Something Blessed, This Way Comes.

Episode three : Shifts, Warg and Rogues.

At first I could feel my entire body, from the inside out burning, for a moment I honestly thought I was on fire.

Then the first crack.

Oh my god did it hurt.

I could already feel the tears leaking from my eyes.

Then more cracking and snapping of bones, it was that intense I fell to the ground on my hands and knees.

“AHHHHHH” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“IT HURTS, THIS REALLY f*****g HURTS!!”

It felt like time had stopped. Everything was still, quiet.

Then I heard it.

CRAAACKK!!

It was loudest crack I had ever heard; it was louder than a tree breaking in half. And the pain, oh my god the pain was unbearable.

“I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE, IT HURTS SO MUCH!!” I screamed.

By this point I realised that that loud crack, was indeed my spine breaking and moving around into position.

I was full on bawling by this stage. I didn’t think I could hold on.

But then I heard a voice.

It was Skoll.

“It will be ok my daughter, you can do this, you are strong, it’s nearly over, just a few more minutes and it will all be over, there won’t be any more pain.”

I looked towards my creator, my father.

He called me his daughter.

I could feel Lu now taking over, I didn’t fight her, I let her take complete control.

I could still feel the burning sensation, although it wasn’t as bad.

I had stopped leaking from my eyes at least.

When I couldn’t feel any more cracking or snapping of bones, the first thing I did was look up to the moon.

Sure enough, the pink and gold rings were gone.

I lowered my head and looked at Jade and Skoll.

Now Jade’s eyes were leaking.

“Lu?” I whispered.

“Yeah?” she replied back.

“What do we look like?”

“See for yourself.” I could sense her smiling.

As she, I mean we, as we walked to the edge of the pool, Lu lowered her head.

I was in complete awe.

The first thing I noticed were our eyes. They were a bright pale pink.

Our fur was gold, except for the fur on our forehead. That was white with gold symbols all around it.

It took me a moment, but I realised that the white patch was in actual fact a crescent moon.

“Well hello there, Luna, Goddess of the moon.” Lu said to me. I smiled.

I again looked over to Jade and Skoll.

Jade’s eyes were no longer leaking.

I slowly walked towards them.

That’s when I realised that I was almost as tall as Skoll.

Well in wolf form I was.

I swore I saw one of his eye’s leak a drop.

Both Skoll and Jade knelt to the ground and bowed their heads to us.

“Okay guys, come on now. Get up. There’s no need for that silly nonsense.” I said to them.

“We are showing you respect and acknowledge your rightful place in this world.” Skoll said.

“Oh my Luna, you are gorgeous.” Jade said. Her voice a little shaky.

“Lu, I think we should go for a run, what do you think?”

“Oh hell yeah! Care to join us Skoll?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Have fun but be safe Luna!” I heard Jade shout out as Skoll, and I ran into the forest.

Skoll and I ran through the trees, over hills, through creeks and a river for at least a good two hours before we decided to head back to Jade.

“You realise you still have to change back into human form again once we get back?”

“Yeah I know Skoll. I guess that will hurt to?”

“Honestly kiddo, I couldn’t tell you.”

“Did it hurt for you, you know, when you could change back?”

“It did a little, but that was an extremely long, long, long time ago.”

“Oh well I guess I’ll just have to wait and see won’t I?” I said this to no one in particular.

Jade was outside waiting for us to return.

“Ahh, thank the stars and moon you’re back!” Jade exclaimed.

“We weren’t gone for that long Jade, geezers.”

“Two hours is a long time when you are a new reborn wolf/moon Goddess!” she said.

“Okay, okay.”

I sighed.

We all knew what the next step was.

I had to successfully transform back into human form for the transformation to be fully complete.

I took a deep breath.

Lu didn’t need to be told, she let me take over.

Surprisingly enough it didn’t hurt.

Jade came over with a blanket and wrapped it around my body.

She kissed my cheek.

“I am so proud of you Luna; I’m going to head on inside and let you two have a chat. I’m guessing there are a few more things your father needs to tell you.”

Jade kisses my check again. Then she walks over to Skoll and kisses the side of his huge head.

I just smiled as she walked back into the house and gently closed the door.

