Fixed

Prologue - Lyubov' Luna

Nichelle

I remember my babushka telling me great stories of love as a child every time I would come visit her in Polevskoy. It was a small town in Sverdlovsk Oblast and there was nothing to do compared to the fortress my father had made in Moscow at this time but her stories made Polevskoy the most magical place I had ever been to. I used to pray that I had been born there. She told me every old fairy tale dating back to the original wolves in Bujan but my favorite was how she met my dedushka because it was the most delicate one of them all. The night of the Lyubov' Luna, the Love Moon. Every year in Polevskoy,  the elders who had carried this tradition from Bujan, would summon the She-Wolf, Luna, with her beautiful iridescent black hair – the color of night and her malachite colored eyes. I had the same colored eyes. I got them from mother. They were this freakishly aqua blue/green color and they popped against my pale skin and looked even more freakish since my eyes were huge. Babushka always said she thinks my mothers blood line descended from the She-Wolf herself. I don't believe that part.

The moon would be at its fullest, pink and purple aura-rays lighting up the black sky. The elders would say that  Luna would release her magic through these rays every Lyubov' Luna to help their sons find true love when they hit the age of sixteen. The entire village would meet at the clearing in the woods lit by soft purple and pink light beneath the stars and the full moon of Lyubov' Luna and they would dance and drink with love and laughter till midnight when the She-Wolf would call. It was instant. The fire would burn brighter, voices silenced, the sky clearer and dancing to a halt. The elders would begin to chant,

"In the woods, among the trees, on the island, in Bujan,

On the empty pasture gleams the moon,

In a green wood, in a gloomy vale.

Toward the stock wandereth a shaggy wolf.

Horned cattle seeking for his sharp white fangs;

But the wolf enters not the forest,

But the wolf dives not into the shadowy vale,

Moon, moon, gold-horned moon,

Cheek the flight of bullets, blunt the hunters' knives,

Break the shepherds' cudgels,

Cast wild fear upon all cattle,

On men, on all creeping things,

That they may not catch the grey wolf,

That they may not rend his warm skin

My word is binding, more binding than sleep,

More binding than the promise of a hero!"

They watched as their sons turned to their new found mates, their true loves. The She-Wolf always knew who you were destined to be with. Even though she lived among the stars, she lived for her children to be happy forever with their mates. There was no one else who would ever be able to make you feel the way your true love did and if they died – your heart would also die.

Babushka said dedushka just turned sixteen a couple months before that, "he had just begun to grow his facial hair," she would joke. They had never met before, even though the town was small - she was the baker's daughter and she was only fourteen. She was always in the bakery helping her papa, while dedushka worked in the mines with his father since the age of twelve. She said they had crossed paths and that he was very handsome with his dark brown hair and dark eyes but they never talked... not till Lyubov' Luna.

At exactly midnight, their eyes met across the crowd. The force to be together was so strong; their bodies began to walk towards each other before they could even process what was happening. Babushka said her heart was in her throat as he got closer. She never felt more afraid and more loved than that moment. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes on in her life. "He was practically glowing and his facial hair just grew in two seconds! He became the most handsome man of the whole village in front of me when just seconds ago he was a scrawny hairless boy!" She whispered as she hand rolled herself a cigarette. We were lying outside her small house on the wrap around porch on a summer day; the birds were singing.

In seconds, they were in front of each other. Their wolves howling inside to be one. Their eyes both shone in the dark as wolves do when light hits them in the night. When he was finally in front of her, he towered over her in height. Even at that moment when I was eight years old, I was almost as tall as my babushka. She had always been tiny. He caressed her cheek and tucked her beautiful blonde hair behind her ear, "Moy tsvetok." He whispered. "My Flower." It flowed out like music. She said his voice gave her chills, I could see the raised goose bumps on my little arms. He never called her anything else after that night. That night they would turn together and consummate their love. They ran into the woods, the crowd of proud parents and cousins, cheering. Four boys became men that night and four girls found their soul mates; imprinting on each other for eternity. They never spent more than a day apart after that, birthing my father when babushka was only sixteen and living happily together until my dedushka died 10 years before I was even born. I could tell her heart was broken but she said when I was born she came alive again. "Ya tebya lyublyu, moy malen'kiy volk." She cooed. "I love you, my little wolf."

-----

I'm back. Hopefully this time for a while. This is a rough draft but I'm picking this story back up and I completely revamped it. 

Disclaimer: I do not speak Russian or do I know the culture personally. All is based on internet research and some is just completely fictional. I'm trying my best for the most part to make sure I do not butcher the language but I'm not perfect and I'm not intentionally trying to offend anyone. I will graciously take constructive criticism from people who know the language if I say something incorrectly and will try to fix it.  With that being said, the Russian language and culture is not what the whole book is based around but it is a huge part for some of the characters development. Slavic folklore has really inspired me lately and has given me good material that I would like to dive into. I am writing this purely for a healthy creative outlet for me and thought it might be entertaining to others :) Nichelle & Brent will have their own point of views split up every other chapter. I might keep all of Nichelle's chapter titles in Russian just to further add more of an effect for their individual characters. I'm writing this from the top of my head - minimal planning has been done but I do know where I want the story to go. It's an ongoing book and has yet to be completed. I hope you enjoy!

-Erica