Chapter 34: Moon Stone Hunt
That same morning, Michael and Maleva were both summoned by Maleva's mother.
Since her mother was the mayor of Cherrywood, it only felt natural that they both met her at the mayor's office, which was simply a small house. Nothing glamorous nor prestigious. The mayoress didn't need anything of the sort.
"Mom! Mind explaining what the hell is this?"
Boom!
Maleva suddenly dropped the black bible they found in the crate the bandits were attempting to steal right on her mother's desk. The head of the wolf on the front cover staring right at the mayoress.
"Where did you find this, Maleva?" her mother asked her, visibly shocked to discover such an ancient artifact on her desk.
"Bandits who came into town today stole a crate, which had this inside. Any idea what it could even be? I've never seen a book like this one before…" Michael inquired Maleva's mother about it.
"Tell me. Did any of you open this book?" but instead of informing and educating them about the book, she confronted them right off the bat, and desperately wanted to know if the bible had been opened or not. As if that was the worst thing that could ever happen. What could be so bad about opening a book? It might have been ancient and strange, but it was only a book at the end of the day.
"No… Mother…"
"We… We totally didn't open it, ma'am…"
The both of them appeared like they had lied to her right then and now
"Um-um. I sure hope you're both telling me the truth because this book is no ordinary book. Heck. It's not even an ordinary bible, to say the least…"
"I was about to ask! I've never seen a bible like this before! What kind of religion has a wolf's head on the cover of their bible?" Michael had been wondering about this ever since they found it.
"More importantly: What was that strange bible doing in Cherrywood? The thieves stole it from our town, yet I've never seen anything like this before?" Maleva brought up even better questions.
"These robbers were primarily after this book, I'd say, because they personally took it from my office," Maleva's mother finally revealed to them.
"What? They took it from your office?" Michael was deeply shocked to hear this.
"So, they were here?" so was Maleva. The both of them were terribly shocked, to say the least.
"It's no longer relevant, now," then, mother proceeded to push the dark book into one of the drawers of her desk. The book was gone, "the book has nothing to do with you, so we shall stop talking about it from now on… Thanks for bringing it to me…"
"Are you kidding? Are we some kind of joke to you, mother? Tell us what the hell this book is about. Why is it so important?" her own daughter angrily lashed out at her.
"I'm afraid I summoned the both of you for a different reason: The next hunt is up. This has been decided.
"Are you serious, mom? The book no longer exists, and now you're going to send us on a new hunt out of town?" it was indeed looking like her mother was not going to tell them anything more regarding the bible they had recovered from the robbers.
"Mal…" Michael discreetly whispered to her while gently pulling her to the side a bit.
"What?" Maleva angrily shouted at him.
"Perhaps your mom has a good reason for not telling us anything more about the book… How about we give her a chance to let us know about this hunt she has for us…?" Michael continued whispering to her, intimate with her, desperately trying to make her hear reason.
…
"Fine. Maybe you're right."
Maleva, who was still rabid and profoundly angered, nearly foaming at the mouth because of her mother getting on her nerves so much, finally accepted to turn her back to her. Maleva was ready to hear about this hunt…
"So…" Maleva painfully inhaled and exhaled first, "what do you need us to do now, mother?" she directly asked her.
"Why I'm glad you asked because I have something quite incredible to announce to you, two…"
Both Michael and Maleva soon became deeply excited to hear that her announcement regarding the next hunt was going to be something… Well… Incredible, as she put it. Could it be something that both of them had been looking forward to?
Michael's hands tightened as Maleva bit her lower lip as they waited for the mayoress to tell them what was going on…
"... As you already know, the next full moon is rapidly approaching, and we don't have much time to prepare before the big day. Michael is no pure-blood. You are bad-blooded. The only one in the entire province. You are a wild beast and you will continue becoming more and more outrageously out of control as you experience more and more full moons. We can't have that. We have to fix you. Unfortunately, there are only two options available to us: We either chain you up every full moon… Or, we adopt you into our family…" Maleva's mother calmly and carefully explained this to him.
"Um… Chaining him up every full moon sounds good to me…" Maleva blushed as she playfully proposed that option.
"What are you talking about? I don't want to be chained up like an animal!" Michael soon raged at his crush.
"But you are one…" Maleva reminded him. Same as her.
"I'd prefer being adopted into your family than being chained up! I know that for a fact!"
"Are you sure? Chaining you up all the time sounds more fun…" Maleva definitely had something kinky in mind in that regard.
"Very well. Enough, Maleva. So, since you are still open to the idea of officially joining our family, I have some great news for you…"
"What is it?"
"What is it?"
Both Maleva and Michael asked the mother at the exact, same time.
"Some town's people recently reported the presence of a rare moonstone not too far from Cherrywood. A moon stone is one of the components needed in order to execute the ritual to officially make you a member of our family and to share our pure-blood with you. The moon stone in question has never been seen or found, unfortunately, but its presence was felt in one of the nearby caves, as a moon stone has the ability to make people close to it feel a certain, personal pleasure. Something that can be experienced differently by different people," Maleva's mother informed them both.
"A moon stone?" Maleva asked.
"We need to find it then…" Michael mentioned out loud.
"It's up to you two to do so. Locate it. Find it. Bring it to Cherrywood. And without the shadow werewolf around, this should be a pretty easy and simple task," still entirely ignorant to the fact that her own daughter was pregnant, she sent her on a hunt that could possibly be a lot more dangerous than any of these three could ever imagine.
"We are off, then, mom!" Maleva nodded at her mother.
"Thank you for everything, ma'am," Michael then bowed to her.
The two friends soon spun around and prepared themselves to leave the mayoress' office as…
"Hey! Don't forget about me!" Lycanna, the short wolf spirit, suddenly fell from the ceiling of the office after listening to everything that was exchanged during the meeting.
Lycanna ambushed Michael and Maleva from above.
She was coming, as well!