Sun and Earth Ch. 09

"That is fine, thank you for your help Vrykólakas." The man turned back to my father with an expectant expression. "These are the first mated couple in 500 years..." this was it, could it really be that simple? The man would declare the war over because we decided to just show up? "...as per the agreement dictated at the beginning of the war, when the first mated couple comes forth-"

"I challenge Parker Sol Solis to a duel."

My heart sunk. No, of course it's not that easy...it's never that easy. Not when it came to the bastard staring at me, who tormented me as child.

"Oh daddy, I didn't think you cared." I spat, looking at my father in disgust. "Are you really so hell bent on keeping this war going that you'll fight me?"

"Girl, you don't know half of what I'd to win this war."

Cries of outrage rang out from the crowd. Shouts of how 'the savior' was supposed to be sacred, and how dare my father risk losing the one savior that we have. But the decision of course came down to the man at the head of the table...and he did everything by the book. Nevertheless the wolves continued to scream and shout, even some of the mages who didn't want to lose the mated pair so quickly protested the fight.

I looked at Micah as the decision was made, I had to fight my father. The man of nightmares from my childhood. I thought of the fear and pain he caused my brothers and I, I thought of the torture he put my mother through, I thought of the friends and experiences he had taken away because they weren't part of his plan. It was ultimately his fault they I had become this unnatural being. I found myself not shaking in fear as I thought I would have, instead I was beginning to sweat with excitement, my girl was crouched and ready to take him on. I would be able to dole back what my father had been handing out for centuries without consequence and I wasn't going to hold back.

Micah brought his hands to my face and pulled me in to kiss me gently. Before our lips met he whispered "You have a lot you have to show me about your hometown, love. I expect you back in a timely fashion so you'll be able to." We kissed and there were cries of disgust and outrage amongst the warring nations. We were both smiling in satisfaction at the taboo we had just broken.

"I lo-" Micah cut me off with another kiss.

"Tell me later, Parker." He kissed my forehead and turned me around in the direction of the duel grounds, the circle of trees beyond the barrier. My father, the butter voiced man and I all moved through the opening in the barrier and onto the challenge ground.

"Rules of Truce challenges." He stopped himself and looked at my father and I. "These circumstances are slightly out of the ordinary." He kept his voice projected so those beyond the barrier could hear but to me it tones felt like whipped cream gliding over my skin. I shook myself out of the reverie and paid attention to the man.

"A normal challenge is usually issued between a Werewolf and a Mage. Since this challenge is between two wolves we shall change the rules to accommodate. Any objections?" Silence from the onlookers. The man continued. "No weapons. No attacking if the other opponent decides to shift, if an attack is made on a Wolf who is mid shift, the duel will be forfeit and so shall the attacker's life."

At this point he turned to me with a grim look. "No Sun magic." My heart stopped. "If we are to make this a fair fight you must use attributes given to you at birth alone. The sun gift was bestowed upon you after your birth therefore if you utilize the power I will be forced to execute you, understand?" I searched my mind for a way around this clause knowing full well I would never win against my father with my strength alone. In my desperation and panic I found no silver lining or possible loop hole that could save me, I nodded my head at the man to acknowledge his words. Now I was afraid.

"No straying beyond the trees, but fighting within the trees is allowed...if you dare." A glint of knowledge echoed in his walnut sized eyes, my father disregarded this admission but I understood what he meant. I knew what these trees were, sprits of the forest, guardians of the Wolves. They watched us and guided us when it was needed. I used to lay underneath these trees listening to stories of Wolves who no longer lived. At the time I thought I had been dreaming but I knew now that the trees were alive...and they were listening.

The man moved to the side of one of the trees and created a barrier around himself, he would be protected from any physical, mental or magical attack so his judgment would not be subject to magic any threat of turning him biased.

