Familiar Ties

In a Cave.

~The Princess and Aynea~

"What should be become of us now?"

"You meant what will?"

Aynea corrected, looking past the seemingly worried princess to the cold wall with stripes of brown and green scattered all over it. Many believed that the rock had lived several years before the existence of men. The Israelites believed that Nine hundred and Seventy-four generations existed before ours. And such stories did take the fancies of the Dryad.

"I could tell you several stories you've never heard about and we could make a travel away from this troubled land. Don't you think?"

Aynea had added, now measuring the degree of mirth confounded by confusing splattered across the princess' face.

"You shouldn't had been that loyal to Athena despite the fact that she is authentic. We could had taken over the kindgom and send her running."

"And then what?"

Aynea tackled.

"Of course take over the kindgom pending the time my child would be born."

"And you think Prium would had let that happen without a fight?"

The princess shrugged and rolled her eyes. She looked away to the mouth of the cave. They were both seated on leaves, a traditional means of controlling the effect of cold at such period. Twas winter.

"Whatever."

She gave up and Aynea stood up. She walked over to seat beside the princess who threw her face away in the other direction.

Aynea was now all human. She changes to a Dryad at her own will. Of course you could call that one of the aftereffects of paying homage to the powerful Athena.

She was still with red hair still, but long legs for goat's and fine feet tucked into a pair of strange but fancy sandals. She had mouthwatering hips and bounty bootie. Nature seemed to had been generous to her from the start.

"Should I tell you a story, my love?"

She put her palm on the protruding belly of the princess. The pregnancy was now five months old.

"I'm mad at you."

The princess meant to kick aside the discuss. But Aynea rubbed her palm gently on her stomach,

"There are kicks. That only means one thing."

The princess couldn't help ignore anymore. She gave up, her beautiful face, tracing Aynea's,

"I think so too. I think they are two. But I'm not certain. Is there a way I could know for sure? Do you have that power?"

Aynea shook her head in denial,

"No, I don't. But --"

"Don't. If you mean Athena, don't!"

Aynea chuckled and the princess knocked her hand off her stomach. Aynea pecked her on the cheek and ran her arm around the Princess's shoulders. She pulled the princess closer till she helped her rest her head on one of her shoulders.

Aynea began to caress her temple gently, tracing her finger across the path of the hair, down the fall of her ears.

"Anger is a misjudgement. Mistakes a mother shouldn't make. Especially the one carrying a baby."

"How would you know?"

The princess tackled, now weary of fighting the present position she was assuming. Aynea did know how to soothe her.

"Have you ever had a child?"

Twas more of a scorn now than a question. Aynea ignored,

"Should I tell you a story of one of the magical creatures who swap their forms like me?"

The Princess grumbled for a while then mumbled. Aynea brought her face closer to that side of the Princess' cheek and nuzzled her delicately from her temple down her cheek.

The Princess put up one of her arms without raising her head and touched the hair of Aynea. She stroke it for a while then let go as Aynea brought her face up.

"I'll tell you a story of the Werewolf. There are lots of creatures that swap their forms; from the specific animal to a human, per time."

"The foxes, the jackals, the wolves, the dogs and several other animals. Believe me, there are several things your generation does not have an idea of and would not because they are preoccupied with cliche. And things that of quick interest, they toss aside as exaggeration or fallacy."

She paused for a while, a wierd silence giving the gales outside the cave a shit show. She resumed,

"Lycaon, who to several other settlements was known as other names. To the dryads, he's know as Ikueti."

"What happened to him?"

For once, the princess interrupted.

"He was a king appointed by the gods. Of course they have their reasons for choosing who to rule and when. It's a sport for them to decide what happens to who. Humans then, being unaware actors bound to assume roles which had been prepared for them even before the four winds came together to bear them to their theatrical settlement."

"But he became a terrible one and would not give justice when it is due. Justice mounted on the wings of Jague, the East wind, and took his remonstrations to the gods. At first, it was dismissed but then, loyalty, peace and quiet took their turn and the gods would not slumber anymore."

"One of the gods goes to visit him in his palace as a human to weigh his atrocities in scales. But this king sent men to ridicule the god and mocked him. Saying, 'Thou art called a god, a god with no hut.'"

"And that was the peak of it all. The gods drove him from his palace into the wild. Into the woods to keep the company of the beasts. The beasts who should take him for a foe became his best friends, and humans who should become his acquaintance find no delight in his sight."

"The sweet moon was the only maiden who took pity on him. She watched as the last plague of the gods fell on him that night on the first moon; when his two hands changed into legs and his sleek, fine skin clouded by the hair of a wolf. But the gods kept his ferocious quality and ruthlessness, his fiery eyes retained. And the full moon being a witness, aids his form every full moon."

She quit talking and looked at the princess. The Princess was fast asleep. She smiled and took the princess' head off her shoulder. She stretched her legs and placed the Princess' head on her laps.

She caressed her cheeks,

"Sleep sleep, my love. Your mother watches over you."