War of the Races - The Verdant Realm

Chapter 10- Blessing Of Selene

A few days later-

“So you have to explain this to me, Virdy,” Bastet asked over breakfast in their receiving room, “How did this humongous Animal version of you happen, anyway?”

“It started as a passive skill called Wild Form that I inherited after mating with Huxian,” I answered, then took a swig of orange juice before continuing, “However, that skill would have only allowed me to turn into the pure animal variants of Huxian, Burza, and Leandra. However, mating with Huxian was part of the ritual to commune with Selene. I think she has different ideas on how I should use my power, and so blessed the skill, Wild Form, changing it into Moonbeast.”

“Foxes and goddesses!” Bastet growled in a new curse she had taken to saying lately, “You were perfect the way you were, my love! Please promise me that you will only breed me the way you are right now!”

Leandra coughed out a laugh that nearly had her choking on her breakfast. Wiping her face, she stuttered, “If he makes that promise, then I want one stating that he will only breed me as that incredibly brutish but absolutely divine Lion!”

“I wouldn’t mind being bred in the dance of the eagles while falling through the sky of the green realm,” Burza confessed quietly.

“I think I'm off all breeding,” Huxian groaned and pushed herself up to leave the table, “I am going to go lie down. I feel unwell.”

“Of course,” I said as I watched her leave to return to her private room.

“A vixen saying she’s off all breeding! I wonder what’s up with her?” Bastet mused out loud for everyone to hear, “She’s been like that ever since you got back.”

“My Lord,” Burza spoke up, and when I looked at her, she continued, “May I suggest to my Lord that you ask your mother to visit Huxian. Priestesses are capable healers, and well, even if she can’t cure her condition, she may be able to soothe it somehow.”

“Do you know what is wrong with Huxian?” I asked.

“I have my suspicions,” She answered.

“Then tell me,” I asked insistently, “So that I can help her!”

“Oh my mate,” Burza chuckled while shaking her head, “It is not my place to speculate. Please, if you want answers, call your mother in to visit her.”

“Okay, okay, I will do that as soon as we finish breakfast,” I promised, then went back to cleaning my plate.

——(!)——

I was humming as I led Bastet, Burza, and Leandra down the east hallway, headed for the west, when Leandra suddenly asked, “What is that you're humming? I have never heard music composed in such a manner.”

“Oh, um,” I said as I came to a stop and thought about the song. I had been humming ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson, and smiled. It was ironically fitting.

Turning to my ladies, I decided to sing, “It's close to midnight

Something evil's lurkin' in the dark

Under the moonlight

You see a sight that almost stops your heart

You try to scream

But terror takes the sound before you make it

You start to freeze

As horror looks you right between the eyes

You're paralyzed

'Cause this is a thriller

Thriller night

And no one's gonna save you

From the beast about to strike

You know it's a thriller

Thriller night

You're fighting for your life

Inside a killer, thriller tonight, yeah,”

Bastet fell on the floor and rolled across the carpet as she laughed riotously. Leandra stumbled to the wall and wiped her eyes as she weazed, and Burza had the biggest smile I had ever seen her give.

“Well,” Burza purred while trying to hold back from laughing, “At least now we know; you didn’t inherit Hypnotic Song, Song of the Harpies, or any skill in singing from me!” She finished in a laughing fit while Bastet launched into another fit of laughing and rolling around on the floor, and Leandra had to brace herself and fight a coughing fit while drool and tears dribbled from her mouth and nose.

My smile fell, my feelings hurt; I gave them all a flat stare before turning and leaving them in the hallway as I shot back over my shoulder, “Fine! See if I ever share any of the other songs I know with you again!”

I was almost to Summerset’s study when the girls finally caught up. There was still some heavy sniffling and occasional hissing, but they managed to smile as we cracked open Father's study. We stepped in and came to a shocked halt. Sitting on Summerset’s lap was Glenna, idly kicking her hooves while her father played with her tail with one hand and groped a breast with the other. They were smiling and talking softly.

