A Secret's Tale (The Secret of Day and Night)

[LoneShadowCat]

A Secret's Tale
The Secret of Day and Night

This is the main book on the history of the wereanimals and their connections to humans. It explains the full were history, including how weres started, details on the first two weres, the source of their mysterious powers, and a detailed collection of these powers. All written by the first werewolf Herb and told by the human Tim. The latter half of this book goes into the details of Tim’s own life and his strange connection to the dragons of old as well as the story of the chosen ones and the battle to save the world and the humans.

[LoneShadowCat]

Prologue

To tell the full story of the wereanimals we must first go back and tell the tale before weres. Long, long ago before even weres existed there lived the dragons. Even in that time the dragons were and ancient and powerful race with only one enemy, the blazing phoenix. The dragons protected the other animals and kept the humans contained. But then came a day when the sky turned black and a great war broke out between the dragons and the phoenixes, much blood was spilled in that day and land below burned. But one day, after the war had gone on for many, many years, all the dragons and phoenixes vanished, all but one young black dragon. The black dragon did not explain why the others had vanished; he simply said it was their time and lived with the animals as his kind had once done.
Hundreds of years later the black dragon called out two young snakes whose names were called Day and Night. The dragon bestowed upon them the power of his race and of the phoenix and then he dove deep down into a volcano and slept. He was not heard of again and soon he and his kind were forgotten in the sands of time.

[LoneShadowCat]

Chapter 1: The Herbalist’s Shop, the Werecat, and the Book

A young girl was out late roaming the streets of the quiet little town. As she wandered her eyes landed on a shop she had never seen before, an ancient looking herbalist shop. She nervously stepped up to the door and peered in but it was too dark to see anything. After a moment’s hesitation she opened the door and stepped inside.
The shop looked ancient on the inside too with strange plants lining the ceiling and a counter pushed to one side with a bubbling pot about halfway down. Shelves lines her other side, most covered in jars of strange looking things or books that seemed from another time and place.
Slowly her eyes adjust to the dim light and she spots an old man sitting near the back corner with an old black she-cat in his lap. She nervously steps closer and cat’s bright yellow eyes shift to watch her.
The man stirred, as if awoken, and turned tired dark brown eyes towards her. “Ah, a visitor, it has been a long time since we have seen one Razz.” His voice cracked with age and disuse as he shifted in the chair, stretching out light grey wings to get comfortable again “Hello there young one, do you know of the weres?”
She took a step back but nodded “They used to hide but now they don’t…”
“But you don’t know why.” The man smirked as the cat jumped from his lap and took on the form of a young girl with black hair and a black cat tail, still with the same bright yellow eyes.
She took another step back but then stopped and studied them “Why are you here?”
The man didn’t seem to hear her, instead he opened a book that had been on the floor beside him and smiled “How about I tell you a story.
She hesitated, something didn’t feel right yet she didn’t feel any fear. Finally she sat down in front of him and nodded.
“Good, I will tell you the true story of weres.” The man smiled as the cat-girl sat down beside her “I might not have lived through all of it but I tell you I saw every moment through these eyes…”

Long ago at the dawn of time, two long snakes lay curled together around a tree. One snake was white with red eyes and he was called Day while the other was black with green eyes and she was called Night. They were the only ones to have power in that time as they watched the humans day and night.
One day an old wolf padded up to them, her hazel eyes tired as she watched them for a moment. Finally she balanced her paws on the tree trunk and spoke “Day, Night, humans are destroying the forest and free lands, please give me power to hold them back.”
“Ah Herb…” Night and Day spoke in unison “You desire power against the humans? We have a power for you…we will awaken a power to make the humans see through our eyes…”
Herb blinked but before she could speak the two snakes reached down and bit her, one on each side. She cried out in pain and fell backwards but as she fell her form changed into that of a human.
More animals peered out of the forest, slowly drawing closer to see what happened.
The snakes spoke in unison again as they drew back and watched her “Now you have the power to turn the humans into animals…you are now a werewolf with the power to make them see.”
“A werewolf?” Herb slowly studied her new body as she glanced up at the snakes again “Will that be enough…?”
“You will awaken other powers as you learn…” the snakes replied as the other animals turned and fled, all but one small kitten. Day and Night turned to the kitten as they spoke again “And for not fleeing you too shall learn this power.”
The kitten shied back slightly as its form slowly changed into that of a small human boy.
“Don’t worry, together we can teach the humans.” Herb spoke quietly as she picked the small boy up and turned towards the human village.

