Pure Moonlight (closed)

[KieranSoares]

It was that next evening as Telma came home from her weaving work that she found her father waiting for her outside the door, his arms crossed and his gaze hard but not unkind. He'd never given her an unkind word or look in her life since he'd come to stay with her mother. "Telma Vitanii Numeor," he growled her name, telling her she was in definite trouble.

 

[heartofcourage]

Telma saw her father standing there and instantly flattened her ears back against her head. She had never heard an unkind word from him. Since he had come into their lives and she certainly had never been scolded like that.

"Yes, Da?" Telma asked as her tail tucked between her legs, preparing for whatever was coming her way. "What happened? Am I in trouble?"

 

[KieranSoares]

"What's this I hear about you slipping away from work every few days to go gallivanting off with a man?" he asked very seriously. Ghell and Katina had never placed many rules on her nor were they terribly strict, but having her wait until she was twenty and secure in her work to find a mate had been their one hard and fast rule. "Who is he?" Ghell demanded.

 

[heartofcourage]

Who had told him? Telma flattened her ears even more, panic making her want to run off into the woods. She had thought that they had been careful about meeting in the woods but it seemed that people had seen them and noticed her absences.

"Da...I can't tell you." She said softly. "But he treats me well and he's very respectable."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Telma..." Ghell sighed. "I've never been strict with you. I let you find your own way in life after you turned fifteen. But this... There's a reason why your mother and I set the minimum of twenty on you. It was so you would be mature enough not to do what you're doing. Running off at any hour your please to hide away with some secret lover... I know you've left in the middle of the night plenty more than once, and the head weaver knows you drop everything to run off into the forest. I thought at first you just needed to get away and be on your own, which is perfectly fine. But your mother caught a glimpse of him last night, only enough to know he was a man and he was chasing around with you."

Ghell took a deep breath then. "Come here. Show me your shoulders." He knew a mark would be there if she was serious about the mystery Wolf.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Da, it's not what you think." Telma said, her eyes pleading with her father as he asked to see her shoulders.

With a long sigh, she drew closer to him and let him see the mark for himself. She had no idea how her mother and father would react to the news that she had found a mate.

 

[KieranSoares]

Ghell brushed aside her fur and seeing the mark, he shook his head. "What do you mean it's not what I think? You've deliberately gone against both your mother and I." Then his expression grew very stern and a bit dark. "... How long has this been going on?"

 

[heartofcourage]

"I got my mark two months ago." She said as he saw Ruben's mark. "We've been seeing each other longer than that. Da, I didn't want this to hurt you. I fell in love and we knew it was right. I'm sorry I didn't wait like you wanted but we knew we were meant to be."

 

[KieranSoares]

When she told him she'd fallen in love, he sighed deeply and hugged her close. "You're almost as much trouble now as Norr... Come on inside and talk to your mother about this. But we aren't going to wait forever to find out who this man of yours is."

 

[heartofcourage]

Telma hugged her father tightly, a long sigh issuing from her lips. "Do I have to tell her? She'll be so upset with me when she finds out."

 

[KieranSoares]

"She deserves to know someone's stealing her little girl away," he nodded with a gentle tone. "Now march, cub." He shooed her inside the way he had for years, any anger long gone. The talk with her mother was similar to Ghell, but much more filled with worry. Katina had always been protective of her children's hearts after losing Telma's father.

 

[heartofcourage]

Telma told her mother what she had told her father and braced herself for the lecture that she got. She knew that her mother worried for all of her children and their future mates. Her own father had been her mother's soulmate and he had been lost in such a tragic way, she didn't want that for any of her own children. Telma understood the rules very well and she had broken them.

Her punishment was still being decided when she slipped out of the house that evening. She had planned on meeting Ruben at their oak tree deep in the woods. She knew he would already be there when she arrived and when she saw him, he was certainly a sight for sore eyes.

"My parents know." She blurted out, her ears folding back against her head. "Da found out from the weavers that I've been leaving. He saw my mark."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Mine know too," he sighed, welcoming Telma into his arms. "And I'm sure yours will notice you're gone tonight." He pressed a kiss to her cheek and looked down at her. "I suppose we can't hide anymore, and we're both in trouble when my parents find out it's you." Kreston and Selena knew the rule for Telma as well, though they'd only limited Ruben to eighteen. Most werefolk parents had that sort of rule to make sure their children could take care of themselves before getting mixed up with mates and especially having children. It wasn't uncommon to hear of some teens finding love and forgoing the rules, though.

 

[heartofcourage]

Telma pressed herself against Ruben's chest as he kissed her gently, telling her that they should probably come clean about the entire thing. She knew that she was in for a punishment from her parents and Ruben would probably face the same from his own. She wasn't sure that she wanted her relationship to become public with that cloud hanging in the air.