I suddenly realised I was exhausted.

I sat down on the grass.

Skoll came over and I leant into his huge strong yet super soft furry chest.

Before I knew it I was fast asleep.

When I woke up it was three days later.

Boy, I was getting real damn good at sleeping the days away.

Jade had told me that Skoll had left.

Because I wasn’t completely on my own as I had Jade here with me, I guess he figured he didn’t need to be around anymore.

He was wrong. He was so wrong on so many levels.

He was my father. He created me, so yeah, damn right I still needed him!

I decided to just let it go and get on with the important s**t I needed to do.

Jade and I went into the study. Too my surprise, the three walled, floor to ceiling bookshelves that I had made, were almost completely full.

I stood by my desk and just stared with my mouth open.

“Careful there Moon Goddess, you’ll catch flies with that mouth of yours.” Jade giggled.

I soon closed my mouth and made sure I hadn’t swallowed any flies.

I sat down.

Still in awe of all the books. There were even scrolls and ancient looking tomes.

Who was I kidding, it was all probably ancient stuff.

“Jade?”

“Yeah.”

“Where did all these books and stuff come from?”

“Ahh, you noticed!” She mocked.

“Come on Jade, I’ve…wait a second…. did Skoll give all these to us?”

“Yes he did.” Was all Jade said.

“What are you reading?” I ask her.

“This? Oh it’s a book off spells, this one is actually mine.”

“Oh okay.”

“So Luna, I have taken the liberty in giving you those two bookshelves, while I have this one. I did this so that our literature and personal notes wouldn’t get mixed up or anything. I hope you don’t mind?” Jade replied meekly. I think she realised she may have overstepped the boundaries a little. But I wasn’t too fazed by that.

“No, no that’s fine. Honestly I think that is a great idea.” I replied as I walked over and gave her a big hug.

When I hugged her I got a vision. Was this another new ability?

“Ahh Jade?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong Luna? You look like you have seen a ghost or something?”

“Ummm no, nope, not exactly. I saw you with clouded eyes, like your eyes were completely white and clouded over, like you were blind or something?” I was feeling a little scared at this point, I hadn’t had visions before.

“Oh I’m sure it’s nothing to get concerned about, it’s probably a part of a really hard spell or incantation or something along those lines. Try not stress about it too much.”

I could never understand how calm and at peace Jade always seemed. It was like nothing could bother her.

“Luna, Jade is bothered by things, she gets just as worried as you or I, but she knows how to hide it and deal with it, whatever it is, when the time and need arises.” Lu said.

“Okay, how the hell do you know that?” I asked Lu.

“Honestly? I don’t know, maybe it’s because we have grown to love and care for her, that that was a reasonable answer, or it could also be that I have taken a lot more notice of her and all the little things she does without you noticing.”

“Hmmm, I guess you’re right, she has always had a calming aura around her.”

I looked up at the bookshelves and noticed several books with no titles on the spine. I got up and went over to them and had a look. They were all empty, completely empty.

“Oh, yeah I almost forgot to tell you. Skoll said that all the blank books, scrolls etc are for you to use for your laws etc. He also said that every single thing that you write down, must be written in your blood.”

“My what now?”

“Your blood, then they, the laws, rules etc can’t be broken, removed or altered in anyway, unless it is done by you and you alone.”

“Oh my gosh, now how the hell am I going to use my blood?” I asked her matter-of-factly.

“That’s easy, have you forgotten that I am a witch?”

“No, of course I haven’t forgotten.”

“Uh huh, well it’s actually going to be rather easy, we cut you, meaning I will cut you so that you bleed heaps into a bowl and then you use it. Easy Peasy!”

I narrowed my eyes a little while looking at her.

“Your enjoying this aren’t you Jade?”

“I don’t know what you’re on about Luna, how dare you think I would enjoy making you bleed, humph, and I thought we were friends!”

A few moments later we were both laughing so hard our eyes started to leak.

Once we had calmed down I placed all but one of those empty books back.

The one I had in my hand still, was going to be the start of my laws.

“So my understanding is that as soon as I have written, for example a law down, then it takes effect straight away?”

Jade nodded.

“Luna, can I just recommend something to you first?”