My father and I stared at each other before retreating to the edges of the tree line. I breathed deep, focusing on the moment, not looking for Micah and pushing my sun gift as far away from my reach as possible. Once I was standing next to a tree I turned around to face my father, he was already looking my way, watching me with every shift and breath that I took. I kneeled in the ground and put one hand against a tree and the other against the earth. I dug my fingers into the rain-softened dirt allowing the cool wet to wash over me, further pushing my sun gift away. I connected with the earth as I had done so many times as a child and apologized to her and the tree for any damage that may be incurred during this pointless battle. I pushed my will for peace into the tree and prayed it may help me win this battle to stop the war.

As the man, our referee, raised his right hand to signal we may ready ourselves, I placed my feet shoulder length apart and braced for the beginning. The man brought his hand down with a swift movement and I felt the blood underneath my hands begin to shift. My fingers became claws and hands turned into half mangled disfigured paws. My father did the same, not wanting to waste energy on shifting completely.

We circled the enclosure slowly, countering the other, never taking our eyes off our prey. We were both the prey and predator alike. Without signal, my father pounced on all fours and glided towards me. His body was lithe and agile, moving with the swift precision of a well skilled killer. I braced myself and at the last moment jumped into the air and slammed my foot into his back, letting him fly to the ground. He recovered quickly and turned back on me with another great lunge. I echoed my previous movement but instead of my foot I slashed his back with my claws, he growled low, brushing the gash off as if it were a paper cut.

He leapt for me again, but this time predicted my jump and caught me by my ankle, slamming me down against the ground. I grunted as the wind flew from my chest and I staggered to get to my feet. Before I could move my father took both my hands and raised them over my head, trapping my paws by slamming his claws through my skin and into the ground.

I screamed in agony as his claws wiggled inside my skin. His body straddled mine and a sick grin plastered his face as he relished in my agony.

"Poor little pup." He whispered "You're nothing without that gift of yours, wishing you had stuck around a little longer and let me teach you some valuable fighting tricks, eh?" His rough Irish accent seared my mind, bringing back horrific memories of beatings and screams. I tried to buck him off my body but he stayed put. "No escaping this time, dear. No Christian to save you, no mother to defend you. Just me and my useless, traitorous wild child." At the word traitorous the monster removed his claws from my wrists and slammed them into my shoulders. Another howl pierced the night as tears ran down my face.

I would have thought this fortuitous, him releasing my hands so I could use them to push him off me, but they were so weak from blood loss and from what I'm sure were broken bones and couldn't even lift them. I needed to shift, desperately so I could at least heal the bones in my wrists. But there was no way my wolf would allow me to start the process with claws slammed through our shoulders.

"You're a fucking lunatic." I moaned through the pain, not letting him get the best of me. I needed to prove more to myself than him that I still had a fighting chance to win this. I thought of Micah and my mother, I thought of the beatings he had given my wonderful brothers on my behalf. I thought of the innocents he had killed because of his stinking blood lust and need for war. Then I felt his erection pressing through the thin fabric of my shorts and raged at the thought of his daughter's pain turning him on.

As my father bent over my body and inhaled the fear and anger coursing through my veins, I managed to bring my arms to my sides and dip my hands into the soft earth. The cooling sensation I had felt as a child on this encounter slipped into my wrists. I felt the tingling, biting sensation of bones knitting together, skin reforming, blood replenishing. The earth was healing me...but I didn't let my father notice.

At this point he had taken his claws from my shoulders, all too keen on the amount of blood I had lost. Wolf or not, no one would have been able to withstand that amount of blood loss and not be on the verge of passing out. I blinked my eyelids so they looked like I started to slip into unconsciousness.

My father lifted his head and looked to the mages and wolves staring from within the barrier.

"Here is your prophesized one. The sun savior, the Mated Wolf...a waste. There will always be war between the Mages and the Werewolves. Not because of a love triangle that happened 500 years ago, but because Wolves are better than Mages. We were here first, we are the superior race. Superior in strength, in speed, agility, numbers. We do not harness and manipulate the earth's energy, wasting it for our own selfish purposes. We give back what we take, but you, bastards of the humans...you take what you want without thinking of the consequences. Look at this whore below me. She was once so powerful and now because she was bewitched by a fucking mage her life is over. I'm going to kill her."

