See Prologue (A) for Disclaimers

Only a glimpse of a much longer scene, one whose images flowed against his mind, but that last collection of images was what pressed strongest on Sharak's soul.  When Pelagia's power pulled back from the contact, he was shaking.   Eight hundred years, his mind repeated the information it had gleaned.  Ricenne had been like this for nearly eight hundred years . . . and she had not regretted it for one moment.

Pelagia pushed back the tears that had been summoned to her own eyes and wrapped her arms around him.  The shapeshifter buried his head against her shoulder.  He knew now that the plan and choice had truly been Ricenne's, but that didn't make it any easier on him.  If he had been here, been human --

"You could have done nothing," Pelagia murmured in his ear.  Her hands were soothing on his back, in his hair.  "Your magick would not have been up to the task any more than hers was.  And she would not have allowed you to make that sacrifice for her.  This was not only about the denizens of the Wood, Sharak.  To her, this was also about redemption."

Sharak pulled back and stared at her, shocked.  "What?"

Pelagia chuckled sadly.  "Even after all these years, she still blames herself for your fate.  For trusting my brother with the contents of her heart."

Sharak shook his head.  "Amerys would have done the same.  They both looked on him as a father --"

"But Amerys -- again, pray forgive me --  would have done it out of spite.  Ricenne did it out of naïveté, and that is what she will never forgive in herself."  She stepped back and touched Sharak's cheek gently.  "That is what you must forgive for her."

She vanished, leaving the sorcerer confused and still shaking, knowing there was a message in that last phrase.  But damned if he knew what it was.  Sharak sighed and shook his head, looking out over the night-shrouded forest and village.  "I'm too old for this," he murmured.

~*~*~*~

Daybreak in the Hidden Wood brought a whole new set of surprises and acquaintances.  The people of Wood's Heart, as the village was called, were quite friendly once they got past an instinctive wariness that had been ingrained over years of flight.  Tao was certain that it was Miren's presence -- and advanced pregnancy -- that soothed them the most, though Dar's soft voice and Tao's light-hearted prattling eventually won them over as well.  But not all the residents of the Wood resided in the town, they discovered.

"There are some creatures that no one speaks to," Rhianna told them at one point.  "The ones who live in Wood's Heart are the humans and the most human-like.  The ones who either prefer a social group or don't mind one.  But some are either non-human, or else they prefer solitude."

Tao smiled and glanced at Dar, who was seated close by as Rhianna told them the history of the Wood.  "Sounds like someone I know."

Dar chuckled.  "Sometimes it's nice to have quiet."

Rhianna smiled.  "Niirin is more like those than not," she said.

She looked across the village "square" to where the seemingly-young girl was playing with a group of children.  Miren was with them, accustoming herself, she had said, to the squabble of children so she wouldn't be so surprised by her own.  The young ones ranged in age from three to ten years of age, and their temperaments varied just as greatly.  Niirin handled them expertly, changing shape at a moment's notice in the middle of a game of tag.

Tao chuckled, having gotten over his amazement at the transformations.  "She doesn't seem the solitary type."

Rhianna laughed and shook her head.  "She comes to us more to play, I think -- that's her nature as a fox-spirit.  And she'll hunt and share, sometimes, but she never stays the night."  She smiled fondly as she watched Jorek giving chase to the newly-shifted fox, who ducked neatly under his legs while Miren laughed.  "She's very fond of the children, and she watches them closely.  I sometimes wonder what we would ever do without her as a sitter."

Her gaze remained on Jorek, and Dar observed, "You seem to do well."

Rhianna smiled.  "I think of Jorek as my own.  When we came to the forest, he was only two years old.  We had traveled together for so long that Ordan and I decided to share the house and not break up Jorek's family."  She sighed and added softly, "Ordan has never forgotten his wife.  He loved her very much."

Tao nodded and said quietly, "And you love him."

Rhianna looked at him and smiled softly.  "Yes, I do.  But if anything comes of it . . . well, it will be a while longer, I fear."

"And yet you wait," Tao observed.

Rhianna chuckled.  "I love him," she said simply.

Tao looked away, towards Miren, his gaze pensive.  Dar, whose own thoughts had focused on his own love, didn't notice.  Rhianna watched the two young men with a soft smile.  Tao had told them of Dar's search for his beloved, and of the destruction of his tribe by the same man from whom Miren had escaped.  She felt a sense of kinship to each of the young newcomers, for she remembered well her own trials after the sorcerer's curse took effect, and she knew how it felt to love and watch that love slip away.  She knew Ordan was attracted to her, and she sensed that he loved her in some fashion, but his feeling of guilt over his wife -- as well as the love he still felt for her -- kept him from ever admitting to either.

The only one of the strangers that Rhianna felt uncertain about was Sharak, and that was odd, for the fact of his own curse should have created a stronger connection.  Perhaps it was simply because he seemed so very distant, as if his thoughts and emotions were too strong to share with anyone.  Dar had come back inside not too long after having followed his friend, and he had said only that the conversation had been interrupted.  Sharak only returned hours later, and Pasha had told her earlier today that most of that time he had spent aimlessly wandering and seeming to meditate.

