Elemental: The Luna Legend

11. Mates

"Whaff abou maze?"

"Swallow before you speak Kia" my mother scolded me.

I blushed in embarrassment as I swallowed.

"What about mates?"

They all looked at each other. And the weirdest thing happened. Everyone automatically started rubbing their arms. While I felt a tingling sensation in my neck. I wanted to scratch it but thought better of it.

My sister was rubbing her wrist. So were the boys. But my parents were rubbing their upper arms.

Oookie.

"In order to answer that, I need to start at the beginning." My father said softly. I nodded.

"Before, there was only the race of the Divines. The gods and goddesses. A handful of them were important and went by many names, but there were the 4 that are major to us. The earth and water goddesses; Terra and Ezili, and the fire and air gods; Ratu and Apo."

Some pretty cool names if you ask me.

"It started when the moon goddess, Phoebe, wanted children. The land had animals and the Divines walked among them. And she had become fond of the wolves. The way their packs worked and how they looked out for each other. She was particularly fond of one pack. It had an alpha, his female and around 10 other pack members."

"She made a clay man and transferred a drop of her Divine essence, her mana, into it and with the alpha's approval she transformed him into light and put him to the clay. That was how the first werewolf came to life."

I listened intently. I have heard this before in bedtime stories but in light of recent events, a refresher course would be a good idea.

"She taught them everything she could to make them civil. And soon the other Divines heard about it. And they began to make their own. The fire god took molten lava and created dragons. The water goddess made mermaids from the giant fishes that she had taken a liking to. The air god made vampires from bats he admired. And the earth goddess took the essence of the forest and made her faeries."

Then my father took over. He continued telling the story, but with a few details I have never heard of before.

"But before long, the other creations started becoming violent. With the Divines essence and their natural essence inside, it caused an imbalance. For a few, they gelled well and complimented each other."

He stopped for a beat before continuing in a serious tone.

"But for the rest, it caused a rift. It was the strongest in the wolves since they were fierce in nature. But their Alpha had an alpha female. He was balanced because of his mate. Her mana and beast mended the rift between his."

I nodded understanding a little bit more. "So what happened then?"

"So all the Divines created two new Divines. They sculpted them from the stars and each gave their essence to them. They were originally called Domonis. Their mission was to pair the creations with their match, with their mates. But when they finished pairing all the supernaturals together, they realised that there were uneven numbers between males and females. They sought the advice of the elemental Divines."

"Well why didn't they just pair them up anyways? I mean, how could the Divines assume that all their creations were straight?"

My mother looked horrified at my statement. My siblings chuckled nervously while my brother and father looked at each other before looking at me.

"Kia, in this world maintaining bloodlines and producing offsprings is sacred." My brother says in a gentle but firm tone. "A male belongs only with a female. If a union cannot produce children, it is a despicable union." His words were serious but something flickered in his eyes, too quick for me to decipher.