With a turn, she when back to the bowl of fresh dough. Her hands were swift and gentle as she worked the dough for the next day’s morning meal. Her hair fell into her eyes again when the laughter suddenly died. Without a second thought, Margery hurried outside to check on her children. Only to find a bloody flower spirit upon her babies.

A pretty little spirit of pink and white petals. They were beautiful spirits that were fusions of man and plant. Margery had seen dozens in her life and hundreds more since being with her mate. He had opened her eyes further than any other had.

The spirit took the appearance of a young boy, though it could have been hundreds of years old.

Fear gripped Margery in that moment. It squeezed her guts and make her want answers desperately. “What’s happened?”

The spirit stared at her for a moment before looking away. Tension filled the space around them as she waited. Her youngest began to cry from the tension that filled the air. Her older children did their best to calm the younger. Margery ignored it all as she stared the spirit down.

“What happened?” She questioned harshly.

“Hunters are in the forest.” Yet that did not explain the blood upon the spirit’s petals.

Margery glanced at her children to do a quick head count. Bile rose in her throat when she came up short by one. She questioned her second eldest without a second thought. “Where is Leola?”

Her daughter was quiet for a moment before she answered. “Leola went to get summer peaches with father.”

Margery turned to the spirit and grabbed his energy with her power. She brought him up close to her so as to stare into his pupiless blue eyes. “Is this about my mate and child? Is that why there is blood on you?”

He stammered his words. But it was enough answer for them.

They let him down and ran off into the forest. Their bare feet slapping the soft soil beneath her feet.

Fear had her in a panic. The blood on the spirit was from her child. Atkaion would do everything to protect their daughter. She was their family’s defender, once a demon killer and first of her race.

He was the one that turned the killer into a woman.

Rocks cut at their feet and dirt made those wounds string but still Margery ran as fast as she could. The panic push her past the sensation of pain, past the fear of hunters. Past the fear of breaking their promise to the god Ymus.

She hated him for forcing that promise upon her. Forbidden to kill man so long as her mate lived yet forever hunted by man. The punishment was horrifying and the only thing that kept them from ending those that hunted them.

The forest sang it’s song of life around them as if to comfort her. That comfort was lost on them at the thought of the danger her family faced. Her arms longed to hold her oldest and kiss her love. Only then would she be comforted from the fear that nested inside her.

Leola was their wild child and would have wanted to fight those that threatened them. Unaware that she was the greatest prize that a hunter could gain.

Her children were the descendants of a spirit animal. The book of Ymus condemned them as monsters that were akin to demons.

Never mind that they were just innocent little girls. Her little girls.

No one ever saw it that way though. They saw her children as monsters that needed to die. But she would kill all that sought to harm her babies, the consequences goes to the badlands.

The forest’s song fell silence suddenly. Her steps slowed and she listened for the answer to her fears.

It came in the sound of hounds barking fiercely.

Slowly, she followed the sounds. The laugh and talk of man reached her ears, she focused on what they were talking about.

“…believe the rumors were true,” a man said. She could hear the smile in his voice. “A spirit stag and his little fawn half breed, the king will knight us for it.”

“And the priests will pay us their weight in gold.”

“Enough! They ain’t dead yet and we aren’t nothing until they are.”

She saw them then. Hunters surrounded her family, their spears and arrows pointed at them. Leola, her oldest by thirteen looked to be half that age as she cling to her father’s side. Blood seeped from an arrow wound in her side. That wicked arrow still lodged in her child.

Her love stood strong and true despite the pain that he endured himself. He was doing his best to shield their daughter with his body from further blows.

His beautiful golden fur was soaked in his and their daughter’s blood.

That blood enraged Margery as nothing had before. She moved to come into view when arms wrapped around both her legs. They were no different then chains in that moment.

She looked down to see her youngest wrapped tight around her legs. Fear sparkled in their eyes alongside tears. That was all Margery needed to know that they had seen everything that was happening to their father and sister.

It was something that she never wanted to happen. She had wanted to preserve her children’s innocence for as long as possible.

