The Alpha of the Starlight pack and his parents stood on what was left of the stairs to the packhouse, waiting to address the pack members. Crael stood off to the side, calmly watching his new friends and family come together to hear what their Alpha had to say. He listened to their different suggestions of what they thought the Alpha was going to announce. He was amazed at the pack mentality and how different it was from what the humans knew or called family. They all truly did love each other and wanted to be there to help, grow, and be happy together. Even if one turns out to be a bad apple, they still give them a chance and try to help them find their way. The worst would be given a sentence of death that was carried out immediately, but mostly, they would be turned out to become rogue.
The Alpha held his hand up for quiet, and the crowd immediately stood silently. Alpha Lorn started explaining about finding the trap door after the battle and how his mother had known about it since she was a little girl. He said that on one of her visits, his father, her now-mate, had been mean to her and chased her away from him and his friends. He called her a stupid little she-wolf, and she had run off crying. His father had the courtesy to blush at the telling of his cruel words to his young-to-be mate. As the crowd grumbled over their prior Alpha being mean to their Luna, Lorn exclaimed, "To be fair, they were just children at the time and did not know they were mates yet."The crowd of wolves settled down, and the Alpha continued with the story of his mother sitting in the little field of flowers crying.
"Apparently, Ma was crying so hard that a passing faerie heard her, and the little girl's pitiful cries broke the faerie's heart. Although the fey knew she should not approach humans, she could tell the little girl was more than human. So she decided to find out what the child was and why she was so sad." Lorn told his wolves. The pack listened intently, and the pups were in awe that Luna knew a faerie.
At this point, Ma spoke up and said, "Lorn honey, I will take over from here. Yanylla is my friend and I should be the one to bring her into the pack." Lorn stepped to the side making room for his mother and father. The pack members were looking around for the fey, but she was nowhere to be seen. Lorn thought she was a smart little fey since she was keeping herself hidden until the story was done and the pack did not need to focus so much on what was to come.
Ma smiled at the pack and patted one of the pups on the head that had snuck up the stairs to stand at her side. "You see I did not understand why the boys did not want to play house and was always training or playing fight games. The faerie sat down next to me and I was crying so loudly I did not hear her when she spoke. So she screamed in my ear wanting to know why I was watering her grass. I jumped and screamed, she flew off." The group laughed at Ma's gestures and the way she altered her voice to sound like the faerie. "Once I calmed down, I whispered to the faerie I was sorry, and that she should let the person know when she approaches. The little fey told me she tried but she said I was caterwauling like bog muckle." Someone yelled out, asking what a bog muckle was, and Ma responded, "Exactly what I asked, and you know I learned that day to be careful what you ask a faerie because you might not like the answer. Instead of telling me what a bog muckle was, she snapped her fingers, and one appeared. It was the loudest shrieking, smelly, pig-looking, catlike thing I have ever seen. I held my nose and begged her to send it back to where it belonged." Some of the pups were running around shrieking now, and their parents were laughing and yelling, "Send them back, and oh please, Miss Faerie, send them back."
Ma laughed at the young ones and their parents' antics, and Crael once again was amazed by this species. Here, they have almost lost everything, and they are listening to a story and laughing like nothing ever happened. Cade cleared his throat, and everyone quieted back down, so Ma continued, "That day when I told my new fey friend what Cade had said to make me cry, she asked if I would like to get him back. Of course, I told her yes. She asked what I would like for her to do to get even, and since I did not know much about other nastier creatures at the time, I asked her to turn him into one of those big things." The wolves gasped at her confession and looked to their retired Alpha.
He shook his head yes and said, "She did and imagine my surprise when I was paid a visit from a faerie that night. She told me I was not worth the time it would take to faerie and torture. She let me know that she had met Mina that day and heard of how I called her stupid. The faerie claimed that Mina (Lorn’s father’s name for his mother. It meant mine.) had to be avenged, and it was her job to do so. She turned me into that bog muckle thing and told me she would return in the morning to turn me back. Miss Faerie informed me I was to spend the evening shrieking and thinking about how my words could hurt someone who would be very important to me one day." Lorn did not know his father had been left in that form all night. They had left that tidbit out in the version they told him. His mother then spoke again, "Cade dear, you shrieked louder than the real one did. I thought you were going to be furious when you were changed back. I did not believe my new friend would do it. I thought she was just trying to make me feel better. However, the fey kept her word and returned in the morning to change him back. Once she had done so she left for her realm but not before warning Cade to never hurt her friend again or he would spend more than a night as a bog muckle."
