Blood Moon Eclipse: The lone wolf

Deep in the hallows of my ancient city; a city situated in the heart of a continent that gave life to the living in flesh; a place where the legendary dragons came into existence,... in that place our ancestors emerged amongst the people of the world as the wolf blooded ones. We neither knew when it happened nor it's reason but we knew we were hated by the pious humans, who considered us to be less human, demons, savage man-eating beasts, and to them, we were just a myth. They neither acknowledged our existence and we considered them mundane.

Our kind had been purged by the humans since the dawn of time and this had brewed the hate between us deeper, that an oracle had been written in the religious books of us werewolves and humans alike, a dark oracle about the destruction of life in an untimely war that would end the existence of the wolf blooded ones. It was a popular prophecy that was known to every heart in Atlantis, except nobody really knew the dawning of the day when the oracle would come true. I was just an ambitious girl, existing looking to weave my dreams and make a place for myself in this uncertain world. My Name is Anathi, and I was born into a family of werewolves. The dark and most hated creatures in this sacred land, where goodness is solely sanctified; my sweet home, Atlantis...

The yellow sandy desert glowed in the scathing sun as my horse paced briskly behind my father who was quickly walking ahead of me. The heat was extremely unbearable and my horse was almost staggering, my white cotton dress was almost brown from the dust lifted by the minor sandstorms that constantly attacked us. Usually the weather didn't change much in Atlantis as it was partly a desert infested area, nevertheless, it was abundant in vegetation. Today though as we proceeded on our journey, it was different. Different that the clouds, were hovering above in the skies in gloom threatening a rainy afternoon. We had travelled far, for many, many miles hoping to reach our destination soon, as we had begun our journey at the peak of dawn, by day break we had reached the beginning of the haunted sacred Kamuri desert lands.

"Come on Anathi, hurry up please or else we will be discovered by the dead spirits of the beasts lurking within this haunted, barren land !" He cautiously called out to me when he noticed I was trailing a bit behind. "Stay close to me! We gotta stick together, just in case!"

I let out a slight laughter to lighten up the dead, calm mood. There was nothing to be seen or heard except our voices, not even the birds trespassed the skies. "Are you scared father! You never told me where we really are going!"

"Scared of what? I'm just looking out for you! I told you we are off to Dragon's heart!" My father began to say.

"You told me you have been there before?" I doubted the credibility of him ever visiting the place.

"Yes, I was there before in that famous place. I was sick, I was about nineteen when I had the honour of seeing the legendary temple with my own eyes. I had just been poisoned with wolfsbane and I was dying. My own uncle brought me through this same desert and a seer healed me. Your uncle also came here when he didn't get his first transformation." He was blubbering about how nice and sacred the temple was.

The journey was long and tiring. The first time I had learned of this place, I was thirteen. It was sacred to just witness the unfathomable beautiful sands considering I had never been in the desert before.

"I got off my horse and stooped on the ground removing my slippers. Although the ground scathed my tender feet, the hot sand felt good seeping through, in-between my toes. I scooped a handful of it in my hands, some of it seeping through my fingers." I gazed into the distance; nothing but golden silky sand dunes.

"Hey! Why did you stop! Come on!". My father called out to me as he turned around.

"Okay, I'm just tired that's all!" I uttered brushing sweat off my brow. I was dizzy. I could not continue. "Dad, can't we rest for a bit somewhere!"

"No, this place is dangerous! The last thing we want is for night to dawn in on us because that's when this place is haunted most." He said to me, But he had drifted away into haziness. I passed out. I woke up later to find my dad and a strange boy looking over me.

"Anathi!" My dad called out.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"You passed out!" He said as the boy who looked to be about nineteen handed me a wooden bottle with crystal clear water. There was something strange about him. It wasn't his green eyes and light yellow/brown smooth skin that alerted me that something was different about him, it was the garb he wore. It was traditionally woven leather pieces with seashells embedded in at the top; he carried a golden dagger, embedded with strange metal.

"Drink, we have a long journey ahead of us!" He said to me and there was something mystical about him.

