Amelia

Gibbous Moon is an amazing place. The pack members are so welcoming. Every meal time is like a celebration of pack life, they all just truly value togetherness, and food. Food is like a medium that brings the community together. Growing food. Hunting for food. Cooking together and of course, eating together.

The only thing that doesn't seem to revolve around food is warrior training. Liam has been spending a lot of time at the barracks and training grounds, finding out what his life will look like if he chooses to be a warrior for Gibbous Moon. I think he made up his mind early on though. He seems happy here.

After Lucas returned from his first transformation in the forest, Alpha Angus and Luna Jen organised for us to have a room in the pack house. Adi asked that us four women all share a room, so we were given a dorm style room in the east wing, which is an area reserved for unmated females. The room is beautiful and comfortable. We had a double sized bed each. Walking in the front door, to the left was a double sized bed, then two bedside tables, then another double bed, and the same again on the opposite wall. To the right side of the room was a sitting area, with two double couches and a coffee table, situated next to a large window which looked into the forest. Opposite the entrance door was a door into our private bathroom.

The decor was a fusion between executive and tropical, the colour palette had an executive feel to it with solid colours of dark greys and navy blue, but softened with prints of vibrant tropical flowers. The bed spreads were all the same dark grey colour, but each one had a different, oversized tropical flower print on the lower left quarter, such as a hibiscus or a frangipani.

Lucas was staying in the warriors quarters, which I think is located near the front of the castle next to the entrance gates.

Oli has been spending a lot of time with Luna Jen, she said it was important for building friendships for her pack relations, as her Alphette requested. The warriors have been coming everyday to ask Adi to come to training, she has been doing fitness training with them every day to keep herself conditioned, she said. They keep asking her to spa with them and this morning she finally agreed to a round this afternoon, but she wont allow a spectacle of it, she said violence is not a thing that should be glorified. She told us that she only agreed because she has come to trust that this pack has good ethics in matters of war, and besides, she needs to stay conditioned.

Connie and I have been spending our days with Luna Jen and Alpha Angus' daughters. Alexander is the oldest and will be the pack Alpha when she comes of age, which is less than a year away. Marija and Kesha are twins, both 15 years old, so they don't have their wolf yet. Alpha and Luna also have a son, Joshua, who is six years old and spends most of his days in the pack cub creche, playing with other children.

I have learnt that werewolves attend school until they get their wolf, at sixteen years old, then they choose a pack duty or career they want to follow and start training for that. Luna Jen organised for me to attend school with Marija and Kesha. Werewolf school is similar to human school, except it only goes for four hours a day, four days a week, and the main subject is philosophy. One of the philosophy teachers told me 'other than the basics, the main thing you need to learn is how to learn, and that's what we teach you here'. In human school, philosophy was in the same category as art or music, it was not given much validity. People would say that college students who study philosophy were just there to waste time and money. But after a few days in this school 'learning how to learn' I can say it is the most valuable learning I have ever done.

Alexander has introduced Connie to the Gibbous Moon packs library. It seems they both share an interest in werewolf history. So much of our evenings are spent hearing what Connie has learnt from her reading in the library. She has been learning a lot about the origins of the werewolf territory, which is the largest and most versatile in the world. The humans believe that the majority of the continent is unlivable, so they don't venture outside of what they believe to be the 'livable area', which is actually only 30% of the whole country. So werewolf territory takes up the majority of it. Taking out highways that link the human cities and some desolate holiday spots, and lands not claimed by any packs, werewolf pack lands take up about 50% of the country.

Connie said, the native inhabitants of the land, both human and werewolf, lived peacefully here for thousands of years. Then werewolf packs from other countries started migrating here to escape human expansion and eventually just because so many other werewolves were here. The other humans didn't come till much later, and the werewolf packs made a deal with their leaders, allowing them a percentage of the land to live on so long as they kept humans away from the werewolf territories. 

