Penn stood in the center of a skep shaped inner chamber. The bottom of the cave was the widest part of the cavern and perfectly round as if it had been hewn by hand. Then, the cave got predictably more and more narrow as one's eye followed the smooth walls to the top, which ended in a small rounded cap. However, the most striking feature of the room had nothing to do with the fact that it looked like it had been expertly carved from the mountain by a stone sculptor.
What caused the elders to transform into their skin one after the other as they entered the chamber was the ornamentation on the walls. Ancient moon runes, which glowed and pulsated a brilliant silvery white and blue, encompassed the entire surface of the cave, including the floor they stood on. And, if that wasn't shocking enough, the primordial symbols and writings were not carved into the stone but rather floated on the surface of the smooth walls as if placed there by a projector. But there was no projector in sight. This was not the effect of modern tech. The granite room was under a mysterious enchantment and that thoroughly stupefied the elders.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Ruuni asked the others in a hushed voice.
She had to be certain she wasn't having a break with reality. She had never, in all her years, experienced a supernatural event. She'd only read of such things. So, it was possible, she was just seeing things - that the thin air at the top of the mountain was playing tricks on her mind.
The other elders answered her by kneeling in reverence. They were seeing it too and were stunned into silence. She quickly followed suit knowing instinctively that they had stumbled on a living Moon shrine where the power of the goddess lingered in a tangible way. Together they raised their arms to their goddess while turning their faces to look skyward and offered a quiet prayer of submission to her.
They remained this way for a very long while. No one moved. No one spoke. They just closed their eyes and tried to be present in this holy place where the sublimely tranquil atmosphere felt like a warm blanket sheltering them and beckoning them to find rest. So much so that they felt they could drift off into oblivion without being the least bit aware. In this sacred place, they seemed to lose all sense of time and self.
But, that reverent silence was quietly disturbed by Lofgren's soft voice as he suddenly admitted, "I feel strong."
Though the youngest of the six elders, he was, like the rest, exceedingly old. Old enough that his eyes and hair had both turned grey long ago. A sign that he had lived a century longer than most of the wolves in the pack. But, he wasn't feeling his age in this pulsating shrine.
Though his voice wasn't more than a whisper, it broke the strange spell the other elders were under. They opened their eyes and began to look at themselves more closely, taking notice of how their bodies were feeling in that moment - in that strange but blessed place.
Ruuni got up on her feet and gently flexed and stretched her limbs.
"I don't ache," she confessed with genuine shock.
After the long arduous climb up the mountain, Ruuni was ready to sleep for a week, but now, after five or was it fifty minutes in this place, she felt her youth return. Was that possible? Could standing in a moon shrine have that kind of effect on the body? Even bodies as old as her own?
But, a chorus of 'me too' went up, and Ruuni was forced to acknowledge that the goddess' power must linger in the shrine stones and in the very air itself. It was the only way to explain the sudden change in her physiology - in their physiology. Their bodies were just too old now to regenerate like they did when they were youths. They were long past the stage where a rest would make them whole again.
"What is this place?" Lofgren asked no one in particular as his silver eyes swept over the room and landed on Penn, who was casually leaning up against the farthest stone wall and watching them all with a warm smile on her face.
For a moment, he didn't feel like he was looking at Penn. Something about her expression was different. It was like looking into the eyes of a very old and very dear friend. Lofgren's eyes immediately teared up and he could not stop the tears that spilled down his cheeks.
"I don't ... I don't know what's wrong with me," he choked out feeling embarrassed. "I'm not sad," he told everyone as they turned to face him. "And, there's nothing wrong," he assured them through a teary smile.
He wiped at the tears but the more he did the more they came, and then he gave up and just let himself cry. The crying was interrupted periodically by little bouts of happy laughter. The truth was, he'd never felt as happy or as free or as wonderful as he did the moment his eyes were locked on Penn's affectionate smile.
"What have you done to me?" he asked her as he felt joyful laughter bubbling up inside him again.
He wasn't accusing her. He wasn't the least bit distressed about his current state. He'd even gotten over his initial embarrassment. But, it was all so baffling that he couldn't help but ask. As far as he was concerned, and he hoped the others shared his view, Penn was at the center of this mystery - this moon shrine.
