Chapter 6: Anniversary

I stood on top of the hill that overlooked the town of Erorala. It was a small town; it had around 415 residents, at the moment.

It was around eight at night and the only source of illumination was the full moon in the sky and the hundreds of lights that lit the houses below.

I looked around as I couldn't help but smile with my muzzled face. I wore a brown jacket that was so dark that could have passed as black, along with a red Santa hat. Winters were cold here and dispute the fact that my body was covered in fur, I was still cold.

I looked at the lights in the town when I notice a blue circle appear about nine feet to my right. A woman and two twin boys walked through casually. The woman looked at me and waved.

"Evening, Lorelei!" I said casually.

"Evening, Jon!" She replied and opened another, smaller, blue circle and pulled out a blanket and set it down for her boys to sit on.

Four years had passed since I moved here. The years went by quickly, maybe because I had someone to spend it with or maybe because I had more things to worry about than where my next meal was going to come from.

The hill slowly got filled with several people in several different ways: a couple of bird Darkstalkers landed behind me on a tree and cuddled together

A male horse Darkstalker strutted to a stop a few dozen feet to my left as his girlfriend jumped of his back and started decorating a bench, that wasn't there a moment ago, with picnic supplies. The man shifted back to his human form and dusted himself off then nodded towards me, I returned the gesture.

A pair of shadows slid through the ground, impossibly fast and stopped next to the edge of the hill, a few feet from me. A teenage boy climbed out of the first shadow and dusted himself off then looked at me. "Good evening, Mr. Talbain."

"How are you Jim?" I asked.

"Good, just here for the show. Is Mrs. Talbain coming?"

"Yeah."

"Tell her that my mother says 'thanks for the brownies' for me, would you?"

"You got it."

"Thanks" he replied as he bent down and thruster his hand into the second shadow and pulled out a teenage girl from it.

She waved at me as her legs appeared from the shadow then leaned on her, really good, friend for support.

"Evening, neighbor." Started a man with a deep voice behind me.

I looked back and saw another werewolf: his fur was pure white with the only black spot being the tip of his nose. He walked up to me on all fours as he carried his newlywed, human, wife on his back, who sat in a side saddled position while looking vary poise and elegant.

"Evening Marcus, Amanda." I replied as I walked over and offered my hand to Amanda as I helped her off her husband. She thanked me in a polite and feminine way; I think I blushed for a second there.

Marcus and Amanda J'ariso were my neighbors and good friends. They were really friendly and came over a lot. They've been married for about a month and a half now but lived together for years now and even had a child together but never wanted to marry, Felicia believes we changed their mind.

Marcus stood on his hind legs and dusted his front paws against each other then shook my paw.

"Saved us a space?" He asked as he held his hands up so his wife could untie the picnic basket from his waist.

"Always do." I replied.

"Is Felicia coming?" Asked Amanda curiously as she held the freed basket with both hands. "She was supposed to make the sandwiches".

"Jonathan, hurry up... It's about to start." Said a cat woman while walking up the hill as she carried a three year old cat-girl on her arm and pulled a four year old male werewolf with her free hand. A 15 year old male werewolf followed her as he had a wrapped up blanket over his shoulder and carried a small picnic basket.

"Speak of the devil..." Started Marcus J'ariso.

"Hey guys!" Felicia, the cat woman, said as she shifted the little girl she carried into a more comfortable position on her arm. "Jon, can you help?"

Felicia and I lived together for a few months after we moved in but got married a month and a half before Jonathan, my son, was born. Most of the town's people came to the wedding, even though we haven't met most of them yet. It was supposed to be a small wedding, private even, but the town nearly closed down on that day.

"Yeah" I replied and walked over to her and took the girl off her hands.

"Hi daddy." She mumbled to as she was still waking up from a nap. I always stared in awe when I saw her hair: it was dark blue at the roots, darker than Felicia's, and hollow silver at the tips. Her eyes were a light green; she got that from her mother. She wore some light blue pajama bottoms with pictures of cartoon cats on it with a matching top. She wrapped her small cat paws around me as I embraced her.

"Hi, baby." I replied kissing her on the cheek and shifting her closer to me. "Come on Jonathan." I said and the younger werewolf ran towards me and took my hand. Jonathan, my son, was a quiet kid. His werewolf fur was similar to mine but he had blue around his covered chest, his hair was a spiky blue while he was in werewolf form. His fingers were slightly longer than they should have been and had small red filled down claws at the end of each finger. He stared at me with his silver eyes as he caught up with me. He wore an opened blue jacket over his casual t-shirt and blue jeans.

Felicia, the cat woman, gave me a quick kiss and covered the girl on my hand with a small pink blanket, "Lillian just woke up from her nap." She started as the older male werewolf handed the blanket and basket over to Felicia. "Thanks Mark."

"Marcus you're getting big!" I said as he butted my fist and smiled.

"Yeah, you know how it is." He replied in an alternating pitched voice. He was a late bloomer, which was funny listening to him talk. His fur was also white, like his father, with the exemption of the caramel shades on his hands, feet and ears. Mark J'ariso was a nice kid, who liked helping around the house and was shy around girls which changed when he hit that age. Felicia babysat him whenever his parents were at work.

He joined his mother and father on the hill. We started walking back up the hill when someone got me in a head lock from behind.

"Bloody hell?" I started and the person let go so I turned around and saw a male white tiger smiling at me. "Bloody, William Oblivion! Didn't expect to see you here, my old china!"

He shook my free hand then noticed the cat-girl on my arm.

"Finally bore fruit, I see." He said as he stared at my daughter who stared back, curiously.

William's wife walked into view as she carried two white tiger Darkstalkers who looked a lot like their father; the older one was a boy while the younger was a girl. The mother, Pamela, was a human with no real power, other than putting up with her husband.

