Post by Amelia Kirby on Feb 15, 2006 21:15:27 GMT -5
Heeeeere we go, we will now begin the When Wolves Cry series, starting with the story Wolf Eyes. Be excited! Heheheh. This is a series I started a while ago, but I lost my initiative and it died when HP6 came out. But now I have said, "Screw HBP AND OotP! This is MY version!" Thus, here it is. Cherry's and my awesome characters shall now introduce themselves! Be... excited. Here we go!
By the way: If you guys want to leave a review/comment about the story, please PM it to me, because I have very limited room for posts and I want to post the next chapters in the reply sections. Thanks!
Prologue:
From the Mouths of Babes
The stars were bright as tiny lanterns against the stark blackness of the night sky. The darkness was just beginning to thicken and lights appeared in windows of the many houses lining the streets of the small village, but thick curtains quickly doused the lights as they were pulled closed. No longer could a soul be seen wandering the streets; the people of Little Norton were incredibly superstitious, and rumors of countless demonic things that wandered the streets were always being recycled, whispered over pints in the pub every night.
This superstition had only been fueled by what was now known as “that tragic incident with the Lupins.” It was a tale that was known all too well by the villagers, and they were now always wary and alert whenever they passed by the large, Victorian house at the very end of the lane. In the daytime they may have been wary, but at night, they wouldn’t even speak of the family that lived there. After the deaths of two members of the kind family two years ago, the villagers were terrified that that could possibly happen to one of their own families. That was why none of them associated with Bastian Lupin or his children anymore. And that was why old Bastian’s children were never hopping and skipping in the streets with the other children.
Currently, the widower in question was sitting in a hand crafted wooden rocker on his back porch with a book in his hands, his porch light shining brightly above. He could periodically be seen lifting his head to look out to the backyard, and his ragged features would brighten with a crinkled smile and a twinkle in his blue eyes. Then he would look back down at his book.
Sprawled out on the lush green grass of the yard were two young children, hands clasped and fingers tightly intertwined. Both had short, light brown hair and happy smiles on their thin faces. The nine-year-old Lupin twins lay on their backs, faces bared to the expanse of stars above, as young Remus pointed out to his sister – and slightly boastfully, at that – the few constellations he knew of. His sister occasionally challenged his supposed great knowledge, but after a few argumentative words, she would decide that her brother knew what he was talking about and drop the subject.
“See, Fera, that’s the Big Dipper,” Remus was saying to his twin, pointing a long thin finger up at the sky above. “There’s the handle and – “
“How do you know that’s the big one?” the young girl ask him haughtily, giving him a skeptic look. She obviously did not believe her brother knew as much as he claimed to know. “How do you know whether it’s the big or the small?” Remus heaved a dramatic sigh of long-suffering impatience.
“Because that one’s bigger,” he answered her. His tone was one a teacher might use on a particularly slow student. The girl narrowed her eyes at her brother for a moment, then shrugged and looked back at the sky. The two were silent for a long moment.
Finally, Fera asked slowly, “Did Mummy teach you about the stars, Brother?”
Remus gave his younger twin a long, measured look before replying with a simple “yes.” Fera heaved a sigh and her face drooped forlornly.
“I wish she’d taught me about the consellations,” she said sadly.
“They’re called ‘constellations,’ not ‘consellations,’ Fera,” Remus said, but his voice was unusually compassionate for a child’s.
“Whatever,” Fera mumbled with a dismissive wave of her hand. Remus grinned cheerfully at his long-faced sister.
“You can’t learn about them if you can’t say it right,” he teased her playfully. She gave him a light punch on the arm, pouting.
“Shut up, Brother,” she reprimanded him sulkily. She picked at a weed pushing up through the damp earth absently. “I miss Mummy,” she said softly.
Remus was silent, watching her pick at the weed, grunting in frustration, now sitting up with her hair full of grass. Watching her, the boy smiled and pulled her hand gently away from the now very bedraggled-looking weed.
“Fera, look.” Remus raised his sister’s small hand to the heavens with his own, forcing her forefinger into a point. He guided it along the blanket of endless pitch and twinkling stars to a particularly bright one that winked at them from Fera’s left. “Do you see that star?” he asked her, enunciating his question with her finger. Fera shook her head looking confused.
