"Ah, Selina, I am happy I found you here. I wish to thank you for agreeing to the Hosting. As Elgarth"s Mother, I have been concerned for his happiness since his blinding, it would have been a sore wound indeed for him to start his life with your daughter Layla without one." Centhra, Mother of the Hunt family, carefully watched Selina for any signs of displeasure at her greeting. "Centhra, I am pleased to have this opportunity to ask you what needs doing at a Hosting, I've never had to plan one before. Hoffman and I have been at every one that has occured and I have never paid sufficient attention to the details, just to the happy couple involved." Selina smiled and Centhra knew that she did so with a full heart.

"The details are few and simple, when the time comes I will help you with them, but first I must regale you with the tales of Elgarth as any good Mother does when the Hosting has been agreed upon. I must begin by saying I Centhra, Wife of Darrabar, Mother of Elgarth who was my Alpha son until his blinding, requests an audience with Selina, Mother of the Alpha Female Layla." Selina solemnly nods her head and agrees to the audience. "You were not Keeper of the Nursery when the egg that was Elgarth was entrusted to it's care. Your Father was and a finer man we have never had the pleasure of meeting. He took the best of care and insured that many of our offspring were born healthy. Elgarth was no exception, he was healthy but small. What he lacked in size he made up for in heart, and actually arrived at his Dawning much earlier than his brother Algrim, the present Alpha Male.

You were but a baby when the Darkwings attacked, and tried to steal you from your resting place in your Father's study. Elgarth just happened to see the Darkwing enter through the balcony and he went to save you. He was and is valiant, that is a quality that has not diminished with his infirmity, and he fought the Darkwing until your Father could safely remove you from the room. Unfortunately during the battle, the Darkwing gained the upper hand and clawed Elgarth in the face, blinding him for life. The proper thing for the Darkwing to do would have been to take his life, he did not, he spared my Elgarth and for that I am grateful and at the same time saddened. The sparing of his life cost him much more than his death would have cost me. He would have had little life as a blind dragon if you had not taught him how to use his other senses.

He is the most sensitive of all my children. He is the most loving of sons and the most likely to sense when someone else is having difficulty. It amazes me how he always knows when someone is injured either physically or emotionally. He is always the first to offer aid, when he can, and comfort when he can't. We are born physically different from the Human Race, but your Father saw to it that we all had the same goodness in our hearts. It's as if he gave us all some part of his blood and that drop carried all the love in the world. Elgarth may be blind but he makes up for that with the size of his heart and his willingness to lay down his life for those he loves. If he felt that you were against his wish to marry your daughter Layla he would Exile himself and by doing so he would die as all Dragons who resort to Exile do. Thus ends the tale of Elgarth the Blind, Son of Darrabar and Centhra of the Hunt Family."

"Come with me, Centhra, I wish to show you the gown Layla and I have chosen for the ceremony. The Hunt Family does me great honor by accepting into it's bosom the daughter of Hoffman and Selina of the Nursery. I have known that Elgarth saved my life for quite sometime, I did not know that was how he lost his sight. I owe him so much more than I could ever repay him. The ceremony and the Hosting is to be in two days, and you still have not told me what I must do Centhra. I would so wish this to be a joyous day for all who attend."

The morning of the day dawns bright and clear. There is no smoke from any cooking fire, there will not be until the Hosting begins, for all fires have been allowed to die out. Elgarth makes his way to the home of his future bride where he breathes the Dragon Breath upon the sticks laid for the fire on the hearth of the fireplace. He must be careful with the amount of fire he breathes because he must light only the sticks laid for the fire. After that every household in the village will bring a torch to the fire. Once lit, the torch will be carried back to their own homes to light their own cookfires. When all fires have been lit the Dragons and Humans all gather at the foot of the mountain. There Elgarth and Layla announce their vows and the marriage is then blessed by all members of the community. Too soon the heat of the day will be upon them and the humans must return to their underground homes to await the coolness of the evening to begin celebrating in honor of the happy couple.

The task of registering the marriage will fall to Angoss, son of Muldat and Sarcassa, Father and Mother of the First Family. Muldat as the elder of the community will be the first to light his torch and the first to wish them good health and long life. His daughter Bethrim will be marrying Demdol the Alpha son of the Egg Family in a month or so and his wife will be Hosting for Demdol. He can't help feeling a slight touch of superiority to Hoffman, father of Layla, because his daughter will be marrying an Alpha Male. Still he would have been just as proud if Elgarth and Bethrim had decided to get married. A good Husband for ones daughter is a blessing in life, and Elgarth will be a good husband to Layla. Much has been lost over the centuries, but love in all it's guises has strengthened and brought together that which in any other time would seem impossible. The marriage of a Dragon and the brave woman who loves him.