I flicked my eyes between open and closed so he thought I was moving in and out of consciousness. He caught the movement and brought his hand, now changed back to human form, and grabbed hold of my hair. He lifted me by my hair and brought his voice down to my ear.

"But I'm not going to kill you yet, daughter. I'll beat you so bad there will be no healing, no coming back from the pain and the deformities I will give you. But there will be one part of your body I will take dear care of." His other hands he brought down in between my thighs and I shuddered. His fingers pressed against my mound, his thumb toying with the button on my shorts. As I labored to breathe under the terror his hand had instilled in me, he began to stroke over the fabric. A wolfish whine escaped my lips, I darted my eyes around, looking for something to attack him with. He was so confident, so sure he had me...and in essence he did. He had my terror, my fear of my own father taking me as a captive and using me for what he originally planned.

"One day...far from today, I will kill you. The world will think you are dead, I'll lock you up in a hidey hole, no sun will find you...only the sharp sucking of silver will be company for you as you birth pups of mine imprinted with that sun gift of yours." He turned my head to the barrier and I found what he wanted me to see. "And that earth breathing mate of yours?" I could hear the detestable glee in his voice. "Your nightmares will be filled with the sounds of his screams as I rip him apart in front of you, bit by bit, and eat his insides." He removed his hand from my groin and replaced it with the length of his erection and grinding into my pelvis. "Imagine what it will feel like as I fuck you while chewing on your mate's remains." He licked the side of my face. "You look so much like your mother, I see her when I look at you. I'm going to teach not only the Mages a lesson, but the wolves as well. Everyone is expendable."

He took my shirt and ripped it in half, throwing the pieces to the side.

I heard the words he spoke and a fierce pain ripped through my soul. I looked at Micah who was pounding against the barrier, his face beet red, a steady glow pulsing from his skin, his eyes were an emerald green to rival the clearest gemstone. I couldn't hear what he was screaming but the other mages and wolves backed away from him. There were tears streaming down his face and he continued to batter himself against the unbreakable wall. I smiled at him through my terror...I wouldn't let him die. Wouldn't let my father take me to be his little reproduction automaton.

I knew even though my wounds were nearly healed that my father's strength and speed would always outmatch mine. The man had said that I couldn't use my sun gift as magic...however he hadn't specified any other type of magic. As I felt the cool tingle ebbing into my skin from the earth I realized I had always known it was there within me. My sun gift emerging had repressed it, allowing only girl to bask in the glory of it. I think now, that this was the reason I had survived the scindo with my sanity intact. The earth would not have let my girl and I release the hold on our mind while our essence was torn apart. Part of me thought it was a thank you from these very trees, which I had listened to on so many occasions.

My father had spoken of the Mages taking from the earth and not giving back. While we may naturally give back to the earth what energy we use...we ignore it. We allow it to decay and crumble without listening to its cries of loneliness. I had learned to listen as a child and I relished in their voices as a young woman. Today I listened and begged in turn for help. I appealed to the trees surrounding me, reminding them with flashes of the stories they had imparted on me that they were not alone.

With a final push I shoved my fingers deeper into the earth and a simple shift allowed me to sink my toes into the mud as well. As much skin should be in contact with the ground as possible. Unfortunately, the monster elbowed me in the face causing me to truly lose consciousness for a moment. My father, fully intending to rape his own daughter in front of his pack, my mate and the Mages, began to unbutton my shorts and slip his hand in. I whimpered and cried, hating myself for playing the broken woman. He traced his fingers over the roughened skin of my scar and I cried for someone to interfere, again disgusted by my pitiful cries. I felt a sharp poke against my breast soon realizing that his left hand had reverted back to claws. The scream that broke from my voice sounded distant and unrecognizable, it was a cross between a wolf's howl and a woman's shriek of agony. The pain and violation I felt as he literally hacked my chest to pieces was incomparable to any prior terror he had unleashed upon me during my childhood. He dug the claws into my rib cage and a very identifiable crack reverberated through my body. I couldn't speak; my body wouldn't move...I was trapped.

