Zingara - Being Finn

Authors note: This story is meant as an introductory chapter to a longer story I am tinkering with. This is by no means a stroke piece neither will you find pornographic illustrations included. If that is your thing please find a different author who is more your style. This will become a story of supernatural creatures and dark themes, again if that is not your thing please stop reading now. If you are still here with me, however, welcome to a new world, I hope you enjoy. ~ellie

Of or pertaining to the gypsies. (See also French tzigane; Hungarian cigany; German Zigeuner; Romanian tigan; Bulgarian tsiganin)

All ultimately from the Greek tsinganos: meaning literally untouchable, invisible, unassailable.

(Dictionary.com)

"Listen to me carefully," Elyse whispered in the darkness of a moonless night. "You must run to find your father. Go up the trail and into the woods. Do not come back, stay there, he will find you. I promise."

"Mummy I'm scared what if I can't find him? What if I get lost in the woods?" Finn's voice quivered in fear. "I don't want to go on my own, I'm not brave enough."

"You are the bravest girl I know," Elyse pushed the small backpack onto her daughter's slight shoulders. "You are special and I love you more than anything else on earth." She pushed the raggedy old toy owl into Finn's arms.

"I won't go, I can't do it!" Finn began to cry. "Let me stay with you Mummy, please!"

Elyse new she had little time, she had to get Finn to safety, she cupped the girl's face between the palms of her hands and looked into the bright emerald pools of her eyes. "Always remember that your mother loved to more than life itself." She began the incantation and her hands glowed with soft golden light as she planted the spell that would take away all, but that one memory of herself from Finn when the sun touched the horizon.

She took her to the door and hugged her a last time. "Mummy will come as soon as she can, I promise. Now run, run as fast as you can!" The small girl clutched the doll to her chest and began to run towards the hills that led to the woods. "Never look back only forwards," Elyse called and sent an image of the girl racing from their home to her husband's mind. Even in his wolf-like state he would understand it and race toward her.

They both knew this day would come eventually, they had been lucky to have avoided it this long. She re-entered the house and destroyed everything that told of the existence of her daughter then swept away the ash and dust with a wave her hand and gusty breeze that would carry the scent out into the wind.

She took the music box and pushed into it every memory she had of her daughter and husband and their nomadic gypsy lives and sealed it with a covering spell. Wrapping it carefully with the items required to make sure it got to the right hands at the right time she tied the small bundle together and called her owl to her.

The great snowy owl glided softly on the breeze as it winged its way to a town not too far distant from her own. Elyse then she walked from the house, got in her car and drove away into the night to meet her fate. Finn would have a better life, she would have a childhood filled with fun and laughter and the love of her father's pack.

She drove until she had to pull over for fuel cursing that she hadn't been better prepared on this day of all days. She had hoped to be further away before stopping, but there was little she could do with cars or anything mechanical. Her gifts lay elsewhere. She could feel those that sought her out closing in on her, like a noose tightening around her neck. The veil between the twin worlds was at its lowest during Halloween allowing them greater access to the mortal realm and heightening her own gifts as they fed on the energy of the darkness. She swiped her card at the pump and began to fill the tank wondering if, once they found her, she would be taken back or if they would just kill her on sight. She couldn't know what fate held for her now that the new king had taken ultimate power.

She felt the energy of the surrounding landscape waver and saw the dark hound appear several feet away. "He sent the hounds?" she sighed continuing to pump the petrol. "I thought I rated a little more highly than that." The hound rolled its big head on its shoulders and looked at her with emerald eyes.

"Sleep," she waved her hand over her shoulder at the station attendant recognising the green eyes of her family.

"How sweet of you cousin, trying to save the human from his fate," Tenley chuckled having transformed into his human-like form. "You signed his death notice by stopping here." Three other hounds appeared at her cousins back all looking predatory. Tenley stepped forth and took the pump from her hand by force dropping it the ground. Splashing the fuel over her feet. Accepting her fate she stood her ground and stared back at him with matching green eyes.

