The First Appearance
Case 001 from The Moonstone Files
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The story began in A Grail for Eidothea and continued with A River Trembles and A Sword for Wellington. It now concludes with A Shattering of Souls. New here? This is a Regency-set fantasy romance adventure with shapeshifting sea dragons, where our cast search for Arthurian treasures to save the world from ecological collapse. Save this post, go subscribe (you’ll get the first two seasons in an e-book) and then have a binge read of the rest. You deserve it.
Before we get started in today’s story which happens a month before Chapter 1 on A Shattering of Souls and can be read almost without any additional context, please wish Hallie Jules a happy birthday! Enjoy your pressies! Don’t forget to listen to the voiceover. I may have snorted while listening to the playback. Please excuse any stumbles, this was the umpteenth take.
MERMAN SPOTTED AT NOBBYS!
(from the N Herald-Times-Dispatch)
Early morning surfers reported him surfacing amongst the whales off Nobby’s Beach. “This little beauty of a whale just breached, right in front of us and the next thing we know, there’s this naked hippy bobbing in the waves.”
“I swear I saw a giant eel just below the surface right before he popped up,” a tourist on the boat reported, wanting their name withheld. “I was feeling a bit seasick so I wasn’t looking at the whale.”
The man was rescued and brought into John Hunter Hospital for observation. Police suspect the lack of ID means he fell off one of the human trafficking boats from Indonesia. Such craft usually don’t make it this far south. Air search and rescue has been put into operations but have yet to report any other survivors. The man gave his name as Leerap Perradoor. If you know this man, please contact the local authorities immediately.
Thankfully, I copied and saved this into my Notes because now I can’t find the Facebook post to share it!
Jenny: Have you seen this guy? Just spotted him walking down High Street, near the Levee. At first I thought he was just some random homeless guy. I snapped a bunch of photos, but not one of them came out. It’s freezing right now and he’s wearing nothing but a hospital gown. But here’s the thing: It’s like he stepped out of one of those Chinese dramas. He’s absolutely gorgeous, slender but muscular with long black hair that goes for daaaays.
DaveHoldMyBeer: “But here’s the thing”? Come on, this has to be AI slop. Do better, people.
Cheryl: I saw him too!
Sam: Yeah nah, he was walking past old Maitland Hospital. I thought for sure I’d seen some sort of ghost. I mean, did you see his eyes? They were weird.
Jodie: Spotted him in the old cemetery on the hill, cutting through it like a man on a mission. Wish I was his mission. He’s hot!
DaveHoldMyBeer: With those bare feet? I hope the trapdoor spiders and snakes don’t get him.
JustinTime: It’s too cold for snakes, you idiot.
10th June, 2026
I have to write this down. I can’t talk to camera about this because I am a blithering red-faced mess. Besides, people’ll think I’m mad enough as it is.
I didn’t recognise him at first when I opened my front door. Distracted by the very short hospital gown and the absolutely filthy feet, my gaze traveled up until I reached those golden eyes.
“Leer?” I blurted, absolutely forgetting to do that lovely Welsh “hl” sound.
“You have something I want.” The burr of his voice cascaded over my senses like real maple syrup collecting at the bottom of a stack of pancakes. (I’m sorry, but it very much did not sound like Vegemite.)
I swallowed. “You want … me?” I shook sense into my head, almost dislodging my glasses. “Impossible. I am way too old for you.”
“Madam.” His gentle reproof alas didn’t have the layers of meaning like in Kummer Wolfe’s1 stories.
I drew him inside anyway, closing the door behind me. I could clean the carpet runner later. “How are you here? I’ve been reading about you in Luned’s diary.”
“Whose diary?”
Shit. I let him go, staggering back a step. “When are you from?”
He frowned. The creases in his brow just made him look even more adorable. I wished I was twenty years younger. “1816. The Lady Morgaine sent me to you. There are forces who don’t want us to succeed.”
“But—” I shut my mouth. I knew of some of the hazards of time travel and paradoxes and knowing your own future and so on. It makes my head hurt. “Look, forget I said anything. Probably best you don’t know. Just … be persistent, ok?”
“OK? What does that mean?” Llyr’s frown grew deeper.
I resisted the urge to pat away the creases like I had seen in K-Dramas. I mean, come on, I’m happily married. Plus, it’d be weird. “Um, I guess in this context it means ‘please’?” I sat him down at the dining room table, the pale green tablecloth hiding his lean, muscular legs from view. “What is it that you want, that you think I have?”