“Sure Jade, go ahead.”

“I think that perhaps you should read everything you can on all the supernatural’s, that way it will make it all easier for you to understand what laws exactly are going to be beneficial and relevant.”

“I guess you have a point there, but it’ll take too long to read everything we have.” I whined.

“That as it may, but at least then you’ll know what to write.”

Jade was always right. She knew what to do, why couldn’t she be the moon goddess? Why did it have to be me?”

I sighed heavily. Grabbed the first book on werewolves and began reading.

I was actually surprised at how quick I could read these books, the majority of them were well over a thousand pages, but I had no problem in the world reading them very quickly and being able to understand everything I was reading. I had every single book, scroll or tome on werewolves all read by the time we had dinner.

This was a good starting point, because that meant that tomorrow I could start writing. Well that is once I have by blood drained from my veins first.

Night was starting to fall.

I decided to let Lu out for a run before we turned in for the night.

I let Jade know so that she wouldn’t worry. All she said was to be careful, as she climbed the stairs to her room.

Over the last few nights I had been letting Luna take over so she could run. Shifting hurt nowhere near as much as, my very first shift did. I will never forget that first shift, ever. I made sure that I had a little wooden chest, magically concealed so that only Jade, Skoll and my self knew where it was by the pool where I had my first shift. This chest would hold my clothes while I was in wolf form. It was also a place where Skoll could leave bits and pieces for me and Jade, like a new scroll or book, or even little gifts for us. We could also leave things for Skoll there as well.

Once I was naked I let Luna take over.

She loved running through the trees by moonlight, even when the night sky was completely cloudy and dark, we could see no problem at all. It was like it was always day light in our eyes.

We ran for miles, then Lu stopped suddenly.

“Lu, What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t really know, but can you smell that?”

I could. I told Lu that it almost smelt like wet coals.

She agreed.

Lu was instantly in defence mode, her hackles were up, her head lowered, and she was growling.

She slowly walked forwards, well crept forwards more like it, she was so careful on where she placed her feet on the ground, making sure not to stand on a twig and snap it.

Whoever or whatever she was stalking finally came into view.

It was a small group of about six wolves.

They all looked mangy and scruffy. A few of them could definitely use a bath.

They suddenly stopped whatever it was they were doing and sniffed the air.

Then they all turned our way.

When they saw Luna the wolf, it was like they knew exactly who she was, sorry, sorry. They knew exactly who she is (my bad).

And the strangest thing happened.

They all bowed their heads to her.

I had never in a million years thought that that was going to happen. To be honest with you I was actually hoping for some sort of resistance, a fight maybe.

Anyway after they acknowledged their moon goddess, they all turned and high tailed it out of there.

Weird.

That’s all I could think.

Little did we both know, but those six wolves, they were going to have a very important role in the not-too-distant future. Which was also going to change their lives for the better as well.

We headed back to the pool.

When we got there, Skoll was there waiting.

Hello there young moon goddess, how are we this evening?

Good and you Skoll? How are you this fine evening?

Hahaha, very well indeed. I see you have briefly met the rogues.

The what now?

The rogue wolf pack. They are for whatever reason, believe it or not, against all the chaos and dishevelment that our worlds are currently in.

Oh? That’s a bit weird isn’t it? I mean in all the writings I have read, rogues are those who do whatever the hell they like, hence why they are rogues, I guess.

I had to admit, this telepathy talking in each other’s heads, was so cool. I enjoyed it very much. Anyway back to the topic at hand.

As true as that is, and I must say that everything that has been written so far is truth, it still does not explain, why this particular band of misfits are for a lack of better words, good.

Yeah I am hearing you loud and clear on that one pops. I giggled.

Pops hey? I see. Anyway I actually came by to check in on you. I have noticed that Luna lets you out every night for a run Lu? That is good. But you both still have to be extremely careful. If those rogue wolves were in fact the true definition of rogues, then you may have found yourself in a little bit of trouble.

Understood loud and clear.

Good. You both can’t take this lightly.

All good. Anyway, we told Jade we’d only be gone for two hours, so we best head back.

Very well. Be safe.

And with that Skoll was gone.

Lu then let me take over and I shifted back, put my clothes on and headed back to the house.