Ma continued to tell how her mate had come to her room and apologized to her for calling her stupid and hurting her. He had promised he would never hurt her again. Ma had run off to find the faerie, and they became partners in crime from that day. Ma explained at first, she was careful never to get close to the faerie for fear she was trying to lure her to the faerie realm. But over time she realized that was not what her friend wanted to do. The faerie just wanted a friend because she was not like her fey family and did not believe all creatures meant to harm them, and she was lonely. Once Ma finished telling how she had made a faerie friend, she continued on to how the fey had shown her the trap door and what was below it. The story of the ancient prophecy and then recited the prophecy to them.
One of the young she wolves called out, "Luna how were you able to understand the writing?"
That was when Yanylla made herself known and softly instructed, "Because my dear wolf friends, your Luna has fey blood in her." The entire pack fell hushed and stared at the beautiful faerie standing next to their Luna and holding her hand. The children were enthralled by Yanylla and tried to get closer to her. She smiled at them and watched as each of the older wolves came out of the shock they had felt at hearing they had a part fey Luna. Crael once again smiled as he now understood why Ma was so sweet and lovable. It was the fey blood calling out to everyone around her. As the pack members mauled over the prophecy and the story they were just told, they all came to the same conclusion. One of the elder wolves decided to be the one to speak for all of them, "Alpha, it seems the Starlight pack is part of this prophecy as it is mentioned by name in it. We all think that our lands and homes were destroyed for a reason. We think that the reason is because we are expected to go and find these two other packs."
Lorn smiled at his pack members. He knew they would figure it out, but he wanted to see if they had an inkling of who the other packs were, "Elder Roe, would you know who these two packs would be?"
The older man looked puzzled and stated, "I have been pondering upon it but I can think of no two packs that live that close together and are of the moon. I know of one a few days from here of the moon but no other that close of the moon."
Lorn knew the elder would not know of Moon Touched yet as it was still a fairly new pack and had not made a name for itself yet. He gave the elder a slight nod and addressed the pack once more, "We will gather what belongings we can salvage and travel to Snow Moon. I am friends with the Alpha there and he may be able to help us find the other pack. Before our journey starts, we have one last order of business to perform on the Starlight land."
Ma pulled Yanylla forward as Lorn turned to her and respectfully said to her, "Yanylla of the fey realm, I thank you for your friendship with my mother and father. I thank you for hearing a little girl's cries and not leaving her there all alone. I thank you for always being there when my mother needed you. I know you were there helping her through the loss of my sister, I would now ask that you let us take care of you as you have my mother all these years. Would you join the Starlight pack and whatever we may become in the future? Would you give your loyalty to me for now and always?"
Yanylla was startled by the question, and a look of fear came over her face. Ma pulled her into a hug and said, "It is okay my fey friend. We love you and I do not want you to ever be alone again. I know how lonely you are without your fey family. I can feel it. Le us be your family now. Let us love you as you have loved us from afar all these years."
Yanylla was so choked up that she could only manage a nod of yes. Lorn waited for her to get herself together, and when she was ready, she swore her fealty to him and the Starlight pack but most of all to her best friend and sister by choice, Mina. Lorn then cut a small slice in his and her hands and squeezed a couple of drops in an old chalice. A small amount of water was mixed with the blood, and then Lorn and Yanylla drank from the chalice. Yanylla felt the Alpha blood sour through her veins, mixing with her blood, and suddenly, she heard Mina's voice in her head. She smiled and tears streamed from her eyes. Her Mina hugged her tighter saying, "I told you I could make you cry. I love you, Yanylla, and now we are truly sisters."
Lorn whispered, "Thank you, Yanylla, for the gift of your blood, I will always cherish what you have given and never abuse it." Turning back to the pack, he announced, "Gather what can be carried, and we will send a moving company for the rest later. We will protect what secrets are hidden here. Everyone be reading to move on in two hours."