The Moon Wolf

Chapter 41 (First Draft)

In the time it took to blink the shrine was filled with light again. However, this time, the light was emanating from Penn herself and not from the runes or from some celestial presence. This was so out-of-the-ordinary that, despite the pressure to return to the pups quickly, Penn took just a moment to examine herself. What had changed this time?

In the past, when strange things happened to her, Penn ignored it. Given that no one had seen much value in her since childhood, she had never  taken an interest in herself. And then, after being expelled from the pack in such a brutal way, she'd been too busy surviving in the wild to even be curious about the radiant shimmering skin she saw under the moonlight from time to time, or the tinkling silver fur that appeared throughout her coat on the odd occasion. Only now that she had some small inkling of her true identity, for the first time in her life she was genuinely curious about herself.

This latest transformation was even more astonishing than the hybrid forms the elders and even herself had been given by the Moon goddess only a short time ago. As Penn examined her hair and her hands, she realized she resembled Siming, Master of Fate, more than she did herself. Like him, she appeared to be illuminated from the inside. Only, instead of radiating every shade of gold imaginable like Siming did, as if he were the sun incarnate, she glowed the colour of the runes - azure, cerulean and icy blue. 

It dawned on her that her light source resembled that of a blue star. And then, the realization finally struck her, she really wasn't a shifter after all. And, she wasn't a hybrid biped wolf-human either. She was, as the elders had tried to explain a short time ago and as Siming had shown her, a soul-star from the Star Clan.

If open, if willing to listen, truth will resonate inside a person. And for Penn, it was doing just that right then.

"Guide me," she prayed to the Moon goddess, whom she trusted knew just how to help her find her true self, embrace her new identity and grow in a new direction. "I've chosen them," she whispered. "I'm going to live my days with them," she confessed. "Please, help me to help them?" she asked sincerely as her mind turned to the pups, the pack and the threat Codax posed. "I don't have time to waste," she tacked on as she opened her eyes and turned toward the little mouth of the shrine.

However, the moment she made a move to step forward she found herself instantly transported into the other cave where she met the stunned faces of the elders and Cassidy. A great collective gasp escaped their lips and all of them, including the wolves in their furs, bowed down immediately. 

"Get up, get up," she gently called to them as she bent and reached for elder Ruuni's arm. "It's just me. It's Penn," she tacked on with a little laugh.

They didn't stir.

"Come on, please," she begged feeling embarrassed and a little perplexed. "Really, it's just me," she coaxed. "I'm a little altered," she admitted with a laugh, "but very much myself," she promised as she knelt down on the cave floor and gently pulled Ruuni up.

"You, you ..." Ruuni began but could not finish. She had never seen anything so supernal except for her brief encounter with the Moon goddess.