Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 5 (15 page)

Melina's eyes grew
wide.

"The story of our people's
origin began two thousand and seven hundred years ago in Italy. A
wolf took pity on two human babies that had been abandoned in the
wilderness. The wolf saved them by giving them her milk. The babies
names were Romulus and Remus: two twin boys. Although the she-wolf
cared for them deeply she knew she could not raised them properly
so she brought them to a shepherd and his wife. Years passed and
the boys grew as the foster sons to the shepherd and his wife but
the boys knew they were destined for something much more. Romulus
knew that he especially was destined for something great. He was
the eldest of the twins and the one who suckled the most of the
she-wolf's milk. By doing that, Romulus had inherited most of the
powers of the wolf. As he grew, his powers developed until he was
able to take on the form of the wolf itself. Although he was still
a man, he could transform into a wolf as well. Romulus was the
first werewolf."

Romulus,
Melina thought,
why does that name
sound so familiar?

She racked her brain as much
as she could but for the life of her Melina couldn't figure it
out.

Dammit
! She swore inwardly,
I shouldn't have
skipped school so much.

"However," Castel said,"the
times that Romulus was living in was filled with chaos and
bloodshed. There was no political stability anywhere. Several
tribes existed but there was no leader who could unite them. One
day a Warlord tried to change that. He conquered all the other
tribes and spread his violent campaign everywhere. Eventually, his
army reached Romulus and Remus's home. The Warlord's soldiers
killed their parents and attempted to take the boys as slaves.
Romulus helped Remus to escape but Romulus himself was captured. He
proved too independent to be a solider so he was sold to the
gladiator games."

"Ironically," Adolfo said,
"Romulus being sold into the games was the beginning of the end for
the Warlord. He was able to listen to the pleas of the people and
stir insurrection among them. He created followers and devised a
plot to take over the Warlord's kingdom."

"When Remus reappeared,"
Castel said, "he too had created a group of followers. He plotted
not just to overthrow the Warlord but to create a brand new
kingdom. A kingdom made up of the seven small nations that
surrounded the twins' home."

"Eventually they did," said
Adolfo, "once they launched their coup and took vengeance upon the
Warlord. The brothers created an empire so great that no other
empire would be able to rival its importance in history. Romulus
would used his brother's political ideas about democracy to
organize their people and make the empire last for decades. He
became the first of a long line of rulers. Romulus, our ancestor,
was the first Roman emperor."

"Oh my god!" Melina
gasped.

Everyone turned to stare at
her. Roy still gripped her hand even though he looked kind of
embarrassed.

"You guys are descendants of
Roman emperors?" Melina inquired.

"Yes," the Alphas both said
at the same time.

"That's..." Melina began,
"that's incredible!"

The Alphas tried to hide
their smiles as they continued with their story. It was Castel who
went on to say, "Romulus married and helped give birth to the first
naturally born werewolves. He had numerous wives and concubines so
he was able to create many children with the ability to shift into
a wolf. This is how he created a people: ours. Centuries passed
with the existence of werewolves remaining a secret. After the
Roman empire fell, as all empires do, our people moved on from Rome
to settle in other places. Hence why our people are from Guatemala.
Several of the Spanish conquistadors carried the ability of being a
werewolf to the new world so when they settled in Guatemala and
took native wives the legacy was able to pass on
genetically."

"We were not naturally an
aggressive people," Adolfo stated, "but like with every race of
people there have been good ones and bad ones. Some who became
warlords themselves."

"However," Castel
interrupted in a very dark tone, "the warlords were the least of
our worries. The enemy we truly learned to hate were the
vampires."

"The vampires?" Melina
repeated in a hushed tone.

"Yes the vampires," Castel
repeated, "they were the people who were to be our first
enemies."

"Naturally aggressive and
deceitful," Adolfo remarked, "they were a people who lived
eternally and were consumed with a lust for power. These were
creatures that had descended from the first true demon ever
existed. The succubus was the first fabled hidden creature written
in human history."

Castel slowly inhaled and
exhaled. "In folklore traced back to medieval times, a succubus is
a female demon or supernatural entity that appears in dreams, in
order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male
counterpart is the incubus. Religious traditions hold that repeated
intercourse with a succubus may result in the deterioration of
health or even death. All succubi and incubi were bred from Agrat
Bat Mahlat, one of the first four Succubus to
exist
.
Agrat
Bat Mahlat’s name is thought to translate roughly from Hebrew into
‘the daughter of illusion’, and she is also known as ‘the bringer
of deception." After Agrat Bat Mahlat mated with King David she
bore him a son Asmodeus who soon became the first king of demons.
Agrat Bat Mahlat fed her son her blood, after an assassination
attempt was made on him. For three nights, she fed him her blood.
Upon the third night Asmodeus completed his transformation and
gained numerous abilities different from his demon brethren. He
could reverse aging by drinking blood, he could communicate with
wives and other nocturnal animals, and take their form. He also
gained telepathy, levitation, control over the weather, the ability
to change into mist. He found himself the very first of a brand new
species. Once he discovered he too could create other creatures
such as himself the vampire race came to be."

Adolfo cleared his throat.
"Eventually, it was discovered that the vampire was weaker during
the day and by shoving a wooden stake into a vampire's chest it
could be slain. Numerous other weaknesses were discovered and the
creatures were hunted down. Until all but Agrat Bat Mahlat
remained."