“Oh! I’m sorry!” I apologized and began to turn away and leave. “We will come back later!”

“No, no,” Glenna called back, “We’re just sitting here talking. You obviously had something on your mind to bring you over here to see us. So, what can we help you with?”

Turning back around, I was just a little put off by the fact that Glenna hadn’t gotten up. Instead, she was still sitting in her father’s lap and looking at us and smiling, but I led my girls on as I got to the point of our visit, “Mother, Huxian seems to be ill. She has been inordinately tired for weeks now. Burza suggested that I ask you to come check on her.”

“I see,” Glenna answered as her brows furrowed with a look of concern, “We leave in a few days for the Dragon’s Spine; we can’t have her falling ill now. If your mates would escort me to her,” She said as she hopped out of Summerset’s lap, “Then you two can talk preparations while I see to Huxian.”

Bastet and Burza led Mother and Leandra out of the study and closed the door. We waited until all those beautiful buttocks left the room, and then Summerset cleared his throat and said, “Well, I guess it’s time to get to work.”

“Yeah,” I sighed in regret.

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room changed as Summerset quit suppressing his aura. I was pushed a step backwards, and then I activated Fortified, Resilience, and Planted. Father’s aura still felt like looking up at the Twin Towers in New York from the ground, but at least it felt like I was a small building in comparison now.

“Impressive,” Summerset said warmly, then reined in his aura again, “To have accumulated that much strength from five mates. The scale by which you are growing is greater than mine ever was. I wonder why that is?” He mused as he stroked his chin and led the way to his tactical room.

As he walked, he kept musing out loud, “It could be that, as my heir, your aptitude is better. Then there is the fact that you are blessed by Selene.”

“The blessing of Selene only upgraded one skill,” I interrupted, “Or, at least, that is the feeling I have when I meditate.”

“Gods and Goddesses are tricky entities to deal with,” Summerset continued with a dismissive wave of his hand. He circled the map table and turned to face me, “Just because you can sense part of Selene’s blessing doesn’t mean there isn’t more you can’t.”

I nodded. The argument was sound, and without more information, it was all speculation anyway, but I also decided to voice an idea that I like much more than a random Goddess buff, “My personal opinion is that my mates mean more to me than the random Animals you mated meant to you. So, I got more from mating with them.”

Summerset frowned as he rubbed his chin. When he looked up, he smiled, “You could be right, son, and if that is the case, then continue as you have. Be very selective and only mate when you love the woman, whether a Prime or Animal.”

“I will, Father,” I said with a firm nod and then added, “Everything I do is because of my love for my mates!”

“Good,” Summerset answered with a returned grin, “Now let's broaden the scope of your horizons, shall we?” He walked over to the holographic map table and commanded, “Globe.”

When it appeared, Summerset asked, “Do you love, say, Chief Laborc and Queen Anmar as much as you do Bastet?”

“What! No,” I answered immediately with an adamant shake of my head, “Of course not!”

“Then is your love for Bastet based purely on your being able to breed her?” Summerset asked. “Let me ask the same question about Andra and Nimra; do you love them as much as you do Leandra?”

“Okay, I get that you're making a point,” I answered, “Obviously an analogy of how I should broaden the scope of the definition of my love.”

“Yes,” Summerset answered and pointed to the holographic globe, “Exactly! You told me the last time you were in this room that you loved the Animals, but do you really understand the full scope of what you said? Or, do you only see your girls and that is all you are invested in protecting?”

Pointing to the continent I know as Africa, he continued, “In the lands of Breidablik, the elephant and the rhinoceros are hunted for their skins and their horns,” Rotating the globe to Asia and tracing his finger along a mountain range from Afghanistan to China he continued, “In the Spine of the World the snow leopards are hunted by trappers so the spoiled elite can have a rarity. Further south, in Vanaheim, tigers are hunted for their skins, claws, and teeth. The elephants there are robbed of their ivory and then forced into work camps. Rotating the globe back to North America, he sighed before continuing, “And in the lands of Annwyn, the largest producer of beef, pork, and chicken.”

