Magic, Myth and Mysteries

If We Had Forever, Part Two - May Clarke

“Sister! Sister! Are you there?” Eos called out into the tunnels, that she knew Selene would escape to when someone came to confront her. “Please talk to me. It is about Endymion, he’s in danger.” She pleaded once more, hoping his name could be the strand of silk to lead her out of her depression.

Appearing in a black torn toga, she was a martyr to mourning an unlived life. Sand and water made the bottom of her apparel heavy and dirty, she stepped out onto the rocks. Wincing against the harsh sun that made her eyes ache, she regarded her sister with suspicion.

“What has happened?” Selene confronted her directly, having no interest in the welfare of her own family.

Eos was hurt by her sister’s disinterest in her, but didn’t show it. It was the most she said to anyone since the day their brother had forced her to give up her lover.

“He is in terrible danger, the monsters created by the Gods have gotten out of control. They have been abandoned and consequently cause devastation wherever they go. With the moon trapped on Olympus and unresponsive to anyone but you, natural disasters are common place. The fates have prophesied that mankind will die, if nothing is done to rebalance the scales.” She briefly explained.

Selene was dubious. Constricting the moon’s movement caused problems for the Gods and Goddess who couldn’t exploit their days of worship without the lunar power, that was the main reason she has withdrew its force. It was a punishment for declaring love a crime. Seeing the scepticism in her sister’s eyes, Eos took her over to a rock pool and brushed her hand over the top. Images swirled depicting the struggles of men, the dry fields that refused to grow, the tide that was washing away towns. These were the outcomes of Selene’s choices, and she felt a painful hollowness in her heart as the guilt seeped through her melancholy. The impression changed once again, and the moon Goddess saw grotesque and gory monsters rampaging through the lands, leaving a path of blood in their wake. Finally, she saw Endymion. He was older now. Curled up on his bed, looking very weak and undernourished, his eyes fixed on the moonless sky. Selene felt fury burn through her veins, awakening her from her self-imposed prison of oblivion.

“What happened to him?” She snarled with an animalistic ferocity.

“He was ill when he returned to his home, but the recent plights have taken a further toll on him.” Eos answered.

“Where is his wife to care for him? His children to ease his burdens?” She shouted at her sister.

Reaching out Eos held Selene’s hand, hoping it would sooth her anger.

“He never married, nor took another woman. He doesn’t remember you, but he looks for the moon each night, disappointed when he doesn’t see her. He loves you with his soul as you love him, and no manipulation of the mind can re-write the passion in one’s heart.” Eos explained to her.

Olympus rejoiced when Selene returned and rode her white chariot across the sky, pinning the full moon in the heavens to the amazement of the humans. The glow that shined on lover’s face restored some health to his features, and this made Selene even more determined to make her plans a reality.

That night she took her wolf headed broach that she had worn the day she found euphoria with Endymion on the beach, and placed it on her thighs. Wolves were intrinsically connected to the moon, therefore their care came under her remit. She focussed on the passion she had for her lover, and imagined that they were able to have tomorrows. Picturing the family they would have built, and the joy they would have known, she felt her power strain to her will. She channelled this hope for an unachievable future, into the broach that she had pulled from her toga that day when she had tasted ascension. Imagining what their children would have looked like, she pictured his green eyes and velvet skin pouring her maternal magic into his creation. Tortured by the raw, abject, jarring feeling of loss and guilt, she allowed her darker traits to join her happier memories. Her need to protect and seek vengeance for all who wanted to hurt her love. Aching from the flow of power that ebbed through her, she opened her eyes.

Two huge black paws straddled her legs, and huge green eyes looked at her softly before nuzzling her collar bone. He was a beautiful, strong, alpha wolf that would rival any monster on earth, but retain his compassion for mankind. Pleased at her creation, she wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed herself to feel the maternal love she had convinced herself would always be denied to her. He would be her child, born from memory, morality and love.

“You are my first pup. A king amongst the wolves and the strongest of your kind. I shall send you to earth to protect the people there.” She noticed his deep bow, but needed to hear his words. She recalled the phrase Endymion had said to her on the beach. ‘Let me see your shifting expression’. She imagined the man he would look like, the perfect blend of her and her lover.

