Children of the Moon

THERE WEREN'T ALWAYS DRAGONS IN THE VALLEY. In fact, before the summer moon, there wasn't a living soul that had seen one. Tonight, there were two of them. Nawgua could smell their scent on the cool breeze brushing against his face. He could not see them yet from his perch among the full moon cliffs, but they were there and still drawing nearer. He had to warn the clans, but he didn't want to draw the dragons' attention to his.

Tonight, was Nawgua's first watch and there'd be hell to pay if he screwed it up. Shawasta, the matriarch of clan Lutan, would again be disappointed in him and he couldn't bear to see that look in her eyes. Deep in his chest,, Nawgua could feel the pressure of a howl building to bursting. He tried to quell the instinct, but the air rushed up to his throat and burst through his lips into the cold ring of a wolf cry...

A lone call answered from the mountains on the far side of the valley and then another from down the Wyvuine River. Nawgua heard no other howls from the moon touched realm as he turned and ran back to the dens. That's only two of the clans of the Shonxioni... What happened to the other five? He thought as he raced into the dark of the paths beneath the evergreen roof.

A world of saplings and undergrowth flashed by Nawgua unnoticed. Three more calls raised their voices into the night behind him, but he was no longer paying attention to their number. The thunder of crashing limbs from the valley below was all that filled his ears.

Before the first dragon appeared in the northern mountains last month magic had been relegated to campfire stories and folktales even among wolves. Clan Lutan was no different and Nawgua's belief in its existence had singled him out for ridicule more than his black coat of fur. At least now no one makes fun of him for his belief in dragons. They all believe me now. I wish the dragons would fly back into those tales though. He couldn't bear to lose even one of those laughing faces now. Especially Nocturnia, she was his best and only friend among the Lutan.

Then he heard the haunting sound of Nocturnia's howl in the thick of the forest ahead. She'd heard him. He could see her fire blue eyes shining back at him from up the hill ahead. Soon the whole clan would be on the run and the hunting party would form to take on the beasts at their rear. The clans had lost many hunters this way. The sky began to darken overhead. Nawgua's heart pounded hard in his ears, and he found his runt paws moving faster than the wind it seemed.

The words of the seer Torga from one of grandma Shawasta's tales filled Nawgua's head, "From the mountain's watery caverns the winged serpents rise and scour the earth. When the rule of shadows has begun." What the rule of shadows was... Nawgua had no idea, and he was determined not to find out.

The cries of the other clan members joined Nocturnia's in their sorrowful song. Twenty pairs of glowing eyes gathered around hers and he pushed toward them. Then out of the shadows, a dark silhouette of a hooded figure standing on two legs like one of the villagers back in the valley stood between Nawgua and his clan's peering eyes. But the figure was much taller than one of the village men and as Nawgua neared the creature it grew higher and higher like a shadow in the afternoon sun. Unnaturally tall it became and still hooded with the night the towering figure pointed a long-gnarled finger at Nawgua.

The sound of branches and whole trees snapping from their places filled his ears from all around him. Then Nawgua was shut off from the face of the night in every direction and the stars disappeared. One by one they vanished and Nawgua found himself shut up in a box made of shadow. Even the mountains became silent.

The voice of the shadow man--only a shadow creature could have such a voice--broke the silence and said, "Take this one to the markets of Caeron." Then the entire box that held Nawgua shook and moved away from clan Lutan, their mountain forest home, and Nocturnia's fiery gaze. A scent that made Nawgua's mouth water wafted into his nostrils and started spinning inside his head. Sleep overtook Nawgua and the last image in his mind of his family's eyes shining in the night.