Dark Moon Brother

Part Twenty

Blood and Earth

The sun was burning his back, but he chose to ignore it for now. He was lying down on his stomach, face deep in old leaves and mosses. Somewhere in the forest then. He remembered the smells and sounds of the place. Birds twittered in the branches overhead. Even though he could not understand their speech, he knew that they were talking about him. It was the same every time he woke from the moon stupor. Muted avian discussions about the manner of the creature that had invaded their home. He closed his eyes and waited for his head to clear. Something was different about himself. Something unexpected had happened, but for now the recollection remained dim and hazy. He had gone through the Change, that much was obvious. He was unclothed and exhausted from the energy spent during the transformation. He thought about moving, getting up and away, and raised his arms up a little to push his body upwards. Pain, sudden and sharp, lanced through his back. He cried out involuntarily, seeing spots swim before his eyes. He was injured, wounded somehow. He tried to crane his head around to look at his back, but whatever was there causing the pain remained out of view.

It took him quite a few tries before he managed to roll over onto his side. The agony caused nausea to build and he vomited weakly onto the grass. It was bloodstained and he covered it over with dirt, unwilling to look on it. What had he eaten last night? He shivered and wiped at his face and mouth in disgust. Steeling himself, he pushed on the arm that didn't hurt as much as the other, forcing his body into a sitting position. A warm trickle ran down his back. He began to feel carefully down his spine. His groping fingers found a long gaping gash right over his shoulder, several inches deep and ragged on the edges. He struggled to remain conscious as he inadvertently touched an exposed nerve over the bone of his shoulder blade.

A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he swiveled, dizzy, to see the huge taloned feet of a vulture type bird. The vulture looked him in the eye in a cool, calculating manner.

"I suppose you're waiting for me to die" he croaked at it. The bird blinked once, but did not reply. It fluffed out it's feathers, preening unconcernedly. He shuffled backwards a little, coming to rest awkwardly against a tree. Something in the tree hissed at him, but he couldn't be bothered looking to see. He was too busy, running his mind through the little remembering exercises he had taught himself years ago. But it was strange, because the first thing he realised was that the moon was not full, in fact she was in her hidden state. If he was going to change, why now? In fact, why had he changed at all? Griselda had lifted the curse... Griselda. A witch. He was in the 9 Kingdoms, yes, that was it, that was why he'd come here. His friend Wolf had brought him here. He had been living with Wolf. And Virginia. Virginia. Why did her face and form fill so much of his mind now? Sweet girl, but she reminded him too much of his Bella, though. Poor, dead Bella. Poor, dead Virginia. Oh, no, Elias. He screamed, and the sound of it rattled and echoed through the forest.

"Wolf?" she whispered, hardly able to believe that she could make a sound. Virginia felt a shifting in the mattress, and a familiar face swam into view. Oh, how she loved that face. Those gorgeous eyes. Definately worth coming back for.

"I am here, beloved" he whispered, and she nearly cried at the love and pain she heard in his voice. Virginia tried to raise her arm to touch him, but sudden pain lanced through her at the movement. There was a rustling and a murmuring, and a new voice spoke close to her ear.

"Hi there Virginia. It's Doctor Greene here. Can you squeeze my hands, honey? Good, excellent. Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Umm, three?" she rasped. Her mouth was so dry.

"Good, that's right. Now, I'm going to give you something for the pain. I know it hurts a bit now, but it will definately get worse over the next few hours, as the wound starts to swell..." The doctor's voice drifted off as Virginia strove to focus on her surroundings. She was in the lounge room downstairs. Suddenly a memory jolted her.

"Caelum!" she tried to shout the name, but only a croak came out. But Wolf understood it. She heard him call softly in the wolf tongue, and there was a commotion outside as whoever was holding the boy suddenly found it an impossible task. She heard his baby steps coming towards her over the tiles and her tears ran freely as Wolf scooped him up, holding him carefully above her face. Virginia stared into the wide green eyes of her son. Wolf lowered him, and she lifted her head a little to smother his little face with kisses. His rosebud mouth split into a wide grin.

