Moonrise

Chapter 10

Forevermore

"All Magick comes with a price."

Two Years Later*

Goldenstar stood at the top of pride rock with young full grown male wolf at her side. Lucas had become a young male overnight. With her immortality, the she imp discovered how quickly time passed. With all of her studying she barely had time to notice. She had changed so much in the past two years. She could now truly be herself. The young she imp, even if she had remained frozen in age had changed just like the young wolf. The more she had studied, the closer she felt every day to getting her mother out from the human king who held her dagger. It had become an obsession, her own animalistic instinct and her deep desperate need for the love of a parent driving her to learn witchcraft at an unbelievable pace. Her skills had become incredibly strong and the feline she imp was becoming powerful, some would say as powerful as her mother in such a short amount of time.

The animal kingdom was flourishing stronger than ever. Despite what she did behind closed doors to make herself feel loved and cared for, the she imp was a successful ruler. Endangered species were being preserved and crops were strong. The humans had learned how to better care for their animal partners and despite the fairy's objections, she had helped them in other ways. She had increased the birth survival rate and reduced plagues by teaching humans that such things came not from the wrath of their god but from tiny beings called viruses and bacteria spread from poor sanitation. She gave the humans new crops and inventions, all using her knowledge of life on earth and her power over it. The royals and the rich were beginning to detest her as her heart seemed to be solidly with animals and the poorest humans. She had rescued many animals and in some cases even human children by snatching them away from their abusive parents and giving them to mothers who could not bear children or who had lost them, or same sex couples who wanted a child of their own.

But deep down, Goldenstar was still that same scared little girl that Nimue had found huddled behind logs on a farm. She tried not to let that show in front of Lucas. She mewed at him with concern and emotion in her eyes. "You're leaving?" The male wolf nodded and nuzzled her hands like a tame dog. "Yes. I am your majesty. With your permission I'd like to leave Goldenpack and start my own pack in the forest." Goldenstar's amber eyes glazed over with tears. "But you'll lose your immortality. You'll die." Her translator even made her high pitched Scottish brogue crack with the fear of a small cub. Lucas gently paced a paw on her sore knee which he knew always offered her comfort. "Goldenstar, you're not just my queen. You're my friend." He let out an affectionate whimper. "That's why I'm being honest with you. Immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be." He huffed. "My queen…I want to explore the world and be with my mother and father when it's all through. I want to find a mate who I can be with one day too. I know the world outside of the kingdom preserve is dangerous, but immortal life is…not for me."

Goldenstar tried not to let those words mean anything to her about her own situation. But deep down he was right. One day, perhaps not yet but one day, the sun would set on Lucas' time on earth and he would join the kings and queens of the past. And she would never reunite with her old friend. She also remembered how much her father had always controlled her, and how it hurt to be contained. She couldn't do that to him. Though she had tears in her eyes she smiled at him with pride. This was not going to be a sad day. Just as she had fulfilled her destiny, it was now time for Lucas to take his place in the circle of life. She pressed her golden forehead against his. "Go with Starclan, pack leader of Lucaspack. May ye and your future pack always run beneath the moon's pale light." Shedding tears, she butted her head against his like a cat and rubbed her face against his fur, wrapping her golden skinned arms around him. She took out something out of her satchel. She had recently learned to bake from Mrs. Potts and found out quickly that she was born to be a kitchen witch with her connection with the earth. She had made a dog biscuit. "This is enchanted. It will give ya the power to change into a man during the daylight so that twoleg hunters won't bother ya."

She bit her lip. "All magick comes with a price though. And therefore…a few generations from now..ya won't be able to control it as much." Lucas stared at his paws, deep in thought. Then with determination he gently ate the treat out of her hand. They said their final goodbyes, Lucas promising that he would come back and visit someday. The last person who had said that was the only mother she had ever known. She couldn't help the tears that streamed down her face as she watched Lucas run wild and free into the forest, howling into the air. As he crossed the border of the animal kingdom he transformed into a handsome young man in his early twenties ready to conquer the world. She watched him go from pride rock, feeling saddened but proud of him at the same time. She had known him since he was a pup. She had helped him become a fine future pack leader. The she imp couldn't help but smile through her tears. Immortality couldn't have been too bad after all. She wouldn't be alone forever. One day she'd free Nimue from whoever held the knife, and they'd be together again. She was becoming more powerful by the day. It wouldn't be long now.

There was a strange scent that Goldenstar caught on the wind. Opening her mouth and inhaling to let the scent flow over her powerful feline scent glands. It was blood, but this was different than blood of an animal. It wasn't human either. Something wasn't right. Her hackles in her now fluffy auburn hair raised. Looking around as if scanning the air and the land for an unseen threat, she paced back and forth, grunting in soreness and her crutches pegging the ground. Out of nowhere, a sense of fear overcame her. She began to shake violently. Though there was clearly no one approaching her, she had a feeling of being hunted. Then she felt it. A stabbing pain exploded in her chest, making her vision swim and her knees buckle. She felt faint and before she knew it, her legs went out from under her. Sarabi's alarmed roar towards the other lionesses and big cats rang in her ear before she went unconscious, throbbing pain resonating from in her chest though no outside wound showed.

