The Wolf and The Shepherdess (Rhiannon)

[Dreamwolf]

Luna blinked. "Luna is sorry, she will not mention ma- it again. Fen has many other talents, he is a brave and skilled warrior, and makes swords of such beauty that nobles will pay almost anything to have one. Fen is also kind taking in animals and people and protecting them from danger, even when he does not know anything about them." The words were the words of a girl smitten by her very own knight in shining armor, even if that knight saw her as nothing more than a little sister.

[Rhindeer]

Relaxing a little now that they had an understanding, Tessa let herself smile when the girl carried on gushing about this "Fen" of hers.

"He sounds very kind," she said, and her smile turned mischievous. "He sounds like he means an awful lot to you, this friend of yours."

[Dreamwolf]

"Fen is going to be Luna's mate someday, Luna just has to drive away the other female." The wolf girl scowled a bit. "Fen likes her a lot, and she is very strong, stronger than Luna...For now." The girl looked at Tessa. "Does Tessa have a potential mate?" The question was asked innocently, by someone too naive to understand the implications.

[Rhindeer]

Drive...away the female? Oh boy. Tessa was about to inform the girl that human relationships didn't exactly work that way when Luna turned the question around on her.

Tessa went bright red.

"What? Me? Heavens, no!" she said with a laugh, a little embarrassed by the blunt question.

And yet, under the embarrassment was an undercurrent of sadness. She didn't have a potential anyone, and she couldn't see it in her future, either. She kneaded another chunk of bread between her fingers. "This lifestyle doesn't really...well, it's not exactly easy to meet people when you wander, nor, ah...very attractive when you're always around sheep..." She broke the kneaded bread into smaller chunks. "And then there's the mark and everything. Not many people want to get close. But that's okay!"

She flashed a bright smile. "The Father always said it's better that way, so I can devote my time to God instead of filling my head full of boys. After all, flesh withers and dies, but Ansgar is eternal."

[Dreamwolf]

Luna listened nodding a bit. Her expression became thoughtful as she turned the new information over in her head. "Luna has met many gods, many of them good, some of them very bad, but Luna does not know about Ansgar except that Fen's rival, Damien, believes it is Ansgar's wish to destroy all magic and all people who use magic. Fen has warned Luna to stay very far away from Damien, because he has followers who burn mages after torturing them. Luna does not know how Damien came to think like this, but Luna does know killing people taints the aura and the soul."

[Rhindeer]

"What?"

Tessa's eyes widened and her eyebrows climbed, mouth gaping. Then she shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no! No, no, no! That's not Ansgar at all. Ansgar loves all His people. He loves mages, too. He doesn't love the magic, but He doesn't love crime and disease and poverty, either. That doesn't mean He doesn't love the sick, the criminal, and the impoverished, though. Or mages. People can't help how they're born or what happens in their life. That's why when we die, we're cleansed and given a second chance, because He knows things aren't all equal, and it's hard."

Reaching out, Tessa lightly touched Luna's hand. "This...this Damien is wrong. He's sick. And Ansgar is watching. Like you said, that blackens the soul. When he dies, he will be scourged to cleanliness all the more, and perhaps in his next life, he'll be born a mage himself."

She smiled, a smile full of hope. "They say that's what happens. That each life is a chance to learn, for the soul to grow and mature, and that each life we live is meant to teach us something our last one didn't. He's awful to mages, so one day, he'll have to experience it and learn that he was wrong."

Tessa paused a second, and then she laughed. "I wonder what my mistake was?"

[Dreamwolf]

Luna nodded at the explanation. "That sounds much more like the gods Luna has met. The good ones at least. Damien is very bad, Luna thinks he needs to die sooner than intended." The wolf girl paused when Tessa posed the question about her own condition.

"Luna has spoken to gods before, I do not know Ansgar but he sounds like another god who sometimes gave people strange gifts, like magic, to test their strength of will, Luna thinks Ansgar may be testing you to see how strong you are."

[Rhindeer]

Tessa paused at that answer, taken aback. She had honestly never considered that possibility. She had always been convinced that this was some punishment for the life she'd lived before or something to that effect, never that it was simply something meant to test her meddle in this life.

That possibility sounded a lot better to her, and a lot more positive.

"Really?" she said at last, looking at Luna with a bright smile on her face. "So that's all it could be? Well, I'm sure not gonna lie, that sounds a ton better than what I'd always thought! A test, huh?"

She pushed some hair from her face and her grin broadened. "If that's the case, I think I'm doing pretty okay at it so far!"

[Dreamwolf]

Luna nodded twice, making small sounds of agreement a she did so. "Magic is not always a strength, for some it is too easy to fall prey to the desire to use it for personal gain. A good example are the mages who use magic to kill or enslave other living beings, even for other Forest spirits like Mother it can be tempting to use our power to ensure our own pleasure and contentment."

The wolf girl paused. "Fen is a good example of the other kind though, he only uses his magic violently if he needs to, I think Fen may have been given his power by a god to test him as well, Fen can heal almost any wound, just by touching the wounded. It is strange though because Fen makes tools for killing, he is a Journeyman Smith with the skills of a master. He travels making swords and tools."

[Rhindeer]

Tessa played with a strand of her hair. "You have to be real careful with that," she said. "Even if magic can be used for good, that's a temptation. Because it makes it way too easy to justify using magic in the first place, and easier to slide in deeper, until it's too late and you're justifying using it for bad, too."

