The Pendant

The dawn came slow, painting the sky in streaks of bruised purple and gold. The battlefield was quiet now, scattered with ash, broken branches, and the fading scent of blood. Ava stood at the edge of the clearing, staring at the place where her mother had vanished.

Not a trace remained, not a footprint, not even a scent.

But Ava knew deep in her bones, it had been real.

"She came back for you," Mara said gently, walking up beside her. "Even in death, a mother never leaves her child."

Ava swallowed, her voice hoarse. "Why now? Why during the Blood Moon?"

"Because that's when your blood was ready to hear her," Mara replied. "The Moonborn aren't just powerful, they're connected to something older. Something beyond this world."

Ava looked down at her hands. The glowing had faded, but something had changed. She could feel it under her skin like a current running just beneath the surface.

Aiden approached them as he wrapped a cloth around his forearm. "The Elders won't stop after this. They'll come harder next time. With more than just wolves."

"Let them," Ava said softly. "I'm not afraid anymore."

Mara handed her a waterskin. "You should be. Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's knowing what's coming and standing anyway."

Ava took a drink, then lowered her voice. "I saw something during the fight. When the moon hit me. A memory."

"What did you see?" Aiden asked.

"A woman, my mother, I think she was chanting something. Words I didn't understand. Then fire… and a white wolf bleeding under a red sky."

Mara's eyes narrowed. "That's the Prophecy."

"What prophecy?" Aiden asked.

Mara took a breath. "The Song of the First Moonborn. It tells of a wolf born in chains, touched by fire and shadow, who will bleed beneath a crimson sky and rise to either save or destroy us all."

Ava frowned. "That sounds… encouraging."

"You're the first Moonborn in generations," Mara said. "Which means you're the one the prophecy speaks of."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Aiden broke it. "So what now? What do we do?"

"We train," Ava said. "We get stronger. We learn everything they didn't want me to know."

Mara gave a small nod of approval. "There's an ancient sanctuary to the east, hidden in the Hollow Pines. The Moonborn used to gather there before the Elders outlawed it. If anything remains of their knowledge, it'll be there."

"Then we go," Ava said.

Aiden stepped closer, voice low. "We'll be hunted every step."

Ava looked at him. "Let them try."

He stared at her, something like pride and maybe fear shone in his eyes.

Then Mara spoke again, her tone sharper now. "Before we leave, there's something you need to see."

She led them back into the cabin. In a locked chest beneath the floorboards, she pulled out a wrapped bundle. When she unrolled it, Ava's breath caught.

A silver pendant. The mark of the Moonborn. A wolf howling at a crescent moon, its body engraved with ancient runes.

"This belonged to your mother," Mara said, placing it around Ava's neck. "She wore it the night she died."

The metal was cool against her skin. But as soon as it touched her, warmth spread through her chest like sunlight breaking through fog.

The mark glowed faintly.

"She's with you now," Mara whispered.

Ava looked down at it, then out the window, where the trees whispered with wind and warning.

She was no longer just a girl in chains.

She was the flame they feared.

And the storm was coming.