The Blood Moon

"I swear I saw smoke!"

"You think a girl can make fire? She can barely do anything! His grace made sure of it."

(Made sure of it? What does that mean?) I thought to myself.

"BUT I SAW SMOKE! THERE'S GOT TO BE A FIRE NEARBY!" Clint yelled.

Bjork slapped the back of Clint's head. "Stop all that fussing! If the whore is out here, she would have heard you already." Bjork grabs a hold of his left ribs and moans, "Arggg! Feck! You got me opening up my old gash!"

"But I didn't even do anything…"

"Shut up you idiot and just move along." Bjork pushes Clint forward, "I don't know why Pane's got his trousers up so high in his bumhole about this girl. MOVE IT!" He pushes Clint again and they draw closer to us.

Niiganii looks at me and whispers, "I've forgotten the hide. They're going to find it. We may have to shed blood tonight."

"How is the moonlight tonight?" Giken asked.

"Bright, but not quite full."

(Right, the moonlight might be in their favor and they might see us.)

I put my hand together and started to pray. "Ancestors of this land, please protect us from danger and harm's way. We are gathered here in a vulnerable moment and need your protection. Please watch over us."

The beaver spirit showed itself and along with a few other spirits.

"A promise we made. A promise we will fulfill." He slowly waved his hand in a circle and then disappeared.

"What does that mean?" I asked him, but he was no longer there and there was only silence.

The two men loomed nearby, "Bjork, I've got to take a piss." Clint said.

"Well, hurry up then." Bjork barked at Clint and Clint ran towards the us. He was standing right next to us, but it was as though he couldn't see or hear us at all. Niiganii slowly stood up, ready to strike, but I stopped her.

"We are protected by this land's ancestors." I whispered to her, "Their eyes and ears have been blocked from our presence."

Clint's wrinkled and tiny penis was shrunken from the cold as he peed. Once he finished he shook it a few times, ran a quick shiver, pulled up his trousers and headed back towards Bjork.

"DONE!" he said to Bjork.

"Good." Bjork replied as he crouched down onto the ground. "Blood."

"Blood?"

"...and fur. Someone was here and they were hunting. Looks like it came from deer." He swishes the blood and fur between his fingers. "This looks fresh, that means we aren't that far behind them. They probably heard us and made a run for it." Bjork gave an evil laugh, " I smell fear. I love it!"

"But Bjork, which way to go?"

"Back to Pane. We need more men power. There could be more of them than you and I could take." They quickly turned around and rapidly walked away.

Giken stood up watching them leave. "Maybe we shouldn't have let them leave?"

"We had to." Niiganii said. They both turned and looked at me. I was balled up on the ground as fear overtook my body, shaking me uncontrollably again.

"Sereen!" Giken swooped down and embraced me. "Shh…you will be alright. I am here."

I reached my arms up and out holding him tightly. "That was him. He's looking for me. He won't stop until he finds me!"

"Shh… everything will be alright. I won't let anyone get you. I promise. You are always safe with me." Giken whispered to me.

"We must hurry and leave. They will be coming back soon and with more men. It will be faster in the moonlight."

Giken nods.

"Sereen, don't be afraid. What you are about to see is our tribe's most sacred powers. We are the Ma'iingans. Brace yourself." he whispered in my ears.

I watched him as he stood up into the moonlight and transformed into a large gray-wolf.

"Quickly, hop on his back. We will race against the wind and meet up with the pact by morning." Niiganii said, helping me onto Giken's back as I pondered in shock from this new discovery.

(So I did see it correctly. He did run into the woods on four legs and the ancestor spirits are beavers...)

"Giken, I don't know how those savages got this far south below the fall, but I don't think they came alone. Take her and meet up with the pact." Niiganii turned to me, "Hold on tightly, Sereen." she gripped my hands hard onto Giken's fur coat. "Giiweba'iwe… fly home" Niiganii said to Giken and tapped him twice and charges forward.

I almost lost my balance, but my grasp was strong enough that I was able to keep steady as Giken sprinted away. "Giken, what about Niiganii? Why isn't she coming with us?" but Giken doesn't answer.