"He found us!" My dad smiled. "He is also on the same journey we are making and he showed up from nowhere when you fainted. Isn't that great." He smiled at me.

"I'm amun!" He said as he helped me up. (amun, an African word simply meaning a man. It also meant sir, and father )

"So you have no actual name?" I asked.

He just smiled back at me and began walking.

Strangely, after drinking his water, I felt better and did not feel tired or anything of that sort throughout the journey, except fear, fear for this unknown young man who had shown up from nowhere.

My heart heaved as I rode my horse. I was filled with fear and there was something in me that did not want to continue, but I just did. If my dad made it the last time, we could make it now too. To comfort myself, I sunk into my own world of thoughts, ruminating about my one and only love, and before I realised it, the unfathomable desert had swallowed us deeper into its land of nothing but golden sands, In the distance, debris of land and rock and dry rocky mountains started to appear. It was the end of the desert, and somewhere deep in that rocky gorge, lay the mythical temple of seers.

I had read about it in papyrus scrolls in the city's library; a place I was notorious for frequenting. I learned it in school. They say this temple was carved into a giant mountain secured by a dry valley of limestone. The dry valley' was shaped like a heart and with it's core as the temple; giving it the name

'Dragon's heart.'

They say in this gorge dwelt a legend even the pharaoh of Atlantis dared to utter with his hallowed mouth. A tale whispered around fires by families during evenings. A story that reigned in the sacred books of Atlantis, existing in the hearts of the people; a legend that dwelt in the voids of time passed down from ancestor to descendant. It was the tale of the Serpent temple of seers that resided at Dragon's heart. A home to the immortal keepers that dwelt within it's very walls, granting the gift of healing, wishes and future to those who took the endeavour to visit. They say only the bravest could come and return alive in one piece, but my father had proven his valiance through coming for the second time.

We proceeded deeper to the end of the desert until we came upon an entrance that signified our journey would be coming to a halt. Beyond the valley lay other rocky mountains, then a little forest began, furthering into unseen horizons where the sea took over. I had seen it on a map.

The valley was large, the limestone mountains stood tall with a large passage in the middle leading to the core. We proceeded in but my horse began to blare out of fear, shying away. I got off and tied her to a rock. The passage ground was dry with cracks revealing deep dark holes throughout.

"Once we had the inauspicious luck of trampling this very ground!" My father began to say.

"Is it safe to walk here? It looks like the ground will collapse anytime soon!" I said to him feeling nervous and scared. I was walking stealthily, as if walking on eggshells. Death was the last thing on my mind.

"The last time I came here, the ground was wet and felt hollow and it shook beneath your feet curving in, as you walked, I was so afraid." He smiled at us lightening up the mood, but amun proceed without any form

of fear. Confidently.

"Don't worry, nothing which you fear will happen!" He said as if he had read my mind. He held my hand and led me through the way

My heart had gone into a rhythmic panic. I had read about the story of Dragon's heart.

Long ago, there was no desert…;

The desert was just a seabed and the limestone gorge was submerged under water. The sacred sea was home to the Serpent deity; the Nyaminyami, (meaning deity of the star beings) once upon a frame in history's time. He dwelt there lying in peace and would only resurface above the waters every lunar eclipse or when the people of Atlantis gave their offerings to him. The sight of him on an inauspicious day was deemed to be bad luck. It is said the serpent's length was unfathomable, endless, more than a hundred metres and no one had ever seen it's tail. Its width was at least fifty metres. It was a serpent with the head of a dragon. The Nyaminyami was the basis of piety in Atlantis as it's figure was worn attached to the headress of a person , in the front just above of the forehead not only in Atlantis but also in Egypt, in Niger and in other kingdoms alike. They say one day when a superior empire conquered our nation in the past, they ran the rivers and that part of the sea dry, leading to the snake deity being chased away into the ocean leaving it's heart, the gorge. That part of the sea became above sea level and became a beautiful desert. The serpent spirit had left it's guardians of the sea, as keepers of his heart. Why was my father bringing me to this place? To heal me.