When she came to, her eyes opened to the soft dim light of the west wing. "Gran Sarabi? M..Mrs. Potts? Lumiere?" She coughed and mewed, her translator speaking in a soft voice as she sat upright. They were looking at her with tears in their eyes, pity written all over their faces. Sarabi looked as if she just lost cubs to a hunter. Tears were gathering at the black streaks outlining her eyes. Lumiere who was usually brightly lit at his flames was smoldering. Cogsworth, the clock that served as her footman was holding a letter in his ornate metal digits that had once been hands. Something was very wrong. Did the invisible attacker injure her that badly? Sitting up with a pained grunt, she looked down at her scrawny chest. There was no cut, no stab wound. She looked around in confusion. "What's going on.." she meowed, her anxiety making her pant and shift uncomfortably. Mrs Potts chocked out a sob. "It's your mother, mistress. I'm so sorry." She shook her head, her golden skin growing pale as she painfully sprung up in bed. "My…what's happened to her! Where's Nimue! What's the matter with my mum?" She roared and yowled into the air. Her claws dug at the sheets as her throat burned with panic.

Cogsworth clattered as he handed her a letter. Opening it with a claw tip, her hands trembled that the parchment shook like a dead leaf in that same cold midwinter wind where Nimue had originally found her.

Dearest Elizabeth,

My life has been claimed by the next dark one. By the time you read this, I will be gone. I am sorry my child, but the sun has set on my time. I wish more than anything that I could see you again, and perhaps I can look on you through the eyes of the next dark one. Just as in the animal kingdom, there are predators and prey. At some point even the predator must one day become prey. Though I may be gone my love for you shall never leave. I cannot promise that the next dark one will want to be a father, nor can I promise that he will escape being enslaved. One day however, I promise that one of them will. I am afraid that once again, your life is in your own hands. Only you can save yourself. One day, you will free us and give the knife back into our own hands. And on that day, you at last will have a loving parent who is worthy of you and who will care for you just as I desperately hoped to do. You cannot join me on the other side. You shall be the only light one. Your kindness and love and care for all creatures is something the world needs too much. Many years will pass. But whenever you feel alone, look at the stars. The kings and queens of the past look down on you from those stars. They will always be there to guide you. And so will I.

I love you, forevermore.

Your loving mother.

Nimue.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

After a moment of sitting silently and in shock, Goldenstar's face twisted in agony and grief before she let out a screaming catlike yowl mixed with a lions roar that tore through the castle as tears streamed down her face. Sarabi immediately climbed next to her and started licking her desperately but she couldn't even feel the large lioness. Her heart raced and sank all at once. She couldn't hear her own roaring, yowling and screaming. The only things she was aware of was her own grief and pain. Her mother, the only person who had loved her despite every disability she had was gone. Her only hope was once again gone. And now there was no way she could join her again. Was this the price of immortality? To lost those you loved, never to see them again? If she had known, she would have never had taken that sword. Waves of anger and grief coursed through her body that hurt more than anything that the cancer had caused. The walls felt like they were closing in on her. She had to move, but she felt paralyzed. Like any animal that felt unsafe, she just had to get out of that room. Backing up against the bed, tail tucked under her now wet nappy, ears pinned back and hair and tail puffed, her eyes turned into slits before she bolted.

The imp didn't know where she was going. But she had to move. Stumbling over her crutches and wandering aimlessly and dizzily through the west wing, she turned away from every mirror she saw. She couldn't look at herself. Why would any dark one want her? Besides Nimue no person save the animals or enchanted objects had ever seen her as anything more than a pity case or a monster. That's what she was underneath all that power. She was still that little stray creature chained up in the stables, desperate for love and care. She was incontinent weak and a runt. Everything that her parents said about her was coming back to haunt her.

In the hall of the west wing there hung a portrait of her as a human. It had been put there by the castle itself to remind her of where she had come from. But now that the one person who was meant to look past all that was gone, it felt like a cruel joke. Staring at the portrait of herself was like looking inside of her. She was still that deep down…a sad, lonely, neglected, abused young girl who was constantly waiting for someone to save her from her living hell. She closed her eyes and shook her head, the memories of everything bad her father flashing before her eyes, a relentless cruel current drowning her in trauma. "Make it stop…" she mewled with a whimper. This was her fault. If she wasn't so pathetic, if she had just recovered faster she could have saved her mother. Her vision went red as she looked upon her former human self again as anger and grief began to roil within her.

She closed her eyes and panted, trying to keep herself under control as her hind claws dug into the soles of her boots. She began to burst into tears as silent crying took over once more. "And I know she'll n…never leave me…even as she fades from view…" she whispered as she hobbled towards the window, looking up into Silverpelt, to Starclan, to the kings and queens of the past. She reached a clawed hand up towards the heavens as if she was reaching for her mother. "She'll still inspire me….be a part of everything I do.." feeling cold and feeling the pain from her condition more than ever, she crumpled on the ground and hugged herself, rocking back and forth as if to comfort herself the same way Nimue once did…how she doubted any dark one would do for her ever again. "Wasting in my lonely tower, waiting by an open door…I'll fool myself they'll walk right in…and as the long long nights begin." She sniffled and wrapped Nimue's old cloak around her. "I'll think of all that could have been..waiting here forevermore."

Her eyes flicked to the portrait of her human self and she began to breathe heavily. A hot anger rose inside of her, anger at her parents, anger at the world and anger at herself. It boiled over before the imp knew what she was doing with herself. Instinct took over her brain. Yowling, hissing and spitting with fury, she leapt up using her arm crutches to launch herself. Her claws raked the canvas and tore it, slashing the canvas as an angry heartbroken roar of a lioness thundered through the halls. "COWARD!!!!"