“What one?” she asked.
“The one right there, the really bright one that’s sparkling,” he replied, pointing her finger once again. Fera’s eyes lit up and she nodded her head in sudden understanding and Remus, seeing this, moved her hand to the right. “There’s another one there, do you see it?” Fera nodded again, automatically spotting the star he was pointing out this time. “If you look them together,” Remus concluded, “they look like wolf eyes.”
The young girl considered this for a few moments, her eyes upturned to the stars her brother had pointed out to her. Finally, her face brightening with enthusiasm, she said in the loud, excited voice of a child, “They do!”
The older twin released his sister’s hand. “I think it’s Mum,” he stated plainly, his eyes glinting merrily. Fera gave him a puzzled look, her brows furrowed in confusion, and he smiled. “Mum was killed by a wolf,” Remus clarified. “I think she’s watching us from behind those Wolf Eyes, making sure nothing bad happens to her children.”
Fera looked up at the sky, her blue eyes shining in the light from the crescent moon. Her face was filled with a childish perplexity and she bit her lip thoughtfully. “How could Mummy be up there, Remus?” she asked him finally, her tone insinuating that she thought he’d gone funny in the head. Remus only shook his head.
“Not up there, silly,” he told her. “I meant she’s watching us from wherever you go when you die.” He watched as her face relaxed in deep consideration – or at least as deep as consideration can get for a nine-year-old. She gazed steadily up at the Wolf Eyes with an intelligence in her eyes that would baffle anyone who wasn’t her own brother – the brother who was practically conjoined to her at the brain.
Finally, she looked over at him hopefully. “Do you really think so, Brother?” she asked softly. Remus grinned playfully at her.
“And she won’t really be gone as long as Wolf Eyes comes out,” he added.
Fera’s face lit up. In the two years their mother had been gone, she had missed her deeply. Andra Lupin had been a woman of intense kindness, and she’d been as much of a mother to her daughter as any girl could possibly ask to grow up with. She’d taught Fera so much already about the world and about emotions, morals, right and wrong. Andra and Bastian were both extremely deep and intelligent, and this showed clearly in their children. The twins had an intensity, a depth, that had astounded any visitors back before Andra had died. Fera and her mother had been close, and Fera was inconsolable after the death of her mother and older brother. Remus and his father had never known what to say to her, but now Remus thought, in his child’s mind, that he had possibly found the thing that would console his sister of her sadness.
Fera looked up at the two stars twinkling brightly at her and felt a wave of calm wash over her. There was something about Wolf Eyes – she thought of the pair of stars as an object now, something precious and intangible, like a god – that made her feel complete, as though she could move on. She hadn’t felt that in two years, although she didn’t know all this. She only knew that she wanted to believe her mother was up there, or wherever people went when they left the earth, because it made her feel as though Andra had never really gone. She beamed over at her brother, her entire face breaking into a smile. “You’re probably right,” she said. “Mummy’s watching us with her Wolf Eyes.” The two twins smiled at each other simultaneously.
Bastian stood slowly, stretching and looking out at his children, wondering what they could possibly have been talking about to make Fera’s smile so large. Book-marking his page, he whistled to his children, who looked up at him. Remus looked back at Fera, then trotted up to meet his father. Bastian laid his arm across his son’s shoulder and Fera looked on from the backyard. She seemed torn, Remus noted, and he grinned lopsidedly at his sister. “Come on, Fey!” he called. “I can smell hot chocolate inside! First one in gets the last of the marshmallows!” Fera stuck her tongue out at him and, snickering, he turned and loped inside. Bastian looked back at his daughter confusedly. Fera turned to look once more at Wolf Eyes, her eyes shining and her face slightly sad, but in a more wholesome way than she’d been before. Looking up at the sky, she smiled sweetly at the two stars, which seemed to twinkle brighter than before.
“Goodnight, Wolf Eyes,” she whispered, almost to herself, then, looking back at her father with a slightly guarded look in her eyes, a look that now held a secret that she seemed to find thrilling, Fera ran up the steps and into the kitchen, where Remus was dumping the rest of the tiny marshmallows into his mug of hot chocolate with a devilish grin on his face. Bastian smiled, glanced at the sky, and shut the door, leaving Wolf Eyes to glitter just as bright as before in the two children’s wake.