"She wandered for many
centuries until finally she came upon the two brothers. They were
just beginning to carve out their own empire and their own beliefs.
Romulus and Remus were planning on being joint rulers but power
breeds discord. Remus teased his brother during an argument about
one of the palaces being built. In a fit of rage, Romulus pushed
him and the stone that Remus stood on gave way. Agrat Bat Mahlat
showed up as Remus lay dying in Romulus's arms, and offered to save
him. Romulus agreed and so Agrat Bat Mahlat made the second vampire
in the world. Romulus at first was thrilled to have his brother be
alive until he began to realize that his brother had changed. Remus
began to wander the nearby territories to devour innocent people by
the hundreds. In desperation, Romulus transformed into a werewolf
and fought his brother. Eventually, Romulus was victorious when he
bit his brother while in the form of a wolf. A bite from a werewolf
in wolf form is one of the few things that can kill a vampire.
"

Castel was the one who
continued with the story. "Before Romulus was able to do this,
Remus had managed to turn a Carthaginian general into a vampire. A
fallen general who had sworn vengeance on Rome. His name was
Hannibal. An ambitious man who had dreamed of conquering Rome but
was thwarted. However, becoming a vampire did not lessen his
ambitions."

"He helped the vampires to
become an organized people and became the first Sovereign of all
vampires," Adolfo said bitterly, "however, establishing his own
hierarchy was not enough for him. He dreamed of conquering another
race of people so, in place of the Romans, he would have the
werewolves."

"The next thousand years
that passed were like a nightmare," said Castel, "as the vampires
waged a war upon us. A war that we could not afford to
lose."

Melina clutched Roy's hand
tighter. "Slaves? They tried to make you their slaves?" she
whispered to him.

Roy nodded
solemnly.

"There were many battles but
since our enemy was immortal the war seemed impossible to end,"
Adolfo said in a forlorn voice.

"Yet," Castel remarked, "we
as a people were able to organize ourselves and create an army. We
took on the vampires and finally forced them into a stalemate.
Although we were tempted to destroy them, we chose not to and drew
up a treaty. In exchange for our freedom, the vampires pledged to
leave us alone."

"Years passed," Adolfo
concluded, "and although we now live side by side with vampires the
treaty still stands. Not just to prove how much power we have, but
that that the vampires cannot and will not conquer us."

"More importantly," Castel
added, "it serves as a dramatic and wonderful point in our history
when we the werewolves of the world united to defeat a common
foe."

A hallowed hush fell over
the group, as if the empowerment of werewolf pride had enveloped
them

Once Adolfo and Castel had
finished their stories, they had gone on to announce that Adrian
was not for long for this Earth. Whether he lived or died was
irrelevant because either way he could not be the Silver Moon pack
Alpha anymore. However, the position of Alpha for the Silver Moon
pack could not be vacant for that long. At the beginning of the
summer, tournaments would begin to help decide the next Alpha. It
was mandatory for all the werewolves in the entire Silver Moon pack
to compete. Therefore, come June the Morales brothers in addition
to their cousins, both male and female, would be forced to fight
for the right of leadership. The right to kill the loser had been
banned in Salem a long time ago. However, other extreme violence
was allowed. So Roy could look forward to fighting not only his
brothers from eldest to younger but watching them battle others as
well.

"From this point on," Adolfo
decreed, "all the werewolves of the Silver Moon pack must train
night and day in order to compete in the tournaments."

There was an awkward shift
in the crowd.

"What about our jobs?"
Someone muttered.

"And what about
school?"Another murmured.

Castel shrugged, as if it
didn't matter. Adolfo, however, answered both of their questions.
"It is not a requirement to win the tournaments. Only to
participate. You can train around your usual work and schedule but
be warned that that may take off the edge you have. For every
minute you do not train to win, you are more likely to lose in the
grand battle."

"What's so grand about it?"
Roy muttered, "I don't know about you but I do not relish the
thought of fighting my own brothers."

Melina stayed
silent.

"Or my cousins for that
matter," Roy continued, "most especially my father."

This got Melina's attention.
"They force you to fight your own father?!"

Roy nodded bitterly. "When
they saw all the werewolves of the Silver Moon pack must fight they
mean all. From our parents, to our aunts, uncles, hell even to our
grandparents!"

"What about babies?" Melina
couldn't help but ask. "You can't fight them."

Roy reluctantly chuckled.
"No we don't fight them but they are the exception. Everyone else
though..."

He trailed off, shrugging,
and looking more forlorn than ever.

Melina couldn't blame him
and wished there was something she could say. A few awkward and
painful moments passed as she racked her brain.

Until finally all she could
say was, "I wish Aradia was here."

Roy snorted. "Huh!
Why?"

"Because," Melina
reluctantly admitted, "she would know what to do about all this.
She would figure out a way how to avoid bloodshed. She would figure
out a solution that could satisfy both you and the other Alpha
leaders."

Roy nodded in silent
agreement but couldn't help but point out, "but she isn't here is
she? She can't help us."

Melina turned to stare out
the window and into the night drenched landscape. As she did,
thoughts flowed through her mind. Thoughts and memories of Aradia
laughing, her helping out at the club, her going on and on about
promoting tolerance, and how things needed to change. Melina smiled
as she remembered Aradia throwing her long red hair back with her
green eyes sparkling. She remembered Aradia smiling so sincerely
whenever she did something. Melina remembered how alive Aradia made
everyone feel whenever she was around. She remembered how if
someone fell Aradia would be the first to pull the person to their
feet. She remembered Aradia thanking Melina for her fashion sense
and her help with the club.

She briefly closed her eyes
and remembered Aradia smiling at her. She remembered her goofy but
sincere smile and her shrill voice calling her, "sis!" Most of all,
Melina remembered how much she missed her.