"Papa, what was there in the beginning?" Muldat, Father of the First Family looked at his son Angos, and was proud. The question just asked of him meant that Angos rite of passage had arrived. It was a question that every male dragon was born ready to ask when his brain achieved that level of maturity which separated his childhood from adulthood. Muldats only male had arrived at The Dawning. It was now time for The Revelation, the end of which would signify Muldats first born male was a true Dragon.

"In the beginning." began Muldat "there was man and what he called civilization. Man built cities, created scientific advancements which lengthened each individuals time on Earth. Found antibiotics to cure deadly diseases, then overused them. He created products that made his daily life easier, and damaged his environment. He overpopulated his land and destroyed trees and all things of nature to build dwellings for the masses. He advanced the medical field to include stem cell research and cloning, little realizing what path it would eventually take. He created transportation as an industry using fossil fuels until he depleted the Earths resources and created Global Warming. Only then did he begin to see the errors of his ways. At one time, the Earth had two caps of ice, which slowly and imperceptably began to melt. The cause of that was unclear, some thought it was caused by the damage to the ozone layer of earths atmosphere by gaseous propellants used in products man designed to make his life easier. The hole in the ozone layer allowed the gasses from the sun to warm the Earths atmosphere, and the ice caps melted more and more with each passing century. The land became hot and dry like a desert.

Man began to tunnel underground to escape the deadly heat He built whole cities with schools and hospitals underground. As each century passed, the Scientists and Doctors learned more and more and people began to live longer and longer. They no longer gave birth to their offspring, they cloned them, and only the best and brightest were allowed to procreate. Others existed for pleasure, but they were not allowed to procreate until it became necessary to replace them for one reason or another. Selective breeding I believe it was called. There was a mishap in a laboratory with a very deadly virus. A scientist was using it as a way to develop a new antibiotic which was designed to quickly kill the new strains of virus that had developed immunity to the antibiotics all ready in use. It decimated the population, for some reason affecting only those that were not allowed to procreate. The human popultion was reduced from millions to just a few hundred survivors. Some time after the Deading, as it was called, enough of the ice cap to the south had melted that it exposed the preserved bodies of the only two Dragons remaining on Earth.



The leading expert on genetics and cloning was a Dr. David Fenton. He believed that Dragons were needed to repopulate the Earth. It was through his knowledge and that of his fellow scientists that we now exist in the numbers we do. There were many mistakes, and many of us were imperfect and not allowed to survive. Some did not survive simply because they were experiments that were not right. Finally the scientists figured out if they breed each group for a purpose then the process is successful, and all survive. We are the First Family my son, it is our task to sow the seeds of fruits and vegetables and harvest the produce. Selbat is father of the Egg Family, it is their task to husband the flocks of geese and chicken which are the mainstays of the all our diets, both Dragon and Human. Darrabar is Father of the Hunt Family whose purpose is to protect and defend our entire community from the Darkwings. They are the mistakes in breeding that survived and got away.

The Humans live hundreds of years at stretch before they must clone. We live thousands upon thousands of years at a stretch, we breed through the laying of eggs. We are immune to all viruses, and only die prematurely in battle with the Darkwings. We are much superior to the Humans and they accept that. Only because the best and the brightest of Humans live on.. Only those that accepted that Mankind caused the destruction of their own environment remain. They live in peace with us, and voluntarily oversee our clutch of eggs. They are kept at a constant temperature and carefully checked by the family of David. They are not our servants, nor are we theirs.
We decide how many will be added to our population and we choose which eggs to deliver to the nursery. Each family is only allowed so many births a year. You are now grown, you have achieved adulthood and I will be sending a male egg to the nursery in the next few weeks. Each of us must contribute to the life of Mother Earth. We must not ever deplete her resources by overpopulation again. We Dragons are carnivores, the Humans are omnivores, there will be enough for all during my life time. Then you will be the First Father and you must see to it that there is enough for all during your lifetime.

You must learn what I have told you and impart it to your sons when they achieve their Dawning. The Revelation holds the key to long and prosperous lives for everyone. You must never misuse your position at the expense of any in the community. You must love all as if they were your brothers and sisters, yes, even the Darkwings are loved though they come to make war on us. The Mother of your Mother Sarcassa was a Darkwing. She was captured in a raid by the True First Father and was made to understand that she was an important part of the community. She bore him many fine sons and daughters who have spread around the world to form their own communities. You will meet many when the Thousand Year Convocation arrives in a few hundred years. We are the Keepers of The Earth and we will always be so. Thus ends the Revelation my son Angoss, now we must return home to your Mother, she will rejoice in the Dawning of her First Born Son."

