Synopsis: The Un-One

Synopsis: The Un-One

Sam seems like just your average college girl wanting to find her place in the world. With a reclusive yet over protective step father who raised her since her mother died in child birth, it is understandable that she would long to find a normal American family to fit into.

Her engagement to a rich law school student seems to be the ticket to a normal life. But in a world where Fae and Werewolves live among society and the U.S. government is struggling to come to terms with this new breed of citizen, nothing is as it seems.

The sudden disappearance of her werewolf step-father forces Sam to come to terms with her true self. In a world where she is neither human enough to be one of them and she is not werewolf, where does she belong.

Sam embarks on a journey to rescue her father and discover her true origins. Danger lurks around every corner in a world where things that go bump in the night are real and the greatest danger maybe found in the ranks of the government officials pretending to protect us. Sam is not a member of the pack, she is Un-Human & Un-Fae. She is the Un-One, belonging nowhere and to no one.

Blood Price: Mar-12-1983: The Un-One’s Birth

March 12, 1983

Eyes were the doorway to the soul they say.  In this moment and this place, Moonsong knew it to be true. Never had her husbands been unsure, never had he not know what to do.

He was old before she was born, a mountain man accepted by but not part of her tribe.  A man of nature and a lycan.  A werewolf, who had seen countless generations of her people live and die. He feared little that walked this earth, and his eyes were full of fear.

“The child comes to early my love.” He whispered.  Pain rocked her body and for a moment all Moonsong could do was moan low and soft. She could hear him pleading with L’eelk’w Taukuk laa, but it seemed as if it was in another room, “Please grandmother help her. There is so much blood.”

Looking up, as the contraction passed, she saw fear and love in his eyes.  So much blood and yet he didnt view her as prey.  So much blood and his wolf never stirred.  The man, her man, looked down at her and whispered, “I love you.”

As the contractions slammed through her once again she let her mind float to another time and another place.  To the father of her child.  Golden hair had blown about on the fey winds.  The grass impossibly green and the sweet scent of flowers perfumed the air.  But that was Underhill, the fey realm. It had been impossibly beautiful and bright.  And she had been an interloper, a human who did not belong.

Each night she had rushed to sleep and walk in her dreams, to meet her lover.  As she walked in his realm, he had taught her a pleasure she could never have imagined.  Even as she writhed in childbirth, she remembered the delights of his hands, his voice, his kiss.

The nights had been enough for her, but he had wanted more.  A captive of his realm, he did not walk freely among humans as others of his kind had.  He was trapped in Underhill. A prince of the fey, confined to his own land. He convinced her to come to him, through a gate between the realms.  He could not pass between, but she could.  The day they spent together would be her last.  He had loved her she was sure.  With time she came to understand the child the grew with in her body, their child, was tied to the human realm.  It tied her to this land. She was dreamwalker no more.

She began to see things the no one else could see, the energy of life, flowing from living thing to living thing.  The power of her lover was growing inside her, in their child.  As her tribe turned against her, she turned to the only friend she had left.  Conner, patient, wise Conner had understood that what she saw was a product of her love affair with the Fey Prince. He took her as his bride and promised to care for her and the child.

The pain slashed through her body and she knew that this child was to powerful to come into this world without much blood shed. “My Husband, promise me you will love her as your own.” She whispered.

“Stop such talk, we will raise her together.” He softly wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Conner, She is your daughter, promise me you will love her and protect her.” The pain stole her next words from her lips as she screamed in pain.

The grandmother answered, “The child comes with much blood and pain, a blood price like this can only mean she is meant for a greater cause.”

Conner turned as Moonsongs eyes began to close and he whispered, “I vow upon my life, I will love her as my own pup. I swear.” Moonsong squeezed his hand once and as a baby’s cry broke the night, Moonsongs heart ceased moving.

“Her name is Samantha.” he said as the grandmother wrapped the baby and placed it in his arms. “Samantha Moonbeam McDonnell.

Birth Right: Aug-15-1999: Un-One Story

August 15, 1999

Nothing had changed. After three summers away with her stepfather, she was still the freak half-breed of the village. She sat on the roof of the tribal council hall and relaxed in the shadow of the bank next door.  Legs loosely crossed and eyes closed, she watched the coming and goings below her.  She could sense her father directly beneath her, his lycan energy so very different from the tribal elders.

She tensed as a flare of anger escaped from his very tightly controlled energy pattern.  Centuries of life had taught Conner to control everything about him.  An uncontrolled man lead to a rogue wolf and this always brought death and destruction.  Sliding down to lay prone on the roof she listened through the vent to the discussion below.

