Notes: First, a shout-out to my girl Archana for her help in this; she didn't even know that I had used her name until after "Indra" was written. Oh, and the style's a little odd; please bear with me, all will be revealed in due time.
If anyone ever reads my dedications, they know I dedicate all my stories to Nat. "Sachi" is also dedicated to my girl Archie; may she one day meet her Raj.

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“Tell me a fable; a story that will never end. Tell me a fable; a story that will last and last.”
-Robert Miles, “Fable”

Luna
PART I: And They Lived Happily Ever After

When I was seven, I was sent to the counselor’s office for insisting that fairy tales were real.

I sat on side of my chair, trying to decide what to do, to think of what my father might to say to get out of this fix. As Mrs. Wopat, the ancient counselor, peered at me over her tiny half-glasses, I absentmindedly flicked my ear, a habit I acquired from Dad. How could I deny the existence of fairy tales when I was the descendent of one?

“Now, Luna,” Mrs. Old Bat…ah, Wopat, began. She was one of those women whose bones had long ago been dissolved by mounds of flesh. Her multiple chins and jowls quivered with her every breath. Her fingers were so puffy that the extra adipose had swallowed her rings. As she steepled her hands before her, I noticed her watch would be next. She sighed.

“Luna, you must realize the difference between reality and make-believe.”

Of course, she had never traveled through a mirror to the Nine Kingdoms. I remained silent.

She decided to try another tactic. “Luna, tell me about your parents.”

I leaned forward in my seat, spreading my palms wide. “Well, the story begins this way: Once there was a beautiful young woman who was named for a queen. And she met a man who was the grandson of one…”

Mrs. Old Bat shook her head, the folds of her face swaying slowly from side to side.

“Luna, Luna, Luna—these stories must stop!” Mrs. Old Bat then proceeded to tell me how fairy tales didn’t exist, on and on and on. I kept envisioning leaping at her throat. After that day, I learned to keep quiet about my connection to the Brothers Grimm.

I am Luna, first born of Virginia Lewis and Wolf. My father always wanted a large family, but it was five years before another cub was born.

We live in upstate New York. Mom didn’t want to leave the City; she was afraid her father might need her and she wouldn’t be there. As a wedding present, my parents received a magic mirror (it seems to me a lot of their life together revolves around mirrors) that allows only our family through to and from the Nine Kingdoms. We spend every summer and every Christmas with Grandpa. As a child, I liked the Nine Kingdoms more than my life in New York.

I am only one-fourth wolf, but I definitely take after my father. I have the same black hair and dark eyes, the same ear-flicking habit, a similar howl. One thing of which I am glad: the wolf’s tail manifests itself only on the * other * side of the mirror; none of my New York friends know of its existence. None of my siblings, Patricia, Anne, Allen, or James, have a tail; they’re much more human, more like Mom.

Mom never finished college, and Dad…well, never went. They became writers, turning the tale of how they met and subsequent adventures into a best-selling fantasy series. Important names were changed, of course. (It was an editor who pointed out the absurdity of “Virginia” and “Wolf” next to one another.) Dad, however, became active in community theater. His break-through role was as The Wolf in “Into the Woods.”

In our travels through the Nine Kingdoms, Mom and Dad had many adventures, most of which I didn’t learn about until I read their books in high school. Giants, ogres, elves, fairies…But everyone has heard my parents’ tales many times over. Now it is time not only for another chapter, as their books say, but another volume.