THE AGE OF LOVE

Chapter 9

I stepped not  ,just in to this crypt similar to a tenebrous room but also i made for the first time ,a huge step to know the truth about my life ,my experiences and in the same time the step to acknowledge my past ,to discover my real roots and to know what information carries, the blood running true my veins.
The room was cold stone and very poor illuminated by the candles already  half consumed by now,all this framed by the tall arcades builded for serving as walls with numerous shelves field with ancient books .
In the center of this crypt was a huge round wooden table having around 9 similar massive wooden chairs dressed in a dark blue velvet material but could notice that one was bigger and even the color was darker.
On each side of a chair was attached 9 white and gold columns encrusted with vine leaves and olive branches but only one of them was different has added beautyfull lemon flowers same as the ones embroyded on my dress.
At their ends were finished each with a gold symbol serving as a support for the candles we are holding in our hands.
From above each chair, silky white and dark blue vails were hanging and  floating in the small cold brize similar to a fairy wings ,making this crypt looking mysterious and deeply attractive.
In silence and soft movements each one of them took their sits while me ,I had no idea that it has an order to maintained and i just sit in to the chair near to me ,but monk Stefan quickly told me to get up from there and showed me with a small movement from the hand where is my right place .
In more silence i fallowed his request while all others were waiting for something only by them known, then monk Stefan stood up and raised both his hands into the air at the level of his chest and said:
-Welcome my friends!!!!This is Argat monastery old crypt and it is the place where a soul is lost and found, the most sacred land in the world, where the earth is made by the remaining of our ancestors.
In here even into the air we breath, lies our past ,lives our present and it is build our future ,here ,now and forever is the legacy from our families, simply said is the purest heart of us all!!!!
Our own Home, our shelter!!
-We are here today ,after centuries since our last gathering took place, because one of us invoked the confrerie!
-We also know that the gathering is rare to happened and is meant to be only ,in extreme cases or if any member is death and since all of us we're here ,well except one but we all know why!!!!Remains the last option, which is, extreme cases!!!!!
-And speaking of which....summoned us here, now is the right time to speak up!!!!!the monk said in a very controlling and powerful manner ,then he took place in his blue velvet chair.
I looked from one side to the other curious to know whom is it, all i knew Mister . Lupescu and Mara had arranged our trip here .
I didn't finished my thought and non other then a familiar voice raised from the chair opposite mine.
-I, Mara  Padureanu , witch and ruler of the forest, and mother of the fairies from the beginning of times ,summoned the confrerie in behalf of Ana Constantin!!!!!
-She does not know anything of her life ,nor hom she really is ,and now is the perfect time for her to know everything about the past!!
-The danger is raising and awakened as we speak ,once she tried to end her life, and we all know, what that means!!Mara said while her eyes become greenier and her white long hair starts moving slowly around her without gravity like the lives of a tree in a stormy day.
-Very well then ,now , hom wants to tell her the story???said Mister Lupescu in a deep voice between growls.
-I think this should be on milady Mara ,she's the one so eager to see us!!!said this morbid Matei Corvin hidden in his black cape like a crow between her wings, with his eyes fixed on Mara.
-I think is Stefan whom should tell her everything, we are his guests after all ,so i think he should start!!!!said Mister Vladimir while moving his burgundy rose in his hand and look straight into it with a nostalgic look written on his face ,and i have noticed that since we passed true the statues passage he's captured in his own mind ,as if a part of him remains there, among the lifeless figures.
-I guess is better for us to tell each one his story ,but in short lines ,no need the details, so i suggest that Stefan should to start, he is the right person to do so ,since we are in his territory!!!!!said Doc.Dragomir with one hand resting on the table.
-Very well then ,if anyone agrees ,i shall start!!!said monk Stefan, while he waited the approval of the others.
After few minutes of silence all of them one by one give the approval by a small nod from their heads and all began.
-My dear Ana, i am monk Stefan and I am the guardian of the Argat  monastery ,which is, our home and spiritual place for, well, our kind!!!!he said then stopped.
-What you mean to say our kind???i said in a statement.
-We are supernatural species ,for example ,i am more then a monk Ana ,i am the guardian of the door between the two worlds, the human world as you know it and the after life!!My duty, is to keep the order, i have a given task and we obey it, nothing has to go in or out without my knowledge and it has been so for 5 full centuries as it is for generations before me.
Every seven centuries i am to be replaced by my successor ,the only requirement is obviously to be from Dobre family!!!monk Stefan said in a calmer voice and more relaxed forehead .
-As you can see, the box i carried on my hands has the Dobre family symbol!!!he continued while he gently opened the box to reveal a gold dagger with 3 encrusted green emeralds ,it was shining so brightly that i thought is some kind of light inside of the box, but in fact was coming from his own power.