“It is hers by right and heritage.  You can not deny her this.” Her father said almost to quietly to hear.  Quite was bad, very bad.  That meant he was working very hard to control his feelings.  He was normally a soft-spoken man, but this sort of quiet made the hairs on your neck stand up.

“The necklace is a tribal heirloom, passed down from Chief’s daughter to daughter.  She has lived outside of the tribe for three years now.” Elder Kukhhittan snapped. “She would take our treasure and sell it to a white man’s museum. She has no concept of it’s importance and she does not value our ways.”

“You rejected her. You allowed your children to call her half breed and freak.  She is Chief Yanyedi’s grand daughter damn it!.”

“She is the bastard of a white drifter.  Her mother’s death was a great loss to us all.  Her mother was….” The elder didn’t finish because Conner had stepped so close to him his exhales made the elders gray hair move.

“My wife….” Conner took a deep steadying breathe and then said, ” I know what you thought she was. Dream walker, something amazing.  But damn it, she was my wife.  She was Sam’s mother and we all lost her. Now you would deny Sam her birthright, because you disagree with MoonSingers choice in lovers.  I loved her enough to adopt her baby as my own.  If you loved MoonSinger as much as you claim, you would not deny her daughter what is her’s.” Sam could sense Conner was at the breaking point.

The energy lashing about caused Sam to scramble down from the roof.  Pushing through the front doors she walked past the tribal secretary, whose face had grown warm from being caught with her ear to the door. Sam opened the door as the woman squeaked “You can’t go in there!”

“Papa, let it go. I don’t care about the necklace enough to upset you.” Sam tried to pull him away from the Elder.  She could tell her father was on the edge of putting his hands on the man.

“Sam, its all we have left of your mother. They shouldn’t keep it from us… from you.” He stepped away and looked into his daughter’s forest green eyes, the mark of the drifter who had left his friend MoonSinger with child.  Marrying MoonSinger had been the best thing he had ever done.  It had given the old wolf a reason to live again.  And in her death she left him with an even stronger purpose, her daughter.

“You told me papa that who my birth father was didn’t matter, because mama and you loved me.  You told me that her death, in giving me life, was her greatest gift to the world.  You told me when I would cry at night that mama would live on in me.  That necklace isn’t mama.  Mama lives in us, in our love and in our family.  Isn’t that what you always said? I want nothing to do with a tribe that judges me on who my father is or was. I don’t need them papa, all I need is you.”

Turning her back on the elders, she squared her shoulders and prepared to walk out.  Her midnight dark hair swung freely to her waist and she walked out without a backward glance.

As Conner turned to follow his daughter out of the room he heard Chief Yanyedi speak. “If you ever needed proof that my daughter lives in that one, you finally have it.  You are fools…all of you. The council has out voted me, but I will remember this slight to my family.  I will remember it for as long as my spirit walks the earth.” Conner stopped and looking to Yanyedi, saw sadness etched across his face.  In the distance Conner heard the howl of a wolf pack as the sun sank to earth the moon rose. He had a sudden thought that Yanyedi’s spirit would soon run with the wolves again.

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The Tlingits of Teslin, Yukon include people of five clans, Wolf, Frog, Beaver, Crow and Eagle.  In Tlingit, the clan names are:

Wolf       Yanyèdí
Frog        Ishkitàn
Beaver    Dèshitan
Crow       Kukhhittan
Eagle       Dakhl’awédí

Freak: Aug-15-1999 : The Un-One’s Childhood

August 15, 1999

Sam’s body quivered with anger.  She knew she made the right decision, but the unfairness of it gorged her throat and the foulness filled her mouth.  Suddenly she was hunched over, her stomach spewing out the hurt and anger and the mornings breakfast.

A strong hand on her back and the soft rough voice, “easy girl.” seemed to calm some of the body’s shudders.  “You were a rock back there.  A towering totem of strength. I am proud of you girl.”

Sam looked to her papa and let the tears run freely over her face.  “They blame me, all of them.  Blame me for killing mama.  Blame me for sullying the chiefs name since they can not blame my birth father.  I am a bastard and a freak.”

“Thats enough of that Samantha McDonnel” The force behind her last name, his name, caused her head to snap up and look into his eyes. “I gave you my name, my heart and my legacy. You are not a bastard child and I will not allow you to call yourself that.”  He hugged her tight to his chest.

As they looked over the valley from their favorite cliff edge.  Sam let her inner eye begin to feel out the valley below. It was their place. Few people could reach the cliff edge halfway up the rock face.  You had to know the mountain.  Know the foot holds and hand holds.  Her father could move effortlessly up the face as if it were a flat surface.  Sam had to pay a bit more attention.  “Sometimes papa, I see lines of energy that aren’t life based.  It’s weird the way they jump and skip across the area.  The bounce from ley line to ley line. And if I focus really hard, I can hear words.  People talking. I wonder what they are?”

