Silvermoon. A Tale of a Young Werewolf. A YA Novel. 12-18

by T. J. Edison.

  Jason said, “That would be the one we killed.”

  Lengowyn nodded and continued, “Some time after you left us, Seerwith arrived back, she told me what had happened and that she had lost sight of Lucas in a blizzard, after following him north, she assumed he had caught her scent and hid somewhere. I spoke with the village elders the following morning and then my people, we decided to help you, and when we heard your call we headed out here, and it -.”

  He broke off, startled as the ground trembled; a vibration that increased slowly, Seawan and Jennifer hurried to the mound of dead and climbed up. Seawan hurried down to the others and called out, “Trolls, hundreds of them and more goblins. Damn goblins, they breed like insects.”

  Yvette told Lengowyn, “We killed their king and his eldest son and daughter, their relatives will want their revenge.”

  He said, “They are after blood that is plain to see.” He pointed to the piles of cadavers, “The smell is enough to make a goat sick, but it is the best defence we have. Let us level it off some, make it higher and more stable, we can close this whole gap.” He looked at the throng; over five score werewolves, the four dozen or so elves that could still fight, the farmer and his family and Jason and Yvette. He called out, “To the death, werewolves and elves together.”

  “And man,” shouted Derek.

  Chapter fifteen.

  The visitor.

  For the next hour they toiled, using javelins, spears and goblin shields to solidify the mound of goblin dead. They spread a six-metre thick barricade on the edge of the shore, from one sheer ice wall lining the lake to the other. Jennifer, concentrating on the vibrations that would announce the approaching troll and goblin army, peered into the distance. “They are coming down the incline in single file and they will assemble on the ice.”

  Derek, said, “I hope it bloody-well breaks under their weight when they march across.”

  Seawan told him, “There is no chance of that happening, Derek, as trolls and goblins couldn’t march in step even if you beat a drum.”

  Jason appeared with Silvern and said, “Seawan, Yvette and I have distributed the javelins, over twelve hundred of them between the werewolves, each has about a dozen, they are divided into four ranks, just over a hundred in each one, but the trolls are in their thousands, so we can’t kill them all that way. We have gathered over eighteen hundred flight-worthy arrows. Jennifer is distributing them at this moment. Derek’s children are protecting the flanks, they have their axes, goblin shields and spears.”

  Seawan smiled and stroked Jason’s bulging triceps. He examined the cuts on his arms, visible despite the thick fur and healing as he spoke, “We elves have always depended on the were-people for help in troubled times, they were always there, no questions asked, and now you talk to me as if I am your leader. No, Silvermoon, you and Swiftfoot are the leaders, the organisers. So, just tell me where you want me and my people to stand, for today is the day that the elves fight for the werewolves.”

  His fangs flashed as he grinned, then he said, “Go where you can do most damage.”

  Seawan raised his arm and beckoned his people, Jennifer included. He raised his voice and said, “We will stay hidden until the enemy is within range, then we will take the centre with our bows, and when our arrows are gone we will divide and support the flanks, if that is alright with you Lengowyn?”

  Lengowyn, said, “Very well, our people will launch their javelins at the trolls first, then you can take over as you said, then it’s…”

  Silvern said, “Carnage and mayhem.”

  “For the goblins” added Derek.

  “And the trolls,” said Yvette.

  The advance.

  Everyone took up position. Seawan, standing next to Lengowyn at the end of the line, peered out across the lake, he called out, “I count over two thousand trolls, they are armoured and armed with clubs, and they are now advancing.”

  Jason’s voice filled the air, “Javelins, first rank, launch!”

  The air sounded as one hundred javelins took flight in an almost flat trajectory, Jennifer watched them strike home, skewering their victims. Most of the trolls wrested with the projectiles before they fell. Jennifer turned her gaze from the mayhem caused by this attack and shouted, “Second rank, launch!”

  Lengowyn gave orders to the third rank and Derek’s werewolf wife, Julia, to the fourth, but even after forty-odd volleys of javelins the troll army still marched on, stumbling and falling over their dead and dying comrades.

  Pity gripped Jason’s heart as he heard the wails of the wounded and dying trolls, which sounded like the cries of starving kittens. Then he recalled the hate-filled eyes of the troll who attacked Jennifer.

  The goblin contingent, realizing there was to be no more following volley and thinking that the elves - whose absence had been announced to the goblin commanders by messenger that they were either dead or severely injured - rushed past the trolls, who were having difficulty making their way through the mass of some eight hundred or so dead, and scuttered over the ice on their spindly legs.

  The goblins left the trolls far behind and as soon as they came within range; over two score elves climbed the rear of the barricade, took their places, nocked their arrows and loosed them amongst the enemy in one concentrated volley.

