Chapter 16

Moonvale School, 18:00

At the outside of the school, all of the new students were met by people who already attended the massive school as well as by teachers. Everyone dressed in the robes provided by the school after the race but they were identical to their own ones that were currently in transit. The thin and revealing garments only served to cover skin for the sake of what little propriety and modesty their race had. Before their reintegration into other human cultures thousands of years ago, they never even considered wearing clothes of any type.

As the students massed, they remained together in their personal family groupings. It was those groupings that the most senior students and teachers dispersed amongst; they were going to give the new ones the five-cent tour while on route to their new rooms. Most of the groups were going to be shown around by students but Max, Liz and the others were to be shown around by a teacher. She was a young woman who was in her mid-twenties, one of the youngest teachers at the school but by no means less dedicated. She smiled as she approached them.

“Let’s see ... Max, Liz, Alex, Isabel, Michael, Maria, Kyle and Tess,” she said as she looked at each one of the group in turn, trying to remember the names that went to the faces in her files.

“MEOW,” Jake called out, trying to get attention while being held in Alex’s arms.

The teacher smiled, “And this must be little Jake,” she said as she scratched under his chin and earned a contented purr. “My name is Elise Craig. I’ll be your teacher for history class.”

“We have to take history?” Michael asked.

“Oh sure, well ... Tribal history at any rate,” Ms Craig said. “Today I’m showing you around a little bit. Just some places you’ll need for today before we head up to your rooms.”

Soon other groups were all being led away inside the building. Elise beckoned the young Pride to follow her and led them into the rebuilt castle. The large blocks of brickwork were adorned with numerous etchings of symbols. The group looked around at everything; they noted that despite the very old walls, the doors were very similar to the ones at their old school. The halls were well lit by long light bulbs that ran down the length of each corridor, as were the rooms. Each class had more than enough windows to let natural light inside.

“All the classrooms are on the outside of the building,” Elise said.

“Yeah ... you know what?” Michael said.

“Don’t say it,” Maria said.

“Say what?” Liz asked.

“That I keep thinking Harry Potter’s about to come round the corner,” Michael said.

“You had to say it,” Maria said as she shook her head.

They went down corridor after corridor. It was difficult to keep track of every passage they went through; soon they were all hoping that there would be a map or two around the place. Soon they approached a pair of large doors that Elise stopped before.

“Okay, this is the Assembly Hall. If there’s ever a meeting where faculty need to address students or school events ... this is where it happens. The Dining Room is in the same place, just one floor up,” Elise said before she started walking again.

It didn’t take long for them to reach an outcropping of brickwork in which there was a single pair of doors. Elise pressed a button and soon they opened to reveal and elevator car.

“An elevator in here?” Max asked.

“Well you can always take the stairs. But I wouldn’t recommend it,” Elise said.

“Why? How many steps are there?” Alex asked.

“One thousand, eight hundred and thirty four,” Elise said.

“Yeah ... I think we’ll take the lift,” Kyle said as they all started climbing in.

Pride Room, Immediately Following

The journey upward went on for a little while. Liz had worked it out in her head that from their travel through the school to the elevator they were now in the exact centre of the castle. From the outside, everyone had seen its five towers. Four marked the corners of the school but as tall as they were they were still dwarfed by the central tower that they were now ascending.

Eventually the elevator slowed to a gradual halt and the doors opened. As they stepped out the Pride found themselves in a large space. Directly before them was a sitting area with three soft and comfortable sofas all of which were aimed to a decently sized entertainment centre that immediately had Kyle and Michael’s approval. Off to the right of that was an area for study, filled with books needed for their education, it also came with a computer linked into the school’s network. Four doors, two on the north wall and two on the south led to bedrooms. It was one room per couple and each came with an en-suite bathroom. Also, around to the side of the central block that held the elevator and staircase was a kitchen.

The floor was done was finished wood, polished to a glowing yellow sheen upon which there were some rugs to cover it. Here at the top of the tower, there were windows, without curtains, they looked out to the east over the town and onto the massive forest that barred the way of any curious passer-bys. To the west the view was of the surrounding mountains and if they were to look around far enough they could see a portion of the lake.

