Hooked [Complete]

72. Reunion

Cernunnos strode forward and picked Dru up off her feet,  crowing in laughter. "Stag, it's really you, Dove!"

"You look...alive!" Dru exclaimed. "And...hornier!" She blushed, gesturing to his horns that had thickened and grown another foot. "I mean..."

Cernunnos tilted his horns. "Yeah, pretty much everything is better in heaven, even horns. As for looking alive, I am." He thumped his chest. "More alive than ever. Well, I was, and then I wasn't, and then I was again. It's a really long story." He waved it off and in the same motion he was pulling Sean in, and pulling back from him.

"Blood of my blood," Cernunnos said, looking more than glad to embrace his descendant.

"My Lord," Sean grinned. "Never thought I would say this, but I don't mind calling you that, now. I've almost gotten used to it with Finn and Sucellus."

Cernunnos claps his hands in mirth. "I can't wait to hear everything' First, first tell me...how long has it been? Since I left?"

"Nine and half years," Sean said.

"And since Finn and Lana made the Divine Act—the second time?"

"How did you know that?" Sean asked.

"I saw them, here in Divine Space. As plain as I see you. They were too busy to stop and chat," he grinned.

Dru laughed. "That was seven months ago on Beltane. It's the Winter Solstice, right now, back home."

"The Solstice? So the godling? And Lana?" he asked eagerly, his green eyes intensely focused on Dru's face.

She patted his arms. "Delivered in health. Lana has a new, motherly aspect. Finn is beyond immortal joy."

Cernunnos' smile went even more mega-watt. He bent over at the waist, his hands clasped in wordless thanks.

"The whole of Mystic Mountain bore witness," Dru continued. "A male godling consecrated as Eoin."

Sean smiled at Dru, amused at the way her speech slid into old-fashioned when she spoke to Cernunnos. He had forgotten that. What he used to find annoying, now he found, endearing. He realized with a start, he didn't actually feel any jealousy, any longer, over the time Dru and Cernunnos had.

"God's Gift," Cernunnos chuckled, referring to the meaning of the baby godling's name. "Aye, that he is. Human in appearance?" Cernunnos asked almost nonchalantly. "Not all godlings are, you know."

"He is, except for a tail like Sir Kittyhart," Dru explained. "Maeve removed it."

Cernunnos' hands went automatically to his horns and he looked indignant. "Why not just glamour it?"

"A sighting. He was going to kill his baby brother with it, in a couple of years. "

Cernunnos horns tipped back as he laughed long and hard. "Maeve is a damn fine witch to have around."

"Cernunnos," Dru smacked his arm impatiently. "Did you find Cerridwen's soul?"

He looked perfectly smug. "Of course, right away. So much has happened. You have to see, to believe. Ceryn, it's all right! Come out!"

A tall girl suddenly appeared at a distance in the forest. She had long red curls and slender, curving foot long horns. She was dressed in skins and carried a bow. She was clearly a young goddess, her age looked to be somewhere in the early teen years.

Sean made a noise as the young girl made her way forward. She looked exactly like Cerridwen with  warmer skin. And horns, of course. "Oh Stag, Hearne."