Making Bonds

*Chp 15*

"How come every time I go to find you at lunchtime you've disappeared off the face of the earth instead?"

I smile as Brendan's arms wrap around me from behind.

"It was an emergency! There's something wrong with Taylor, she came into school late and covered in injuries and I've put her straight to bed. She is a lot more important than Gym." I say matter-of-factly.

Brendan's turns me so I'm facing him and looks at me with concern," Is she alright?"

I sigh and he holds me closer in his arms, "Hopefully. The injuries could have been worse but I don't know what happened yet because I didn't want to pressure her while she's injured, but she's telling me Everything when she wakes up." Then I see an opportunity so continue with a smug smile, "So this is the perfect opportunity to answer my earlier questions to pass the time and distract me."

He sighs and ignores the question, just moving me so I'm now sitting on his lap on the sofa and he laughs when he realises I was watching the Tweenies on TV. I just stick my tongue out at him and turn back to watching my show. He hasn't spoke yet but I know he's just finding the words, he'll speak when he's ready.

Ten minutes later and he still seems to be thinking about it so I give him a not so subtle look.

He just sighs, "This isn't easy you know. Where do I even start?"

I give him a 'Duh' look, "The beginning."

"Ok. We'll start with some background on werewolves and maybe I'll be able to work the rest out as I go along. There are many legends of where my kind come from. Some say that it all started with Native American tribes because of how some of them were said to be specially linked to some forms of animals like the wolf but that would make no sense because werewolves were documented in Europe long before America was discovered. There's some say we're just another species of animal, created like everything else in this world without starting to delve to far into theology. Someone even told me once that we were the unexpected outcome of a woman being raped by a Minotaur but that one is definitely impossible, even if Minotaurs exist they're half bull! Weirdly enough though, the widely accepted and most proven story originates. in mythology and is just as unbelievable as any legend.

Once there was a fair lady, she was gracefully and poised but motherly and kind and caring. She was a Lady of great standing but she feel in love with who was a simple pauper and, despite the class differences, she knew she loved him and she gave up all the advantages of her wealthy family to elope with the man. They lived together very happily in a small cottage on the edge of a vast forest, they made just enough money by scavenging in the forest for things of use or value to sell at market so they would venture into the forest almost everyday. The lady herself discovered she was very good at hunting and she would hunt rabbits and the odd boar for their food and to sell for meat. One day when they were walking through the forest together they were attacked by a mountain lion. The Lady had never faced something as big before and in her delay to act her husband had tried and failed to scare it off. He was dead. Driven by fear and sorrow she ran from the beast blindly but it was faster than her and quickly caught her up. The Lady thought for sure she was dead but then suddenly a wolf jumped from the surrounding trees and fought with the lion, he managed to kill it but he was gravely injured. To show her gratitude the Lady nursed the wolf back to health but she would not go back to her house because of the overwhelmingly painful memories so she lived with the wolf by a lake in the forest. The Lady and the wolf grew close but she still missed her husband terribly and the wolf was no replacement. Now, the Lady was raised with a family who believed the moon to be a Woman and they believed she watched over the world and helped those who were deserving. The Lady had never really believed this but the night of the attack and of her rescue had been a full moon and she believed it was because of the moon she was alive. So the Lady cried to the moon every night and thanked her for saving her but also begging for her husband back. She would do anything. She did this for a month straight because the moon can only ever fully concentrate on and help a person during a full moon but the moon heard all her pleas and on that night when she could she decided to help the lady for she saw the sacrifices she had made for her love and saw the purity of it. Unfortunately the moon could not bring her husband back to life but she did something unusual, she placed the Lady's husband's consciousness in the wolfs body. The wolf could change into a man and vice versa and although they were two desperate beings they almost always thought as one. The Lady of course was overjoyed and thanked the moon profusely. The lady and her husband had many children together but eventually she died and her husband died shortly after of heart ache. But the Lady's interest to the moon had not yet passed. The moon brought the Lady back and made her a sort of messenger of the moon, someone to help the moon herself and to help others in the moon's name. The Lady became known as many names from then on; Diana roman goddess and Artemis Greek goddess among them. She was considered to be the goddess of the moon and the goddess of hunting for her great skills which had only grown since her attack and she was even known as the goddess of celibacy sometimes because she refused to ever love another man but her husband. She became good friends with the moon and did her bidding but also always looked over her children and their descendants for they were like her husband, wolf and man living in one body, but she had only ever birthed males and her sons only ever birthed males or ordinary human girls so The Lady gifted each wolf man with a mate to love and be loved by like her and her husband. No one really ever knew what happened to her but those of us who believe the legend believe she's still out there, watching over everyone and everything but still taking an extra special interest in her offspring."