The Luna's Gift

New Moon House

The flight was long. Helena was over it before she even got to the airport, having only been away from the Daae for brief trips across the world to retrieve artifacts or to consult over something important. She stocked up the Dramamine to curb her motion sickness, and tried to sleep most of the way. She arrives at the Boston airport early in the morning, and quickly finds her driver holding a “Helena Flynn, Daae” sign. The driver is older, and he bows his head slightly in respect to Helena, and introduces himself, “Welcome to Boston, Ms. Flynn, my name is Humphrey, and I’ll be your driver while you’re here.” 

“A pleasure to meet you Humphrey, I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” 

“Not long at all ma’am, let me grab your bags for you.” 

“Thank you, about how long is the drive?” Helena asks, following Humphrey to the car.

“We’re about 45 minutes from the headquarters. Time for a nap if you need one!”

Helena immediately likes Humphrey, sometimes she can just tell about people, and she knows that he is a good soul.

Once seated in the car and on the journey to her new temporary home, she asks him to tell her about the pack, what they are like, and what she needs to know.

“It’s a great pack ma’am, really great. Not my Origin Pack, I came here in my thirties when I met my wife. This is her Origin Pack. New Moon has been my home for many decades now, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Not to say that things aren’t a little different here,” He chuckles, “it seems like we’re always getting into trouble for this or that. Always making the Daae mad.” He makes eye contact with her in the rearview mirror and smiles, “The Alpha who created the pack, Arthur, was a visionary. Really held up his namesake. Believed men were equal, and did things a little different, more of a democracy. People in the pack got to vote on things. Really set the tone for the prosperity of the pack, people were here by choice, and that made us stronger. Arthur’s grandson is Apollo, and well, that’s why you’re here.”

“Was he a good Alpha? Apollo?”

Humphrey nods, “Yes, he was. His father Ares was a great leader too. Wanted to work with mutts instead of destroying them. Thought peace would make us stronger than war, the opposite of his namesake.”

“Are there a lot of mutts here?” Helena asks, a little worried. Mutts are wolves without a pack, and without a pack means there is no keeping them in line or under Daae law. Mutts hunted, often times they hunted human, didn’t respect the secrecy of the Underworld, and lived as outlaws.

Humphrey nods again, “not so many in Rome?”

Helena shakes her head, “I guess there isn’t a lot of hunting ground there. And with the guards. Well, they’ve never really been a problem before.”

Humphrey gives a small sigh, “I think you see it a lot here. In America, specifically. We are wolves, but we’re also Americans, and we’ve never really been good at doing what we’re told or working together for the common good. Things are different in other countries. We are shaped by more than one culture.”

“Thank you for that insight, Humphrey. I’ve never thought of it like that, but you’re right. Other cultures are less...independent. Many are more family and community oriented.”

Humphrey laughs, “that’s a nice way to put it ma’am.”

“What about Artemis?”

Humphrey sits quietly for a few moments, and then says, “Artemis is the finest wolf this pack has ever had. She could be the finest Alpha we’ve ever had too, if given the chance.”

Helena nods in understanding, and they fall into a comfortable silence as she looks out the window. 

“We’re here!” Humphrey says excitedly as he turns down the driveway. Through the window, Helena sees an enormous manor house, with a luscious yard, and surrounded by trees on either side. The driveway is full of cars, and a few kids played in front. Helena has a pit in her stomach, realizing how nervous she feels. This is the most official trip she’s ever taken, and by herself. She is completely alone here, walking into a den of wolves.

Humphrey pulls around front, and a short and round older woman comes out the front door, with a big grin on her face. “Oh hello!” She waves at Helena, “I’m Ingrid, I’m the house manager. Welcome! We’re so happy to have you here.” She takes Helena’s hand into both of hers and bounces it up and down. 

“It’s nice to meet you Ingrid, I’m Helena.”

“What a beautiful name, for a beautiful girl. I hope Humphrey didn’t bore you too much on the way in, he’s a chit chatter.”

Humphrey comes up next to Helena with her bags in tow, “everyone loves my stories!” He protests.

“Aw, of course they do, dear.” Ingrid smiles at her husband, and bids them both come in, “Helena is staying in the Tribunal house out back, you can take her stuff right there. I’ll give her a tour.”

The foyer is beautiful, Helena can't wait to see what the rest of the house looks like. Hardwood floors, original built ins, and she can't help but notice the big pile of shoes by the front door. “Oh great, is the whole pack here?” Ingrid starts with the upstairs tours, three stories. Alpha quarters, and rooms for other pack members who want to live there. Offices, a library, a gym, even the wing where Ingrid and Humphrey live in case she needed anything.

“Out back we have a pool, which is where you will find the pups from dawn til dusk all summer long,” they stand on the stairwell looking out a big window over the backyard. "Pups", Helena thinks to herself. She's been around a lot of children during library tours, but there weren't any children who lived outside the Daae boarding school, and she rarely interacted with them outside of a professional capacity. Children made her nervous, and maybe it was because she didn't particularly feel like she was ever a child herself. Ingrid continues, unaware of Helena's inner dialogue, “there’s a nice deck, good for reading when it cools down. A gazebo, lots of weddings there, we have one coming up in two weeks! 3 acres back, all our land, lots or privacy. Some training stations, fire pit over on the side, we like to have lots of cookouts.” It's beautiful, the Daae woods are beautiful too, but this was different. There are kids running around screaming and pushing each other into the pool, teenagers sunbathing and looking inconspicuously at each other. It's a family. A whole, huge, family. Helena looks at Ingrid as she points out some other fixtures in the backyard, and her face was so genuine. Her smile, her laughter at the kids, Ingrid loves it here. Helena can feel Ingrid’s pride for this home. 

“Now for the best part, my office!” Ingrid leds her down the stairs and into a sprawling kitchen, “this is where I do my best work!” She jokes. Helena freezes. It's the kitchen. The kitchen. The one from her dream with the stranger. Helena looks around and no one else is here, and it's broad daylight so not exactly like her dream. But the kitchen island, the counter tops, the appliances, even the little salt and pepper shakers shaped like cows are all things she remembers from her dream.

“Oh dear, are you ok? Have a seat, you’ve had a long journey. I’ll get you some lemonade.” Ingrid pulls a chair out for her and bids Helena to sit. “What is this? What the f**k is this? This isn’t what it looks like, it can’t be. It’s just a coincidence, I must have seen pictures of this place before, and my subconscious inserted the images into my brain because I was anxious about the trip, and this is fine, Helena, this is just a coincidence.” Ingrid brings back a glass of cold lemonade and sits down across from her. 

“You must be so tired. It’s a long flight from Rome. I never cared much for flying myself, and now I just feel too old to be bothered to go anywhere else. That’s pretty much the whole tour, there’s a basement which is just storage and a little rec room for the pups, has a foosball table and stuff down there. Why don’t you rest, it’s still early in the day and dinner isn’t until 6. Afterwards, we’re having a fire and s’mores!”

Helena nods, getting her wits about her, “yes, I’m just...tired. It was a long flight, must be this country air, I never leave the city”, she jokes.

“I’m not sure if Humphrey told you or not, but Artemis wanted us to send her regrets that she couldn’t be here to greet you. She is out of town on pack business and will be back in a few days, Sunday at the latest. We have a pack meeting every Sunday night, so she’ll be back for that. She said she plans to meet with you first thing Monday morning! Until then, settle in, see the sites, take a run, there’s always so many people here to visit with!”