Talks in the Forest

 "Don't move, Aria," advised.

Though Luca's voice was low, consistent, there was clear stress in it. Faced with the great wolf in the clearing, his body was poised like a coiled spring, every muscle tightened for action.

The wolf's brilliant eyes fastened on me, and down my spine shivered a terrible sensation of familiarity. It grew l instead of attacking. It only gazed, as if it were waiting for something.

"Luca," I said, not able to look away. It is not assaulting.

His grey eyes never straying from the wolf, he said, "That doesn't mean it's friendly."

I inhaled slowly, shakily, wanting my legs to move but they wouldn't move. The wolf moved slightly, its big head slanted as if evaluating me. My crescent mark pulsed in response, and a weird feeling flowed over my wrist.

Luca caught sight. "What's it doing."

My voice shaking, I answered, "I don't know."

The wolf's eyes flashed more brilliantly, and from its breast came a deep, guttural growl. But before Luca could step forward, the roar subsided, and a voice stopped me cold.

" You carry her mark."

I stopped, my breath gathering in my throat. The words had resonated within my thoughts, clear and intentional, not shouted out loud.

"What? " I murmured, but the wolf ignored me.

Luca cast a piercing glare at me. "What is it??"

I murmured, just able to get the words out, "It... it spoke to me."

His eyes stretched out. "Speaks?" How?"

The wolf let forth a low howl before I could reply; its brilliant eyes narrowed. The wolf stepped back into the darkness as the warmth in my wrist was practically searing now.

"Wait! " When I phoned, its brilliant eyes the last thing to go as it was already fading into the night.

The quiet that followed was intolerable. My pulse beating, I froze and the warmth in my wrist started to fade slowly. Luca turned to face me, his look a combination of perplexity and frustration.

" What the hell was that?" Demand he made.

"I'm not sure," I responded, gripping my wrist as if the mark may provide solutions. I stated I carried "her mark."

"Her mark?" His gaze narrowed. "What Does That Mean?"

"I don't know," I said again, the annoyance rising in my chest. "Do you believe I have all the answers, Luca? Just as lost as you are me!

He groaned and passed a hand through his hair. "This keeps getting better and better."

Once back at the pack house, our conflict stayed like a thunder cloud. The only place we could expect to get answers was the archives, hence we headed right there. As we sieved through ancient books and scrolls, Luca's presence was always at my side.

With a clipped tone, he questioned, "What precisely are we looking for?"

"Anything about the mark," I replied, staring at the fading words on the paper. "Or wolves prefer like that one."

Little progress came from hours of stillness between us broken only by the odd annoyed groan. Luca finally slammed a book closed and leant back in his chair, looking at the ceiling.

He said, "This is useless." "We're chasing ghosts."

I ignored him, my fingers following a line in one of the older books. The words chilled me down from the spine:

"The Moon's chosen carry marks a link created in strength and sacrifice. Trials will define their destiny; their relationship to the whispering of the forest will lead them to their end."

"The whispers from the forest," I mumbled, the words stuck in my head.

Luca shot me a quick look. "What?"

He wrinkled his brow reading the text I showed him. " Whispers. Like what you listened to tonight.

Perhaps, I remarked. But what then does it mean?

The door to the archives cracked open before he could respond, Kieran grimace stepping inside.

Closed the door behind him, he questioned, "You two are still at it."

" What do you want, Kieran?" Luca remarked, his voice more than usual harsh.

Lean against the doorframe, Kieran murmured, coming to warn you. "The seniors are beginning to chat. They are unhappy about all the attention your mark draws.

Luca pounced back. " What else is new?"

Kieran turned his eye to me. They are not only dissatisfied with him. Aria, you are beginning to be seen as a troublemaker. The link seems to them to be... strange.

His comments seemed to me like a stone, weighing down. "Unnatural?"

Kieran shrugged and remarked, "They're old-fashioned. "To them, whatever they find incomprehensible is a danger. And you are absolutely something they cannot grasp with your mark and the wolf in the forest.

That evening, I fell asleep nowhere. My memory kept Kieran's warning, entwined with the wolf's mysterious comments. I was back in the woodland, the crescent moon's weak light casting lengthy shadows.

Here the air seemed weighty, laden with something I couldn't define. Stopped close to the old tree, the mild buzz of the mark on my wrist became louder.

"Why did you contact me?" Whispering half-hoping the wolf would come back.

At first the jungle was peaceful, but suddenly the smallest whisper—too soft for me to detect—reached my ears. I held my breath, trying to hear, as the words returned, more precisely this time:

"Search the truth where the moon never sets."

What does it imply? I inquired loudly, but the woodland had no more responses.

I informed Luca about the whisper first thing the next morning He listened; his face was insensible. He nodded then. "then we will start from there."

"What if it is a trap?" I asked.

He grinned; his typical conceit clear. "We'll handle it then. collectively.

His comments startled me, and for a second I saw a flutter of something in his eyes—something quite like trust.

But the moment was brief; the weight of the unknown pushed down on both of us as we got ready to go more into the forest.

The air got colder and the mark on my wrist blazed with an intensity I had not felt before as we entered the heart of the woodland. A faint howl resonated off in the distance, a sound not belonging to any wolf I knew.

Luca fixed a piercing look at me. "Don't let your guard down whatever comes next."

Though deep down I knew we were entering something much more than any of us could have dreamed of. I nodded.