"Can we wait until my punishment is over with?" She asked him softly, looking up into his amber gaze. "My Ma was upset enough just knowing that I had already been marked. We should let some time pass and then speak to both of our families together."

 

[KieranSoares]

Ruben nodded, letting his arm wrap securely about her waist. Half the time when they met like this, it was to make love under the stars or in the most secret place in the forest. The other half, however, they spent simply wandering with one another's company. After so long, Ruben still hadn't run out of places to show her. But some places captured Velma's eye and her heart. So that night, Ruben took her to one of those places. It wasn't too far, but a sheer cliff blocked most people from getting there. Ruben had found a secret, narrow split between the great sheets of rock that formed a safe path up the cliff. At the top lay a serene and almost a untouched spring which was so large that it created a waterfall off the cliff which fed into the river below and caused it to nearly double in size. It was deep as a lake and cold as ice, though it wasnt cold enough to bother werefolk for the most part.

Ruben sat with Telma against a great, upright stone carved with all manner of Lunar symbols by some ancient people, and he kept her close as the moon shone down.

 

[heartofcourage]

Telma was touched that Ruben wanted to take her to one of her favorite spots and simply be with her. She sighed softly and leaned her head against his shoulder. Something so wonderful and perfect had been tainted by their families and their worry.

"What if they tell us no? Do you think your uncle could convince them otherwise?" Many people went to Taqu'un for issues like this. "I don't think I can go on without you in my life. I've loved you as far back as I can remember."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Even if they say no, I'm already in my late twenties. As much as I respect my parents' word and yours, they haven't had actual control over my life since I moved away and became self-sufficient. And you'll be twenty in less than a year. Once that happens, you're free to do what you want. If all else fails... Taqu'un will listen and tell us what he thinks is best."

 

[heartofcourage]

"i hope that they say yes because I don't think I can survive without my family. My Ma and Da mean the world to me." Telma had taken Ghell as her father without question.

She had been so young when her father died that she barely remembered him. Ghell had always been there for her without question and loved her like she was his own cub. She had relied on his wisdom and his advice when she was little and she still respected his views when it came to larger issues.

 

[KieranSoares]

Though Ghell had been nearly twice Katina's age when he came into their lives, he'd shown over time that he could regain the strength of his younger years. Even nearly seventy now, as a Wolf he was still strong as ever like his dear friends Volgo and Dayja. It wouldn't be for another decade or more that they began to show their age. His enduring calm energy had endeared him to Katina and his experience and love for children had made him the perfect father to Telma.

"I would never let you give them up, Telma," Ruben told her softly. "I'm not worth that. No one else is worth giving up family." Like most of his large family, Ruben held familial bonds as almost sacred. Even if there were times he didn't get along with a family member, he'd never abandon them in favor of an easier path.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I don't think I can give you up, Ruben." Telma said as he insisted that he wasn't worth losing her family. "You mean just as much to me. There would be a void in my life."

She had see other wolves who lost their mates and they withered away into nothingness. It was frightening to think that you could lose so much that you sank into the void. It seemed like a fate worse than death.

 

[KieranSoares]

Ruben smiled gently to her and nodded. "Then we'll find a way if worse comes to worst." He couldn't bear the thought of giving her up either. He hoped that, no matter how angry their parents might be, the long bond between the Ghis siblings with Ghell and Katina's close friendship with Kreston and Selena would keep any of them from forbidding the two from being together.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I'll work extra hours of I have to. We can show them that we can support ourselves. They would have to agree when they saw that." Telma said, hugging Ruben a little tighter. "We can have a little home to start out with. And I can start a garden for food."

She was determined to show her parents that this wasn't just a silly infatuation. This was who she was meant to be with and she would do anything to make their lives good.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I've already got my home near the river. It's tiny but it should be enough for both of us. We can expand it later if we need to. I'm sure we can make it just fine without working ourselves to death," he assured her. "We talked about this before we got too serious. Back then I promised you that I would get a job that could support us both comfortably. I have that now, we don't need to struggle to be independent. Back then, I was just starting, but now I lead the fishermen and the lumber camp. We'll do just fine."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I just want them to see that we didn't decide this without thinking first." Telma said, afraid to admit that she was scared.

Having a secret romance with Ruben had been fun and thrilling, but now she was terrified of losing her family or losing the wolf that she loved so much. She rested her head against his shoulder, hugging him tightly until she heard a howl in the distance. It was Norr, telling her to get home before their Da came looking for her.

"I have to go." She whispered softly. "I might not see you again for a while."

 

[KieranSoares]

Ruben let her go with one last kiss, murmuring, "We'll see each other, love." He'd leave the management of the camps to his second in command if need be just to come to the weavers' shop to see her, if not more.

When Telma arrived home, Norr was waiting for her. "Where have you been?" He asked with a tilt of his head.