"Ma ma" he said.

"Yes, my son. Ma ma is back. She loved you too much. Both of you". Her mind grew hazy as the painkillers were injected into her arm. Injected? Dr Greene? She decided to think about those things later, drifting back into sleep, feeling the arms of her mate enfold her.

The half-wolf's stood out in the field in the afternoon sunlight. Wolf stared absently at the freshly scraped hole in the ground. Silence pervaded the field, and the forest that loomed so near was still, the small creatures and other sentient life forms quiet in their respect. Wendell had dismissed the guards and recalled them from the surrounding areas at Wolf's request.

"You can send them home, Wendell. The danger is over, for now. The sun has risen and the monster is transformed"

"It was your friend, this Elias, wasn't it?" Wendell had asked under his breath.

"Yes, it was him. The magic failed. It rebounded. I had feared it would, but I put trust in it nonetheless"

"You put trust in Elias too, Wolf. What will you do now, when you find him? Do you want me to send out riders and trackers? Maybe if he is truly wounded, if the boy hurt him, he won't be too difficult to find. And I want him safely under lock and key, well before this happens again. We still don't know if he attacked anyone else"

"I don't think the guard will be necessary. My kindred will find him, dead or living. I would be out there looking for him now, but I dare not leave Virginia. She's still very weak, and Goddess knows how many infections she'll have picked up"

"I'll send our best healers here. With them, and the 10th Kingdom doctor, I'm sure she'll beat whatever comes her way. We all owe that Dr Greene for Virginia's life though. I should reward her somehow. Do you think she'd like a fancy medal or something? Or perhaps lands and a title?"

"I doubt it, Wendell, but then, I don't know her very well. I'm surprised that she's adjusted so well, but surely she will come to me soon and ask me to take her back, or wake her from whatever dream-spell I've put her under" Wolf had said, looking over at Natalie as she accepted a bowl of good soup and bread from Elsie. Wolf smiled to see the ever so professional doctor trying unobtrusively to spot whether Elsie had a tail. The she-half-wolf had caught her spying then, and sighing, had lifted her skirts a little to reveal what everyone else knew. Natalie had gasped in astonishment and Elsie had goodnaturedly let her feel and examine the tail. But she was not the only astounded one. Wolf had seen the priest Frederick also looking on with interest, but the expression on his face was unreadable. The young man had jumped back in fright then as a fairy flew past him, coming to rest on the eaves of the house. Wolf knew that the fairy had bent to speak to the man, but he hadn't caught the words. Wendell had followed his gaze.

"He's a strange one. Did you say he was a 'priest'? What manner of man is that?"

"Yes, Frederick is a follower of a God in the 10th Kingdom. There are many such believers, and their power in that Kingdom is great. But they have a great many rules and ways of acting, and they are not that tolerant of any who do not adhere to them. Virginia and I had some trouble with them when we were there a year ago. We managed to escape them, but we had to leave. They thought that I was a monster, a 'demon' they called me. They thought that I was a servant of the enemy of their God"

"Oh. What did they do to you?"

"Nothing much. I could handle it, but it was tricky. I think this young man tried to help me to escape" Wolf had replied. Nothing much. Not quite, Wolf, he thought to himself, and he could tell by the look on Wendell's face that he suspected otherwise. But the King said nothing, allowing the white lie as friends often do.

"Ah. Is he safe, can you trust him then?"

"I think so, but they are a strange folk, these priests. Their very rigidness makes them unstable when confronted with something outside of their experience. I will watch him, but I don't fear him, not in a physical way anyway. But he did help me when persuading the good doctor to make the trip here, so I owe him an open mind at the very least"

"Good. Now, I will release the guards as you wish, but, if you don't mind, I myself will stay here with you and Virginia. Just for a little, till she's out of danger. Tony will stay also, of course. Poor man. Did you know, he rode raving and hollering for your blood, all the way here, and it took all the half-wolf's to restrain him, lest he inadvertently harm Virginia any more in his grief. But by the time I got here, he was just sitting there in the corner, numb and silent. He looks a bit chirpier now, though. Did he really put some of his blood into Virginia? How can such a thing be done?"

