Once Upon A Time (19 page)

May the
Goddess bless our clan aiding in keeping our secrets from those
whom would love to destroy us.

I recall the
day that the young Cŵn Annwn Alpha came to see us. The English were
still fighting what they would come to call the Hundred Years War,
so for the moment the Welsh were of little interest to them other
than in providing them with the Welsh archers that history would
come to know well. Still, this young Alpha, had come to meet with
us.

For such a
young creature, a mere 150 years old, she was a canny one,
intelligent enough to appreciate that alliances were not just for
the humans, but for us, as beings with a geas the average human
could never hope to understand. I would watch the humans, as they
marked the borders of the lands they considered to be their
property, regardless of any other boundary which might have existed
in times gone by. In some respects, it was fortunate that we chose
to live away from humans, in the mountains or in the areas less
accessible to these two-legged creatures.

Why did I
watch them? It was my duty as Ddraig Goch, and as the Queen's
Consort. I am sworn to protect my Queen with my life's blood if it
is needed. I had taken solace in that in the years since our first
flight, Ariawen had laid no queen egg, which meant that, whilst
evil existed, it was not of a magnitude that I might risk losing my
Queen.

When this pair
of young Cŵn Annwn met with us, it appeared merely as if two human
couples, reasonably well-to-do by their clothing, met in an inn. A
private dining room had been requested, which was not unexpected.
The Cŵn Annwn Alpha had a way about her which was entirely in
keeping with the image of a young woman of gentle breeding. Her
Beta, a male, was clearly her balance. I could see the hint of a
smile on her lips that said all her posturing was an act, and
indeed, the Beta would touch her arm, communicating directly to her
mind no doubt, before he would speak. It was a game they had played
before, and played well.

They had no
young yet, but they wished to establish alliances which may be
necessary further down the line. I could see no risk to my Queen in
doing this, and had so advised Ariawen with regard to accepting the
Cŵn Annwn proposal. In exchange, we gifted them with a signet ring,
bearing the Ddraig crest. This ring could be passed down the
generations to come, and thus the alliance would perpetuate.

They had no
young as yet, but there was time aplenty for that. We had laughed
together. For humans, they had a frantic need to breed, but for us,
we had time. We could wait.

I recall that
we were sitting by the lake the young Alpha female had approached
us asking for an alliance. Taliesin and I agreed to meet them. I
liked the couple immediately and could see the love they held for
each other, I thought it was a shame that they had no children as
of yet but my inner sight showed me that these Cŵn Annwn would not
always be childless.

I watched them
the male acting as if seeking the approval of the Alpha female. I
could tell there was much more to them that what they are showing
us. Taliesin Llewelyn informed me he that he would think this
alliance would indeed be a good thing.

I was sitting
at the table, the signet ring of my father on my finger. Sitting
there at the dining table twisting it around, I listened to
Taliesin answering questions as well as asking about important
information. I could see that Taliesin was taken with this young
couple and with my insight already forming I could see that the
child they will bear is going to play an important part of the
human world as well as our own.

I nodded my
head slightly, twisting the signet ring off my finger and placing
it on the Alpha's own finger making our pact. I wished them luck we
watch as they depart, knowing deep in my heart that a time would
come when they would need all the strength the Goddess might grant
them. "I believe we have made a good alliance with the Cŵn Annwn.",
I suggested to my Consort, tracing my long tipped nail along his
arm where he is sitting next to me. “As usual you have helped me in
making a sound decision that will help our clan.”

Smiling up to
him I held out my hand, which he took to help me from my seat,
presenting the image to the humans around us appropriate to our
time. I tucked my hand into his arm and we walked out of the little
Inn returning to our home in the mountains.

Forty-five
years had passed since that meeting with the Cŵn Annwn Alpha and
her Beta and Mate. Forty years as the humans measure it, two
generations for them, and yet but the blink of an eye for my Queen
and for me. But the year 1490 was to mark a significant event for
the Cŵn Annwn pair. At the same time, I had to applaud them for the
strategic decision they made, to play the political game of humans
to their advantage.

Both events
would have long reaching effects. The first was, as the humans
would come to call it, the Battle of Bosworth Field, which saw the
defeat of King Richard III of England, the former Duke of
Gloucester, and the victory of Henry Tudor and his ascension to the
throne of England as King Henry VII. As a descendant of the Tudors
of Penmynydd in Anglesey, the family had not been unknown to the
Cŵn Annwn, given that their lands covered areas of North Wales.
They had formed an alliance with this new King, an agreement which
would ensure that they retained title to their lands in perpetuity,
or at least as long as the Tudor dynasty held the throne of
England. In return, periodically, a young male would appear in King
Henry's private quarters, with a missive from his Pack. He would
inform the King of potential treachery in an era when this was
commonplace. By ensuring that the King was kept on the proverbial
'straight and narrow' path, the Cŵn Annwn were able to maintain
their duty to their Goddess and maintain their position in the
world of humans. As I said, the Alpha and Beta pair was a strong
one, and they were clever.

The second
event of note was that they were granted a child by the blessing of
their Goddess. A male pup was born to them, but he was unusual.
Rather than the white form that was the norm for a Cŵn Annwn, this
pup was a black wolf. Clearly his sire's genes predominated, as we
were to find this was the same colouration as his sire. They named
the pup Gabriel Black.

In the
meantime, we continued to live our lives. Humans were encroaching
more on the lands we had called our own, such that we were having
to use our ability to remain invisible more and more, as well as
use our human forms over our ddraig forms. How this would change
further during the years would have some significance, but for the
moment, it was but a minor inconvenience. They did not threaten my
Queen, and as I have said before, the protection of Ariawen was my
priority.