“Everything in here is for you,” Elise said. “Most of our students prefer to eat in the dining room but there is a kitchen if you ever want to eat here. For your mating cycles there are condoms in the bathrooms. If you ever need to restock on anything, the supply room is on the fourth floor, on the north side.”

They all started to look around at their new surroundings and Liz walked over to the window. As she looked down she could see bird flying around two of the towers but there were none around this one. “Hey, why aren’t there any birds around here?”

“Oh, the towers are usually reserved for Fliers. They prefer being high up, but this one has been held back for your Pride ... you know, given who you,” Elise said.

Liz sighed, thankful Elise didn’t actually say the word ‘prophecy’, but her meaning was obvious.

“Well the Rakas are in the north wing of the school. All the rooms are more or less the same as this one, as far as the layout is concerned. Wolfen live in the east wing and the bears live in the base of the towers, all three of your tribes like being near woodland. The Reptiles, and now the Snake Sect, live in caverns below ground that connect with the west wing. You see, they need heat and large amounts of it so we took advantage of the fact that this valley was once volcanic. There’s enough heat coming through to do the job,” Elise said.

“What about the Oceanics?” Isabel asked. “Where do they stay?”

“The south wing, it opens directly onto the largest part of the river before it feeds into the lake. Since there are certain factors about your biology that are different, we didn’t know your complete requirements. That’s why your rooms were decided to be placed in the centre of the school,” Elise said as a beep sounded from the elevator.

Everyone looked over as the doors opened and they saw their bags on the floor of the carriage. Max was the first to move over to it and pulled out cases; soon everyone else helped bring them into the room and dumped them in front of the sofas. They could unpack later.

“Well, that’s all you’ll need for now. I’ll let you get settled in; oh there is a meeting later in the Assembly Hall. It’s a meet-and-greet for all new students, as well as something else, just a little something because of the ... eh ... prophecy,” Elise said cautiously, she knew Liz didn’t want to hear it. “It starts at seven pm, to remind you a gong will sound just before that.”

“A gong?” Kyle asked.

“Well we don’t use bells like human schools. There’s a small gong in the Assembly Hall - the good thing about buildings as old as that sound resonates. Especially through the stone vents,” Elise said as she pointed to a small opening in the bottom corner of the room, “There’s a map in your computer, you can print it out if you need to and I’ll see you all then. Oh and robes would be best. I know you’re used to human clothes, and you can wear them at other times outside of school hours, but this is traditional.”

Elise said goodbye and left via the elevator. Everyone started to move around, getting to know everything and where it all was. None of them could believe their surroundings; it was all like a high-priced penthouse apartment. Soon they started sorting through their bags. They picked out their own belongings and put them to the side as they decided what rooms to take.

In the end, Max and Liz took the room at the eastern side on the north wall while Isabel and Alex took the western side. Isabel said that she and Max had spent their whole lives living next to each other, why stop now. For the rooms on the opposite wall, Michael and Maria took their eastern side leaving Kyle and Tess with the western side. They flipped a coin for it. They carried their bags into their new bedroom and quickly unpacked. After that they all settled down, made themselves a snack and turned on the television while they waited for the gong.

Assembly Hall, 19:00

At ten to seven the soft sound of the gong rang through the air vents and into the rooms where the students were staying. It was the signal to head to the hall so Max printed a copy of the school map out, just in case it was needed, and they all dressed in their robes along with sandals that they found in their rooms. Then they rode the elevator back down to the bottom floor.

It didn’t take them long to work out their route since they had already passed it on their way to their room. The large doors to the hall were already open and long before their approach they could hear a lot of people talk away loudly. As they entered it was like a cocktail party as people moved around and mingled, everyone talking and getting to know each other as they held drinks in their hands. Teachers were not present yet but one person walked with his group over to Liz’s when they saw them enter.

“Hey, you’re Liz Parker right?” he said.