“It’s been calling to me.” Llyr stood, the heavy cotton of his hospital gown forming a short skirt. His head tilted, as if he scented the wind. “It’s very close.”
He retraced his steps, heading for my bedroom.
My cheeks grew hot. He couldn’t be serious … um, would my husband understand if a guy from 1816 seduced me? Would he even believe me? Biting my lip, I hovered in the doorway. “Look, Llyr, I don’t know why your goddess thinks—”
“It’s in here.” Llyr rattled the tall black cabinet that held the jewellery I hardly ever wore. My wedding photo tumbled, and he caught it before it hit the floor.
At once I knew what he sought. “The pendant!”
He looked over his shoulder at me, thin dark braids and wisps of black hair charmingly framing his face. (This proves I wasn’t looking at his bare arse, alright?) “Yes. Lady Morgaine needs Eidothea to wear it. I obtained it from Lady Selene—”
“Wait, what?” Didn’t I write that story? I must have looked a right idiot with my mouth hanging open.
He straightened, stepping to the side so I could access the cabinet. “Lady Selene wrote to me about the strange dreams she had. You look a bit like her.”
I left the safety of the doorway and approached. “I look like Selene?”
He dismissed my words with a head shake. “No, the woman she met in her dreams.”
You know story ideas come from the strangest of places. “But I made that story up!”
“Did you?” He canted his head. It gave him an adorable puppy air. “Or did the Lady Goddess gift it to you?”
“What the f—” I creatively strung a series of expletives not repeatable in polite society. “But that came out of an old manuscript…” I scratched my scalp. The visual of a handsome sea dragon shapeshifter in my bedroom, plus this talk of Lady Selene being real and not a figment of my imagination. It did my head in. I might have gibbered slightly.
Llyr looked—there’s no other way to describe this—smug. “The Lady likes to play the long game, and reveal things in due course. That must be why you came into possession of that diary.”
“Diaries,” I admitted. “And researcher notes. So …. You’re real? How do we not know about you? And sea dragons—dreigiau môr? Oh, and the world is—“ I stopped. Llyr didn’t need to know the world had gone to shit and climate change was, well, changing.
His golden-irised eyes regarded me. “This time is confusing. Did we fail?”
I knew what happened, at least up to 1819. I couldn’t let on what I knew. “Maybe this is a parallel universe?”
“Lady Morgaine mentioned a time slip?”
“That must be it.” I resisted the urge to trace the scar across his bicep, the bullet wound from attempting to rob Lord Carton’s house, I realised. “You slipped from your time stream into mine.” I grinned. “If dreigiau môr existed here, I would have swum in the sea more.”
Llyr folded his arms, the hem of his hospital gown rising a little higher. I diverted my gaze to the stained glass windows, cheeks burning.
“So,” he prompted. “The pendant?”
I fished it out of one of the felt-lined drawers in the jewellery cabinet and handed it to him.
“My thanks.” He clasped it tight to his chest, closing his eyes. He opened them, his eyes widening as he registered me (and possibly my proximity. There’s not a whole lot of room to move between bed and cabinet.) “Uffarn dân.”
Swearing never sounded so pretty. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I would just go back but…” He gestured to himself.
I tried not to look. I failed. “You’re still here. Perhaps put it on?”
That didn’t work either. Time for Mama Bear mode. “Let’s find you some clothes, get you something to eat and drink and figure this out.” From the bottom of a wardrobe, I pulled out a pair of airline pyjamas we’d scored flying business class and handed them to him.
I had to let the spouse know we had a guest, rousing him from his keyboard practice. He pulled off the headphones and seemed to take the news remarkably well.
Over a sandwich and some tea, Llyr rallied. “Maybe I need to return to the ocean. That’s where I started.”
“Of course! You’re the one they pulled out at Nobby’s!”
Llyr was all polite confusion. So adorable.
“Right, Dan will drive us into town and we’ll get you back to that beach.” The 45 minute drive passed in silence, aside from ABC Classic Radio’s Top 200. I kept looking in the back seat, checking to see whether Llyr had vanished. He looked a bit like a stunned mullet. A very handsome stunned mullet, it has to be said. It should also be noted his hairstyle is nothing like a mullet.
We reached the beach and parked. It was a cold, blustery day with rain threatening from the south. Shivering, Dan volunteered to wait in the car. Llyr and I headed over the dunes, down onto the beach’s white sands. I steered him away from the surf club and towards the head, Whibayganba.