Jade must have already gone to sleep as all the candles baring the ones on the stairs were out.

As I climbed the stairs I blew out the remaining candles and headed to my room.

Softly I closed the door and leant on it for a brief moment or two.

Something was bugging me about those rogues.

They didn’t really fit the description of them, they only thing that did fit was the state of their fur. The fact that they bowed their heads to me in acknowledgement and didn’t attack was weird. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised the whole atmosphere between them and us was, well, peaceful.

Which goes against absolutely everything that the scriptures are saying about rogue wolf packs.

So why? Why were these wolves different?

I had no idea at this point.

But what I did know was that I was dog tired, and my feet hurt.

So, I took off my clothes, crawled into bed and went straight to sleep.

I hadn’t been asleep for very long, well it felt like that at least.

When I awoke I was in a pool of sweat. All the bed clothes were on the floor in a crumpled heap, my breathing was erratic, and I was a little confused as to where I was.

I must have had a nightmare.

Once I pulled myself together, I realised that I was in my bed. I sat up.

I managed to get my breathing back to normal, I had a splitting headache and for some reason I felt like I had just been in a full-on wolf fight. Every part of me ached and felt bruised. It was a good thing that I would heal in a few hours.

Then I remembered.

What I thought was a nightmare, was actually another vision.

I ran out of my room and woke Jade up.

“Bloody hell Luna, it’s too early for this s**t!” Jade said rubbing her eyes and sitting up.

When her eyes were focused enough she looked up at Luna.

“Holy f**k girl, are you ok?” Jade exclaimed.

Jade moved off the bed so fast and had her arms wrapped around Luna. She carefully guided her out of the room and carefully down the stairs. Making sure to light all the candles (with her magic) so that neither of them tripped over or down the stairs.

“Girl it looks like you’ve gone a few rounds with Skoll.”

“I had a vision, I mean I think it was a vision, it could have just been a nightmare, no, no it was definitely a vision.” Luna’s voice was so shaky.

“Ok, girl, let’s get you sitting down in front of the fire. I’ll go make us a hot cup of tea.”

A few minutes later Jade returned with two steaming hot cups of soothing and relaxing tea.

“Jade, it was horrible. I was actually fighting for my life, but in wolf form, against a wolf hybrid.”

“A wolf hybrid?”

“Yeah, yeah he was huge, not as tall as Skoll, but so much more muscular he was a dark smoky grey colour, his eyes were completely black.”

Jade was silent for a while.

“He also had a scar over his right eye. It was a big scar at least nine inches long.”

“Oh god no, it can’t be.”

“Who can’t it be? Jade?”

“Warg.”

“Warg? Who the f**k is Warg?” I asked.

“Warg is an old wolf, I think he’s about the same age maybe a little younger than Skoll.”

“Ok, but that’s not telling me who he is.”

“Warg is dangerous, very, very dangerous. He is partly the reason Skoll can’t change back into human form.”

“How come there’s nothing written about him in the books we have?” I queried.

“That you would have to ask Skoll.”

“So what else happened in your vision, I want to know every detail, don’t leave anything out.” Jade almost sounded demanding.

The first thing I remembered was that I had just let Lu take over and we went for a run.

It was just on twilight, there were some stars twinkling in the sky, the moon had just started to rise, there wasn’t a cloud in sight.

I briefly saw the six rogues from earlier on, they nodded and bowed their heads towards me.

That was when I noticed that they all looked cleaner, like they’d just had a bath. And their eyes were all different colours. One had blue, two had green eyes of different shades, one had hazel eyes and the last two had yellow and burnt orange eyes, respectively.

The eye colour I hadn’t noticed before when I met them.

I also remembered that the wolf with the burnt, orange-coloured eyes was looking at me in a strange way, almost like he was pleading to me to not continue on my run, to take a different path. But, because I hadn’t noticed this in my vision I kept on going.

I was in the deepest part of the forest at this stage, when I sensed something was off, I could sense another presence nearby. But it wasn’t a nice one. It wreaked of evil.

Then HE came into view.

Warg.

Well, well, well. What do we have here then hey? He sneered as he circled me.

