赤裸裸的滑稽故事

‘Ashleigh, you are unique among your pack and all the rest of the werewolves. There are only three others like you in all the world.’

‘Your father, your brother, and your mate.’

The voices were muffled. She could hear the words, but barely.

‘That’s the reason I came. I need to know, who is my mate?’

That one came through clearly. It was her voice, her words.

“I will tell you the answer, but I must also tell you something else. Something you will have to forget.”

She recognized that voice as well. It was Lian.

Ashleigh opened her eyes. Around her, she saw the room where she had first met Lian. Dark shades of blue on the walls, random bits of white and silver. An evening sky painted on the walls around her, and above her, the moon’s light always shone brightly.

Looking down, she saw she wore a pale blue dress, soft and flowing like a nightgown. Her hair was tied up in a loose braid over her shoulder.

She had returned to the day she met Lian. To the room where they talked about Caleb being her mate. To the moment that had been hidden from her ever since.

Ashleigh wondered if this was just a dream or if she was so tired from four nights of real and metaphysical lovemaking with Caleb that her mind didn’t have the energy to create new images and was relying on memory instead.

Based on past experiences, she didn’t expect to learn anything new from this dream. Instead, wouldn’t it be better to dream of far-off places and adventures?

Lian sat before her, and the dialogue between them continued like a scripted scene playing out before her eyes.

Lian stood up from her chair and walked to Ashleigh, offering her a hand. Ashleigh took it. Lian guided her to the wall across the room, and just like before, the dark blue wall fell away, and a tapestry appeared.

“These are the original werewolves. The first blessed by the Goddess and charged with ridding the world of the Fae threat.”

Ashleigh looked up at the tapestry. Bodies, monsters of all shapes and sizes, large trees with eyes and mouths, and ghoulish sinewy creatures with faces that appeared to be screaming lined the bottom.

Now she raised her eyes higher. She saw boots of steel, grey, and gold. She paused. Waiting for Lian to interrupt the memory, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Ashleigh licked her lips and looked further up at the tapestry.

The boots of steel and gold continued into full armor, with a circlet of wings adorning her honey-blonde hair. Ashleigh recognized Lily.

She swallowed as she turned her eyes to the left of Lily. There she saw another woman she recognized.

A tall, imposing woman, muscular and broad-shouldered. She held a long sword in her hand.

She wore dark leather pants and a matching long-sleeved corset top. Her auburn red hair was long and decorated in random braids and small metal accents.

One large gash that crossed her eye, her strong jaw, and her rectangular face emphasized the severe expression she wore.

And those familiar silvery grey eyes.

‘Solana,’ Ashleigh whispered in her mind.

But her voice in the room did not know these women yet.

“She… she looks like me….” Ashleigh of the past whispered, staring at Lily. She turned her attention to Solana. “And her… those eyes… they’re like Caleb’s!”

“Lily of Winter, and Solana, of Summer,” Lian replied gently.

“Lily? This is Luna Lily?” Ashleigh asked.

“Yes, she is the mother of your bloodline.”

Ashleigh looked up at the tapestry. First, she stared into the eyes of her great ancestor in awe. Then, her eyes trailed further up on the tapestry.

Just above Solana was another woman.

Dark, rich chocolate skin, beautiful green eyes of jade, and a head of golden curls. She wore a sage-colored dress that reminded Ashleigh of the ancient Greek style. Long and light.

But her hands were held strangely like she was holding something between them, but the space was empty. Instead, the light that grew between them was even more bizarre, a soft green glow.

“What is... Who is that? What is she doing?” Ashleigh asked.

“That is Luna Talis, the mother of Spring,” Lian replied without even a glance at the tapestry.

“What is she doing with her hands?” Ashleigh asked.

“Magic,” Lian said without hesitation.

Ashleigh furrowed her brows and looked at Lian. There was no sign of a joke or a lie.

“Magic?” Ashleigh asked.

Lian nodded.

“Werewolves can’t do magic,” Ashleigh replied.

Lian said nothing.

“Can they?” Ashleigh asked.

Lian gave a gentle smile.

“No,” Lian replied. “They can’t.”

“I don’t understand,” Ashleigh said.

“Talis had the ability to manipulate certain aspects of nature. She could grow and control plant life and could, in some ways, speak with nature. The trees sang to her.”

Ashleigh furrowed her brows, trying to understand.

In her mind, the Ashleigh watching this scene play out, knew that Lian wouldn’t say more about what she meant. No, she was waiting for something. Maybe for Ashleigh to see something else on the tapestry.

‘Turn,’ she told herself. ‘Look at the tapestry again… what haven’t you seen?’

She turned back to the tapestry.

‘Good.’

Her eyes went back over the image of Lily, Solana, and Talis. Behind them, there was a battle depicted. Beasts and warriors fighting each other. However, it appeared that some monsters were also fighting amongst themselves.

‘What aren’t I seeing?’ she asked herself.

Her eyes moved back down toward the first Lunas. And then she saw something else at the edge of the battlefield.

A tall woman with pale skin and long black hair in a long, flowing dress of blue and white with tear-drop sleeves.

Her black hair was laid loosely at her back and shoulders, while the upper half was done with braids and two buns layered together, one smaller than the other.

She was leaning over a soldier lying on the ground, her hands extended over his body with a soft white light on her fingertips.

Her face was just barely tilted toward the viewer. Just enough to recognize her.

Ashleigh’s mind and body crashed into each other at that moment, and Ashleigh, a passenger in this dream, suddenly realized she was in control.

She turned slowly to face the woman in the tapestry, who also stood beside her.

Lian’s expression remained unchanged.

“How is that possible?”

Lian smiled, and she gave Ashleigh a gentle nod, a greeting.

“Hello Ashleigh, new Luna of Summer. I am Lian, Mother of Autumn.”