“I’m sorry mother…they got away from me,” Phoenix whispered softly. Tears were in her little songbird’s golden eyes.

Margery only urged her daughter to come and embrace her. Her eight year old didn’t need any further encouragement and the tears ran down Phoenix’s cheeks. She wiped them away and give all her children a smile. It didn’t help, they were all still scared.

All four of her children were scared. Only one was facing death at that moment. That was the one that needed her the most.

Yet she couldn’t do anything in that moment. She couldn’t risk her other children to save her love and oldest. Still everything screamed inside of her to fight for them and save them. She was the protector of their family. She was failing at it though.

It was then that she looked up to see another spear find home in her mate’s side that their eyes met.

There was no condemnation or anger towards her. Only love shone in those pretty blue eyes of his. A hundred years of love passed between them in that one shared look. With a thousand more promised no matter what happened.

“Let me go, girls,” she whispered. Her babies didn’t let go though if anything they held her all the tighter. “Let go.”

“You’ll die,” her youngest cried out. “Don’t die mama!”

They all still at the words spoken so loudly. Margery’s heart still in fear that the hunters had heard and would take notice. She watched them like a hawk watched a rabbit that it wanted to rip apart. She willed them with all her might that they not turn around and notice all her babies.

She prayed to Eona and The Mother that they not notice them. She prayed that she could save all her babies, and her love from the evils of man.

Her prayers went unanswered.

One of the hunters turned and met her gaze. “Phoenix…take your sisters and run home now.”

“Mother?” Margery heard the question in her daughter’s voice. Phoenix held onto her all the tighter but Margery still forced her away. There was hurt in her baby’s eyes at her actions. It wasn’t the time to soothe it though and she forced her other two into Phoenix’s hold.

Golden gaze stared into golden gaze as Margery told Phoenix. “Hold onto them and run all the way home. Don’t stop until you’re inside.”

A kiss to the forehead before she forced them to go. It was then that hunter gave the shout. They all turned to see only her there. They saw only a proud woman full of rage.

They’re smiles were wicked like they thought she was a new toy to play with. They were the toys. Toys that she would break and smash with joy for the pain that they gave her family. They wouldn’t be human after she was done.

She smiled sweet and inviting.

“You’ll make me jealous, love…but do hurry please.” Her eyes flicked to Aktaion at his words. “Leola can’t take anymore…I…I can’t either.”

“Soon, love,” she said softly.

Half the men turned back her mate and child, ready to harm them more. She wouldn’t let them. “Let me tell you a story of the beginning. In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness.”

A few turned to her as she began her tale. Not all so she put a little power into her voice. Soon they saw not the mother that had come to save her family. They saw only an enchantress draped in red cloth that hid everything and nothing. Her long red locks were no longer tied back but free as birds. They flew around her, wild for the kill. “Then the goddess awoken from her slumber. She wandered the endless darkness until she met another, a god. They were so wary of each other but time and loneliness brought them together. Their first kiss sparked the first sun.”

The men fell under her spell as she continued. They couldn’t look away at all. “They filled the darkness with stars and their kisses. Soon they found passion that sparked hotter than their kisses. This was how the world was conceived between them. It grew and grew within the goddess’s womb like a child in it’s mother’s. This is why we call the goddess The Mother and the god The Father for they gave birth to our home.”

She was surrounded at this point, all of them to stared at her as if she was their mother. It was then that she pulled her dagger out. Their eyes and senses were so fogged over by her power that they saw no threat in her dagger. It would be too easy a death to just slit their throats with it. “The Mother and The Father were enchanted with their first child. They loved it so before The Mother was filled with desire.”

“She was filled with the desire to create. Her child was only all too happy to help with that. The Father was not.” She sliced the back of her hand to rub her blood upon the hunters.

“As The Mother explored her creativity with her child, The Father was left alone. As time passed, his anger grew and grew until he finally took it out upon their child. He ripped a piece from our world. This is piece would become our moon. The Mother was horrified by his actions and the chaos that he caused upon their child. Still enraged, The father forced himself upon his love. This was the time that Eona was conceived.”