Witchfinders.
Dyn syn hoffi chwarae gyda cociau dynion eraill. And no, I will not
translate that into the man's bastard English tongue. My duty to my
Queen is to protect her from any who would do her harm. That
includes unwashed humans who preach to the peasants who have lived
in peace with us for generations that we are not the beneficent
creatures that they have known us to be. No, of course not. We are
demons. We are spawn of the Christian Devil.

Efallai y
Duwiau rhoi amynedd i mi. May the Gods give me patience. Demons?
Spawn of Satan? From where do his ideas come? Out of his arse, that
is for sure.

However, the
fact remained that if we wanted to avoid mass slaughter of our
kind, we had to remain hidden and withdraw from sight completely,
at least in our ddraig forms. It was the crowning irony that my
Queen's line had driven the white dragon of evil from our land, and
yet here was this man. Was there a greater evil that turned
neighbour against neighbour?

We were not
the only creatures affected. This new English King, James I of
England, but James VI of Scotland had been brought up a 'god
fearing man' and he had a terror of witches and the evils that they
might perpetrate. It was at his behest that the witchfinders toured
the land, determined to root out evil and turn the people back to
more godly ways. There was another species also seen as the spawn
of Satan. All I could say, somewhat irreverently, was that this
Christian Satan must have been a very busy creature to leave all
this spawn around.

However, all
joking aside, the day that we heard the news was a sad one. The
male Beta of the Cŵn Annwn Pack had been out running his wolf form
with his pup, Gabriel, when the witchfinders had seen him. He had
roused the local peasantry and a mob mentality had overtaken them.
The male was not just killed, he was slaughtered, having given his
life to protect his pup. We were told the news by a messenger from
the now widowed Alpha. This was more than the loss of half of a
Mated pair. He had been her balance, and as a harvester of evil,
the very opposite of the accusation levelled at her Mate, she had
needed him to keep her sane. lest the evil she had to consume for
her Goddess overwhelmed her.

That night, I
had held my Queen in my arms and we had mourned for her. It was
only a matter of time before matters would reach a head. We knew
that this young pup was destined to make an impact on the world
around him, but would he be ready to take his Pack in hand now,
when to do so would mean him having to kill his own dam?

As if King
James I of England was bad enough, his line was temporarily
interrupted by Oliver Cromwell, and his Parliamentarians and their
particular interpretation of the Christian faith. In what had been
Royalist Wales, he was a far from popular figure.

The question
is, did I see him as a threat to my Queen? Any fundamentalist can
be a threat, and that is the simple truth. It is not because they
are willing to die for their beliefs, be they political or
religious. No, their threat is that they are willing to let others
die for their beliefs. So, yes, perhaps the man himself was not a
threat to my Queen, but those who followed him, in their religious
zeal that the Protestant Church was not 'pure' enough in some way,
they were definitely a threat to my Queen.

Still, in our
mountains, we were relatively safe. The Propagation Committee was
focussed on the settlements in the south of the country. What it
did mean for our Ddraig Clan was that there was a rising tide of
thought leaning towards what was called non-conformist. Perhaps
this was slow to start with, since when Charles II regained the
throne of England, the Anglican Church focussed on portraying
Cromwell as a murderer and demon. But ultimately, we as a Ddraig
Clan saw the people around us forgetting their history and
legends.

The Ddraig and
what we had done in the past seemed to matter less and less to
them, and as the Industrial Revolution started to take hold, and
the 'marvels' of Victorian engineering made even the formerly
inaccessible parts of our land something for tourists, we had to
take a harsh decision. Did we stay, and risk exposure, or did we
withdraw ourselves, hiding our true forms by staying invisible when
we had to fly.

And we did
have to fly. Clouds of smoke hung over formerly clean valleys.
Rivers were polluted with outflow from mines. Our land was
changing, and I was not sure if it was for the better. The drive to
profit by a few at the expense of the masses seemed to prevail.

The Cŵn Annwn
under the young pup, Gabriel Black, had decided to relocate most of
their Pack to another land. I heard rumours that he had found his
Mate, and in that, my Queen and I wished him good fortune. For
ourselves, we continued to live as we could, finding a home outside
of the towns, in those areas which were still not easy for the
humans to access. The world changed around us, considerably, in
such a short span of time. We would bide our time. As long as we
might continue to live our lives, and continue to fly, and as long
as my Queen was safe from harm, it did not concern me overmuch.
Perhaps it should have done, but we have lived a long time, over a
thousand years as human measure time. A century or two is but a
fraction of that.

"Duwiau!" As I
circled the man-made mountains that now littered my homeland, I was
glad that I had the strength and power enough to fly above the
clouds in the clean air, which was not polluted by the smoke from
the steam engines used to haul the treasures raped from the earth
around us. The village in which we had settled had changed beyond
recognition. Cottages to house the slate miners. Row upon row of
them, and even though the mines were starting to produce less,
those people still lived here, or at least their families did, as
the men sought work elsewhere, either locally, but as much further
south. And around the town, these heaps of spoil, dead, bar a few
brave flowers which struggled to maintain a fragile purchase and
continue to grow. The paths were slate; the hills were slate.

There was
another invasion, as people travelled on the steam trains, coming
to visit this homeland of mine. This was an age of exploration, as
those with the financial means to do so sought out knowledge.
Derfydd y meddwl that they might find out that the Ddraig actually
exist. So, I continued to patrol. Let these outsiders think that I
was a sheep farmer who wanted to keep people away from his flocks,
and from his lands.

In my human
form, I might look outside of the windows of the farmhouse, and
watch the lambs in the fields. At least we did not need to worry
about having sufficient funds to survive, unlike some of those in
the town. I had sought my Queen's permission, and Ariawen had given
approval quickly. Small amounts of coin found their way to those in
need. With the Cŵn Annwn all but gone from this area, we had to do
something.