“Shift!” She commanded.

A young man imbued with physical strength, stood in place of her wolf. She noticed that they shared the same nose and mouth. Quickly she dressed him in the finest robes and armed him with the strongest weapons: sharp claws, unbreakable teeth, immortality and undiluted speed and might.

“I will call you Theo. Your duty is to protect mankind, and by doing this you will protect the man I would always have chosen to be your father. When our battle is won, and our victories become legend worthy I will reward you with all that I couldn’t have for myself. Freedom to love your fated mate forever.” She blessed her son with a kiss upon his head, and sent him to earth.

In an evening of emotional cleansing, she had created the first werewolf, protector of the humans. Suddenly, forever seemed bearable.

Theo was vigilant and heroic in his mission on earth. He slayed the monsters that been made by the other Gods, and tore through them with admirable bravery. At first there was an outcry of foul play from the deities who noticed their creations were being toppled, but the moon Goddess’ response was always, ‘If you can make your monsters, why can’t I?”. Realising she wouldn’t relent, the foolish Gods placed bets on the outcomes of each battle. Existence was a sequence of games to them all. When Selene could see that Theo was at a disadvantage, because of the underhanded methods of her peers, she granted him the gift to make more of her children to help him fight against the worst adversaries, as long as they were willing humans. Luckily, many were happy to become part wolf to secure vengeance for the families they had lost. The warriors he made were fierce and strong, but never as impressive as Theo was, he had been made with the purest of love and pain. There was only one vulnerability that her first child possessed: silver. The broach he had been transformed from was made of silver, meaning it could wound him severely if he came in contact with it, this would be the same for the future wolves that he created. It had been an oversight on her part, but all creatures had their weaknesses, after all hadn’t love been hers?

Time continued to torment her each day, but her children had motivated her to find the joy in the moon again. The way they would howl when she hung it was a serenade of devotion, and it gave her existence meaning once more. Despite her efforts to resist, each night she gazed upon the face of her lover. He had aged, but the Goddess couldn’t deny that her attraction to him was as strong as ever. They had fallen in love with each other’s souls, and no physical change could diminish that devotion. Endymion’s visage was folded with wrinkles, the stubble on his face was white, his hands were unsteady, and he only smiled twice each night. The first would be when a large, black furred wolf would drop of meat at his door step then allow him to pet him tenderly for a time. A second smile would appear when the moon beams hit his window and he would lean out, bathing in its light. Ignorant about why he felt so miserable in the daytime, or why the moon screamed for his attention he had accepted over time that it gave him comfort, and dared to think that he soothed the white tears of the moon too.

One night, her lover wasn’t at the window and Selene could see her son in his house, his human from slumped over a bed and his eyes wet with tears. She had saved him from all the potential unnatural deaths, but she was unable to save him from time. He was gone. Theo carried him in his arms to her temple that was hidden in the forest, a huge pyre was erected and the all the wolves and warriors gathered. Selene, having no reason to stay away any longer placed two golden coins on his eyes and kissed his lips tenderly.

“I’ll still watch over you in Elysium, my love, my life, my reason.” She whispered to him.

Stepping away, Theo set the wood alight and watched as the father who didn’t know him moved onto the next life. Embracing his mother, he admitted his loneliness to her. Once again she assured him that when the last monster was killed and every human was protected she would reward him for his sacrifice.

Eventually, the battles were won. Theo and his warriors had been victorious, driven by a perpetual loneliness that fuelled their determination to win. They made their home in the middle of the forest near the temple of Selene. On the night that he had battled the final fiend, he returned to her temple. Covered in the entrails of his last enemy, the steam of slaughter circled around him, and at the foot of his mother’s alter he prayed to her to give him someone to love. His mother appeared before him proud of his triumphs. Over the years the other Gods had become bored with challenging her children, they were embarrassed to have their creations returned to them in pieces and had stopped creating them finding other distractions. Equally, her army of werewolves made her powerful as her family would frequently ask her for favours, and would be apprehensive to challenge her.