“Yeah, but by the looks of it, most people around here know that,” Liz said. “And no offence but ... eh ... you smell familiar,” she said as she picked up on his scent.

He smiled, “Yeah. You’ve already met my dad. The name’s Scott, Scott Gardener.”

“You’re Stephen’s son?” Max asked.

“You mean Liz’s dad’s werewolf friend?” Kyle asked.

“The word is Wolfen.” Scott said sternly.

“Sorry,” Kyle said.

“Na, it’s okay. Hey, word has it you were a human up until a month ago?” Scott asked.

“Yeah but I had some Lycanthrope ancestors. Actually they were Wolfen too,” Kyle said.

“Wait ... you’re a wolf? I thought you guys were all cats?” Scott’s mate asked.

“We are,” Liz said.

“Kyle has both animan bodies but he can only become a cat, a panther. But becoming a wolf...” Max said.

“That’s kind of not happening for me just now,” Kyle said.

“Well, anyway I think introductions are needed. Everyone this is my Pack, my mate Hope, also Eric and his mate Cathy, and Martin and his mate, Hope’s cousin, Gillian,” Scott said.

“Pleased to meet you,” Liz said. “This is Max, my mate. Alex and Isabel, Michael, Maria, Kyle and Tess.”

Everyone did their howdy-dos and started talking. Scott and his pack walked them over to a nearby table where there were lots of metal goblets, gold in colour but significantly stronger than the valuable metal, and several large bowls of fruit punch. Everybody took some and continued to walk around, Scott helped them make some introductions but then something caught their eye. Against one of the far walls was a couple having a really good time. All they could see was the guy, still with his robe on but it was obviously open at the front, with his butt moving rapidly back and forth with the girl’s legs wrapped around him.

“Is ... eh ... that normal?” Tess asked.

“What? Oh that,” Scott said as he looked over in the direction of the pair. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“You mean a couple could just ... in public?” Kyle asked.

“In public, in class ... yeah. We’re a lot less uptight than our great grandparent’s generation, back then they wouldn’t even have sex with anyone outside their Pack around. Such an uptight age,” Scott said. “Actually you will be meeting her soon.”

“We will? Why?” Alex asked.

“That’s Kelly, she’s the daughter of the Rakas tribal leader, but that’s later. I take it dad told you me and mine are going to be watching your backs?” Scott asked.

“Yeah. Not that we’ll need it. I don’t plan on ruffling any feathers,” Liz said.

“Uh ... you may not have a choice,” Scott said as he quickly moved around and stood in front of Liz. With his eyes he indicated to the side, “Look slowly, don’t make eye contact,” he warned.

Liz carefully raised her drink to her lips as she subtly looked over in the direction Scott wanted her to look. Despite the mass of people her eyes went straight to one group off by themselves, Liz felt a chill when she saw their leader. “Who is that?”

“That is Patrick Flanagan’s son, David. He arrived here around the time his dad went to Roswell,” Scott said as Hope moved to closer up and stood by Liz, she made sure that David couldn’t see the brunette.

“Word has it he’s been making the rounds. Making sure that he has first dibs on you should Max ... well, you know,” Hope said.

“Son of a...” Michael said as he looked over to David.

“Easy big guy,” Martin said.

“He’s gonna try to finish what his dad started,” Max said as he looked over. “He’s not going to get the chance.”

“Guys, stop. You’re right; he’s not going to get a chance. None of us will let it get that far but if you move against him you’ll only cause problems for yourself. This school is supposed to be neutral ground. If he makes a move, then you have him. You make a move, he’ll use it against you,” Scott said. “Play it cool.”

Just then the gong rang out and everyone stopped talking, they all looked up at the stage. All of the schools teachers were lining up on it as students moved closer and then the headmaster of the school forward.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. I welcome you to Moonvale,” he said.

All of the students started clapping, Max and the others joined in until it stopped.

“This year we are pleased to have so many new students join us in our home community of this nation and I’ve heard that our fellow schools around the world are also welcoming more. We are also honoured to be welcoming the first group from the Serpent tribe to our school this year; it is our hope that there will be many more in future years. Now, as many of you know several interesting individuals have come this term and all of you know the significance of this. Ms Parker, please come forward,” he said.

