Family Forever

Chapter 2 Theseus

3 years later-------------------

I woke to the sound of the hunting horn. Whoa! Morning of the day of the Full Moon! AKA Hunting day! When, we come back to Athens the day after. I ran out of the palace, onto my horse and Hippolyta was waiting for me. "Good morning Duke Sleepyhead " she said. I laughed so hard I almost fell off my horse. "Ready?" "Let's go!" I shouted. And we rode off a full speed with the hounds running with us into the forest.

Some time later we parked our horses on a nearby tree when we chanced upon a really big stag. "Guys, spears out" I whispered. "Surround it." When we surrounded it, I was about to say "Attack" when a black wolf, bigger than any that I have ever seen in my life attacked the deer and killed it, and it was instantly surrounded by my men. I shouted the order "Kill it!" We got on the horses and chased it deeper into the forest.

By then, it was almost sunset, and the moon was going up. We got into clearing and cornered it, dead deer and wolf, onto a boulder. The wolf then killed all the guards and the people who were with me but suprisingly, not me, Hippolyta or Philostrate. I was going to kill it for the death of a hundredth of my army but when moonlight touched it, it began to writhe in pain. I could only watch in horror as its fur disappeared, its head began to resemble that of a human. The human stood up, and fell onto the ground. He was wearing a long loincloth made of lion's skin.

He wore a golden circlet on his head, with a jewel in the middle. He looked young with a beard, blond hair, with some brown which reached onto his shoulders. and he was muscular, and his eyes were that of a lion, with a scant amount of lion's fur on his whole body. His hands were those of a human, but with lion's fur and deadly claws. So were his feet.

Also, he had fangs of a lion in his mouth, and his nose was that of a lion. But I don't know why this beast/man had a familiar air around him. We backed away as the beast growled something. Then, it said my name "Theseus" I was literally trembling my hands off. "W-what do y-you want w-with us?" I stuttered. "It's all right, don't be afraid" It said. "How can I not be afraid of you when you just killed my companions?" I said. "I killed them because I didn't want to let them hear what I'm going to say to you." It. said.

Then it said something that almost gave me a heart attack. "Theseus, it's me, it's Egeus." Egeus told us how he became like this, because he was the son of the god Pan and a wood nymph. Pan gave him ten wishes, for him to wish anything, and Pan will grant it to him. He also told us that he was Alpha of this forest and and the King of Therianthropes- people who can shift into animals.

After the wedding of Hermia, when Hermia told him she never wanted to see him again, he used his first wish, to have a curse upon him. Since he was a werelion, but he can shift into any animal, maybe half man half beast, like for example, he retains all the features of a lion, but he has the chest and legs of a man, and five fingers on his hands and feet, and also arms of a man.

But he will have the tail of a lion, thick fur, claws of a lion on his hands and feet, and a lion's head, and lion's teeth, and he will walk on two legs, not on four. Or maybe he could shift fully into an animal. He can also shift into a mythical creature.So, he told his father that he wants that his base form is the lion that is half man half beast aka Legendary Therian form, not human form.

He could still turn into other animals, but not human form. He will just turn into human form at the full moon, but still, he will retain some of his Lion features. He was also a student of Chiron the centaur in his younger days so he was also a healer, but he can only heal at the full moon. He also said he had a cave nearby. He just told us to never tell this to anyone, especially Hermia. By then, it was almost morning, so we saw him turn into his lion.

It was everything he described except it had a jeweled circlet and a golden staff that was it's height, with a large,glowing, white jewel, which could turn into any kind of sword/s. Before we left, we had a nice meal of venison and Egeus gave me some wolfskin, deerskin, and lion's skin from his cave.

When we got back, his words echoed in my head, and he had a hurt expression on his face when he said it. "Never tell Hermia unless necessary." We had the funeral for the ten men who died, and we went back to our separate lives, except when I hunt every month, I make sure that I visit the greatest adviser Athens ever had.