“No!” I gasped, stumbled back, and found a trash can just in time to puke.

“Yes,” Summerset contradicted me, his tone grave, “There are huge butchering facilities where these poor Animals live their entire lives in the mud. Standing, sitting, and lying in their own waste, and then in the end they are led by the hundreds to facilities where their miserable lives are ended at the point of a butcher's knife, slitting their throats open.”

“Stop! Please stop,” I begged in a hoarse whisper.

“Does your love of the Animals extend to those poor cows, pigs, and chickens?” Summerset asked in conclusion.

“Yes, yes, of course it does,” I cried, but then admitted, “But what can I do in the face of such overwhelming evil?”

“Ah-ha,” Summerset answered while tapping his nose with a finger, “I have an idea for a new constitution.” Summerset hurried to the map table and, after hitting a secret lever, pulled out a large piece of paper. “It’s only a rough draft.”

Walking over and looking it over, I sighed. Father’s heart was in the right place, but what he had written was all positives of what the government had the right to do.

“You don’t want to start a new coalition with this,” I said as I dug through Father’s drawer for more paper and pins.

“Why not?” Summerset asked in a low, half-offended tone.

“Where I’m from in my previous life,” I started as I separated three pieces of paper, “We already had to free ourselves from a tyrannical government. We started with a Declaration of Independence.” As I spoke, I began writing and thanked Selene that I had written a dissertation on the foundation of the United States in college. I made slight modifications to include Animals as having inalienable rights as well.

“Does anyone stand with us or share our views on the plight of the Animals?” I asked Summerset as he silently watched, “Are there any other Prime Races willing to put their life, liberty, and riches on the line for this righteous cause?”

“Yes,” Summerset answered, “We Druids are the de facto leaders of the Villralfar, and we all detest what is happening. Dokkalfar live for the hunt, and are always trying to maintain the balance of the forest, but I think even they are sickened by what’s happening.”

“Yes, but is there another Lord, or King, or Queen willing to put their name on this Declaration with you?” I asked pointedly now, “If not, then the government will send a team of enforcers to kill you, and this will go down as another failed rebellion.”

“Yes,” He answered, “I do have a few allies I believe would stand with me.”

I nodded and smiled, “Good, then this has a chance. After the Declaration of Independence, there is the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which is a charter of negative rights.”

“Negative,” Summerset mused thoughtfully, “Isn’t that bad?”

“For the governments that sign and adhere to the charter, yes,” I answered with a laugh, “It’s an oxymoron devised by human professors to confuse their students into thinking the Constitution and Bill of Rights were bad. The fact is, between the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, you get a cohesive document that tells the government how it can and can not operate, and that it will not create laws or act in a way that infringes or removes the peoples God given Rights.”

“And Humans came up with this,” Summerset asked in amazement as he flipped through the pages and read over them again.

“They do have a few good ideas,” I answered with a smile, then I became serious again, “But just know, this will start a war.”

“Then we'd better get as many allies as we can,” Summerset purred with a grin.

“Mother, Huxian, and I are leaving soon on a quest for Selene,” I said as I looked for the map of the Dragon’s Spine. When I found it, I pulled it over and tapped the marked location. “Did she tell you that it’s to intercept a Svartalf attack force?”

“No, she did not,” He answered in a calm but clearly upset tone.

“Don’t be upset, Father,” I said, trying to ease the tension I saw in his eyes now, “There were visions and dreams that said if we don’t go, everyone in the Valeland dies.”

“But, what about you and your mother?” Summerset asked.

“We will be taken to one of their cities, where our quest for Selene will begin,” I answered in as reassuring a tone as I could.

“Okay then,” Summerset sighed, “Then what can I do to help you be as prepared as possible?”