Many, many years passed after that and the snakes Day and Night disappeared. Herb and the young boy followed the plan and turned many of the humans into weres, and so far it was working quite well. The weres kept their power secret from the normal humans but they slowed down construction just the same. Herb opened an herbalist shop and began using it to teach the humans about nature while the boy stayed with her in his cat form and taught them about animals. Sometimes late at night a few weres would gather there to learn more about their powers. And as time passed it became tradition for the weres to gather together in the shop on the night of the full moon and hold a meeting.
Things were peaceful in those days and many animals as well as humans joined them.

[LoneShadowCat]

Chapter 2: Pain Beyond the Bite

As weres and their power spread, many became greedy and looked for ways to gain more. One such were was a young black snake whose grey eyes searched for power over the humans he hated. He felt that weres were undermined living in secret and eventually he gave into a dark power that was long forgotten. He was called Pain because that was all he caused humans and weres alike, he was the holder of the power of darkness and he used it.
Other weres feared him but did little to stop his growing madness, some even agreed with him. One day though his power grew too powerful though and he latched himself onto a young foolish werecat and he controlled the cat.
Such power caused an uproar in the werecommunity, never before had one were controlled another. Yet still they did nothing to stop Pain and he became controlled by the darkness of his power just as he controlled the cat.
For years Pain and the darkness gathered followers and they brought about the day of darkness. On this day he and his followers openly attacked the humans and ravaged the town.
Many of the good weres finally turned on Pain and fought back against the unjust attack. During the attack many weres died on both side including a young falcon killed by pain himself.
Seeing that Pain no longer had any kinship with them, the good weres eventually drove him and his followers back, killing Pain and hoping to end his darkness.
But the damage was already done, the weresecret was out most weres fled into the forest or moved to faraway towns.
Herb moved her shop to a new city in the far north and reopened, the spirit of the dead falcon following her. Once the shop was settled she sent the falcon spirit off, giving him the mission to find the truth.
The humans of the attacked town were wary and held a meeting soon after the weres left, some of them thought they could work with these strange creatures, after all they had lived with them for years, but others wanted to kill the creatures, they were too unpredictable to be left alone.
After many days of debate they reached a compromise, they would spread rumors of these creatures to other humans but leave it up to the weres to work with the humans.
As soon as the decision was reached the people of that town destroyed what was left of the town and moved away to spread the warning though nobody believed their crazy tales of unnatural creatures that could destroy an entire town.
The weres though were nervous about such activity and about the brutal of the battle that should not have happened. They built a castle in the far north and elected one of each wereanimal to protect them from such evil weres. They became called the Were Council and had one mission, to limit the power of weres and keep evil powers from rising again.

Peace returned and as the years passed Herb detached herself from the werecommunity, most had forgotten about her anyway. She began writing a book on what she had learned about the different traits of each wereanimal and about the powers weres could have. When she finished that she began to write the story of the weres and sketch pictures of the creatures she had seen and the sights she knew.
While she did this the first werecat put away the different were powers into necklaces so weres could unlock powers. The weres were growing lazy and not unlocking their power normally so he created a backup plan.
But creating the necklaces went beyond his power and so as he infused the power into the last one, he died.
Herb cremated him and stored his ashes in a jar before putting it, the necklaces, and the book into the back of her store where the meetings were once held.
Eventually another werecat came along to work in the shop and when that one died another came. The years blurred in the old were’s memory but she never died for she lived under the curse of the first; she would not die unless she lost her powers.