Chapter 3

As she and Shadow approached the village, Luna noticed how elegant everyone and everything appeared. The town, though small, had a old-style look and feel about it, with vintage houses and shops and people on the street selling their wares.

The first business they entered was a dress shop. Shadow giggled and nudged Luna. "These dresses are all hand-made they measure you right here so the garments will fit properly. Lord Silveglade set up an account for you here, with unlimited funds. He said not to worry about how expensive your choices are; it will all be covered." Luna looked down sheepishly. "He didn't have to do that." she muttered as she walked into the shop. Her eyes grew wide as she saw the selection of dresses. She had never seen such a selection, and from here they certainly did not look home-made. She was impressed by the white and gold gown, with roses along both the neckline and hem.

An all white cat with bright blue eye's walked out from the back of the shop. She appeared to be quite pleasant and attractive in a long pink dress with matching earrings. With a high smooth voice she spoke. "Hello, ShadowStar. How are you?" She shook Shadow's paw, and then Luna's. "Well, this must be Luna. We have all heard so much about you. My name is Valerie and I will be helping you with your fitting today." As the cat walked around Luna, measuring. Luna told her, "I really like the white and gold dress over there." and pointed to the one she was trying to describe. Valerie agreed "Ah good choice, young princess. That will bring out the highlights in your fur." Luna allowed Valerie to do the necessary measuring, then Val had her try on the dress for a fitting. Luna inquired of her, 'Do you think you can alter the back to better fit my wings? That way i can use them as i may need." Luna paused as she caught what Val just said. "How...how did you know of my lineage?" The cat smiled at her. "Everyone knows of your past, young one. Rest assured that no one here will hurt you. Everyone here is trained to use magic in ways that are dangerous for any outsiders to oppose." As Valerie trotted back into the other room, Shadow excitedly bounced up and down looking at all the dresses and just as happy as could be. "The dresses will be done for you by the end of the week." she chirped. "Just in time for the festival!"

With everything said and done at the dress shop, Luna and Shadow wandered over to the marketplace to purchase some apples. They were unaware that they were being watched. Standing by the fountain on the other side of town was a fennec fox. He had brown and red fur and eyes as black as coal. His small frame was dressed in a brown shirt and black pants. By the look on his face, he gave the impression of not being too friendly. As soon as he saw Shadow and Luna looking his way, he disappeared as quickly as he had come there. As the two started the path home. Luna felt as if there was someone watching them, but she ignored the thought. Shadow skipped happily just in front of her, with shopping bags in her paws. "Don't you ever settle down, Shadow?" Luna said as she tried to catch up with her friend. Before she got a reply, Luna caught a strange scent coming from the riverbank. She called Shadow to come back. "Don't you smell that?" Luna turned her attention back toward the river. As soon as Shadow caught the scent, her eye's widened. "Don't go anywhere, i have to get Lord SilverGlade... NOW!" and with the bags still in her paws, she raced as fast as she could to the castle. Luna on the other hand did wait, but was too curious to just stay on the path and cautiously proceeded towards the smell. The closer she got, the more fear swept over her. When she reached the river's edge, her fur stood on end. Hearing something behind her, she quickly turned around, only to see Lord SilverGlade and shadow approaching her. "I told you to stay on the path, Luna. Come on, we better get out of here, NOW!" Shadow yelled as a black spark flew past her, nearly catching Luna's ear. The wind had picked up quickly and she turned to see from where that spark came from. All she could see was a twister with glowing red eye's in it's midst, she was unable to determine who or what was in the twister. SilverGlade stepped in front of her. "Who are you? What do you want?" He stood his ground growling at the intruder, holding his right paw behind his back, ready to pull out his sword which had started to glow gold. "I will ask you again, who are you and what do you want?" SilverGlade growled, but the creature just stood there, the black wind swirled around him. Silver wasn't going to take any chances; he drew his sword with both paws getting ready to charge. The more Silver growled the more the sword glowed. He took one step forward and then the creature dissapeared within seconds. The three of them stood looking around, wondering where the creature went, but they found nothing. No paw prints, no scent, no sign of anything, as if it was never there in the first place. A sigh of relief came from Silver, Please, please Luna. next time we ask you to stay in one spot please do so. I know you wanted to help, but it would have been useless against something like this. If i remember correctly, your blood runs pure gold until it dries, then the color changes to normal red. You would be very valuable to mercenaries." He looked at Luna and gave her a close hug. "Come, let's go home. Dinner should be serve as soon as we walk into the door."

After dinner they had a nice chat in the library. Luna had never seen so many books in her life. Setting her glass of water down, she looked over at SIlverglade. "How did you manage to get such a rather large place to yourself? It must be overwhelming at time being alone here." Silver chuckled  bit as he took a sip of wine. "I had this place built a long time ago after I left your side. I figured if I ever were to find that one person for me. I would build it bigger if she wished." He grew silent, and his smile faded a bit. Then he looked up as the clock chimed. "Well it looks like It's time to turn in for the night. Do you remember where your room is?" Luna nodded and he held the door open as she walked past him.

She went up to her room and took a warm shower before slipping into bed, but she couldn't sleep. She started to wonder what happened to her family, and how did she get back in that lab? Most of all, how did Silver come into her life...he said "back into". The re are so many questions and she didn't know where to find the answers or who she could ask about them.

She was finally tired enough to close her eyes. Midnight rolled around and she was awakened to a noise outside her door. She silently crept closer and as she did, she caught the same scent that she smelled near the river. She didn't want to shapeshift, so she simply held ack her paw, allowing her claws to sharpen and extend with a slight hint of poison on the tips. Taking a deep breath, she yanked the door open, ready to strike, but as soon as the door widened, a fennec fox flew into the wall beside her with Silverglade holding onto him as tight as he could without hurting him too much. Silver's eyes had turned black with anger, and he bared his teeth. growling. "Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? If i catch you and your men here again, you will regret it!" The fennec fox just looked at him and laughed. "You know why we are here, the new tech lab wants their experiment specimen back... did you know her blood runs pure gold before it dries?" Silverglade growled more and as he pressed the fox tighter against the wall, the wall itself began to crack. Before he could get anymore information from the fox, he vanishes.

Luna put a paw on Silver's shoulder. "What did he mean that my blood is pure gold?" Silver's eyes turned back to their normal gentle color and he sighs. "Come, there is something you should know."

Luna willingly followed him into a part of the house she had never seen before. The walls and ceiling were a dark red. Silver produced a rather large book- large and very old- and handed it to Luna. As she opened it, she saw on the first page a picture of two lycans. Luna looked confused, not just a little, but a lot confused. "Who are they? I have never seen this before." Silver walked over to Luna and put his paw in her shoulder. "Luna, this is part of your family. I'm not sure which ones though." Trying to take in all of this made her head hurt, the more she thought about it. So she quickly put the book down and hurried fast as she could to her room and to bed.