Manny and Pete were going fishing. They had their chores done and were heading up the farm path to the unused pasture on Pete's family farm. Times were rough with Pete's Dad injured, and his Mom dead in the same accident, there was no one to run the farm.They had sold all the cows and the bank took the tractors and the implements for mowing, but the insurance covered the mortgage payments on the land and house so they could stay on. Manny's dad hadn't been so lucky, when the price of grain went up and the pay for the milk went down they lost everything they owned. His family had to move down the hill and into the small town of Hadley, but they stayed best buds, with Manny riding his bike up to the farm most every day this summer.

It was a beautiful July day, not too hot, hadn't had a lot of rain so the boys figured the fish would be biting in the stream up back of the far pasture. It was tough walking, they'd given up trying to ride their bikes and left them at the pasture gate awhile back. Nothing had been mowed up here and no cows to feed off the land meant chest high weeds and tree saplings. Nothing two ten year old boys couldn't handle, just a little harder to get to the fishing hole than they planned on. They decided to stop and rest and drink their water near the old elm tree that had been struck by lightening some years back. Wasn't much left of it, maybe five feet of trunk that had hollowed out when the bolt struck.

"Manny, my Dad said the tree just blew apart and he never thought he'd ever see another thing like it" Pete grinned and tossed his knapsack down on the ground. "Musta been some sight I'll tell ya, this here tree must be 6 feet across and I'd a liked to seen that thing throwed all over the place." Manny looked at the tree and said "I dunno if I'd like to see something like that or not. Musta been like an explosion, wonder if it made a big bang?" "Naw, I don't think so, Daddy never said nothing about no noise just that he thought the tree was fixed to end up over at your place" Pete snickered. "Good thing it didn't, gave us some firewood that year when Dad got it all cleaned up". Manny asked, "What's it look like inside? All black and burnt?" "Nope" said Pete, "just hollow and like a big wood hole. Dad said I musn't try climbing down into it, because the Elm Witch will seal the top up and nobody will ever find me, but we can look down inside if ya want."

Manny asked, "What's a Elm Witch?" "I dunno,"Said Pete, "Just Dad said I shouldn't climb down inside because I won't be able to get out and the Elm Witch will close the top of the tree off and keep me forever. I think he was just funnin' me. I ain't afraid of no Elm Witch. Lets look inside." "How we gonna do that?" asked Manny."Ain't nothing to stand on to get up there to see into it." Pete said, "I'll get down on all fours and you can stand on my back. That should get you up high enough to see into the tree, then when you looked we can trade places and I can look." Manny nodded his head so Pete got close to the tree, got down on all fours and Manny climbed up to look in. As soon as he was up there, Pete knew something was wrong. Manny started screaming and crying and he fell off Pete's back to the ground. "Run, run, the Elm Witch tried to grab me, we gotta get away she's gonna drag us into the tree." Manny grabs his stuff and starts running away from the tree with Pete hot on his tail. Pete catches up to him and grabs him which causes Manny to scream and punch out at Pete knocking him to the ground. "Stop it,"Pete shouts grabbing Manny again. "You just stop it, what the heck is wrong with you?" He pummeled Manny until he could do nothing but curl up on the ground and whimper. "What in heck is wrong, what did you see?

"There's a woman in the tree" Manny whimpered, "With eyes wide open and she was staring at me" Pete thought about that for a bit and he decided they had to go back to the house and tell his Dad what Manny saw. He didn't like the sounds of that and he knew he wouldn't be able to get Manny back to the tree so he could climb up and see. Something told him that Manny saw something, and since there ain't no Elm Witch, it had to be a body, a dead body. He told Manny they were going back to the farm and talk to his Dad, Manny didn't care, he just wanted to get as far away from the tree as he could. They left the pasture and for the first time in his ten year old life, Pete forgot to close the pasture gate. He did that as a matter of course ever since he was old enough, even after the cows had been sold. It was force of habit, and only something as upsetting as the days events would drive that habit out of his mind. Pete didn't understand the word foreboding and wouldn't have known what to call the feeling he had. He just knew that something important had happened, and that he and Manny would never be the same. Maybe he would given time, but Manny never would, only neither of them knew just how bad it would get.

