Once Upon A Time Read Online Free PDF

that not all
were as open minded. For this reason, it was a careful process, to
introduce Gavril to those whom the rabbi thought might be willing
to entrust their children to a stranger, and a young looking
stranger at that. Gavril was a stranger who spoke still with the
slightly lilting tones of our Welsh homeland, albeit his accent was
tempered by Aaleahya’s own Romanian accent.
    The outline
plan was that the groups of children would be assembled at a safe
location: either the home of the rabbi or at the home of one of the
sets of parents. It could be called a prayer meeting or a Shabbat
gathering, even though celebration of the latter was becoming more
difficult as the war progressed. The horror that would become known
as Kristallnacht had been but a start of the animosity fostered
against one race. Depending on the number of children needing to be
transported elsewhere would determine the number of adult Cŵn Annwn
who would meet them there. Out of necessity we dressed as most of
the population, and yes, that meant that as the deprivation of the
war became more significant, so do the way that we dressed, all the
better to avoid the attention of the authorities. Sometimes these
transports would require just Gavril, Owain and me, and sometimes
it would be more. That was a danger in itself since the gathering
of that many people would be open to an informant noticing our
activities and for the sake of some small gain, reporting us to the
authorities. Had that happened, then yes, we might take steps to
protect ourselves, but it damaged the chances of us being able to
help these people. Make no mistake, as the war progressed, that
desperation became great indeed.
    But these were
the days before people realised just how far the Nazi war machine
was prepared to go. The authorities knew, but the individual man on
the ground? It was easy to fool one’s own conscience that your
neighbours had chosen only to move away from the area, rather than
to think that they had been deported. The stories of the camps were
just that surely? Stories only. How many lives have been lost over
time because neighbours turned their backs on those who might have
been friends in other circumstances or perhaps even more worrying
because they wished gain from denouncing a neighbour?
    My apologies,
I am known to be the more thoughtful of Gavril’s two Betas, not
that it makes Owain somehow slow or less able that I. He has his
strengths and I have mine, and together we support our friend and
Alpha.
    When we had
determined the number of children to be transported, either we did
so between the three of us, since we might transport them as long
as they had skin to skin contact with us, or we took them in
relays. Our initial destination was the cellars of The Hunter’s
Arrow Inn. Yes, I know, it seems strange that we brought the
children there, but it could be argued that it was the last place
that might be expected to be used as a relay point.
    It was one of
the early evacuations after the Nazis had invaded Hungary. They had
commandeered our home, and they had commandeered the Inn, forcing
our Alpha and his Mate to accept the invasion of their home by
people who were anathema to us all. It was either accept them, or
everyone would suffer. Not just the Pack, but the village also, and
if there was one thing that Gavril would never allow, it would be
for those who looked to us for protection to suffer. We are
paranormal beings. We have more means at our disposal to survive
being starved, beaten and ridiculed. Humans have no such resources.
For us to not use the gifts given to us by our Goddess would have
been a betrayal of everything for which we stood.
    So, this
evacuation. I had been sent to collect a young girl. She was an
only child, and her parents were dead. The neighbours had hidden
her, but the net was closing. She had to be moved or, the
'authorities' having the mentality that they did, the whole street
would have been made to suffer. She was perhaps