Alexander and Connie found a particularly old book, written in a lost language, which they decided to work on together to decipher. Connie was so excited when they started to decipher it and figure out what it was about. Both of them came running out of the library at dinner time one day, to the front lawn where we were all sitting on a picnic rug, waiting for dinner to be ready. Both Connie and Alexander were ecstatic to tell us about what they had discovered. The book was a book of old hymns or songs, which was how the natives passed down stories to the next generation. The hymn they deciphered was as old as time, they said, probably one of the first, and it was lucky that someone thought to write it down before it was lost. The hymn told of a time when wolves, humans and werewolves were all one in the same, but when a great frost covered the earth. Some chose to transform into a wolf to stay warm, but they were not able to transform back into human or they would freeze, so they lost the ability to become human again. Some choose to transform into humans, so they could continue to converse with their young, they had to live in caves to stay warm and didn't see the moon for many generations, so they lost the ability to transform into wolves. But some still lived in caves to stay warm and they came out when the moon was at its brightest so they could transform and hunt. By the time the frost ended, many generations had passed and the wolves, the humans and the werewolves no longer recognised one another.

There was no way to tell if the story was true at this point, but somehow it made me feel more like I belong. I am not just a human who wandered in here, we are all one in the same.

We have been here, in the Gibbous Moon pack for over two weeks now and today the packhouse is buzzing because Adi has agreed to spa with the warriors this afternoon. When the warriors came this morning to ask her, she agreed on the condition that they don't make a spectacle of it. So it has to be low key, just a standard training duel, no extra spectators. So everyone is trying to find reasons to be near the training ground in the early afternoon. The twins and I have talked about it at length, but we can't seem to find a plausible reason why underage wolves would need to be walking through the training grounds in the middle of the day. And Alpha Angus has commanded everyone to stay away unless they are meant to be there for training. So I guess I will just have to wait to hear about it from someone else. Hopefully Lucas will be there and he will be able to tell me all about it.

We finished school at midday and went to the park for lunch. No matter where we went at meal times, someone was cooking wonderful food and was always happy to feed us. The school kids often congregated at one of the parks near the school to have lunch together. Today, a lot of the other students were buzzing around me, wondering if I had an invite, or a special consideration to be able to see the duelling this afternoon. Word travels really fast in packs, I have discovered.

"I have heard The Valley warriors use witch craft when they fight" one of the boys said

"I read that seeing a Valley warrior fight is like nothing you've ever seen before, it is like watching a dance" another said

"I hear they can't really fight, it's all just stories to scare people away so they don't have to fight" another said

They were all looking at me for an answer. I told them that I don't really know The Valley werewolves that well, I only met them two days before coming here and I have been sharing a room with them, but I have never been to The Valley and I have definitely never seen Adi fight. All I know, I told them, is that Adi said fighting is frowned upon and she is a head warrior only because she has good negotiation skills.

"See, I told you, they don't really fight, it's all just scare tactics' ' one of them said.

I just shrugged my shoulders, because I really have no idea what the answer is, but I am growing more and more curious.

After lunch, we can choose an activity to do. We can learn an instrument, play sports, read books, so long as we are doing something meaningful. The twins chose to stay in the park and practice playing the ukulele. I went out to the sports fields and found a soft ball game to join in with. I am told that once I choose to join a pack I will have to pick a position to train for, because I am over sixteen already. But they are allowing me time to learn about pack life first, before I have to make any decisions. Which I am extremely grateful for. So I am a bit older than all the other school kids, as once they turn sixteen a werewolf completes their schooling and starts training for a pack position.

After a few games I meet up with the twins again and we head back to the pack house to get ready for dinner on the lawn. The pack house foyer is buzzing with conversation as we pass through. The twins head up to their apartment on the top level and I head for the east wing.

The Valley women are all sitting in our room on the couches chatting away. They are all wearing the same clothes they put on this morning. They seem to have about three pairs of clothes each which they rotate around each day, all the same cut but with different patterns. Loose fitting pants with an asymmetrical-hemmed dress over the top. The only time I have seen one of them wear something different is the underskirt that Adi wears, but she wasn't wearing it today. The other odd thing was that Adi didn't have her flowers in her hair today either. Even when she leaves to do cardio training, she often has a few flowers in her hair.

