s full. Col

e pale silver light. His paws were darkened with soil, claws stained with pine sap and bark from his ea

d slowly and close

ace came back

hea

d not s

d feel the warmth of her hand against his. Small. Mortal. Yet she had looked

ater. She had not run.

W

e how humans regarded his kind, with arrows first, and questions never. Bu

ould n

de. His joints ached not with injury, but with memory. The transformation had grown harder over

e others would keep their distance. They knew when he needed solitude. A

hollow where he had hidden something days earlier. Kael nudged a

man bel

ed just b

imself as the light crested over the horizon. When the transformation was complete, he knelt

d there a

in the distance, the creak of branches in the wind, bu

s trembling more from emotion than cold. Then he

f wear. The ink was faded, the script ancient Lupian. Half a map remained, landmarks

mercy meet, the pat

phrase with a c

l fires: a time would come when the Moonclan's exile would end, when their fate wou

prophecy was meant for anoth

... she had n

uld

chment in his fist. It w

eserve the territory. Keep humans out, by

had stayed

ran, his second, had questioned him after

ered. Because the

coul

r beneath moonlight, watching him with a calm defia

w, and tucked the parchme

ans. Watched the world grow colder toward his kind. He had e

y wasn't a tale mean

t had alre

inned as he ascended the ridge, climbing stone paths only wolves would

ow. The glyphs had matched those kept in the Moonclan's oldest memory stones. Some among the elders said the monastery once

forgotten what they foun

a crescent moon. Half-

hat hung around the

ed from the porch that night. Fel

as no coi

hat linked her to the old ways.

ght be

ow. In the distance, smoke curled from the human village's chi

now. The claw marks he had ordered to be left as w

to lead a patrol to burn their grain stores.

ose of the old tongue, carved on doorposts and arches

nal c

he had been a

en stone ridges. Tents and lean-tos made from wolf hide and timber dotte

n was

ched. "They're preparing, Alpha," he said. "The hu

ected a

me take the girl whe

ashed. "She is

's a

owering his voice. "An

his teeth but

the wall hung a carved stone, his father's sigil, passed from a

a long time, then kne

from his satchel again an

mercy meet, the pa

f her hands. Her si

s chest, something l

ins

op

in years, Kael allow

was shadowed and uncertai

to see h