"So you have come to kill me in person," she smiled, "That didn't work for you years ago. What makes you think I will die so easily this time?" The hounds behind him transformed and she realised at that moment that Tenley had not come to kill her but return her to the Tsinganos and she felt the cold hand of dread clutch at her heart.

"You will wish I had succeeded," he sneered at her. "And where is that Mutt you have been fucking? Not here to protect you with his rabble of half-breeds?" He barked out a laugh at the fleeting look of fear that crossed her face. "Do not worry. We will kill him quickly when we find him. As for you, Elyse, well some fates could be seen as worse than death, dear cousin."

Elyse understood all too well what he was saying. "Why would he care what I do?" she spat. "He's taken power, he has what he wants. He doesn't need me, anymore," she said in a last attempt to avoid her fate. "I would rather die than serve the one who destroyed my family," she reached for the power within her but she had left her move too late. She found herself suddenly paralysed and a hound reached forth and placed a circlet about her head, the jewel landing on her forehead blocking her power and making her weak. It all happened so fast and she cursed herself for being too cocky when it came to facing Tenley.

"I see you have become slow in your old age," Tenley chuckled. "I cannot let you die as a martyr for their cause. Even rumours of your survival from the tragedy that befell your family fed the flames of rebellion imagine if they had a martyr." He pulled from his pocket to large moonstones and she knew she could never have drawn enough power to light a candle while he stood so close to her. He had come prepared after their last encounter in which she had easily bested him.

"No dear cousin, you shall kneel at his feet in submission, and more importantly you will bear his heir. The bloodline that the rebels wield as a weapon in the fight against the new regime, shall remain intact with you as a mother to his progeny."

Elyse struggled against the invisible strands of power that held her in place. Sweat beaded on her brow even though she had remained perfectly still, her hatred of the man standing in front of her and gloating evident in her eyes. "You have no idea how much trouble he has gone to track you here Elyse, you should be flattered."

"Take her," he ordered his hounds and the small group disappeared into the night. Moments later the service station exploded flinging her car into the air to be identified by any who would search for the Princess Elyse, the first and favoured concubine of the newly crowned King of Tsinganos.

*****

Finn ran as fast as she could. Phantom images and noises of large black hounds chasing her drove her past the point of exhaustion. "Daddy!" she cried over and over her voice hoarse and her breath restricted, she fell at the edge of the forest and the hounds finally fading from her mind.

She gulped huge breaths and peered into the darkness of the trees, it was dangerous there. She knew she should never go into the woods on a moonless night, but her mother had sent her here to find her father. She had to be brave, her mother told her she was brave, but she didn't feel very brave right at that moment.

Getting to her feet she looked down the hill towards the small town, the sky was lightening and she looked around wondering why she was here and not in her bed at home. Except she couldn't remember where home was anymore, or why she had come here alone, her Daddy was away hunting and her mummy was... her mummy was gone.

Fin dropped her backpack and sat on the cold damp grass looking out as the sun chased the darkness from the sky. She looked at the raggedy old toy in her hand and frowned at it. "Where's my daddy?" she asked the mute owl in her arms, pulling her knees up to her chest and cuddling it close, she began to cry.

The darkness seemed to cling as if battling the sun's arrival and bleeding back down into the sky to hold it back. Finn was frightened and she turned to peer back into the forest once more. A large wolf raced past her heading toward the town, it soon followed by others of varying shapes and sizes. Frozen to her spot against the tree, she watched wide-eyed not making a sound letting them pass her by.

She had thought that they had all passed her and she let out a sob, "Daddy, where are you? Help me," she cried in a croaking whisper. A smaller wolf not more than a pup came to sit beside her silently as she stared at it in fear. It whined and went to nuzzle her, but she pulled away letting out a squeal, her eyes wide. It lay down on the ground beside her and looked at her with big amber eyes, a soft whine coming from its panting mouth.