"How are you guys?" Will started as he hugged Felicia then passed his hand over Jonathan's spiky hair.

"We are good, Will," Felicia started then noticed Pamela Oblivion. "Good lord, you guys have been busy."

Pamela walked closer as Felicia hugged her. She lowered both children onto the floor. The boy got down on all four and stretched, his sister giggled as her brother's tail waved back and forward.

"How are you guys doing? I'm Felicia, what's your name?" Felicia started in a delicate voice as she bent down to be closer to the kids' level.

"I'm Alexandwia." Started the girl, with a high and rehearsed voice, as she bounced a little then hugged Felicia, who hugged her back but clearly didn't expect that.

The boy turned and hugged his mother's leg shyly.

"Alie is very outgoing for her age, but Richard..." She lightly scratched the back his right tiger ear. "Richard's really shy- no stop that!" She looking down as the boy retracted his clawed paws quickly.

"Sorry..." He said then put his pawed hands behind him.

"What happened?" Felicia asked.

"These two keep scratching me." She replied showing the new scratch marks that the boy had made on the back of her leg. "I'm like a scratching post to these guys, look!" She showed off the various scratches she had on her arms and on her lower back.

"Felicia scratches me." I said smiling as I walked over and hugged her.

"That's different." She replied and wrapped her arms around me.

We all talked for a few minutes as the kids started to play together. Marcus and Amanda came over to greet their former neighbors after a few minutes.

We all made our way up to the edge of the cliff and sat with our partners. We ate a combination of things that our wives had made.

We were all here for a reason: December 17 was the town's anniversary. The officials celebrated by throwing fireworks into the air and this hill side was one of the best places to see them.

The town was founded by a man named Ronald Miles in the year 1957. He named the town after his Darkstalker wife: Erorala Miles, whose family had been harassed and chased off for what they were. He originally founded the town to house his wife's family then to house Darkstalkers without a place to go. Originally, he was the only human living in the town but he changed his hypocritical way of thinking in 1962 and opened the town to anyone who would openly accept the race he loved so deeply.

The sound of children playing could be heard on the background as a few more children had joined, to do whatever it is that they were doing.

I saw a flash behind me as one of the neighboring kids had a camera. She was an older bird girl, 15 I believe.

The fireworks started and we all stood up to get a better view. Cheering started as several more rockets flew into the air.

A man who had been glowing a bright green, so we all had enough light to set up our various articles of food, let his internal light dim then shut off so we could all sit in the moon's rays.

Felicia wrapped her hands around my waist then looked at me.

"Jon, you're cold." She started and took off her pink and black scarf and wrapped it around my neck. "Why didn't you bring your scarf?"

"I'm crap at tying the bloody thing." I replied honestly.

"Well that's why you have me." She said as the bird girl took a picture of us as some fireworks exploded in the background. I was originally born in England or some English country, I don't even remember anymore, Felicia used to poke fun at me when I said certain things but stopped when I wasn't being bothered by it anymore.

Felicia kissed me slowly when she was done tying her scarf around my neck. Several of the children made noises of disaproovement. I looked at them and some giggled.

"Okay that's it, let's have a go." I said and jumped down on all four as the kids laughed and yelled as they scattered. I chased some of them around for a few minutes until I brought back Jonathan, Lily, Richard, Mark and Alexandria back to us so we could finish watching the fireworks.

I held my daughter, Lillian, in my arm as she "ooh'd" and "ah'd" at the lights. Jonathan sat, cross-legged, in front of Felicia who held her hands lightly over his ears so the explosions of the fireworks wouldn't affect him.

I looked around at my neighbors, my friends, my family.

I never would have been able to do any of this on my own and I was grateful to Felicia for making me into the man I was today.

"Despite all this, we are still monsters..." The wolf in me said, its voice was like a whisper but it echoed in my head. The voice was that of a female, it had always sounded like an angry growl but I was able to hear it clearly now as I had finally been able to understand it. It was a protective spirit, my instincts if you will. Felicia made me stay in my werewolf form as much as I could so I was able to understand it, so I was able to control it. She said that I could either learn to be in piece with it or that I won't have sex with her again, so guess which one I chose.

'Yeah...' I thought. 'But having people to protect, makes living with you bearable.'

She chuckled "You finally learned... I think that you're ready to be left to yourself now. Since you don't need me and all."

'I don't even know your name.' I stated as I let the bottom of my muzzle lay on top of Lillian's head.

"Are you serious? You asshole."

I chuckled, internally. 'You're not going to tell me, are you?'

"Nope."

"You bitch, well thank you, for everything."

"Don't go soft on me, just because you have a woman now. But with that being said: I'll always be here, sleeping within you, call me if you need me." It replied and I felt the wolf part of me banish into nothing more than instincts again. It had left me alone, I would normally feel betrayed as I normally felt when someone left me but I was better than that now. I had so much more now so I didn't need it.

Felicia looked at me then placed her head on my shoulder.

I decided to add a fifth fact to the list of things you should know about monsters.

Five: Sometimes we monsters do get a happy ending. Sometimes we get a normal human life, with friends and family.

Felicia looked at me as I was in deep thought. She kissed me slowly as the last wave of rockets exploded in the air. People cheered and applauded. I moved back and stared at her.

Sometimes the monster does get the girl at the end.

-The End-

~~~Thank you guys for reading. A special thanks to Videogame and etc. Fan and Insane One for their continued support. I want to thank everyone for reading and reviewing the chapter, both the old version and the new one. I also want to ask you, the reader, to read my other story named "Talbain, Jonathan Talbain" which is a sequel, in a away, to this story with Jon and Felicia's son as the protagonist. Once again; thank you for reading and I do hope you have enjoyed.

-Vee, the Aztec_Moogle.