“I shall reward you with your promised Luna. A mate for you to love for all your lifetimes. She will be created from the glow of the moon and born from the love I have for you and my need to see you happy. She shall be yours to honour, protect and cherish. Look for her in my temple in three days hence.”

True to her word, Selene created a Luna for her son. She pulled a beam of light from the moon and fashioned her wolf’s iridescent white fur, her eyes were the colour of the sea that surrounded Selene’s sacred island. Desperately wanting to save her children from the pain of loss, she made it so only she could weaken the she-wolf and no other force. Another gift she wanted to bestow upon her most valiant children was a love that couldn’t be broken. She thought of how whole she felt with Endymion, and recalled how he nibbled at the join where her neck met her shoulder. Although a lifetime had passed, she still felt the tingles of his teeth against her neck when she ran her fingers over that specific spot on her skin. Tapping in to a power she had never used before she created a process that would help wolves find each other. The unquestionable attraction, and tingles that could be experienced through touch, and a mating mark that would illustrate the uniqueness of a fated pair’s love. From this one bite, their souls would transcend into one, and they would be complete.

“I wish you a lifetime of love. I wish you the life that couldn’t be mine. Shift!”

In place of the wolf was a delicate human, to be loved by all but matched with one. Only Theo. She named her Thalia. Sending her down to the temple she watched how Theo and Thalia were immediately besotted with each other, and it made her heart glad.

“I think I did something great today, my love.” She mused, to her lover when she visited him that night.

He couldn’t see her, the veil between them could only be opened by her uncle, and Hades didn’t give favours away for free. Chatting to him made her feel supported, and she could swear that sometimes he looked in her direction. Elysium was the perfect place for heroes and good men, he was a young man once more, no longer in pain with the cruelties of age, but she never saw him smile anymore and it worried her. Elysium was perfect, but there were no moon or wolves there, as like her, these things were immortal.

Over the years, Selene had become formidable. Temples were filled with gifts from the humans, who thanked her for the protection of her werewolves. Her wolves continued to help the humans, even though the monsters were no-more, and some had found their mates among the mortals. The bloodline of her magic was diluting, and their immorality was washed away, even the warriors who were altered by Theo were starting to be affected by time. Frantically, Selene searched for a solution, so that all her loved children could spend forever with their mates. Every theory ended up as a smashed bottle on the floor, each flood of magic hovered out of her reach like the clouds that couldn’t touch the moon. Her dedication boarded on fanaticism, as each result brought her back to the conclusion that forever wasn’t something that she could return to her blessed children, just like it was something she couldn’t have for herself. Despite the hopelessness of her task, she continued to try and defy fate. Time’s progression was lost on her as she searched for a solution. One day she heard her son Theo calling her from the top of a sacred mountain, where it was rumoured that the moon sometimes touched the earth.

“Mother Selene, we wish to ask for one last gift from you.” He called up to her, and the moon Goddess came down to his mortal world.

“We have been alive for many centuries, our children’s, children’s, children’s, children are now the alpha of the pack. Our friends have left us and so have our children, all welcomed into death’s embrace. We wish to be reunited with them. Forever is too long, the pain is too much.” Theo requested of his mother, and Thalia agreed.

Ironically, Selene’s efforts to save her children from the pain she felt had inadvertently led them to the same path she was on. The family they loved most had gone and they were left behind. She was left without Endymion, cursed to watch him through the veil.

“This is not a simple request, you ask of me. I can release your human selves from your immortality, but my wolves can only come and live beside me, one day when you are needed again I will send you back to earth and by that time I will have found a way to bring you peace too.” The first werewolves ever created loved and cared for their mother, so they agreed to return with her.

With a tenderness that a mother has for her young, she extracted two beams of light from the humans who had been loyal to her and cast that light into the sky, creating the Lupus Constellation.

“May you always be remembered, and shine the brighter for all your many services to your Goddess and to the humans.” She declared, before returning home with her two wolves.

When she visited the underworld that night, she saw the human version of her children. They were smiling while enjoying a banquet with their children.

Eternity had few highlights, but visiting her lover with her wolves was one of the rare joys that motivated her to rise with the moon each night. Her pups’ tail would thrash at the sight of him, but he never replied to her questions, or laughed at the wolf’s insistent howl. He sat at the water edge looking far away. Had this been how he had seen her all that time ago, when he had been pulled to cross the seas to find her?