End of prologue, keep in mind that it's under construction and I'm looking for a beta. My request to flickahlm, my co-admin, is still pending. ^____^ Ta!
- Kirby
By the way: If you guys want to leave a review/comment about the story, please PM it to me, because I have very limited room for posts and I want to post the next chapters in the reply sections. Thanks!
Wolf Eyes
Prologue:
From the Mouths of Babes
The stars were bright as tiny lanterns against the stark blackness of the night sky. The darkness was just beginning to thicken and lights appeared in windows of the many houses lining the streets of the small village, but thick curtains quickly doused the lights as they were pulled closed. No longer could a soul be seen wandering the streets; the people of Little Norton were incredibly superstitious, and rumors of countless demonic things that wandered the streets were always being recycled, whispered over pints in the pub every night.
This superstition had only been fueled by what was now known as “that tragic incident with the Lupins.” It was a tale that was known all too well by the villagers, and they were now always wary and alert whenever they passed by the large, Victorian house at the very end of the lane. In the daytime they may have been wary, but at night, they wouldn’t even speak of the family that lived there. After the deaths of two members of the kind family two years ago, the villagers were terrified that that could possibly happen to one of their own families. That was why none of them associated with Bastian Lupin or his children anymore. And that was why old Bastian’s children were never hopping and skipping in the streets with the other children.
Currently, the widower in question was sitting in a hand crafted wooden rocker on his back porch with a book in his hands, his porch light shining brightly above. He could periodically be seen lifting his head to look out to the backyard, and his ragged features would brighten with a crinkled smile and a twinkle in his blue eyes. Then he would look back down at his book.
Sprawled out on the lush green grass of the yard were two young children, hands clasped and fingers tightly intertwined. Both had short, light brown hair and happy smiles on their thin faces. The nine-year-old Lupin twins lay on their backs, faces bared to the expanse of stars above, as young Remus pointed out to his sister – and slightly boastfully, at that – the few constellations he knew of. His sister occasionally challenged his supposed great knowledge, but after a few argumentative words, she would decide that her brother knew what he was talking about and drop the subject.
“See, Fera, that’s the Big Dipper,” Remus was saying to his twin, pointing a long thin finger up at the sky above. “There’s the handle and – “
“How do you know that’s the big one?” the young girl ask him haughtily, giving him a skeptic look. She obviously did not believe her brother knew as much as he claimed to know. “How do you know whether it’s the big or the small?” Remus heaved a dramatic sigh of long-suffering impatience.
“Because that one’s bigger,” he answered her. His tone was one a teacher might use on a particularly slow student. The girl narrowed her eyes at her brother for a moment, then shrugged and looked back at the sky. The two were silent for a long moment.
Finally, Fera asked slowly, “Did Mummy teach you about the stars, Brother?”
Remus gave his younger twin a long, measured look before replying with a simple “yes.” Fera heaved a sigh and her face drooped forlornly.
“I wish she’d taught me about the consellations,” she said sadly.
“They’re called ‘constellations,’ not ‘consellations,’ Fera,” Remus said, but his voice was unusually compassionate for a child’s.
“Whatever,” Fera mumbled with a dismissive wave of her hand. Remus grinned cheerfully at his long-faced sister.
“You can’t learn about them if you can’t say it right,” he teased her playfully. She gave him a light punch on the arm, pouting.
“Shut up, Brother,” she reprimanded him sulkily. She picked at a weed pushing up through the damp earth absently. “I miss Mummy,” she said softly.
Remus was silent, watching her pick at the weed, grunting in frustration, now sitting up with her hair full of grass. Watching her, the boy smiled and pulled her hand gently away from the now very bedraggled-looking weed.
“Fera, look.” Remus raised his sister’s small hand to the heavens with his own, forcing her forefinger into a point. He guided it along the blanket of endless pitch and twinkling stars to a particularly bright one that winked at them from Fera’s left. “Do you see that star?” he asked her, enunciating his question with her finger. Fera shook her head looking confused.
“What one?” she asked.