The sight of him running in the wind, his paws digging into the soil while I followed on horse back when our journey began in the forest showed that, the fact that he had a wolfless daughter really bothered him. He had transformed back to his human form when we first set foot to enter the desert. He did not want to be seen.

"I can't believe you made me skip school just for this." I heard myself say.

"Well if we didn't come here, we wouldn't have the chance to know if you will become normal!"

"Normal?" I was furious. "You consider that normal?" I uttered.

"People think people like us as freaks, monsters, and dad. And I'm happy I'm not yet like you. I'll be happy to never become like any of those born like me."

I wished I had not uttered those words at all because at that moment, he walked back to me, and pushed amun away and he slapped me across the face, drawing blood from my nose. I fell to the ground.

I remember feeling horribly nauseated as my gaze was drawn to cracks in the ground. Inside the cracks one could see a river of shiny, curling strands of dark silk, of every kind flowing beneath the ground; a lot of snakes coiling amongst each other. A million of them, probably. I let out a scream and got up pacing backwards. But Amun grabbed my hand.

"No daughter of mine will live on this earth and die like a mundane." My father continued absentmindedly, but I was not paying any attention. He followed my gaze and he squatted to take a closer look. That's when he cringed and I saw he was covered in shivers.

" Come on!" He kept on calling me. "I know you're scared but don't look down. This will be the last time we come here. I promise!"

"Nothing will happen, show no fear!" Amun assured us. In the core of the heart of the gorge, there it stood; gigantic, carved into the limestone mountain, with hundreds of candles lit at the entrance. The serpent temple of seers had it's art engraved into it and as you stepped foot on the first step of the giant entrance into the cave, a mysterious air blew about.

"You see this amun?" I began to say. But he was no were to be seen. He had just disappeared. My dad shouted for him and even traced his steps back but he wasn't there.

"Maybe he decided to stay behind and wait for us."

My dad was surprised to not see the familiar face he once saw when he came, as a different woman stood by the entrance of the temple. The seer my father had consulted. Dineo. She had been the grand seer, in the temple.

Where is she!" My dad asked the strange young woman. Suddenly, the atmosphere was cold in this place. Something about this woman was not right. Something about her showed she was not of this realm. She ignored him and led us into the temple infested with the wealthiest jewels no human had laid eyes upon and lived to tell the tale, because as always the dead that had tried to loot had proven that my father was right after all, that there was always something about mundanes that made them greedy that they would die for wealth, they couldn't resist theft for such a thing like gold and he said we were different because us supernaturals were tied to nature and our origins and that nor form of greed dared to dwell in our hearts. I believed otherwise.

Legend had it, if you stole, your soul would be tied to it. Your body will be bound to the desert with no chance of exit. You would roam the sands to the day of your death.

I awed at all that was in front of me once again. The skeletons of those that came to rob the seers still lay chained to the jewellery.

The alter was situated near a giant fountain in the wall, many many meters away from us and in four neat lines sat young garbed men in a meditative state. To my horror, they all bore the face of amun. And the maidens who served them were similar in looks to the woman.

"This way!" She motioned with her hand, the other holding the lamb light and she led us into another room. The sound of trickling water from the holy shrine could still be heard. This place was horrific enough to scare someone as valiant as my father who never seemed to be afraid of anything because in that moment his eyes were bulged and he was as jumpy as anyone can be.

.

"Wait!" she said to my father who seemed drawn to her beauty like a magnet.

He held her hand as she exited but she uncomfortably pulled away leaving me feeling deeply embarrassed of him.

She went out for a while leaving us in the cold room with it's upper walls aligned with dry human skulls and lit white candles. Beneath the skulls lay a shelf full of containers and feathers and some unidentifiable substances. The floor was naturally made of sapphire, and in the middle was a large woven mat, and a large marble bowl seeping out of the floor filled with crystal clear water.

The wait was long even though she returned after a few minutes. The fear that beheld my heart made each second seem like hours. She paced about the room collecting all the things she would need for the session. Her dress was traditionally woven leather and her hair was worn in long dark braids beaded with blue peacock feathers. Her lips were a light brown just like her skin tone, her devious eyes were a deep green and her figure was slim.