"Are you lost too?" Finn asked softly. "Did they leave you behind because you couldn't keep up?" The wolf pup tilted his head and whined softly creeping forward to nudge her again. "My Daddy is going to come for me," she said bravely. The young wolf looked down into the valley where the larger wolves had just run. "Will your Daddy come back for you?" He gave a short sharp bark and stood again looking at her oddly with a tilted head.

Finn reached out tentatively to pat the soft fur of his muzzle and let him smell her hand. The young wolf seemed to smile his tongue lolling out of its mouth showing rows of sharp teeth. He seemed to look back out at the town and sniff the air then back into the forest. He got up and padded into the trees looking back at her. Finn had not moved, "It's dangerous in there, you shouldn't go," she said reaching out her hand in an attempt to lure him back to her.

He tilted his head and barked and moved further into the trees. "Don't go, don't leave me here," she almost started to cry again but no tears came. The young wolf seemed to consider her and came back to where she now stood. Dipping his head, he picked up her backpack and darted just out of reach into the trees.

"No! I need that!" Finn started after him, "It's not a game," she cried in frustration as he continued to dance just out of her reach. He lengthened the distance between them making her have to run to keep up and when he finally stopped he was standing on the far side of a shallow creek bed. It was only then as she paused to consider what to do that she heard the barking of the vicious sounding dogs coming from the direction of the town again.

The young wolf barked and danced as if urging her to continue following him and uncaring of her shoes she ran across the creek and after him. They ran past a rotting carcass of some long dead animal and finally crawled through some pungent smelling vines that had crept over and strangled the rotting trunks of two trees before Finn found herself in a cave. The young wolf nipped at her clothes to pull her down to sit and then lay beside her panting his head on her lap.

She could hear the baying of dogs getting closer and she trembled and wrapped her arms around the wolf's shaggy body. "Don't worry," she said bravely. "Our Daddy's will find us." Then suddenly the baying and vicious barking stopped. It wasn't like it moved away and faded it just seemed to abruptly stop and only the sounds of the forest remained. Exhausted and scared Finn cried loudly not fearing to be heard here within the cave, she buried her face in the wolf's shaggy coat and hugged him tightly.

When she woke, the young wolf was not in the cave with her and she sat up in fright remembering everything that had occurred during the night. Her backpack was playing a tune she knew, but she couldn't work out where from and she grabbed the pack and tried to work out where the sound was coming from.

The tune stopped just as her hand came to rest on the phone. Pulling it from her pack, she looked at it strangely. She didn't have a phone, her father wouldn't let her have one until she was sixteen. She couldn't work out where it had come from or why the tune sounded so familiar and she stared at it for long minutes until it began to sing again.

"Hello?" She answered tentatively.

"Elyse! Thank God!" Her father's voice sounded on the other end of the call.

"No Daddy, it's me, Finn. Who's Elyse?" She said confused by his tone and the silence that answered her question. "Will you come and find me, I don't know the way home?"

"Yes baby, I am sending someone to get you. I need to find Mummy and then I will be home," he said his voice tinged with something like desperation.

"Mummy? Daddy, she loved us more than life," she said woodenly. It was the only thing she knew about her mother and it ran from her lips as if placed there. There was an anguished sound on the other end of the phone.

"Stay where you are baby. Pauli and Tabor will be there soon to get you. I will come when I can," his voice sounded distant and he hung up the phone.

*****

For three years, Finn and her father had lived with Pauli and Dulcie. The two families had moved to a new town shortly after that dark night during which Finn had run into the woods chased by ferocious dogs. They had settled and begun new lives, but the black hounds that haunted Finn's dreams came again. Or at least she thought they did, she could hear them so clearly and had thought she had heard a dog fight in the street below her window.

They had moved again after that night and continued to live a nomadic life always finding friends, work and a home in small towns near protected forests. Her father was absent often and she found herself being raised alongside Tabor, the only son of Pauli and Dulcie. He was two years older than her and although he complained about being saddled with babysitting a girl to his father, he was fiercely protective of her outside of their home and during Halloween.