"Me?" she repeated with a little chuckle. "This is all on the Moon goddess," she replied with quiet confidence.
Penn had a number of supernatural encounters with the goddess since her youth. So, it made perfect sense to her that the goddess had her hand in all of this - in the creation of the chamber, the runes, the healing virtue that the elders experienced, and even Lofgren's unexplained laughter and tears.
But, none of the elders knew of her experiences or had any of their own. In truth, such supernatural phenomenon was something one only read about in history books and popular legends. Packs no longer worshipped the Moon goddess collectively. Shrines were relics of the past. Most were long forgotten, dilapidated structures on the outskirts of pack territories. And, even if those places were rediscovered and cleaned up, they certainly would not be imbued with the power of the Moon goddess anymore.
"You talk of her as if you know her," Nordin, Ruuni's male counterpart, remarked.
He looked to Ruuni for confirmation. Her eyes widened ever so slightly. Was the Master at Arms right? Was she really the reincarnation of the Moon goddess' faithful companion. Could she be the Moon wolf of legend? Was that even possible?
Penn, unaware of the direction of their thoughts, just shrugged a shoulder as she pushed herself away from the wall and gently drew her hand through the pulsating runes. They added a decidedly blue hue to her iridescent skin.
"I know the Moon goddess as much as the next wolf," she stated simply. "She's helped me out a few times in my life. Gives me dreams, here and there. Takes me places, sometimes." She stopped, looked around at the elders' faces, and then commented openly, "Just like anybody else."
"Anybody else?" Nordin repeated with a slightly incredulous laugh.
Penn frowned a little not sure what to make of Nordin's response.
Seeing her discomfort, Runni gently interjected, "These things you are talking about Penn, they aren't happening to anybody else." The old she-wolf paused just a moment before remaking gravely, "The Moon goddess isn't coming to us in dreams and visions anymore. Those days are dead and buried along with the Moon goddess' shrines."
Penn gave her a thoughtful nod in response. Admittedly, it was hard for her to comprehend that her experiences were unique to her. But, there was no reason for the elders to lie. The thought that they did not know the goddess the same way grieved her though.
She would never have been able to survive her expulsion from her pack and the subsequent years of isolation if she hadn't had the Moon goddess to help her. But, perhaps, if she hadn't been kicked out of her own pack, she might never have come to know the goddess at all. The idea made her feel ill, and her heart mourned for these elders, who had lived many lifetimes over and had yet to know the goddess in a tangible way.
The luminous runes caught Penn's eye while she despaired for the elders. The runes, as beautiful as they were, meant nothing to her. She could not read them and the Moon goddess had not revealed their meaning to her. But what about the elders? From the first moment Penn laid her eyes on the runes - on this moon shrine - she had wanted nothing more than to share it with the elders. Not the pups, not Troy, not anyone else. She had only thought of the elders. Perhaps the Moon goddess had put that desire in her heart. Maybe the runes were for the elders.
She turned keen eyes on the group and asked, "Can you read these?"
The elders expressions were sad. They shook their heads 'no'. But Penn wasn't discouraged.
"I know these runes are not for me," she explained to them with conviction. "Perhaps the goddess wants to speak to you through them in some way."
"But, we can't decipher them," Ruuni acknowledged. "Even if we were back in the pack and could pour over our ancient history texts it would take us a lifetime to uncover the meanings of these runes. Maybe more," she said with a sigh of defeat.
Still convinced that the runes were meant in some way for the elders, Penn closed her eyes a moment to think about her past experiences with the goddess. Almost every one she had came after she'd fallen asleep. Maybe sleep was the key.
"Why don't you sleep on it. Right here," Penn suggested while sweeping her arms out to encompass the chamber. "The goddess may come to you in a dream and explain the runes to you. She comes to me in dreams," Penn offered encouragingly.
As if the mere mention of sleep was magic itself, the elders eyelids grew heavy along with their limbs. It looked like they would collapse any moment. Penn might have been worried for them but, in the next instance, without a word being said, they all transformed into their furs and curled up in a group on the shrine floor. Penn watched them tuck their muzzles beneath their tails and close their eyes. She grinned.
The goddess was going to come to them tonight and they would never be the same.