Liz looked around at her Pride and then to Scott as all the teenagers before her all parted, leaving a path before her. He nodded, indicating that it was okay and that the school had expected it. She couldn’t help but thinking it would be nice to have been informed she was going to be called up in front of the entire school. Liz walked forward and felt all eyes on her, as she reached the stage Liz climbed the steps onto it where she stood before the teachers.

The principal of the school stepped closer to her and smiled at her as he nodded. Then he looked back out over the crowd of students, “Ms Harris,” he called out.

Kelly stepped forward and started walking through the students. Soon she was up on the stage opposite Liz and faced her. “Hi. I’m Kelly,” she said introducing herself with a little coldness in her voice; despite promising her father she’d give her a chance.

“Liz,” she said, completely unsure of herself and picking up on the other girl’s tone.

The principal stepped between the two, “Prophecy tells us that there will come a time of darkness and that a light will shine. The First Born Daughter shall arrive to lead the way to that light, to the Sanctuary. It also tells us that a first step in her journey will be made; the Gift of the Gods shall be given to her on the day her path takes her to the mountains of the night sun where she will learn about her kind. Kelly,” the principal said with a bow of his head.

Kelly stepped closer to Liz and pulled out one of the metal triangles from under her robe. It was tied around her neck but Kelly undid the clasp and pulled it off. Normally this would have been with her father but now she was of age, she had a mate and she was the one here with Liz at this time. When that happened the Gift was passed onto his daughter for her time at the school, a signal of his eventual retirement and Kelly’s ascension to the Council in a few years.

Now, according to their oldest teachings, the Gift was now to be passed to Liz for her destiny. “Well ... here we go,” Kelly said as she held out the triangle.

Liz looked at it, she stared into the gem and her reflection caught her attention. It felt like she being pulled into it; that it was calling out to her and Liz reached out to pick it up. Almost immediately upon Liz’s skin touching it, the gem brightly blazed and caused Kelly to want to pull her hand away, but she couldn’t. She was held in place as light shot harmlessly though Liz’s hand and impacted her forehead. That was when the device released the two girls. Both pulled their hands away leaving the triangle floating in midair with the beam of light still connected to Liz’s head.

The beam faded but the triangle stayed in position, the gem pulsed brightly with light, each beat was in time with Liz’s heart. The device repositioned itself in midair so that the top of the triangle was pointing down and then it started to spin around quickly. Everyone in the room stood in shock at it all and then watched as the image of a DNA double helix formed around Liz. The device scanned her body and confirmed that Liz was the one that it was intended to activate for.

The Gift then stopped spinning and shot out from the stage, it stopped dead above the mass of students and all looked up. There was a ripple of light in the air as an image formed. It was a woman dressed in luxurious silk and all her features were feline, even more so than the Rakas animan body, but just like the others of her kind her body was a creamy white with black lines forming tribal markings all over her. From the fur on her head, a trail of spiky fur ran down the middle of her back. Many of the students who had studied mythology in their classes thought she looked like the depictions of the Egyptian goddess Bastet, at least the version that appeared in their texts.

“Greetings daughter. I am Elara Bas’tet, mother and creator of the feline tribes within the younger Lycanthrope races. I come to you today to tell give to you this glimpse into who and what you are before you continue with your destiny.

Through eons past our noble race travelled the darkness between the stars, long before any other race journeyed beyond the confines of their own world. As time went on we discovered many peoples scattered among the heavens, many differences, many points of view, many cultures. However, we only found one conclusion. In all races, death came with the intelligence that sentience brought.

Look around your own world to understand. In all cases, on every world, the people warred with each other and themselves constantly, they raped their worlds for an unending appetite for its resources, countless species’ were hunted to the point that survivors no longer represented a sufficient gene pool and became extinct. Atmospheres were polluted, they poisoned themselves and soon many worlds died off. Only one race survived beyond the adolescence for the world that you now dwell in.

