The Moon Wolf

Chapter 36 (First Draft)

Author's note: This story will be updated with new chapters coming on/after the 15th of January, 2024.

Ruuni, Nordin and the other four elders gasped in unison, their hearts gripped in terror, as they watched the shrine, the mountain and everyone they knew disintegrate as if they had no more substance than spent ashes in a fireplace.

In a panic Ruuni called out to the others urging them, "Hold on to each other!"

Finding themselves in their skins, they eagerly locked fingers until the group of six stood in a circle.

"What do we do now?" Nordin asked though he didn't really expect an answer. This fearful sight made him break out in a cold sweat. And his racing heart left him breathless. He felt sure he was on the cusp of blacking out. He'd never been this frightened or this bewildered in all his life.

All Ruuni could think to do was to cry out to the Moon goddess hoping she would have pity on them. Because, whatever her expectations when she closed her eyes in the shrine, this terrifying nothingness was the farthest thing from the peaceful feeling she'd had before they curled up on the shrine floor.

"Please Goddess," Ruuni called out in a stricken voice.

Quite suddenly the ground beneath their feet gave way to a fast flowing tunnel of what could only be described as time and space. And, without warning they found themselves hurtling down it. All of them let out a shriek, but they managed to keep hold of one another despite their dismay.  But, before they could feel like hurling their guts or despairing for their lives, it was all over. They found themselves suddenly standing still on a gleaming pearl road - completely intact.

"What is this place?" Nys whispered as she looked up with astonishment from the cool polished highway under her bare feet.

Reminiscent of when they'd entered the Moon shrine not long ago, a hush fell over them all the moment their eyes spied their new surroundings. If they had thought the goddess' shrine was the most other-worldly and holy place they'd ever beheld, then they were sorely mistaken. This mysterious place outshone the shrine in splendour and wonder a thousand times over.

Sweeping up before them, shimmering in every shade of silver, white and gold, was a pristine temple such as they had never seen or even imagined. It was evocative of the past but its architecture also a vision of the future. The temple gave the elders the feeling that they were staring into the beginning of time but also into a world yet to come.

As when they entered the cave, Ruuni asked the others in a hushed voice, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

It was Nys, Lofgren's counterpart, who replied this time around. "If you are seeing a pearly white road that passes through eight two storey high moon gates, leading to a temple of eight towers as high as the sky, then yes" she replied with total amazement.

There was a brief pause while the others observed the enormous moon gates and sky-scraping towers. The gates, which resemble the four primary and four intermediate phases of the moon,  were fantastical constructions that defied architectural logic. Where the technology came from to build such structures was beyond the elders.