“The one right there, the really bright one that’s sparkling,” he replied, pointing her finger once again. Fera’s eyes lit up and she nodded her head in sudden understanding and Remus, seeing this, moved her hand to the right. “There’s another one there, do you see it?” Fera nodded again, automatically spotting the star he was pointing out this time. “If you look them together,” Remus concluded, “they look like wolf eyes.”
The young girl considered this for a few moments, her eyes upturned to the stars her brother had pointed out to her. Finally, her face brightening with enthusiasm, she said in the loud, excited voice of a child, “They do!”
The older twin released his sister’s hand. “I think it’s Mum,” he stated plainly, his eyes glinting merrily. Fera gave him a puzzled look, her brows furrowed in confusion, and he smiled. “Mum was killed by a wolf,” Remus clarified. “I think she’s watching us from behind those Wolf Eyes, making sure nothing bad happens to her children.”
Fera looked up at the sky, her blue eyes shining in the light from the crescent moon. Her face was filled with a childish perplexity and she bit her lip thoughtfully. “How could Mummy be up there, Remus?” she asked him finally, her tone insinuating that she thought he’d gone funny in the head. Remus only shook his head.
“Not up there, silly,” he told her. “I meant she’s watching us from wherever you go when you die.” He watched as her face relaxed in deep consideration – or at least as deep as consideration can get for a nine-year-old. She gazed steadily up at the Wolf Eyes with an intelligence in her eyes that would baffle anyone who wasn’t her own brother – the brother who was practically conjoined to her at the brain.
Finally, she looked over at him hopefully. “Do you really think so, Brother?” she asked softly. Remus grinned playfully at her.
“And she won’t really be gone as long as Wolf Eyes comes out,” he added.
Fera’s face lit up. In the two years their mother had been gone, she had missed her deeply. Andra Lupin had been a woman of intense kindness, and she’d been as much of a mother to her daughter as any girl could possibly ask to grow up with. She’d taught Fera so much already about the world and about emotions, morals, right and wrong. Andra and Bastian were both extremely deep and intelligent, and this showed clearly in their children. The twins had an intensity, a depth, that had astounded any visitors back before Andra had died. Fera and her mother had been close, and Fera was inconsolable after the death of her mother and older brother. Remus and his father had never known what to say to her, but now Remus thought, in his child’s mind, that he had possibly found the thing that would console his sister of her sadness.
Fera looked up at the two stars twinkling brightly at her and felt a wave of calm wash over her. There was something about Wolf Eyes – she thought of the pair of stars as an object now, something precious and intangible, like a god – that made her feel complete, as though she could move on. She hadn’t felt that in two years, although she didn’t know all this. She only knew that she wanted to believe her mother was up there, or wherever people went when they left the earth, because it made her feel as though Andra had never really gone. She beamed over at her brother, her entire face breaking into a smile. “You’re probably right,” she said. “Mummy’s watching us with her Wolf Eyes.” The two twins smiled at each other simultaneously.
Bastian stood slowly, stretching and looking out at his children, wondering what they could possibly have been talking about to make Fera’s smile so large. Book-marking his page, he whistled to his children, who looked up at him. Remus looked back at Fera, then trotted up to meet his father. Bastian laid his arm across his son’s shoulder and Fera looked on from the backyard. She seemed torn, Remus noted, and he grinned lopsidedly at his sister. “Come on, Fey!” he called. “I can smell hot chocolate inside! First one in gets the last of the marshmallows!” Fera stuck her tongue out at him and, snickering, he turned and loped inside. Bastian looked back at his daughter confusedly. Fera turned to look once more at Wolf Eyes, her eyes shining and her face slightly sad, but in a more wholesome way than she’d been before. Looking up at the sky, she smiled sweetly at the two stars, which seemed to twinkle brighter than before.
“Goodnight, Wolf Eyes,” she whispered, almost to herself, then, looking back at her father with a slightly guarded look in her eyes, a look that now held a secret that she seemed to find thrilling, Fera ran up the steps and into the kitchen, where Remus was dumping the rest of the tiny marshmallows into his mug of hot chocolate with a devilish grin on his face. Bastian smiled, glanced at the sky, and shut the door, leaving Wolf Eyes to glitter just as bright as before in the two children’s wake.
End of prologue, keep in mind that it's under construction and I'm looking for a beta. My request to flickahlm, my co-admin, is still pending. ^____^ Ta!
- Kirby