For a long time we searched for a reason, an answer to a question – why did we survive? Why did all others die off yet we endured? We tried to answer, studied new races that emerged. Years became decades, decades became centuries and centuries became millennia until we were only left with one conclusion. On all other worlds, one species became the dominant sentient race where as my race - we are many. The blood of my people is comprised from all other species born to our world. Our primal instincts found equilibrium, a balance, within ourselves and our planet remained intact. This led to one of us proposing a plan; a great undertaking to ensure more species lived on.

Great ships were created and sent to young worlds where the sentients were only just emerging. They took many and remade them, bound their blood to other animals found there in the hopes that they could teach the others of their world. To aid them and evolve to the point where they could join with us. However, our plan did not do as we had hoped.

Our children that we created were different, feared and hunted. The more the sentients grew in number the more they feared our children. By using our technology we were able to create prophecy, we mathematically calculated the future of every world and found that we had merely prolonged the end. In every case we studied, the race brought death through their arrogance and stupidity. Just as it will happen on your world, it is unavoidable but only you can save the lives on your planet.

We were left to watch many die until it became utterly intolerable. As a way of protecting them against death we created Sanctuary and the Chosen. One singularly unique and as genetically perfect a person as we could create. A bloodline was created, one in which genes required for this would come together through male progeny until the time was right and a female is born. In the case of this world, you. Only you can unite the tribes through your blood from the heritage of the guardian tribe – The Chimera.

This great plan worked on many worlds, while many races died our children found peace in Sanctuary and the races that lived, learned to live in peace. However, on this world we calculated a unique future for it and you. Our calculations never balanced on this world, just as they had not from a previous endeavour on a planet called Antar. Then we combined those equations and we saw the futures that were possible. Never before had our children from other worlds mated and through this, through their blood joining with your own, you will truly understand the other tribes by becoming those tribes. However, there was one our own, his machinations and desires are beyond...

Be warned for we know the anger in him. It will become madness, his plan to...”

All of a sudden the image faded and the triangle flew into Liz’s hand. Everyone stood silently and blinked at what they had just learned about the origins of their race, most barely registered the fact that the image of the ancient god Bastet had vanished.

“That’s it?” Kelly asked loudly. “Who’s the psycho, what’s the plan ... what the hell is the unique future? It was just getting to the good part how could it quit like that?” she ranted on and on as she looked at Liz, “I hate cliff-hangers.”

“It’s fragmented. This part of the message is over, I guess when I figure out more and I touch the other triangles we’ll learn more,” Liz said.

“Here,” someone from the crowd called out. He moved forward and climbed the steps, everyone then saw his face and it was Diego of the snakes who was unclipping the Gift to his tribe that his father gave him before he left, “Try this.”

He gave his to Liz but as she touched it there was no reaction, “I guess I’m not ready for this one yet,” she said as she handed it back.

Everyone, including the teachers, started mumbling among themselves. Max and Liz looked to each other; Liz climbed down off the stage and moved into Max’s arms. He asked if Liz was okay and she nodded that she was. For a moment she was concerned that everyone around her would look on her as a freak, or resent their origins in some way, but then she remembered who she was surrounded by. These people weren’t your typical humans, they accepted who and what they and others were. Among these people differences weren’t eradicated, instead it unified them.

Later...

Everyone had calmed down since one of their gods appeared before them, it wasn’t as though something like this happened everyday after all. However, the event did remain the topic of conversation among all the groups in the hall. They all had an opinion on what happened but any doubts of Liz’s potential, and in the prophecies, were erased. It also left a cold chill in them at what it would soon happen thanks to their world.

Through the night everyone made it a point to introduce themselves to Liz and the others in their Pride. Every so often Kelly would look over to the petite brunette and ponder for a moment on the promise she made her father and how her introduction to Liz went. She realised she wasn’t exactly the warmest she’d been.

“Yeah. Okay,” Kelly said to herself as she walked away from her pride.

She went straight over to Liz’s Pride who was currently talking with Scott about things. Kyle had more than a few questions about his wolf side, which was proving to be useful advice for the others as well.