  Shock turned to anger as goblins fell to elvin shafts, and under the meagre cover of their leather shields they braved the deadly hale. Many fell on the way to their objective and this enraged them all the more. Goblins, male and female, large and small persevered, screaming and cursing in their squeaky goblin language. Those who made it clambered and clawed their way up the cadaver wall after standing three-high on one another’s shoulders, safe from elvin arrows. Their fury increased at the sight of a relative or a close friend embedded there, as he or she stared back at them with lifeless eyes.

  The werewolves kept them at bay, reaching down, plucking them off or decapitating them. The elves did their job, singling out the individual javelin throwers before they got within range and Derek’s offspring kept the flanks free, stabbing and hacking.

  The battle raged, but it seemed as one goblin fell, two more took its place, the pile of dead grew and provided a wide ramp, up which the goblins surged and scrambled. The defenders slowly but surely began to tire. Suddenly the air vibrated as over two thousand trolls roared. They had arrived at the defences and they pushed the wounded aside climbed up the ramp and began to tear at the cadaver wall.

  Jennifer pulled Seawan, his armour and face spattered with blood, away from the edge, “Father, take mother and the others away from here, we will hold them off for as long as we can.”

  He shook his head, “The werewolves have never deserted us in battle, and I am not leaving this affray, so you can…”

  His voice trailed off and he pointed up the hill. Jennifer spun round and saw Helga approaching on a massive sled pulled by two dozen huge, snow-white huskies. Helga called out to the animals and the sled slowed to a stop half-way down the slope next to the wounded. Jennifer and her parents climbed down and hurried over to her, Silvern called out to her, her hands raised, “Helga, what are you doing here, there is great danger here, you must leave at once.”

  The witch rose up from the sled and stepped down, she said, “I remember, my dear Silvern, what you said to Lavendel, ‘Curse the devil goblins and their trolls, what does it take to kill those monstrous things’, and Jennifer said to you, “’Sunlight, sunlight kills them, mother, it kills them instantly’.”

  She raised her right fist. Three rings, each one bearing a precious stone; one ruby, one emerald and one sapphire, and they glinted and glowed as she aimed at the sky. A ray of coloured light shone forth from each one and converged to form one brilliant white beam. This penetrated the grey clouds above them and Helga shouted, “And Sol has decided to make an appearance on the side of justice.”

  The clouds parted and a broad beam of light played down upon the lake. Jennifer’s eyes lit up. “Will that me
lt the ice?”

  Helga smiled and said, “I don’t thinks so, but go and see,”

  Jennifer turned as the defenders gave a loud cheer. She climbed up the barricade and pushed her way through the throng. Acrid smelling smoke rose from below. She gazed down at a sea of fire, a moving sea. It was a roaring, squealing mass of trolls, burning fiercely. They ran in dozens, in their hundreds across the ice and collapsed. They burned with an intense ferocity, so intense that the centre of the lake collapsed. The churning waters put out the flames, but laid claim to the goblin’s vast army as the ice, in its weakened condition, cracked along the lakes length and width and broke into pieces.

  The goblins tried to flee, jumping from ice floe to ice floe. Some of them made it to the wall of corpses, others tried to climb the icy slopes at either end of the barricade, where most of them slipped down into the water or were pulled back by their larger comrades who were themselves shoved back down by the half-werewolves with their long spears.

  As the last goblin succumbed to the icy waters, so the sun receded, but not before the dead troll, embedded in the wall of dead goblins, burst into flames. Confined, partly-buried and under pressure, the troll practically exploded, leaving a great gap in the wall. The defenders jumped clear as the barricade collapsed in on itself, and the whole mass of goblin bodies, heads and limbs slid down the slope and disappeared into the watery depths below, leaving behind them a bloody patch on the icy surface.

  Jennifer and her mother tended the dozen seriously-wounded elves. Their comrades lesser serious wounds had already healed. The werewolves and the half-werewolves, their own wounds also self healing, returned to their normal state, Jason and Yvette included. Lengowyn’s people dressed themselves in their clothing, which they had brought with them. Derek brought his wife Julia, Jason and Yvette clothing to cover their nakedness. Derek said to the pair, as he handed Julia her boots. “I’m afraid it’s not much, and as for your feet, I’ve already sent one of my lads back to my place for some footwear for you.”

  Jason smiled. “I’d forgotten what it was like to walk barefoot, now I’m standing here on an icy hillside and I can’t feel the cold.”

  Yvette said, “That’s because you’re a werewolf.”

  Julia, dressed in fresh clothes, helped a wounded elf to her feet and Jennifer called out. “Stop, you can’t do that, her hand is cut and if you touch her blood you will be lost.”

  Julia walked over to her and displayed her palm, smeared with a drop of blood. “That is elven blood, and it isn’t poisonous.”

  Jennifer and her mother backed away. Lengowyn approached them and asked. “What is wrong, has something happened?”

  Silvern said, “Julia as touched elven blood.”

  Seawan came over, his brow wrinkled. “Tell me I did not hear that, oh no, that is terrible.” He turned to Derek. “Derek, your wife has touched elven blood.”