"I don't know, Wendell. Truly, all the 10th Kingdom technology just baffles me. They are a very gifted people. What happened in there, whilst unusual in circumstance for the doctor, was really just a routine thing for them. Our medics could learn a lot from them" Wolf had replied, seeing the germ of an idea sprout in Wendell's mind. Wolf felt sure that the lady doctor would soon be receiving an unusual proposition. He wondered what she would say, how she would react to the thought of teaching half-wolfs, fairies, elves and sundry other strange folk in the Kingdoms.

He shook his head now to clear it. He needed to focus on the burial rites being performed, though he didn't think anyone would be particularly upset if his mind wandered now and then. They all knew how close he had come to losing control and letting the wolf run wild. Even now it gnawed at his mind, growling, demanding release. It wanted to run loose, to hunt, kill and destroy that which had threatened it's pack. He felt a hand on his shoulder, looked to see his brother Willem. He knew, better than anyone, just what a destructive anger his little brother had, and what damage he could inflict. Wolf struggled to force the anger down to a manageable level. But it was hard, when standing on the edge of a grave, seeing what lay within it. Cool earth partially enclosed the body, but the form and face of James were unmistakeable. Nearby, the eldest half-wolf amongst them, Stephen, ritually intoned the sacred wolfen death blessings. Wolf saw that his face was creased with the effort of it. How awful for him, to be welcoming a cub one day, and burying another the next.

Wolf stooped now, letting fall into the grave that which he held clutched in his hands. The delicate brushes and paints tumbled down to land at the boy's feet. Next, each half-wolf took a small pinch of their tail hair, adding it to the earth. Then, joining hands, they made a circle about the grave, each saying a silent wolf prayer for the spirit of the boy to be received into the care of the Goddess. Wolf rocked back and forth in emotional turmoil as his own prayer ran though his mind.

"Goddess, I have failed this child. I brought to him the means of his death. I beg you, care for him and when his soul is healed of the great hurt done to it, release him once more to dwell amongst us. I, Lucian, called Wolf, say these words"

One by one the group separated and stood back as Wolf bent to fill in the grave, as was his duty, given that no living relatives of the boy were present. Messages had been sent through the forest grapevine, but Wolf didn't know if they would come to the site. He placed a small stone marker, just in case. The earth covered the boy. No wolf was ever burned by his own kind. Once done, he straightened, and the final part of the ritual played itself out as the wolfsong of death and mourning rang out over the fields and echoed through the trees and valleys.

On and on the song rose and fell through the Kingdom, and Virginia, having recently woken once more, heard it, and knew it's significance. Her sobs hurt, but still they came unchecked, as her father held her hand.

"Oh James, you shouldn't have done it. Stupid, foolish boy!" she cursed him through her tears.

"No, beloved. A brave boy. He did the right thing. We were pack, and no wolf worth his skin would stand by whilst another was endangered. Do not blame him. Honour him, like we have done. Without James, Caelum and I would be burying you today". Wolf stood over her, but his words were soft. He was not reproaching her, she knew. He lifted his hands to look at the dirt caked on them, the glanced back at her. The expression on his face told her all she needed to know.

"Do I blame myself?" he asked to no one in particular and Virginia squeezed Tony's hand hard as she heard him draw breath to reply. He sighed, but did not speak, for which Virginia was grateful. But Wolf seemed not to notice, still gazing at his hands. She watched him carefully.

"No. Not you" she said softly, and firmly. "And not Elias, no, not him either" she added. Wolf dropped his hands and Virginia saw his face. A shiver ran through her at the faintly feral look of it.

"Elias. Well, we shall see, will we not?" he whispered, again speaking more to himself. At that moment, Natalie the doctor rustled past him, coming towards Virginia with more antibiotics, seeing to her patient, and when Virginia looked again, Wolf was gone.