“Hi. Liz,” Kelly said.

“Kelly,” Liz said.

“Could we talk?” Kelly asked.

“Sure,” Liz said as they walked off to the side.

“Listen ... uh ... I just wanted to apologise for, well they way I introduced myself,” Kelly said. “I’m definitely not usually like that.”

“Yeah. I’m guessing it wasn’t personal,” Liz said.

“No,” Kelly said. “When you’re the daughter of a tribal leader you grow up with certain expectations, well, you feel kind of protective of your tribe. Is this making any sense?” Kelly asked.

“Actually yeah,” Liz said. “And you’re kinda wary of me because...”

“Yeah, because you’re supposed to take control of the tribes and I know nothing about you,” Kelly said.

“I guess I can understand that,” Liz said.

Kelly smiled, “I was wondering...”

“If we could start again?” Liz asked.

“Yeah,” Kelly smiled as she extended her hand, “Kelly Harris.”

“Liz Parker,” Liz said as she took the outstretched hand.

“Nice to meet you, and this time I’ll try to get to know you before making any judgements,” Kelly said. “Besides, better you than me for the whole destiny thing. If anyone can handle it, from what I’ve seen, you can.”

“I can?” Liz said, surprised.

“Hey, I would have freaked to the point my head would have blown up if I found out my boyfriend was an alien. Lycanthrope or not, that’s still out there,” Kelly said.

“Well, I freaked ... sort of,” Liz said.

“Not to the point where your head blew up,” Kelly said. “Just how long did it take to sink in?”

“From the part where he said he preferred the term ‘not of this earth’, five ... maybe ten minutes,” Liz said.

“Yeah ... see. You can handle it. Mind you ... that cute butt would have helped,” Kelly said as she looked over and looked over Max.

“Hey. That butt is mine,” Liz said.

Both girls smiled and broke out in a laugh that drew a raised eyebrow from Kelly’s mate. Soon the two girls parted and both went back to their Prides. For the rest of the evening the hall was a bustle of activity as everyone mingled. The only exception was the junior Wild Pack, most people who didn’t know them introduced themselves but there were a lot of groups that kept their distance. Soon the Serpents too introduced themselves to Liz, Diego didn’t even want to hide his intentions and invited Liz to join him and his mate in bed.

Liz was stunned to say the least and Max was not amused as he stared the snake in the eye. While the possibility of ending up in another’s bed, especially at the Oceanic’s upcoming party that her father had told Liz about, right now having sex with anyone other than any of their current lovers was out of the question. With that firmly lodged in their minds, Liz refused and walked away but Diego wasn’t deterred. He was only looking for a little fun after all.

Common Area, The Pride’s Room, 21:00

Everyone returned to their room. The elevator doors slid open and everybody stepped into their new home. Outside, the full moon was hidden behind the mountains but it was rising higher into the sky. Everyone sat down and looked around at each other, nobody knew what they wanted to do now. It was still early and while today was long, they didn’t feel tired.

“So, bed or television?” Kyle asked.

“If that’s our only options it’s going to be a long night,” Isabel said.

“Well there is another,” Tess said as she looked at Isabel and then Liz. All three smiled, a smile that soon spread to everyone else.

Isabel pushed the shoulders of Liz’s robe off to expose the small breasts concealed within while leaving the sash tied and held up at Liz’s elbows. She had seen Liz naked so many times in the last few months but never had it been with the ravenous, insatiable hunger she was feeling now. The human was a beautiful, sensual girl whose lusts and loves mixed together just beneath the surface of her skin and Isabel knew it. The alien felt a mystifying craving to explore the other girl’s soft body with her hands and moth. Liz’s breasts were smaller than her own, but that didn’t deter Isabel’s desire to take those nipples into her mouth. Isabel bent down and sucked on the nipple gently, feeling the nub stiffen even more in her mouth until it was pebble hard. Liz moaned softly as the blonde suckled on the delicious nipple, as her fingers travelled through her soft hair, pressing Isabel tighter into her breasts.