Throughout the whole process I felt Micah, a mere hundred yards away, screaming and ranting for me. He couldn't call his magic to him due to the nature of the Truce meeting enclosure but he used what sun gift I had given him through our love making. Micah's cries eventually became so great that I pushed the pain and terror I felt away from my mind and focused on Micah's pain. I reached out to him through the barrier and filtered him slightly...it was much easier now that I had taken in so much soothing earth energy. The glow surrounding his body lessened and his battering calmed as he felt the energy drain from his body. My father had now slid his hands underneath my shorts and pushed to fingers inside of me. I knew it was time, a beating I could take but the pure evil of this kind of violation would never endure. Soon I felt him tear my shorts from my body and ready himself to plunge his dick inside me. I sent Micah a mental I Love You and shot my earth energy out to the surrounding trees.

The trees bent and contorted with a sound that tore my eardrums in two. They curved and twisted towards my father and me, sending their limbs and branches out in sharp pikes aiming for their target. I included myself in that target knowing to tell them to avoid me was silly. I was asking this great favor of them, I could offer them a blood sacrifice in return. I would allow my soul to be absorbed into the trees for them killing the monster who was now staring at them in astonishment.

I waited for the blow by looking back over to Micah. He stood aghast, his jaw open and the tears fully streaming down his face without reserve. The glow on his skin had ebbed but his eyes, along with the eyes of all the other mages glowed that fierce emerald green with a vibrant intensity. They felt the earth magic, it called out to their greed, and they wanted to harvest and use it for their own devices. But they wouldn't. They may crave this magic, but it was too old for them to use. They wouldn't be able to harvest this magic without a sacrifice...as I had done.

Just as the pikes pierced my body I mouthed the words 'I love you' to Micah.

All went black.



**********

Light bombarded my eyelids with an annoying haze. I groaned, feeling as though I were a teenager again, my mother swinging the shutters open with a fervor that meant only one thing...it was time to go to school. Or in my case, training with my father. Those were the moments I had wished I was human, learning to embroider and care for the home as a proper woman should...at least back in the 1700s. Not battling my way through a fabricated maze my father had constructed to prepare me for my inevitable future.

But instead of the sweet and dark scent my mother had always given off I smelled cinnamon, hot chocolate and earth. The scent of the earth permeated my body like no other, no doubt my reawakened power answering its mother's call. But it wasn't actually the earth beckoning me to open my eyes, it was a kindred spirit of the earth. I smiled, recognizing my other half.

My eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the cruel brightness streaming through the window. I turned my head to the side and saw Micah, dark curls framing his chiseled copper face. He lay next to me on his side, a smile on his lips and amber speckles in his chocolate eyes.

"We simply must stop meeting like this." I joked, I don't think I could count how many times I'd been injured in the past couple weeks even if I wanted to.

"Welcome back." without warning he leaned forward and kissed me. His lips certainly made me feel welcome as they slowly explored every inch of my face, finally coming back to my lips. I opened my mouth wanting to taste him but he gave me a tender peck and pulled away. He draped one arm over my stomach and brought his face closer to mine.

"Welcome back, huh? Where did I go?" I asked, not taking my eyes off his face. I twisted to lay on my side so I could face him better, my hand moved instantly to the curls in his cocoa colored hair.

"Much farther than I ever want you to go again." Micah's eyes closed, a grimace of pain crossing his features. My heart began to hammer.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" I sat up to take a survey of his body, surprised to find I felt rejuvenated and quite energetic. I must have been asleep a long time to have recovered this much. I began an inspection, using my sense of smell to detect blood if there was any. I assumed in the rush to heal me if anything had happened to Micah he would have ignored it and concentrated on me, which is exactly what I would have done. Micah grabbed my hands and held them close to his chest. This somewhat defeatist attitude was new, it threw me off.

"It's not me I'm worried about. Promise me you'll never leave me, Parker. I couldn't- I can't take seeing you-" a tear rolled down my mate's face and my heart crumpled. I lay him back on the bed and showered him with kisses. I began on his forehead then moved to his eyes, his cheeks, his chin and finally, as he did to me, lay one sweet peck on his lips. I wanted more but I had a feeling there was a lot we needed to talk about.