After 20 minutes of walking, I deemed we had gone far enough. Llyr pulled off his shirt.
“Wait!” I cried. Disappointingly, he still wore the hospital gown beneath.
“Don’t you want these back?” He shucked off the sweatpants.
With a reluctant sigh (honest!), I held out my hands. Into them, he deposited the clothing, warm from his body.
He flung his long hair over his shoulders and smiled, transforming his seriously handsome face into a seriously boyish one.
I locked my knees, grimacing a little manically. A move like that shouldn’t be legal.
“Thank you,” he said in a honeyed burr, “for everything. I won’t forget this.”
“I’ll wait,” I told him. “Just in case this doesn’t work either.”
He nodded before running down the beach and into the surf. Alas there was no Chariots of Fire slow motion, it all happened in real time. I watched until his head disappeared beneath the waves.
At sunset, it’s said there’s a green flash when the sun touches the ocean. I’ve never seen it, not even when I lived in California. On that day, I saw a brilliant white flash, like a large wave had caught the non-existent sun. I waited, just in case it had been the spume of a whale, but Llyr didn’t return.
12th June, 2026
A package just arrived in the mail from a solicitor in Venice, Italy. It contained letters written by at least two different people and a folder. Inside that was a handwritten page, cut from a book. There’s no question as to who wrote that page, but how did they know to send them to me? Do they come from one of Llyr’s descendants?
Pages from Eidothea’s Diary
3rd March, 1816
I woke, nestled in Llyr’s strong arms. I breathed in his scent of incense and sea, the warm spice of it making me squirm against him. Last night had been so fulfilling … rivalled only by Jasper’s lovemaking on our wedding night.
His arms tightened and he nuzzled at the nape of my neck, his hands stroking my soft flesh. “I should have given you jewellery sooner,” he murmured into my ear, flicking his tongue against my lobe.
I went to clasp the moonstone pendant, finding only my warm, damp skin. “Oh!’ I sat up and looked around the rumpled bed clothes. “It’s gone!”
“It can’t have gone far.” Llyr shifted up, pressing against my back, continuing his caresses. “The clasp must have broken. It’ll be here somewhere. You can look for it later.”
His hands and mouth tempted me, tempted me greatly, to melt into him and forget all about it, but shame pulled me away. “It’s the first thing you’ve ever given me.” Tears rose. I choked them back, crawling on hands and knees to look beneath pillows and through the tangled sheets.
“As desirable as you look right now, mi cariad,” Llyr rose from our bed. “Soothing your distress matters more. Let me help you look.”
We stripped the bed, looked under it and the remaining furniture, of which there were only a few pieces, all to no avail.
On all fours, I bent to peer through a tiny gap in the floorboards.
Llyr caressed my bare derriere. “Mi cariad, if we don’t dragon dance soon, I will burst.” I heard his strangled longing.
My body responded to his soft drawl. I rested on my elbows, looking over my shoulder at him. My hair had long since tumbled down. I saw and wanted every inch of him. I might have made a small noise of frustration. “I wore it to bed last night. It can’t be lost!”
He groaned, reaching for his breeches and pulling them on. “The Goddess calls me.”
“Now?!” I bleated, thoroughly annoyed.
His golden eyes already had that far away look. “It’s to do with your pendant. Maybe She knows where it is.” He bent and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll be back soon.”
I sat on the floor, aching with desire and utterly miserable that I’d lost something so precious. Jasper appeared in the doorway, looking greatly disheveled. “Love, you need to shield. You’ve been too distracting these last few hours.”
I took one look at him and wailed. “I lost Llyr’s gift!”
He closed the distance between us, taking me into his arms. “He’ll find it. Let me make you feel better while we wait.” Our mouths met.
5th March, 1816
Llyr has returned, his golden eyes a little wilder than usual. He handed me the pendant, brushing an absent kiss against my brow.
“You found it!” I clung to him. “Where was it?”
He held himself stiffly but soon unbent, his arms coming about me. He stroked my hair. “In a different time.” He pulled back, tilting my chin. “Come dragon dance with me, mi cariad.” His lips crushed against mine.
:Oh, yes!: I thought to him.
This has gone on far too long already, so I shall share the contents of the letters another day.
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But wait! There’s more! A new short story landed this past week for the Upon Our Seas, In Our Skies collaboration (which is still ongoing) by the inimitable Wendy Russell. Read “Hildegarde & The Flying Ship”.
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Love this! Now I need to read all your other stories!!