“If we had forever, my days would not be so long, time would not be so cruel, and every tomorrow would be a gift.” She whispered to him.

“Why do you deny yourself niece?” Hades asked, startling Selene who thought she was alone.

“You know it is forbidden to love a human,” She replied, after she had composed herself.

He nodded.

“This was true, I suppose!” He replied, like a sage amongst fools.

“Was?” Selene specified.

“When the God’s first created humans, it was forbidden. The beautiful thing about time is that within it everything changes. The Gods care not about such things as long as they are still worshipped.” Hades clarified, smiling with his superior knowledge.

“My brother would hurt him.” She returned, voicing her concerns.

“When your brother threatened that, you were a girl who liked to walk the beach and think on what to do if you didn’t have forever. Now, I hear you are a Goddess who humiliated your peers with a wolf that was born from love. I also hear you now have two werewolves by your side to guard you from all enemies. I ask you moon Goddess, do you really believe that Helios could hurt your lover now that you have an army of wolves in your charge, and the love of the humans at your disposal?”

She turned to look at the veil once more. Although he couldn’t see her, he was staring into her eyes as if an inner sense had heard something intriguing in that direction. She turned to her uncle looking for confirmation.

“He can’t see or hear us, but in life he was told to marry and forget, yet in death he came to me as a single man with a heart full of loss that he couldn’t explain.” Hades replied, manipulation deeply rooted in his frank honesty.

Knowing it was wrong, knowing the price would be too high, knowing that for every favour there was a cost, she tried to turn away. Life had been morose without him. If they had forever, what a life they would live. Temptation hissed in her subconscious, and before she could reason with her impulse she dared to ask the question.

“To drop the veil and let us be together for the rest of time, what would be your price?” She asked her uncle, unable to extract her eyes from the face of her mate.

“Five hundred years of your lack of interest in earth, and in the affairs of your wolves. You and your lover must stay on your island until the years are over. That is the small cost of reuniting with Endymion forever.” He extended his hand, the magic lacing through his fingertips to make the agreement binding.

A small cost.

She gave the God of the underworld her hand, and struck a bargain that would change the course of the future. A twinge of guilt left an unclean residue on her fingers, but she was unable to focus on this. The tingles brushed over her skin, and his hands caused indents on her arms. Marginally turning so that she could appreciate every sensation, she felt his breath across her neck, the smell of his clothes and the roughness of his stubble. Equally, he tranced his knuckles against her cheeks, marvelling at the velveteen texture that was like the softness of flower petals. The face that had animated his dreams, made his subconscious see in colour while his waking days were bleak and grey. Hades imbued his magic into the man, granting him his memories and immortality for the bargain price of five hundred years. These years would be how he replenished the River Styx, which had suffered due to the intervention of the werewolves, but Selene wouldn’t know the true payment she had made until half a millennium had past.

Endymion was torn between elation and betrayal. Pacing on the sand he would often turn to look at his Goddess who was patiently sitting on the rocks. Each time the words he felt he should say would come to his lips he’d choke them back down and begin pacing again. Strangely, the wolf that he remembered had brought him meat all those nights as an old man was pacing with him, while a slightly more slender wolf was sat by Selene’s side.

“You should have given me with a choice,” Endymion finally spoke.

Selene nodded, and he reflected the gesture. There were many things that could have been done differently, but when so much time had already been wasted it rubbed against the grain of his soul to spend this time together arguing over the decisions that were made from a place of love. When the fire was lit and the food was cooking over the spit, he lay back and cuddled Selene in the nook of his arm.

“Tell me all I have missed.” He instructed.

While she condensed the years into an hours, the two wolves placed their heads across their parent’s bellies, relaxing on the sand. Occasionally, a gentle hand would run through their fur. When the tale was told to the present moment, silence followed in its wake.

“You were the hero of the people, your wolves were their protectors. What do you think Hades will do now you promised to be absent?” He asked her, concerned about the consequences that her choice would have on others.