Rhianna had smiled and asked just how the young woman had known this.  Pasha had merely raised an eyebrow and answered flat out that she had followed him.  Her tone dared Rhianna to question her actions.  Rhianna had shaken her head, knowing better than to do that, though her amusement was plain.  Pasha was . . . well, Pasha.  She followed her impulses with hardly more than a nod to the idea of thinking things through; she felt, fought, and lived intensely.

Rhianna was fairly certain that her absence now was to be attributed to Sharak's own departure.  The man had said he wanted to see the Elneseyrna, so Rhianna had given him directions.  Pasha seemed as fascinated by the man as she was by the BeastMaster, perhaps the magick that touched their blood calling to the magick in her own, but she seemed to have decided to focus her attention on the shapeshifter.   For now, Rhianna chuckled to herself, remembering the look Pasha had given all three men yesterday.

Tao seemed to pick up on some strain of her thoughts.  "You've told us about most of the people here," he said.  "But I was wondering . . .  The girl who brought us here, Pasha, she seems . . . well, quite different from any of the other children.  And from her parents."

Rhianna chuckled, especially as Dar joined his friend in looking at her for an explanation.  She shook her head.  "Pasha is a law unto herself," she told them.  "And you're right.  She is very different from anyone here, child or adult.  Her parents, Affér and Loris, were shape-changed into wolves by a powerful Witch in their land, for opposing the king whom she served."

"Is that why Ricenne--"  Tao paused and corrected himself.  "-- the Elneseyrna called her 'wolf's daughter'?"

Rhianna nodded.  "Affér and Loris traveled for many years as wolves, avoiding hunters, trying to find their way to the forest.  At one point . . . well, instinct takes over even when there is a human mind in the animal's body."

Dar smiled slightly in understanding.  "They conceived a child."

Rhianna inclined her head in acknowledgement.  "But they were still wolves," she said.  "So the child was born a wolf.  By the time they reached the Wood, Pasha was almost four years old -- mature for a wolf.  About the equivalent of perhaps sixteen human years."

Tao frowned.  "But she's human now."

"Yes," Rhianna confirmed.  "But not . . . quite.  You see, she wasn't part of the original set-up of the curse, so when she was conceived, the magick became a  part of her.  When she was changed into human form, she retained some of the attributes of a wolf."

"Like her eyes," Dar guessed.

Rhianna nodded.  "And more.  She also retained the ability to change her shape at will, though if she leaves the Wood, the change will be permanent as it once was.  But . . . well . . .  While her parents were born human and shape-changed into wolves, Pasha was born a wolf and eventually shape-changed into a human.  Her mind is a little of both, and older than her body looks."

"I . . . I don't think I understand," Tao said uncertainly.

Rhianna chuckled.  "You're not the only one," she assured him.  "Of everyone in the Wood, I think Pasha is the only one who is  not confused by all this.  Part of her wolf's mind, I think -- she just accepts it as something that  is, and doesn't worry about the why."  Tao and Dar both looked even more confused now.  Rhianna shook her head and tried to explain clearly.  "Pasha's body is that of a girl of seventeen because that was the approximate maturity that the magick of the Wood detected when it changed her shape into that of a human.  Her mind's maturity and intellect, however, are those of a woman already past her twentieth year."

Dar and Tao nodded, comprehension in their eyes now.  "So," Tao said, "when she looks at us like a potential meal --"

"Or mate," Dar put in.

Tao nodded.  "It's not really a  girl but a woman."

Rhianna smiled.  "Exactly," she said.

She decided not to tell them that the arrival of Affér, Loris and Pasha in the Wood had been little over a year past.  It had been enough of a shock to Affér and Loris when their four-year-old cub suddenly became a sixteen-year-old girl with the attitude of a twenty-three-year-old.  Rhianna rather thought the information that the girl looking at them that hungrily was in actuality five years old would do more harm than good to the young men's minds.  Especially since Pasha was, truth be told, quite attractive for any age.

No, Rhianna decided with an inward laugh,  I think I'll keep that little tidbit of information to myself.

Next Chapter

Email the author!
[email protected]

Main 'BeastMaster' Fanfic Index
'Debts of Love' Series-Fic Index

Back to Main Library Index         Back to Main Fanfiction Index

Adventures of Sinbad   ~~~     Andromeda   ~~~     Angel   ~~~     Babylon5   ~~~     BeastMaster: The Series   ~~~     Beauty & the Beast
Buffy the Vampire Slayer   ~~~     Charmed  ~~~     The Crow: Stairway to Heaven   ~~~     Crusade   ~~~     due South   ~~~     Farscape
Gundam Wing   ~~~     Highlander: The Series   ~~~     Miscellaneous Fiction   ~~~     Mortal Kombat   ~~~     Mortal Kombat: Conquest
Poltergeist the Legacy   ~~~     Raven   ~~~     (TSAo) Jules Verne   ~~~     The Sentinel   ~~~     Stargate SG1   ~~~     Star Trek: Voyager

I can't fix it if I don't know it's broken, so if you see anything wrong,  please let me know.  Thank you and enjoy your stay!