The Human Hounds

Tuirean peered over his shoulder and saw what he meant. Ahead of them the trees had been cut away leaving an almost circular clearing through which the path ran in a straight line. She saw the rain then for the first time. It was falling straight down drumming and thrumming onto the hard ground. Tuirean looked up to the sky but all she saw were heavy, full looking grey clouds.
"How long will it last?" she asked the messenger.
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, not long now I hope."

But the rain continued to pour down, soaking into the hard earth turning it into soft muck. Now water began to find its way down through the thick umbrella of leaves over their heads and began to plink and drip onto the two riders making them shiver and pull up their long riding cloaks.

"I think we should hurry on," Tuirean said, pushing her long dark hair out of her eyes. "We might be able to catch up with Illan."
"Perhaps the lord Illan is also sheltering, "the messenger said.
Tuirean nodded. "That's what I mean. If he is sheltering from the rain we might just catch up with him."
The messenger nodded slowly. "Yes, we might," He said, but he didn't move.
"Well, let's go then," Tuirean said angrily.
"Stay where you are!"
Tuirean turned to look at the messenger in amazement. How dare he speak to her in that way! "What did you say?" she demanded loudly.
"You heard me." the messenger said rudely. He urged his horse forward, out into the centre of the clearing and then turned the animal around so that he was facing Tuirean again. The woman was about to speak again when she noticed something strange about the messenger. All the colours of his clothes, his skin, his hair - even the colour of the horse - were being washed away, running like wet paint.

Tuirean closed her eyes, squeezed them tight then opened them again. But the colour was still running down the man in long streaks. It had started at his head: dark brown streaks from his skin mingled with the brown from his eyes, ran down onto the front of his jerkin, and then the browns and greens of the cloth ran from that and dripped onto his legs. The colours then fell onto the horse's back and soon its brown coat was dripping away into a dark mucky pool about his hooves. Underneath he was white - snow white, ice white, cold white. And 'he' no longer looked like a 'he'. 'He' looked like a 'she'

Tuirean looked at the creature and then felt her heart begin to pound with fright - it was a banshee! She tried to turn her horse around but suddenly all the trees around her turned white with ice and frost. A tree cracked with the sudden weight of ice and sleet and fell across her path, blocking her escape. She turned back to the banshee.

"Who are you? What do you want?" she said as loud as she could.
The banshee smiled, showing her sharp white teeth. "I am Dealba," she said so softly that Tuirean had to strain to hear her, "and I have come for you."
Tuirean grew very frightened then. "What do you mean?"
"You married Illan," the banshee said.
"Yes," nodded Tuirean, "I married him."
"But he should have married me," Delba suddenly shouted. "He knew me first!"
"But a human cannot marry one of the fairy folk," the woman said quickly.
"He should have married me!" Delba insisted. "But since he will not have me I'm going to make sure he will not have you either!"

Tuirean managed to scream once before the banshee's ice magic touched her. Delba raised her hand and the air around her froze so that the rain which was falling close to her turned to snow and sleet, and the mud on the ground hardened into ice that cracked loudly. The banshee then pointed her finger at Tuirean and a thin sparkling line of white fire darted over and wrapped itself around the woman, spinning and hissing, cracking and popping. It lasted only a few moments and when it had passed Tuirean had disappeared and and in her place was a huge coal black Wolfhound. It glared at the banshee for a few moments and then growled deep in its throat. Dealba laughed quietly.
"If Illan will not have me," she said to herself, "then I will not allow him to have you."

When Illan reached Finn's fort he found there were no pirates off Erin's coast and that Finn had not sent any messenger north for him. When he looked for the messenger that had brought him the message he could not be found. Illan grew frightened then and thundered back to his fort, accompanied by Finn and some knights of the Fianna. They knew something was amiss.

When they reached the fort one of the guards there told Illan about the messenger who had come with the message from Finn for the Lady Tuirean. And they had not seen her since.

Illan raged and swore. He and the Fianna searched the surrounding countryside and he even hired men and sent them searching all over the country looking for his missing wife but for a long time there was no sign of her. Nearly a year passed.

It was high summer when Illan received a message from Finn. The Lord of the Fianna had heard a strange story concerning Fergus, one of the western lords. Now this Fergus was well known for his dislike of dogs because he had once been bitten on the leg when he was a boy. From that day he would not allow a dog into his fort. But what was curious was that Fergus had been keeping a huge Wolfhound for the past few months and treating it very well indeed. And what was even stranger was that Fergus insisted that Finn had sent the dog to him for safe keeping. But Finn insisted he had sent no dog to this man and wanted Illan to investigate. So the knight saddled up his horse and set off on the long road to the west.

He had ridden a few miles down the road when something white flitted through the trees and stepped onto the path. It was Dealba.
"What do you want?" Illan demanded.
The banshee smiled strangely. "Where are you going?" she asked.
Illan was about to tell her but then stopped. "Why do you want to know?" he asked.
Dealba smiled again. "Perhaps you're heading into the west to visit Fergus, Lord of the Seashore?"
Illan felt a strange chill run down his back. "how do you know that?" he whispered.
The banshee smiled. "I know many things," she said.
"Do you know where my wife is then?" he asked.
"I might."
"Where is she?" Illan suddenly shouted, making his horse jump and sending the birds in the trees up into the sky.
"She is with Fergus, Lord of the Seashore," Dealba said.
Illan knew then. "And is she....is everything all right?" he asked.
"She is in good health," Dealba said and then added with a grin, "Fergus has taken very good care of her."
Illan suddenly pulled out his sword and pointed it at the fairy woman. "You have changed her into a dog!" he shouted.
Dealba laughed, "I have."
"Change her back," Illan said, "or else...."
"Or else what?" Dealba asked. "I could turn you into a block of ice before you have taken a single step closer. But I will turn her back into a human shape for you....for a price."
"And what is the price?" illan asked with a sigh.
"You must come with me into the fairy fort."
Illan didn't stop to think. "Yes, I'll do it."

Dealba disappeared in a rush of cold air and the reappeared almost immediately with a huge black Wolfhound at her side. As soon as the dog saw Illan it began to bark furiously and wag it's tail back and forth.
"This is your wife," the banshee said and she touched the dog with the tips of her fingers. A white covering like snowflakes formed on the dog's hair. It grew thicker and thicker until the dog was buried beneath a mound of snow. Then suddenly it all fell away. And standing there in her human shape was Tuirean. She cried out with joy and ran over to her husband.
"You've saved me," she said, "I knew you would."
Illan kissed her gently. "But to save you I have to go with her," he nodded towards Dealba, "but don't worry, I will be back to you as soon as I can."
"Must you go now?" Tuirean asked in a whisper, tears forming in her huge dark eyes.
"I must," he said, "but I will be back."
Dealba reached out and touched Illan and he was immediately frozen within a bloke of ice and then both she and it disappeared in a glitter of silver snowflakes, leaving Tuirean standing alone.

A little more than a week later, Tuirean, who had been expecting a baby before she had been turned into the Wolfhound, gave birth to twins. But they were not human twins - They were two lovely Wolfhound cubs.

Tuirean gave the pups to Finn to care for. The greatest magicians and sorcerers in the land were called in to try and give the dogs a human appearance but they couldn't because the fairy magic was so strong.
Finn named the pups Bran and Sceolan. They were magic hounds: faster, stronger and more intelligent than any other dogs in the land of Erin. They were human hounds.