Part 2



The problem with small towns is that everyone knows your business. As soon as Pete's Dad called Sheriff Archer, everyone in Hadley knew something had happened up on the Marshall Farm. Being the neighborly type, those souls who were hanging around the General Store hopped into their trucks and drove on out to see if they could be of assistance. Matter of fact, they pretty much beat the Sheriff to the scene and were all milling around destroying anything that he might have considered a clue. Most of them had looked inside and one or two of them thought they knew the gal that had been stuffed into the tree. A couple of them saw the stocking wrapped tight around her throat, but at least nobody had touched the body, or the tree itself. When the Sheriff arrived with the boys and Pete's Dad in the back seat of the squad car, he pretty well figured he would not ever solve this crime, assuming it was a crime, not without a miracle.

He ordered everyone to go out of the pasture, and wait there for him because since they were there he would need to ask them a few questions and might as well get it over with, and he would need help if he decided to remove her from the tree himself. By rights he should call the State Police, because they are more suited to handling this type of crime, but as soon as he saw her, he knew who she was, and figured he knew who the culprit would turn out to be. He did decide not to try to take her out, she wasn't in very good condition and he knew this would have to be reported to the State boys. They would be responsible for removing her from the tree, but first he had some talking to people to do and he needed to see Emmanuel Valenti, the father of Pete's friend Manny. "Poor kid" He thought, "This is going to be hard on him, very hard."

As he was walking back to the pasture gate he was thinking about Maria, the young cousin of Emmanuels wife. She came to the farm just over a year ago, ostensibly to help in the house so Manny's mother could work the farm with her husband. He wasn't the least bit surprised that Manny didn't recognise her. Face was bloated and discolored and he was just a little boy after all. If his memory served him right, and it usually did, Emmanuel told him that she went back to Italy 6 months ago. Since Emmanuel says he took her to the train station himself, Sheriff Archer was going to want to hear Emmanuels Valenti's explanation for how she wound up in this tree.

A few months later, the hangers on at Maynard's General Store in the town of Hadley were still talking about the Valenti Business. It was the most exciting thing to happen in that town in most of their lifetimes. Some of them knew Maria, would have taken her out if Emmanuel hadn't kept such a close eye on her all the time. Well...at least they all knew why now. Emmanuel shot himself rather than stand trial. He never actually admitted to murdering her and stuffing her into the tree, but they all figured that she must have become pregnant and threatened to tell his wife. Rosa Valenti is a hard working woman, did everything she could to help Emmanuel keep that farm they all said. She deserved better than what he did to her. At least she has a place to live and someone to care for her now. Sam Marshall, Pete's Dad, took her in to his home. Felt that Pete needed a woman's example, and the house definitely needed a womans touch. So he hired her as a Housekeeper, provided for her and the boy both. Now though, it seems that wedding bells might be ringing on the Marshall Farm in the not too distant future. Everything always did seem to work out all right when the Elm Witch got involved.

As they approached the building, Dan was thinking that 3153 Seventh looked out of place amidst the run down warehouses surrounding it. Someone had been refurbishing it, the bricks had been repointed, fresh mortar filled the cracks. Even the windows were spotless. Once inside he was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was light. Good lighting system, new tracks with ample fixtures to illuminate everything. It was a furniture warehouse, mattresses stacked neatly along one very clean cream colored wall. The floor was sheet vinyl, new, a combination of sand and copper color, designed to look like marble. The large expanse was broken up by furniture groupings similar to those you might find in a showroom. "Do we know who owns the building?" Dan asked. Patrolman Graveline answered with a negative shake of his head, he was concentrating on the area ahead of them to the left of the dining room set that Dan thought looked like one his ex-wife owned.

Dressed in a terry cloth robe, as if she'd just stepped out of the shower, the woman lay in a fetal position. Her matted hair was rusty brown from dried blood. Her head had a depression in it through which shards of bone could be seen. There was a lot of blood, too much for her to have been killed elsewhere and the body brought here. She died here, and from the looks of her, it wasn't an easy death. Something in the eyes told him that she suffered more than just the physical pain of dying. This wreck was all that was left of a beautiful woman, this was Annie Belmont.

Dan started to pull on his exam gloves, he needed to touch the body and he didn't want to compromise the scene before Forensics arrived. As he turned to ask a question of the patrolman there was a commotion at the door. The team from Forensics had arrived and were arguing with someone outside the door. "This is my building, you have no right to enter without my permission and I won't allow it." Dan heard as he went to the door and opened it to find that Annie's son Jamie and Alan Claremont were trying to stop the team from entering the building. When Alan turned to see Dan standing there, he looked as if someone had just punched him in the gut, his face drained of color and he started to sag. Jamie grabbed him and eased him to the ground.

Once sure that Alan was all right, he turned to Dan and started to speak. "I did it, I killed her. Alan just helped me bring the body here."