I looked back at Niiganii as we ran further away from her. She transformed into a wolf, twice as big as Giken and pure white. She howled at me and I could hear her singing, "Goodbye for the time being."

My heartache as though I was being pulled away from my mother again. I watched her shrink as we distanced ourselves from her.

But then I saw another wolf jump up from behind her, it's bite locked on to her neck. The aggressive growls of their battle makes my skin crawl as a lump starts to build in my gut.

"Niiganii…" I tried to yell out but it seemed as though the my vocal chords stopped working and all that come out of my voice was a grunt.

*

After a while, our trail started to go up into an incline and Giken slowed down. The coniferous trees are tall, thick and heavily blocking the moonlight from reaching Giken. His energy wanes, slowing him into a stop. I jump off his back and to his side.

"Giken are you alright?"

He transforms back into his human form. "I am doing alright. I just need a little rest."

"What about Niiganii?"

"She is the Alpha. You must trust that she knows what she is doing. Her commands are everything to the pact." Giken said as he rested on the ground.

"We don't have time for rest." I tug on Giken's arm and he struggles to stand. " We have to go back. Niiganii was attacked!!"

"I'm so exhausted." Giken said, ignoring what I just said. "This feeling is so odd. I can't seem to shake it off. I don't understand it."

I draped his arm over me and we slowly walked up a hill where a bunch of boulders sit after tumbling down the hill. It looked like a good place to rest and still be hidden for the night. The moonlight beamed nicely through the trees onto one of the boulders.

We made our way up onto the boulders that had a nice flat surface. I lay Giken down onto it and observed him as the moonlight hit his skin and when it touched his skin, his chest pushed up towards the sky and he levitated.

His arms and legs hang below him as he is pulled up about ten feet off the ground.

"Gikendaaso, it is your time…" voices whispered in the wind. The same voices I heard before Bjork attacked me.

Giken opened his eyes, struggling against unseen forces in mid-air. The moon started to cover in red and the light around us lit up bright red.

"Gikendaaso, it is your time. The blood moon is here." the voices continued.

"Ackkkk" Giken is struggling and his body tenses up and contorts around. It looked as though something was controlling him, like it did me.

I scanned our surroundings and saw a boulder that was relatively higher than the one I had Giken lay on. I quickly climbed to the top and then leapt off, grabbing a hold of Giken.

We both fall onto the ground and I take his necklace off of my neck and onto and around his. Similarly to what he did to me, and I embraced him tightly in my arms.

"Please, please, please stay with me. Please stay alive. Please be strong and fight this." I chanted over and over as he laid on my lap, his head enclosed in my chest. I held onto him until his body loosened from its stiffness and his breathing returned to normal.

I pulled away to look at his face, tears dripping off my chin and spattering onto his cheeks. His eyes slowly opened and he stared at me powerfully. Without a word between us he reached his hands up to wipe my tears, then pulled my face down to his.

We kiss as my salty tears continue to run down my face and into the crevices of my outer lips. He sits up switching his posture around to hold me in his arms instead.

Everything around us is still red from the blood moon. His body is hot to the touch and sweat starts to seep out of his skin. My lip never leaves his as this familiar feeling consumes us away from our reality. One of his hands grip strongly on my hair and the other below around my waist.

There is no time to think, just time to want. It was like we were both under a spell.

I wanted to consume the very air he was breathing. I wanted everything about him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and shoulders and he moved his hands towards my bottom and hoisted me up, effortlessly, wrapping my legs around him as he stood up.

He walks us to a flat area, our mouths never parting. I am now feeling heat fuming out of me and wanting him.

And from the way he is snogging me, it confirms to me that he wants me just as much.

He positioned me on my back, my legs now parted as he laid on top of me. We continue to kiss and I feel his hand move down cupping my breast, his thumb, tantalizingly teasing my nipple.

The kisses move down from my lips to my neck. He pulls up my shawl and places his warm wet lips on my nipples, sucking it and playfully tonguing it. I am, immediately, overcome by a tingling sensation that shoots all over my body that collects into one place, my genitalia.

I release him from my grasp and set my arms onto my side, gripping the dirt and grass on the ground.

Then I feel his hand reaching down, tugging my undergarment, and trying to pull it off.