She shuddered and shook her head. "Um, but, we should probably change the subject. That's not a very nice subject. Where's, ah, where's your friend, Fen, now?"

[Dreamwolf]

Luna tilted her head at the words of the shepherd girl. They were wise words and very accurate, magic did tend to corrupt just as most power did. She accepted the change in topic though and grunted at the mention of Fen.

"Fen is somewhere in the north, Luna does not know where exactly but she knows he is safe, he is very strong and even the cold wastelands could not hope to over come Fen. Luna does not like the cold, but Luna does like Snow. Luna did not go with Fen because the the place he is going to is very cold, even for the north."

[Rhindeer]

"I see," Tessa said, and shrugged. "Well, maybe you can find each other again!"

And then, a thought striking her, she asked, "Is Fen...like you? I mean, a wolf person? Are there many others like you? I can't say I've really encountered someone like you before, so..."

[Dreamwolf]

Luna tilted her head a bit, working the question over in her mind. "In some ways, Fen is like Luna, but Fen was born human and is still mostly human. Luna was born a a Forest Spirit. Forest Spirits are usually born when a forest gets to be very old, but Luna was born like other animals when Mother met Father. Luna is different from most other things, which makes Luna Lonely sometimes, but Fen is different too, so he makes Luna feel better. Fen can change into anything that is made of flesh, so Fen can be a wolf or a dog or a horse, but he can also change just part of his body, like growing dragon skin or wings."

Luna nodded several times, mostly to herself. "Fen is considered a monster by some humans, but he is very kind. Luna doesn't like when Fen gets angry though. Fen once killed a hundred bandits by himself because they made him very angry. Luna does not know what they did, but she knows it was very bad because it made Fen break a promise."

[Rhindeer]

"Oh. Uh..." Tessa did not like that sound of this Fen, as it turned out. He sounded...dangerous. To be able to kill a hundred people at once? It didn't matter that they were bandits. That was scary! And to be able to turn into anything?

Though Luna seemed over the moon for the man, Tessa was really glad he wasn't here.

Shifting closer to her dog, Fable, Tessa stroked absently hugged the animal about the neck as though for reassurance. "I...I can see why people would be nervous around him, if that's how he acts when he's mad..."

[Dreamwolf]

Luna paused. "Only people who don't know him are afraid of him. Luna was afraid when she first met him as well.. Fen is kind and brave willing to die for others. Once Fen took Luna to a place in the mountains where people with terrible illnesses were brought to die. He healed so many of them he almost died from using his powers too much. Fen can be scary, but, he isn't a bad person, he's just a person with high standards of what is wrong and what is right." Luna sighed. This was something she had to tell many people when talking about Fen.

"If you ran into Fen on the road he would make you a meal, give a Shiny and make sure you were safe. ." At the word Shiny Luna pulled a silver ring out of her pocket. "This ring Fen made can heal almost any small wound. Fen gave Luna this ring and others to give you people who need them. Fen is a metal smith with skills and talents. His swords are some of the best in the world. Even people from Connlaoth buy his swords, at least the ones that don't have magic in them."

[Rhindeer]

Unable to help herself, Tessa gasped at the sight of the ring and drew back as though afraid of it--and truth be told, she was. Even though Luna described it as a healing token, that meant magic, and even magic used to heal was bad. It was all drawing from the same source.

"Put...put that away, Luna," she said, eyes darting around the area again as though afraid of others seeing--even though to any passerby it would just look like a simple ring. She hugged herself. "I...I know you said that heals, but...but that's still dangerous. That's how people start using magic. They think it won't hurt, that it will help..."

She shook her head. "But it's all a gateway to the same place."

[Dreamwolf]

Luna put the ring away. "Luna is sorry. But please, don't think badly of Fen. He thinks badly of himself all the time. When we were traveling together he sometimes would cry out in his sleep and wake up drenched as if he had jumped into the ocean. He dreams about everyone he kills, even when they were very bad people. He feels terrible about every life he takes but knows that many of those he's killed would have hurt many others if he had not stopped them. Plus Fen doesn't use his magic to kill unless he absolutely has to, and only against other magic users. He prefers to kill with a sword untouched by magic. He even made himself a sword for using on bad people."

[Rhindeer]

Tessa relaxed once the ring was away, and gave Luna a reassuring smile. "I can't think badly of someone I've never met," she said, and hoped Luna wouldn't sense the lie, "so I'll just have to take your word for it!"

But once again, all this talk of magic and killing was making her uncomfortable, and the wolf girl seemed to want to keep bringing the topic back over to it! Though she supposed that was her own fault for asking questions about Fen. With an awkward shrug, Tessa tried again for a safe subject change.

"So...Luna? What are you doing out here? Or rather, where are you headed?"

[Dreamwolf]

Luna realized she had been going back to the forbidden topics, despite saying she wouldn't. Blushing a little she wrung her hands around her tail a few times in embarrassment.

"Luna wishes to see the great arts. Luna loves to learn and Luna cannot learn about Connlaoth without visiting. Luna was told that the city is full of beautiful art works and statues, and that women do all the building because the men are all soldiers. Luna wants to learn to make baskets and blankets and rugs and clothes. Fen won't teach Luna how to make swords but Luna wants to learn anyway. So Luna came to Connlaoth to find someone who would teach her."

[Rhindeer]

Tessa grimaced. "Okay, but you know that if you go to the city, you absolutely cannot talk about magic, right? No showing off magic rings, no talking about Fen--don't even think of magic!"