The morning was half over before he had the whole story, and both Jamie and Alan had been taken off to the cells. Alan's financial difficulties were a lot worse than any one knew. He had been asking Annie for the money to bail himself out, she was refusing. She also was considering changing the guardianship of Jamie in her will, when Jamie found out, he got mad. Alan was the closest thing to a father he ever had. You never know about these things. Annie had done the very best she could to raise the boy, but he didn't know his father, so Alan, in his mind was the Father he needed. He couldn't understand why she was being so mean to his Father. They had more than enough money. Jamie didn't understand that Alan had a gambling problem and no amount of money would ever be enough.

Jamie had heard the conversation between Annie and her lawyer during which she stated it might be necessary to make changes in her will. When Jamie tried to talk to her she just ignored him. told him she knew what to do. She went to take her shower, and when she came out, Jamie was waiting with a baseball bat he hit her in the head and thought he had killed her. He called Alan who told him to leave the door unlocked and he'd take care of everything. That he was to go to school, act as if everything was normal and call to report her missing when he got home. Alan came and found she was still alive. He removed her from the office, and took her to his warehouse to finish the job. Once she was dead he had no idea how to get rid of the body and he just left her there on the floor. The DA will be filing Murder in the 2nd degree charges against Alan, and probably conspiracy and assault charges against Jamie. He'll be spending his time in a juvenile facility. Hopefully he'll figure out that for a Father figure, Alan just wasn't good enough.

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Ten minutes after midnight, and still I can't sleep. Dan thinks to himself. No matter how many years he's been a detective, he never gets used to viewing a dead body. It's harder when it's a woman. Somebody's Mother, Sister, Wife? Why, what is there about some people that creates in them a need to kill? It's always a need, never just a desire. For some people the need to be God, and decide who lives or who dies, and how they die overwhelms their ability to know it's wrong. No living person should feel that they have the right to end the life of another. Yet it happens. All too often. They appear to be perfectly normal on the outside and yet inside what exists? By what mental process do they decide who lives or dies? Who are these people? Is it an accident of birth, or some grander design? There are no easy answers in life. I need....what do I need, he thinks. What am I missing here besides the body of the victim? What clue do I have that I am overlooking? Thankfully the Jane Doe is not his responsibility. He has a crime, with no body, and the Sheriff has a body with no report of a missing person or any clue as to who this person is, or more exactly...was. As he finally begins to drift off to sleep his phone rings.

Det. Hallam: "Yeah, Dan Hallam here"

Caller: "Dan, this is Sgt Pike. We have a report of a warehouse break in on Seventh St, near the tracks. Car 12 is on the scene and asking for back up from Homicide, they found a body inside. Female, mid to late 30's, she fits the description of your missing person Annie Belmont.

Det. Hallam: "What's the address on Seventh?"

Caller: " 3153 Seventh St. The body was found on the second floor. Patrolman Graveline has secured the scene, and Forensics have been notified."

Det. Hallam: "I'm on my way"

Dan took a few minutes to get dressed and headed out the door. He hoped traffic at this time of night wasn't that bad, because Seventh St. was across town and he felt the need to get there. It feels right to him, this has to be her. Something was pumping him in a way that the news of the Sheriffs find didn't. A sense of exhilaration, heightened awareness. He could feel his blood flowing through his veins, his heart beating like a metronome. Deep easy breath, in and out. He was even sweating slightly and the night wasn't that warm. All good signs as far as he was concerned. The hunter, with his prey visible in the cross hairs of the gunsight Breathe slowly..... squeeze the trigger... don't jerk it. Slow steady pull of the finger on the trigger and... bam!....the prey drops to the ground. So much adrenaline, causing the hunter to shake, then that deep relaxed feeling of a job well done. Oh yeah, this is Annie, I can feel it in my bones.

He turns onto Seventh and halfway up the block sees the squad car and the Forensic van parked. He pulls up behind the squad car and takes a quick look at the building. Doesn't look used for anything any more. Windows alternately boarded up or broken. Crumbling brick, worn away by decades of rain. What windows were still intact looked like dark eyes staring out into the night, enhanced by the glint of street lights. All together an unwelcoming view. Train tracks and other buildings of the same kind and very little more. A place where junkies with no homes go to die from drug overdoses. A place where old worn out prostitutes ply their trade and runaways looking for a place to hide out of the weather take up residence. Smells of the dead and dying permeate the air.

A patrolman approaches the car, "I'm sorry sir, you can't park there, Police business, you'll have to move on." he says. Dan smiles, "Patrolman Graveline? I'm Det. Dan Hallam, Bayview Homicide Div.." he responds. "I believe you found a body?"