" I never knew there were so many others here besides the few I saw and old wise, Dineo!" My dad began to smile at her, to break the ice, but she ignored him.

"Where is she?"

"Gone! She was not in this place." the young woman answered.

"Gone where? She wasn't a keeper?"

"She went and laid along with her ancestors and she is never to return to this realm because she was a mundane, and not immortal" She said, her scary eyes drilling into my father's.

"Anymore questions?" She seemed annoyed. "We will be your servant from now on and we will help you with your matter!"

"We?"

"Yes, us keepers of the temple."

There was a deathly silence as she ground her roots in front of us, sitting right adjacent to us. She gazed at us and I looked down uncomfortably except for my father who was rubbing his hands nervously.

"What do we call you?" My dad asked her, his voice shaking.

"Isis. We are women! We have no name!"

She answered him.

(Isis, an African word which means ',woman, girl, she, or madam, or goddess.)

"If you really want to know what we are...We are the sun and the protector, we are worshipped. We help as seers. We are the water that runs the wild rivers, the spirit that trails the breeze, the wind that the mountains echo, and the animal that humans fear."

She said looking down. "We are what we are. "

"And what is that supposed to mean?" My father uttered in confusion but I had sort of understood what she meant. She and those other keepers were just spirits bound to the desert. I had read about that also.

Now my dad probably thought this had been a bad endeavour. I could tell he wanted to leave.

.

"I'm here for my daughter!" My father began.

"You know, we are a family of werewolves and she is the only one in the clan who has reached her menses and isn't able to transform..."

"We already know why you are here!" She answered.

"You did?" He was surprised.

"You shouldn't force it, just so you know! What is meant to come naturally will come to her!" She said as I felt more creeped out.

My father was speechless at first then disappointed and he began to lecture her!

"Ssh!" He cut her short. "Listen to what is told to you. A heart that loves to speak will never learn to listen and therefore it remains oblivious because it will never learn anything but a heart that speaks less and likes to listen remains buried deep in wisdom." She said to him, shutting him up.

She took the powdered dust she had ground from the roots and to my horror, she blew it in my tender face, and I began to choke on it's sting. My eyes were wet, as I rubbed them.

"Open your eyes and see.! Hold your breath!" She uttered as she gazed deeply into my eyes with a serious look. This mysterious woman held me by my long dark locks and slowly pulled my head towards the bowl of water which turned dark. "Open your eyes and see!"

"What do you see?" She asked me.

"Nothing!" I replied horrified, looking at my dad who just sat there frozen, just gazing in shock.

She began to talk. "Try to see into your future, the sacred seeing waters will show it to you!" She said to me!

At that moment, visual images began to appear before me.

"What did you see!" She asked me unmoved.

"I was trotting behind my father walking in the forest as he dragged someone whom I saw transform into a wolf of white form!"

I said to her,

"That is a good thing! She said, "You can go home!"

"That's it ?" My father, who had been watching in shock too afraid to intervene, said.

"I said go home!" That's all she said as we stood ready to begin our long journey back.

My father neither argued nor questioned her any further because he was relieved that at least the future held the solution to 'his' problem.

"Never again!" He uttered as we exited the cave to leave. I hoped it would be the last time my father brought me to this sanctified place of horrors to see a seer and for the very first time in a long time, it rained like never before.

"It is a sign for a new dawn, that your wishes will be answered!" A voice spoke from behind us at the entrance of the temple.

It was probably one of the meditating keepers. He looked like amun. They all looked like amun.

"amun?" My father asked as he gazed at me.

"Yes,"

"What are you?" I asked him.

I'm a guardian of the temple," he said as he looked down on the ground as if disappointed for telling me that very fact.

"It was my obligation that you see your journey through. It is always my duty to help those who seek to find the temple, for a good cause. That's my purpose here. I was sent to you when you fainted." He said to us as he walked up to me.

My dad mumbled to himself under his breath.

At that very moment, he morphed into a black snake and slithered between the cracks into the hollowed pit of snakes. My dad shrieked as we crept away.