom and the rest had departed, Mary smiled at us and departed for her cottage and some tea before bed.
Branwen and I left to our own devices, cobbled together a bedroll consisting of a sleeping bag and a ground cloth to keep the damp ground up by Cerrig Duon from intruding on our activities.
Leaving the apartment we drove up to where we had parked earlier and parked the truck out of sight of the roadway.
Once we had parked, Branwen all but dragged me up to Cerrig Duon.
Once there we spread out our bedroll and took off our clothing.
Branwen seemed almost shy as we stood there looking at each other in the nude.
I took her into my arms and we lay down in a tangle of limbs and moist kisses.
For once I took the lead in our lovemaking and was surprised at how gentle Branwen could be in our coupling.
All too soon, we climaxed together, and lay closely entwined, reluctant to separate our bodies until I subsided enough to slip out of her without my having moved.
Eventually, I rolled off of her and we lay together under the starry vault far above us.
I snuggled against her marvelous form, one hand gently caressing and fondling her firm breasts while the other held her close to me.
She of course was also exploring my body with her incredibly powerful hands, hands the size of baseball mitts, with claws that could tear through walls and doors or slice fabric like tissue paper.
Yet not once had they so much as scratched me.
Such powerful hands were now tenderly coaxing him to wake up again.
A short time later and once again, we were making love amidst the standing stones of Cerrig Duon.
Branwen was in charge now and she was riding me as if I were a bucking bronco, grinding and bucking against her for all I was worth while she rode me hard and stayed wet.
Branwen threw her lupine eared head back and let loose a long, drawn out howl that echoed and reverberated across the Brecon Beacons.
My hands gripped her powerful, grinding hips and I climaxed deep inside her incredible body.
The force of my ejaculation hit her hard and I felt her body squeezing him to capture every last drop of my essence, my seed.
She leaned over me as I lay beneath her, spent.
Her breasts found their way into my hands and as I happily suckled her bosom, she murmured.
"Soon we will be married at this very spot, we won't be able to make love here at that time. We will make love before the stone at Waen Lleuci, there you will impregnate me with mother's blessings and our act of love will open the gateway to the fair lands. Mother will be able to rejoin her people."
"How will we explain her disappearance?" I asked.
Branwen smiled at me as I gently fondled her breasts and replied, "A homunculus will take her place. While it will resemble her in every aspect, it will be an empty shell with no mind of its own. It will die before morning and be found in her bed. It will be buried in 'her' grave and quietly forgotten."
Branwen giggled as she felt my loins stirring deep inside her pelvis and she purred in her silky soft voice, "Back so soon? Didn't he get enough the last two times? Such a naughty boy he is!"
The eastern sky was lightening as we came down from our night of love making at Cerrig Duon.
Both of us desperately needed a shower as we had somehow lost our bedroll during the heat of our passion and thrashed around in the deep grass.
We got back in time for her to take a quick shower with me and be back to her own bed before sun up, thereby keeping her promise not to spend the night with me before our wedding.
After she left, I hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on my front door and collapsed into my own bed.