-The Dobre daggers the most powerful weapon in the world ,it can kill a man or a ghost ,he comes with the power of my family and he can be used at his full power only of a Dobre blood!!
-In the contact with one drop of my blood it becomes from just a common dagger the most powerful weapon of the world!!!!!It is the threat that keeps the order at the passage, nobody will do something so foolish to experience the Dobre dagger ,they all know better then that!!!!he said with pride ,while he placed his candle in the gold column near him and then gently closed his box and arranged it in front of him on the table.
-If you are the guardian of such a door that means the afterlife is real ?i asked with the confused mind and not knowing if this is just a tale or this people are just a bunch of novelists ,and accidentally i just stepped into their stories.
-You better start to accept all of this, and yes all you heard in here is real .If you do not believe me just look around you!!!he said while pointing the walls of the room and continued in a calmer voice.
-This are books that are the most rare and precious in the world ,they are unique ,one of a kind, the first and only exemplary into the world.
For some of the books you see here, countries and wars have been lost, sacrifices of entire families was made, women's grieving their lost lovers ,mothers giving away their own sons and daughters as tributes ,brave mans have lost their lives, including you're beloved Demir!!!!I guess you need to believe all of this!!!!monk Stefan said with calm.
-Demir is dead?????He was real,he exists and he is dead??????and in that moment i became numb ,i couldn't here anything after the word dead ,somehow i still found the power to speak.
-It's impossible, i just saw him on the street ,but yet again not sure of that, and i saw him in my dreams but again, is just dreams.
And my heart??What about my heart,it can't be in love and attached with a dead person, besides he kissed me in the water ,i know it. He can't be dead ,do you hear me?
-Allll of you ,listen to me!!!!Ilan is not dead !!!!!!i said with anger and tears washing my cheeks, shaking in denial my head.
-Ana!!Foolish girl, can you prove that even once, he touched you ?Mister. Lupescu said with regret in to his eyes.
In that moment i didn't know what to answer to him ,that was my internal battle from the beginning, whether I am normal or something is going wrong in my brain ?
I intended to believe the last statement ,coz after Doc .prescribe me the pills Ilan's dreams subsided but yet again, isn't he just left from my mind ,not from my heart and soul ?
He is living even more deeper inside of me ,and even if they prove his nonexistence, i can feel this is the truth but yet again how can i dream a dead man i never knew ?
And if he is really dead and he is coming to my dreams, that means, dead people can dream also ,is impossible the dead don't have dreams ,or do they????
My mind is blocked on Ilan and i need to find everything about him, so i answered the obvious:
-No i can't, please do carry on. I said looking to the center of the table.
-Ana, listen to me ,look to my eyes!!!Mara asked me to look at her and i did so.
-My dear i am an ancient witch ,i can do magic and control the elements of the nature ,including the trees and plants of the forest!!!!she said while looking to me.
By snapping her fingers the flames of the candles suddenly grew bigger sending tongs of fier in to the void,illuminating the entire crypt and from the cealling snow flakes started to fall beautifully and peacefully just to find their ends near the table vanishing into the air leaving no trace behind.
The hanging silky vails now ,took forms of white branches full of leaves moving slowly as wind blows and fast growing they just keep spreding invinting milions of  white butterflies and white small birds to find nest ,it's simply magic.
-Waw .....that looks extraordinary!!!i said in awe by what I was experiencing, I am a roller coaster of emotions right now, this really happened, she made snow to fall out of nowhere,and the vails where full trees, I must take more of Doc's meds coz I switch so fast from denial to complete amazement.
-Ana, my symbol is an apple branch from the tree of life, it never dries, nor the leaves can change their colors!!It is the tree of knowledge and truth, which is life itself, it actually can brings to life anyone.
This apple branch is the Padureanu woman source of existence, that's why not many knows this, just the conclave members are aware of it....she said with eyes fixed on the box ,on the other side of the table between Doc.Dragomir and this Corvin guy, waiting for me to react in a way.
-And i am you're friend and a mother in same time, don't forget that!!!Mara said with a small smile on her face and eyes full of hope and kindness while she placed her candle on the golden column and closing her box and arranged it in her front.
I just stood there and i saw, so much love and care in her eyes for me ,a good friend in times of need, and also she looked so relieved as if a full weight was lifted from her shoulders.
Then i made something unexpected even for me ,i went to her chair and i just hugged my best friend and i accepted her the way she truly is and with tears in her eyes she arranged one lock from my hair and i turned back to my site.
-Thank you Mara ,for everything. I said full of emotions then i go back and mister Lupescu started his speech.
-Well, now foolish girl ,i am Radu Lupescu the father of the wolfs, when you hear the howling in the cold nights of full moon those are my children's calling for me ,i am the father of the first pack in the history!!!Mister Lupescu said with his body stiffening and the memories took over him.