Sam first became aware of the energy ley lines around her three years earlier. She could sense life forms that were hidden near by because the earths energy were drawn to living things, painting a sort of swirling picture of what was beyond.  Over the past three years her papa had worked with her until she could find any living thing within a one mile range.

Sitting up here, she could see the whole valley, full of life, streatched beneath her. Sams papa ruffled her hair. “Words huh. What are they saying,”

“They say that Crystal Ishkitàn was taken….” A few seconds ticked by before Sam put the words together with their meaning. ” Oh my gosh papa.  Someone has stolen that little girl. I have to help her.” Sam jumped to her feet and began to move towards the side of the cliff and climb down.

“Easy girl, where is this information coming from? ” Conner rose up and waited for her to answer.

“I think, well this doesnt make sense, but I think its from the tribal police radios.  How can I hear them?” Sam stretched her young legs.

“I think you aren’t hearing them exactly.  Just like your eyes do not see the ley line energy. Your mind senses the electromagnetic radio waves bouncing off of the ley lines, creating an resonance you can detect.  At least thats my best guess.” He gave Sam a very wolfish grin for a human face.  He was after all part lycan.  He started down the cliff side at a long loping run. No human could move down a cliff like that.

“Freaks to the rescue huh papa?  They might not want us living with them.  But they sure as hell need us.” Sam cast her senses wide.  “I think I can sense her up towards the hot springs.  There is another person there, an outsider, an unknown energy pattern.  Papa, he is sick, I think its fae. And I dont think he wants to just have tea with Crystal.”

She saw her fathers form blur fluidly into wolf form without missing a step and explode into the forest, his lycan senses now searching for the Fae.  Sam stopped for a moment and tried to focus on the radio waves.  If she focused on just those ley lines that were resonating with the foreign electromagnetic waves she could trace the searchers and lead them to Crystal.  She just hoped her father arrived in time to save the little girl. The energy around that Fae did not feel right.  There was a dark sickness around him that made her fear for the little girl.

Closing her mind to the little girl and the dark fae she focused on the rescuers energy patterns and their radio waves.  Thinking of how the electromagnetic waves moved to create words she bent them a bit with her mind. “Crystal at hot springs. Hurry!” Sam listened for the response to her message and repeated it when they responded. Then turning she followed her father’s path into the woods. As she neared the hot springs she sensed her fathers energy burst and mingle with the Faes.

The ley energy sight was somehow less horrible than what her eyes showed.  The energy was just a mass of swirling patterns interacting with each other. With her eyes she saw  the wolf tear and slash at a dark beast covered in mud and earth, dripping with rotting life. Sam tried not to focus to much on that as she ran to free the little girl, who lay paralyzed in fear at the banks of the spring.

“Lycan pup, you’re no match for ME!.” The fae roared, mud and muck spittle shouting from his gaping maw. “I am the earth you fool.  You can not beat me.

“Papa, he is sucking his energy from the earth, drawing his strength from it.  I can see the ley energy being absorbed.” Sam lifted the limp body of the little girl and turned to run from the scene.  Glancing over her shoulder she saw her father slam against a rock and yelp.

Laying the little girl down Sam closed her eyes and willed her strength into her father.  She pushed with all the power in her body out along the ley lines.  She could sense her father growing stronger.  Opening her eyes she saw a half man, half wolf stagger to his feet and grasping the beast around his core he lifted him high into the air.The best thrashed in her fathers arms. Sam thought about how the animal got strength from the earth.  Sam dug out the fire blanket from her hiking bag.  This was about the most unnatural thing she had on her. Flinging it out she yelled to Conner, “Throw him on it papa.”

Conner flung the beast onto the fire blanket and Sam rushed in and began to wrap it up as tight as she could without being hit.  Her father joined her.  As she cast around for something to secure it with, a shaking small hand offered Sams climbing rope from the bag.  The acrylic blend was perfect.  Smiling at Crystal she nodded and began to tie the creature up tight.

The fae creature struggles ceased as it began to suffocate in the lining of plastic. “Take her home Sam.  I will take care of this one.  See you back at the cabin.”

“Yes papa.”

Sniffling, Crystal said, “I guess its good to have a freak… her voice trailed off. “I mean a friend like you around. I think I might rather have you then almost anyone else Sam.  Is that okay?”

“Thats just fine by me Crystal.” Sam hugged the girl tight and hurried toward the sounds of the search and rescue party.

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This is back story to the Un-One. I will be using T10 to work out who Sam was prior to the beginning of the Un-One.