He was big, maybe about a foot shorter than Skoll, but he had a lot more muscle mass than Skoll did.

He had red glowing eyes, his fur was a dark grey and was surprisingly well maintained. He was also sporting a rather large scar going across his face which went over his right eye. That’s when I noticed that the right eye was glowing a lot less than his left, and that it was slightly clouded.

His paws were massive.

He circled around me two more times. I just stood my ground and waited for him to stop.

What do you want Warg? I sneered back at him.

How did I know his name in my vision?

What is a pretty little thing like you doing out here all alone? Don’t you know these forests are dangerous?

I am perfectly well aware the situation with not just these forests Warg, but with everything. I snarled.

Oh really?

Warg do you even know who I am?

You are of no importance to me little she-wolf, once I’m done with you, you won’t be important to anyone.

By this stage, the six rogues had obviously heard what was going on and had silently snuck around and were all hiding behind me in a semi-circle. I pretended I didn’t notice them; I didn’t want them to get killed. But they knew that I knew they were there.

My dear Warg, I am Luna, the moon goddess. I said.

Once he had learned of my identity, I could hear him growling.

So the old dog finally got his little Luna did he. Well, his little Luna will be his dead little Luna when I am through with you. He spat.

Without missing a heart beat he lunged straight for me.

I managed to evade a collision.

Warg quickly turned around and began to charge towards me again all the while growling and snapping his jaws.

I tried to sidestep him, but it was too late, he bit down on my left side, I howled in pain. Blood seeping out between his teeth.

I could feel him start to slowly ease the grip he had on me, then at just the right moment I quickly turned my body slightly to his left side and bit down on his upper front left leg.

It was his turn to howl. Only I didn’t ease up on my grip, no I only bit down harder, and harder until I heard the bones break off in my mouth.

I could taste his blood.

I could actually taste the evil in him, if that’s even possible.

The scream that came from him was ear piercing.

But at least now I had the upper hand, or paw in this case.

So, what was it you were saying Warg? Oh yes, when you’re through with me, well it looks like you have a bit of a handicap there my dear fellow. I said. This time it was me who was circling him.

You won’t be able to beat me little girl!

Oh really, how about you let me be the judge of that.

As I moved closer to him, I managed to move out of the way, but not before two of the rogues ran and threw themselves on to him. The both of them landed on his back, and as they bit down on him he howled again, he managed to throw them off of him. One rogue went flying into a tree, while the other one landed on a large rock.

I heard bones break and soft whimpers, then nothing.

That was my mistake.

Warg again lunged at me and grabbed a hold of my throat, and he started to crush my windpipe.

I could feel the life slowly draining away.

My eyes were starting to close, I was feeling limp, when all of a sudden I was dropped to the ground, I started gasping and coughing, trying to get much needed oxygen into my burning lungs.

This time all six rogues were on top of Warg fighting him with all they had.

The first two that had been thrown off him earlier, clearly survived.

Warg was getting weaker and weaker, and it wasn’t just me that could tell.

The rogues released their grips on him and backed away.

I stepped forward.

As I lowered my head down to his I whispered in his ear.

I told you I would be the judge.

And with that I bit down on his throat. He fought it for a bit. But I didn’t falter, not once did I lessen my grip on his throat.

I heard bones snapping, I could hear him gargling, trying to breathe but it was no good, blood was spewing out of his mouth.

With the last little ounce of strength I had left I bit down.

I bit down so hard that it severed his head from his body.

The body twitched a few times, then it was still.

I looked over to his face.

His eyes were wide in horror.

Jade was sitting there in complete silence.

The look on her face said it all.

“You defeated him” Jade whispered.

“Yeah I did, but I had help.”

“That’s besides the point. The point is you killed him.” Jade was getting a little too excited by all of this.

“Jade, I knew who he was in my vision, yet I have never seen him.”

“Yes, that is kind of trippy. And what’s with all those rogues helping you?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to write all of this down. Infact from now on any vision or premonition or whatever I have I’ll be documenting.”

“Good idea Luna.”

“You know the funny thing is, when I woke up from that vision, I could actually taste his blood.”

“Ewww, that’s a bit gross.” Jade said scrunching up her face.

“Tell me about it.”