It had been Halloween on that dark night she had run to the wood with black hounds barking at her heels. It had been the night she had lost off but the most pertinent memories of her childhood. She remembered her father and not much else from the time before that, all she knew of her mother was a feeling of warmth and love, no images, no face, no real memories.

At fifteen, Finn struggled to make friends at school being more athletic and stronger than most of the girls in her peer group. Jonas had insisted she train with Tabor in the art of self-defence and when he was home from his travels he would freely spend time with her on that training. Desperate for her father's attention that he had seemed reticent to give since that dark night Finn became a skilled practitioner of several martial arts and various styles of boxing.

She excelled at physically demanding sports and came under the eye of gym teachers and coaches who encouraged her skills. She found that her slight frame was well-suited to gymnastics and she enjoyed the challenge of each apparatus. It was the one after school activity that her father, Jonas, approved of so she joined despite the other girls scoffing at her lack of experience and late start in the sport. Each time she would do well enough to challenge a girl for her spot on a competitive team, she would fake a strained muscle or a rolled ankle. She knew that her father would never let her travel to competitions in nearby schools and towns. It was easier to fake an injury than face the pressure from her coach to compete and the lecture from her father or Pauli about staying safe.

Jonas was beyond strict and over-protective leaving her to live a lonely an isolated life despite being surrounded by people. Her gymnastics coach at that time had cottoned-on to what she had been doing and called for a parent-teacher conference. It was Pauli who went though, not Jonas. Finn guessed he was better-suited to it having had many conferences with teachers and school administration over Tabor's antics. Tabor was the quintessential bad boy. The guys at school all wanted to be him and the girls all wanted to date him. Finn mostly just wanted to punch him for having the kind of freedom and popularity she knew she never could.

When Pauli arrived, Finn was asked to sit in the hall and wait a few moments while they talked. The gym coach smiled encouragingly at her and led Pauli inside the room. Fin could see them through the glass and wishing she knew what they were saying she watched their lips move as they talked. To her surprise she could hear the whispered conversation as if coming from afar and she concentrated hard on their lips trying to catch the words. The words grew stringer in her mind as she read their lips even though she could barely see the coaches, she could see enough to know the words in her mind matched what was being said.

"She's a smart girl," Pauli said, "She can't travel with the team so why take another girl's spot. You should be thanking her not dragging me up here to complain."

"Why can't she travel?" the coach asked suspiciously thinking it was a cult or some such religious thing. "It will help her bond with the girls and make friends."

"Don't push this," Pauli said belligerently, "It's your job to educate her. It's my job to keep her safe. Now if you will excuse me, I have wasted enough time here."

"Keep her safe from what? Boys? Drugs? None of that goes on in my teams," Coach hadn't backed down. "You are hurting her keeping her locked up like that. She has no opportunities, no friends, no life! She's good at this and could be great!"

"She could also be recognised by the same people that killed her mother," Pauli growled in a low voice. "Not everyone lives in the land of sunshine and lollipops lady. Sometimes hard decisions are made for good reasons." The coach had gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. "I trust we won't have to speak about this again." He walked out of the coach's office and saw the shocked expression on Finn's face and the tears that threatened to brim over her glassy eyes.

"You were listening," Pauli asked in a matter-of-fact way and was not surprised when she nodded. She was bound to get some of her parent's abilities. Perhaps it was for the best, it was time she knew the truth about the need for secrecy. She would turn sixteen soon and her powers if she had any, and he assumed after today that she did, would start to blossom.

"Come on let's go home, I'll need to call Jonas," Pauli pulled her from the chair in which she sat and put an arm around her shoulders. The coach watched them go still reeling from the disclosure the taciturn old man had made.

They had packed again that week and moved to a new town, with October on the horizon. They chose a town so Dulcie could be near her sister. In fact, many of Dulcie's family lived in the town and Jonas agreed that if the hounds were kept at bay this Halloween, they could stay the following year as well. Dulcie had moved swiftly to put wards in place with the help of her sisters and cousins.