  Derek raised an eyebrow. “Is that a sacrilege, since when is elven blood so sacred that a werewolf may not touch it?”

  Jennifer cried out, “It is poisonous to a werewolf, she will change into a monster, she must be…”

  Her voice trailed off and Lengowyn laughed and placed an arm around her shoulder. “My dear child, it is nothing but a lie. Lucas spread that lie the year we destroyed the goblin army, even the elves believed it. We did too until some years ago. I came across an elf in lowlands, he had been hunting alone in the forest, a stag had gored him and I had to stop the bleeding, I didn’t stop to think.”

  He smiled and looked about him. “My hands were soaked in blood. I washed them clean in a nearby stream and brought the elf back to his people. They looked at me in a strange way and I realized I was in danger, so I fled. They chased after me, but I eluded them. Nothing happened to me.

  I told Lucas and he said it was probably a human friend of the elves.” He pointed to a scratch on her arm. He said, “You are cut,” and before anyone could stop him he licked her wound, stepped back and said, “You see, young lady, you and Silvermoon have nothing to fear.”

  The surrounding elves stood there, their mouths agape. Seawan exclaimed, “This does not mean they can mate.”

  Derek said, “Why not, I have five sons and five daughters, half-werewolf they are, so do not tell me there are no half-men, half-elves.”

  Silvern said, “Yes, there are, but…”

  Derek shook his head, “No ‘buts’ my friend, why I have spoken with -.”

  Helga, having stood in silence for a while, now approached them, her arms raised. “Please, let us have silence. We are amongst friends and allies. I now recall that there is nothing written in the runes that forbids werewolves from mating with humans, nor humans mating with elves, also there is nothing written about elves not mating with werewolves so, I can assume it is not forbidden.

  It seems that Lucas chose to spread this untruth to distance the werewolves from the elves. He fooled me even. He was very convincing, claiming to have seen the event with his own eyes.” She looked at each individual facing her and added, “There is something else.” She closed her eyes and raised her arms, her voice rang out clear in the cold mountain air, “Chanteline disclosed to me as I rested, ‘One day, a new sun shall shine and its fire will banish the enemy forever’.” Do not ask me what it means; I only know that this prophecy concerns the retrieval of the rune stone.”

  Jason took hold of Jennifer’s hand and pulled her away from the others, he embraced her and she stood there, he felt her warmth grow and enter his body, then her arms encircled his waist and she laid her head on his shoulder. He felt his body lighten, as if he was floating, just like the first time they touched. He could hear a lark singing and he could smell spring’s wild flowers once again and he heard her whisper, “And our children, what will they be?”

  He replied in kind, “They will be part elf, part werewolf, they will be fast afoot and I believe they will be able to run on snow.”

  “And swim leagues underwater.”

  “Look at them,” said Julia to the others.

  Jason turned his head and looked down at the faces staring in wonder back up at them, he whispered to Jennifer, “We are floating, we are floating six feet above the ground.”

  Jennifer, her head still resting on his shoulder, said dreamily, “I know, and it is beautiful, I want to stay like this forever.”

  He felt inclined to agree with her, but forced himself to say, “We must return to the ground, please.”

  “Don’t you want to stay like this forever?”

  “Read my mind.”

  He felt his feet touch the ground gently, and Seawan, his voice tinged with concern, called out to Helga, “My dear, Helga, was that necessary?”

  Helga, stood there with her hands clasped to her face, she removed them and said, “It was not my doing, Seawan.

  They did it themselves. Now I know why Lucas spread his lies, werewolf and elf together, a new race.” Her visage crumpled and tears ran down her cheeks. “Why did I not see that, if elves can mate with humans and humans with werewolves why shouldn’t elves mate with werewolves too?” She seemed to shrink from within as she said quietly, “I thought Lucas a silver-tongued fool, but he evidently knew more than I.” She looked to Lengowyn. “Where is he now, do you know?”

  The were-man withered under her stare, “Please forgive me, Helga, I gave him shelter. I did not know his motives until it was too late.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I believe he has the rune stone, he has taken possession of Chanteline.”

  Helga aged before their eyes, her hair turned grey and her skin dried and Jennifer ran forward and caught her as she swayed, “Helga, do not leave us now, return, return to us now.”

  Silvern and Seawan came to her side and caught her as she fell.

  Derek called out, “Is she dead? What has happened.”

  Silvern said, “She has receded into the netherworld, Chanteline is lost, she will fade away.”

  “No, she will not,”
screamed Jennifer and laid her hands upon her.

  Seawan and Silverfoot, did the same and those elves that could, touched her dying form, others came, wounded or not and laid their hands upon the others.

  I silver glow surrounded the group.

  Jennifer watched as Helga’s face slowly retained its beauty and her hair shone golden. She rose to a sitting position and the surrounding elves stepped back.

  A gasp arose from the werewolves and Derek and his family and he said quietly, “The magic of the elves.”