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He did and smiled. “I should have known. Secret messages?”
I walked back to the wall and looked at the carvings on them. They were not words, not even any kind of writing characters, but pictures. Someone had carved them into the wall using a material that was only visible to our glowing eyes.
“It’s a story,” Luke said as he ran his hand over the wall. He walked down the length of the wall to the west until he reached the end and pointed at the bottom left. “It starts here.”
I walked to him and looked where he was pointing to and got a sense of the story they were telling with the drawing. It was the same story Merine told us of the two pregnant werewolves that came to the clan when the Tarloux army decimated the royal line. The story detailed how the clan welcomed them, but shortly after, Tarloux men found a way into the clan and started killing people, looking for the women. The women came here when that started, keeping away from the clan to keep themselves safe. That was when they began writing this story. The story went on as the two women were in the cave on their own.
“Is that magic?” Luke asked as he pointed at a diagram that depicted the two pregnant women on their knees, praying to what looked like the moon. “Bonne once said the werewolves of the old family were more religious than we were. They worshiped a lot of things. But they adored the moon. It was the god they believed would always come to their rescue because we believed we were direct descendants of the moon. They also believed that with chants and some rituals, they could access powers the moon had bestowed on the earth. With all that we’vewitnessed so far, the lost tribe and the moon stone, being real, I wouldn’t be surprised if that bit about those old families is true too.”
“They are asking the moon for something,” I said, looking at the woman. I touched the part of the wall their image was carved on, and it almost felt like I could feel the pain in them. They were desperate and in deep supplication to the moon. I stepped back suddenly as those emotions from the wall overwhelmed me. This was beyond just the ability of a werewolf to sense things. This was magic.
I walked on, continuing to read the story. And by the looks of it, it seemed they got what they wanted from the moon.
The moon stone.
They asked the moon for power in a stone, and it answered them.
Before the birth of the children, they hid the stone away and kept a key inside the cave here. That was what we were there to recover. Luke looked at me and the end part of the story. There was a hole there, about the size of a finger, and the instruction from the story says only the real blood of a Peline and a Heline will show the key.
What we had to do was obvious. Luke went first. He put a finger inside the hole. At first, nothing happened, but as he was about to remove it, he got pricked, and a drop of blood dropped from his hand inside the hole. Then it was my turn, I put my hand inside the hole, and just like him, I got pricked too. It was a sharp pain that was gone as soon as it came. We both stepped away from the wall and watched to see what would happen.
For a while, it was all quiet. And then, there was a little crack above the hole where we just put our hand. The hole grew gently until it cracked open, and a bigger hole was revealed behind it. The bigger hole held a key. I reached out and picked it up. It was made of brass, just as the knife Merine had used to cut us earlier. I turned the key over in my hand as the rock that covered the door opened up and light flooded in. Merine stood at the opening, a big smile on his face.
“You look like you’ve seen ghosts,” he said.
“Magic,” Luke said.
“Yes. There are secrets about the old world that died with the royal family. But some of them remained inside the moon stone.”
“We have the key, then,” I said, “Let’s go get it.”
Merine chuckled. “That is just one of the three keys you need to get to the moon stone. Now, on to the next task. Are you ready?”
“Of course,” I said. I was eager to be done with this.
“Let’s get it over with,” Luke added.
Merine led us out of the cave and back to the woods, where there were a group of kids held tiny cauldrons that seemed to be steaming. I could get a whiff from them. There was some sort of herb in there. Merine stopped in front of the kids and collected two cauldrons before walking back to Luke and me and handing us one each.
I took it, wondering what we were supposed to do with them. The smell from inside the cauldron was a bit irritating. Whateverwas in there, I was sure it wouldn’t taste nice. I let the cauldron sit on my palms as I listened to Merine.
“The old families,” he started, “The royal families were not just known for their reach into the secrets of the world that have been kept from us. They were also known for their strength, and a descendant of them must be ready to prove themselves in battle.”
I think I have done that already, but I didn’t say anything. Luke and I had evaded a horde of hunters to get here. We’ve killed scores and managed to stay alive.
“A descendant of royalty must be tested, and their strength pushed to the brink. Only the best is expected of them, and only then will the moon stone show itself to them. Only then will they find the other keys to unlock the box inside which the moon stone awaits you. You have been introduced to the magic that flows in your blood. It is time you are introduced to the strength in your blood.”
A gentle growl filled the air as I heard new footsteps approach us from within the woods. It wasn’t the growl of a werewolf. It was something different. I watched as the steps got closer to us, and I got a sniff of something different in the air. It was a predator like us, and I could smell its hunger for blood. Soon, men carrying a big cage came from within the wood and stopped beside Merine. The cage was holding a cheetah. It was about five feet tall, his face was set on Luke, and I knew what they would have us do.
This wouldn’t be like chasing a deer. This would be different. More intense and dangerous.
“Drink the potion in the cauldron.”
“What does it do?” I asked.
“It helps you,” Merine said, and from the tone of his voice, I knew we weren’t getting any more than that. I took a sniff of it again to see if I could detect its contents, but I couldn’t. They all just smelled strange.
“Bonne might have a better time doing that,” Luke said, and I agreed. I did as Merine said and took a gulp from it, and just as I guessed, it tasted horrible.