“I don’t know, five hundred years for Gods is no time, but for humans it will be difficult. I just wanted to be selfish for once. I just wanted you. I just wanted to be yours.” She tried to justify herself. “Why did you never marry, and start a family like I told you to?” She asked.

This was the question that she had chased around her mind for many nights. If she had known that the life he returned to would be endured like cracked ice creating an imperfect reflection of what had been before, cold without love, shattered by confusion, and slowly melting with age she wondered if she would have made the same decisions.

“All that wanting for what you already had. You were always mine since the moon first sang to me, I was always yours. No potion or exile is strong enough to unpick the fibre that consists of my love for you. It never wavered. I didn’t remember you, but I knew my soul had been given to another.”

Kissing the tears from her eyes, they fell asleep in each other’s arms, and Selene couldn’t remember the last time she drifted away so peacefully, her nights were usually fraught with worry. When the purple glow of dawn began bleeding into the sky, Selene took Endymion to her carriage and together they pulled the moon home. It had never looked so bright before.

Swiftly, packing the items she needed from her abode in Olympus, Selene was determined that the next five hundred years would be spent on their island. It was difficult when all she felt she would ever need was sitting on the edge of her bed. Wrecking through her home like a lightning bolt ripping through the navy sky, Helios stormed into her room.

“What have you done?” He thundered, but Selene turned her head away from him.

The lack of attention made him splutter in fury. He slammed his hand down onto her dresser, but quickly back stepped when Theo and Thalia, inched forward with heckles raised, standing in front of Selene to protect her. Enjoying the power reversal, the moon Goddess deliberately started to ponder over each item, belittling her brother each time he spoke by talking over him about something trivial. She closed her bag, and squinted at the person who she no longer considered family.

“Sister, it is forbidden for a Goddess to love a mortal. What you have done breaks our laws!” Helios broached again.

“I don’t know why you think that information would be of any use to me.” She replied with a cool formality. “Hades has given him immortality, please feel free to take your complaint to the Underworld if you wish. I shall laugh at the outcome from my island.”

She gathered the items, she considered most useful and precious to her, then proceeded to walk out of her room.

“Oh and Helios, please use my proper title in future. As far as I am concerned I have no brother, and the next threat you contemplate whispering down my ear I will receive as an act of war. It is a war you will not win.” She spat her last words at him intentionally, wanting him to taste a sample of the venom she had allowed to course through her for all these years.

Helios stepped back at the potency of hate that she laced in each syllable, for he knew the poison was deadly, he could never mend the bond between them.

Selene and Endymion counted the years in waves and tides as they sat hand in hand on the beach each night. One of the main improvements Selene made to the island was creating a forest on the hillside with the trees so dense that the leaves seemed to tumble after each other, as if they were rolling down the decline. Often Theo and Thalia would run in there, flirting with each other before mating. She smiled with pride when she considered the mate bond she had created for her children, it was one of her greatest achievements, and had lasted forever. Endymion and Selene would often play a game each evening called ‘Now we have forever’. They would talk about all the plans they wanted to experience together, the lands they longed to see and the future they wanted to build. In their fifth hundredth year, they noticed their wolves were not their playful selves. They would whine to the moon and cry on the legs of their father and mother. Selene realised that the reckoning for her life with Endymion had been realised and not only had if affected the humans, but it had affected her precious children on earth as well. It was with a heavy heart that she sent her two first wolves down to earth and placed them in the bodies of two young pups. In the years ahead, the last pack would become synonymous with legend in the years ahead, and she shone with pride to watch them.

Watching the tribulations, tears and triumphs of her people in the pools of the rockery, Selene smiled to her lover.

“After all this time I finally have my answer. If we had forever, I would spend all my days loving you, just as I do now, just as I always will.” She vowed to him with unequivocal certainty.

“Forever is ours, my Goddess. Even death could not alter it.”

Leaning closer they kissed with a passion that made the stars shine bright and the moon feel whole.

TITLE: If We Had Forever

PEN NAME: Author May Clarke

PREVIOUS WORKS (All Available on Dreame):

The Birth of the Beta (Complete)

The Last Pack (Complete)

The First Wolves (On-Going)

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