-I was born in the north of Romania long, very long time ago ,at first i didn't know what I am, since the wolves raised me as their own ,i even drink from the milk of a she wolf ,whom raised me, she was the mother figure of the pack .
The most that i remember is her beautiful sparkly eyes and her pure white fure ,i loved her deeply she is the only mother figure i have ever had .
All of you might see her as an animal ,a beast but for me she's my mother..he said with head down and so much pain in his voice ,between Doc. Dragomir and monk Stefan.
-One summer nigh while we just rest under the stars on the far hills watching the village i saw something moving in the dark ,i panicked and suddenly I jumped in a protective state in front of my mother wolf .
When i start to distinguish a moving siluet ,it was shocking to see that this thing was walking into 2 feet, having 2 hands just like me, mouth and teeth similar to mine ,but not, same as the wolf besides me.
The body was different with beautiful, long hair ,thiny waist and it was the most splendid creature i have ever seen ,little do i know that ,was to be called woman.
With time the siluet ,started to come more and more to see us and started to teach me how to read and speak ,she was my age and her name was Irina ,and all this time my mother wolf was always beside me.
The night that the lady come for me to take me into the village, my wolf mother she got so angry, even  i assured her i will come back ,but it was all in vain ,fiercely she jumped on me and bite my neck.
The blood was pouring everywhere mingling with the mud and grass but when I thought i was about to give the last breath something extraordinary happened.
The light of the moon was illuminating my body and all i could see was that my mother wolf she become a woman and me a dark wolf.
After she bite me my body instinctively transformed in to a wolf and i start to heal with unnatural speed.
She come slowly, barely walking and she collapse near to my side and all i could see, was her beautiful gray eyes that raised me and with a soft voice she said:
"Raised as a wolf ,made as a man ,have both my child, the 2 worlds are yours. Cursed and gifted by my mother ,the moon."
by biting me she just activated my dormant wolf and so i became the first male werewolf by birth ,she sacrificed herself so i can be alive.
Later i had to discover that the she wolf was my real mother whom was married with the gypsies king ,she was the only daughter of the moon, but cursed by her own mother ,to walk as wolf after my birth and never become human again.
She was the daughter of the moon, she was not supposed to have children's , love a man, specially the king of gypsies ,her name was Luna and her beauty was unnatural.
That day was the first time when moon become red ,a veritable ,,Blood moon,,.
-I was taken and given to my father by that woman ,to be raised by him, he tried to do so ,but couldn't bear her lost ,he always mourned her, never got married and from that day all the gypsies never had a home, always on running, moving from place to place ,a real troubadours whom they lost their Luna and they try to find her.
-As i was growing i started loosing control over my powers and become more a wolf then a human and i started to transform the gypsies around me that travel with my father .
I become so animalistic that the only human i accepted around me was just my father's presence .
He's power was towering over me ,even ,he was just a human, his name was Doru Lupescu (in romanian language Doru=missing and Lup=wolf the irony of life).
He then stopped and tears started falling from his eyes which now became a deep gray blue.
His fingers started to grow longer and thinner and the nails were sharper as scissors, his teeth were growing but then he shaken his head and breath deeply and started to became in his senses, he was in control of his wolf. The absolute challenge of a leader, to be in control of his wolf during the transformation.
-Well the story is bigger then this but for now is enough, perhaps i will carry on another time and definitely another place. He said with little amusement.
-Well as i said, i am the Alpha of the werewolves and obviously my symbol is a gold wolf howling in solitude to the moon. He then closed also his box and lay his candle in the column next to him.
-I am far from my family ,since i found you first,20 years ago ,in order to protect my pack  from loosing their lives i had to give my word i wont abandon you ,i promised to be next to you ,to protect you from any harm and assure you are safe until the time comes.
-I think we all agree with the saying, ,The lone wolf dies but the pack survives ."He said in melancholy mood.
-Thank you Mister.Lupescu  ,for every sacrifice you made for me ,if it helps to know, you are my family ,my father figure and my respect and love for you i can't express it in words...i said with proud for my only friend and father figure in my life.
And then I went to his side and i hugged him so hard I thought i smashed him and he tapped my head and said:
-Ana ,you foolish girl!!!!!then he wiped his tear and send me back to my place.
I guess even this ancient wolf can be emotional ,i think this is the first time i saw him showing his feelings ,he's just like a father to me and i only can respect him more for what he really is ,a Wolf.
So ,i guess i am finding my family  old and new in this place,and that Argat and Time room is enchanted and all of this is real.
Until now my mind is just ruled by my emotions and I can't say a word or ask questions about them coz i am so numb right now, I hate feeling nothing.
My mind is not processing all of this at it's real magnitude, i still believe we're in a novel or something, but hey ,i come from Romania the land of legends and fairytales so anything is possible in this land.