Legend Has It Book I ~{COMPLETE}~

Chapter 4 Legend Has It

Chapter 4

“The paint is still a little wet, Jack,” cousin John warned as we entered the old farmhouse.

Willow House was almost ready for the girls. I thought the name was fitting. It wasn’t Willow Tree and never would be. Willow Tree was all Juanita’s love. My sister had a gift for the girls like I had for the boys. I currently had eleven hormonal teenage boys so the Elders had decided to call in John to fix up the first home my sister and I used to rescue gifted orphans all those years ago.

Surrounded by Amish, we lived a pretty simple life. A good cleaning, a few minor repairs, and an order of groceries were really all it had needed. We’d always suspected that, someday, we might need this place so we tried to take care not to let it fall to ruin.

Willow House had never really had a name. The first year quickly proved we needed to expand and run separate homes for boys and girls. Juanita decided to take the girls west and build Willow Tree in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I stayed near the Appalachian Trail and built The Eagle’s Nest nearby.

Josephine, a distant cousin, would be arriving soon, as well. She was an Amish born Healer with the gifts and training of a Third Rank Mage.

The Amish community didn’t quite embrace any “Magic,” but they were willing to turn a blind eye because they did believe in helping others. Josephine reserved her powers strictly for the orphans, though I believe she could have joined the Circle of Greats.

It wasn’t really of my concern. We had just lost a beloved member of our family and had four orphaned girls headed our way. I was just grateful to have Josephine for that.

{~>*•**•**•*<~}

Other than the pit stop at the cabin, we’d been in the car for several hours. It was deep into the night and I instinctively knew the sun would soon rise. My stomach, keeping pretty good time, growled and I wanted pancakes. With cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon.

Sophia must’ve heard the growl.

“There’s a quaint little diner in just a couple more miles. We’ll stop there and get some breakfast,” she said, breaking the silence.

The backseat passengers were still feeling the effects of yesterday morning’s sedative and had either slept or quietly watched movies on a portable DVD player. I had been staring at the moon, following its path across the night sky and wondering about this Moon Goddess.

Sophia had told me some of the werecat legends that she believed were also shared by werewolves. One was that an ancient couple, ordinary humans, had been unable to have children. The couple were deeply saddened after multiple miscarriages and had traveled to a river, angry and swollen after cold, hard November rains, intending to drown themselves. There, they heard the weak cries of a newborn wolf pup. The Moon Goddess spoke to the couple and said, “If you save this pup, I will reward you greatly.”

The couple quickly agreed, but soon realized they had not come prepared to live, let alone rescue and care for a pup. The woman tore off pieces of each of their clothes and wove a small blanket for the pup as the husband searched for a dry place to shelter. He found an abandoned shack, and together they managed to find small twigs for a fire. Soon they were warm and drying off, but the pup was still weak and his breathing was shallow. The woman had just suffered another miscarriage and her breasts were engorged with milk. She offered a breast to the pup who latched on.

The couple decided to keep moving, rather than return to their village in shame. The pup grew stronger and began to grow. They named him Isaac and vowed to treat him like their own child. Isaac’s little claws and teeth began to draw blood from the woman’s breasts as he grew and even though the husband was quite skilled in hunting and kept his nursing wife fed, she was growing weak. Too weak to travel and they were now far from home. The husband began to fear for his wife and urged her to let the pup eat what he hunted and provided. Having never been able to nurse her own child, she continued to breast feed the pup who quickly tripled in size.

“The Moon Goddess promised to reward us if we rescued this pup,” she reminded her husband. Secretly, she enjoyed the breastfeeding after having been denied a child time and time again.

The husband continued to hunt to try and keep his wife’s strength up, but was having to venture out further and further for game.

Sophia told me the PG ending was that the husband returned from hunting after 2 days and startled the wolf who killed him, causing the wife to kill her husband in defense of what she considered her pup. The Moon Goddess turned the wife into the first shewolf in retribution.

Other versions say that when the husband returned, he found the Moon Goddess had turned the wolf pup into a young man and the husband found wife and the now mature wolf making love, hence why he killed the wolf.

Legend said the Moon Goddess then nurtured the wolfman’s seed, impregnating the wife with the wolf’s soul. The wife gave birth to the reincarnated wolf who matured into her mate, thus creating the Mate Bond. Together, the odd couple had four pups. One of their descendants somehow created the first werecat.

Soohia’s storytelling was now four years ago. Right before I’d been kidnapped.

Well, sort of kidnapped.

Josephine didn’t know who she could trust with my identity. She barely trusted ME with the knowledge!!