Mothers Heritage; Prologue
Nad'jer had been napping in the morning sunlight, when something had woke her up. Moving her ears she listened harder trying to find out what had awakened her, there! Her instincts said as she heard it again, a soft hissing voice, cautiously she followed the sound, using her illusion ability to blend in with the forest 'I can't wait for winter' she thought 'I blend in better and I don't need to use my illusions to hide myself'. Nad'jer silently padded through the forest her wolf-senses stained trying to follow the sound.
"Now what news do have of the packs?" said a voice, 'that's the hiss-sound!' she thought excitedly, staying low she creeped through the bushes, finally settling herself between a tree and a vine bush. Then she looked out at the clearing in front of her and froze in a combination of shock and terror.
Devon looked up at the creature in front of him: half snake, half woman, and radiating pure evil, was the Queen of the demons. "Everything is going according to plan lady" he said as he felt his illusion shield drop, he went from a wolf with back on his muzzle fading to gray on his tail and paws, to an all black wolf with glowing red eyes.
"Excellent" she hissed, "This is much welcome news, unlike the last time you all reported in". Devon flinched; he remembered quite clearly what had happened last time when they had brought bad news: she had pulled them into the realm of the demons, and had tortured them to death, only to revive them, and to their horror repeat the process 9 more times. 'Then she told us if we ever brought her bad news again that the same would happen only this time 100 times".
Suddenly she jerked up, "we are watched!" she exclaimed "find and destroy this one" she spat and faded. Devon and the others spread out looking for whomever had watched their meeting, seeing a flash of white he realized who had seen them and took off in pursuit.
---------- Nad'jer had nearly launched herself back to the Werehome when she saw the demon Queen, but her hunting instincts had kicked in and prevented her from moving an inch. Carefully she rechecked her illusions, cursing again that she had an arctic wolf for a Were-form. 'White with tan markings isn't exactly a good idea for a coat-color when you live in a forest, nor are my turquoise-blue eyes'. She commented as she watched the people talk. Then a very familiar wolf stood up, 'DEVON!' she mentally gasped recognizing him, as they continued to talk she thought, 'Lady help us, he's a shadowWere'.
"We are watched! Find and destroy this one!" the demon Queen suddenly exclaimed. Fear gripped Nad'jer and she fled, running flat-out, full-tilt, back to the Werehome, she dodged around bushes, jumped over ditches and logs. Trying to get as much of a head start as possible. Landing after going over a small stream she heard a noise, turning to look she was suddenly knocked forward, and her world was plunged into darkness.
Devon stood above the blue-haired girl and watched as her Were-form shifted into her human one, 'ah yes' he thought finally placing the face with a name 'Nad'jer, or Bulma Brief's the capsule corp. brat'. His mind sifted through the many things he could do to her and finally settled on one, grinning evilly he began to cast a spell.
Bulma awoke in the late afternoon sunshine, her entire front side was covered in dirt, her right cheek and chin where scraped, and her hair was filled with leaves and dirt, and her heard felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Then she remembered what she saw and launched herself forward, intending to shift to Were-form as she jumped, instead she landed palms first into the dirt, scraping them and her chin raw, and getting a mouthful of dirt. Confused she spit out the dirt and tried to shift again, suddenly she realized what happened. 'I can't shift' she thought in shock, wrapping her arms around herself, as her mind began to blank out from losing something that was a part of her soul. Yet as her conscious mind began to withdrawal something inside of her got her to her feet and headed her staggering toward the Werehome.
Drake looked down at the sleeping blue-haired child in his forearms. He had found her walking blindly toward a deep gorge, sensing something wrong he had landed and stopped her, then seeing the look of shock on her face, had done a quick mental probe, and had realized that she was Weren. 'Thank the Lady for our peoples instincts, it was probably that that got her that far' he thought in retrospect. After realizing what she was had grabbed the child and had flown to the nearest Werehome, where a deeper mental probe had revealed what had happened to her and the spell on her Weren abilities. 'If we try to remove the spell from the outside she'll have a heart attack and die' he thought as he launched himself skyward. His dragon Were-form flying higher into the air currents as he reflected on what had happened. Of Devon, they had found not a trace, according to the ones assigned to bring him to the home's elders his home looked as if it had never been lived in for years. Now there was one thing left, the child, the Werehome's elders decided to block her memories of the Weren people and (to his surprise) had sworn to watch over her in case Devon ever came back. "It is partially our fault" the elders had told him when they saw his look of surprise, "Devon had been acting odd for years and he has often become seriously violent on the sparring grounds than anyone else in decades. It is our fault for not trying to find out what was wrong, and anyway the spell is tied to Devon's, when his falls then the one we placed on her will fade and be gone as well." Weaving his power to make himself invisible, Drake landed inside the capsule corp. compound; drake made his way to the girl's house. Reaching inside mentally he found her bedroom and teleported her onto her bed, "Lady guide and protect you child" he said sadly and left to morn with the child's Werehome.