"You're not wearing your skirt or your flowers Adi ? Were you worried they might get broken in the duelling today ?" I asked her.

"We never wear our armour when we are duelling for practice, it wouldn't be a fair fight." Adi said.

I stared at her for a moment, wondering if she understood my question.

"Are we talking about the hair flowers and your overskirt made from sheer material?" I asked

"Yes, that's what you asked about? I can see why that might sound odd. But, Their function is on a need to know basis" Adi said as she gave a little wink to lighten the mood of the conversation.

"We don't even know what all the warrior clothing does, just that it is crafted by The Valleys Functional Clothing and Weapons Designers. But it's best not to ask, they don't like to talk about their secrets." Oli said.

"Ok. But can I ask about the duel today? Did it even happen, you look like you haven't left the room or broken a sweat all day?" I asked.

"I trained this morning, but in wolf form, so I took my clothes off" Adi said "The duel was fine. I haven't duelled with anyone outside of The Valley before, it was my first time duelling with a male today. They are very strong, stronger than I expected, so I had to adapt to that quickly. It was a good learning experience"

"So, can I ask who won" I said

"There are no winners in fighting," Adi said. But after a short pause she added "But I was much too quick for them"

I had a quick shower and changed into one of the dresses that Marija gave to me, then we all walked down to the lawn for dinner. Adi had put some flowers back into her hair, but she still wasn't wearing her 'wariors skirt'. We sat down in our usual spot which was close to where the Alpha family sat, but we didn't sit with them all the time. I saw Lucas walking over with some of the warriors and he motioned for me to come over. He took my hand and we went for a walk.

"I saw the duel today with Adi, I thought you might want to hear the goss" he said

"Adi told me a bit about it" I told him

"Did she tell you she dropped the Beta?" he said excitedly.

"No way? Really?"

"Yea, in like less than one minute, he was so embarrassed"  Lucas told me

"Did she duel with anyone else?" I asked

"Yea. First it was Sina. No one even saw what happened, Sina was just standing one minute, next thing she was on her back. She asked for a second round but it was just the same again. Then it was Manu, she tried the same move on him but it didn't knock him down, she stepped back and went in again. Like before, we didn't even see what happened and he was on his ass. She duelled about half a dozen of the warriors and she was just so quick that they were all on their ass before they could even catch her. So, then the Beta jumped in the ring. He was pretty fast too, it was like watching flashing lights, you couldn't blink or you would miss something, but he didn't get a hit on her. She ended up pinning him to the floor with his arm twisted around his back, less than a minute in. It's crazy, but I never realised how safe we actually were, travelling with her looking after us" He told me.

"She told me she had never duelled with a male before and she was surprised at how strong they were. She said it was a good lesson for her" I told him

"Well, It didn't show. Except maybe when she didn't knock Manu down that first time, but she learns pretty quick if that case" He said

"Lucas, I have been thinking about what I want to do. Whether I should stay here at Gibbous Moon or not. I was thinking I might ask the others if I can go to The Valley, just until I turn eighteen. I love it here, but there is something about those women. I want to learn more about their customs. You have your own thing going on here, I can see the warriors going off for parties and you stay here with me, I can tell you are torn between wanting to do that and wanting to spend time with me. I think it will be good for both of us if we find our own way for a little while." I had been thinking about this for a few days now, but I wanted to hear what Lucas thought.   

He took a deep breath in and looked around, before dropping his head and nodding.

"I have been feeling that way too. I think going to The Valley is a great idea. If you could learn to fight like Adi you will always be able to protect yourself. Just promise that I will get to see you again when you turn eighteen. I don't know if it's just because of everything we have been through together or something even deeper, but I love you Amelia. I don't know what type of love it is. But hopefully, once we have both found our way, I will understand what my feelings for you mean" He said to me with raw sincerety.

"I love you too, Lucas. I will come back here as soon as I turn eighteen. I promise" I told him.