The forest people were going by their usual day to day lives until fateful one day, around a hundred years ago, the barrier surrounding their lands disappeared, and they started to get disturbed by people holding and wearing metals as their weapon and protection. For the time, in a hundred years, they found out that they had neighbors living in stone houses.
At first, the forest people wanted to trade with them but as more interactions occurred, the greediness of humans happened and soon, the hundreds of tribes had found themselves with one foot beneath the grave due to the overpowering might of the people who lived on stones. The tribes then united under the leadership of a woman, which some said was a mythical creature, until they managed to drive back the invader of their lands.
The forest people lived in the Evernight Forest or more commonly known as Forbidden Forest by the people living in the seven kingdoms became one of the most infamous locations due to its harsh terrain, mysterious beasts, and savage inhabitants.
It was said that the light from the heavens could never penetrate its dense vegetation of towering trees, creeping grass, breathing bushes, amongst other things to bring illumination to its ever damp soil.
Many stories circled the people of the seven kingdoms on how the Forbidden Forest was a monster itself that devoured the wanderers who got lost in its bowels and if they who came back with their tales of monsters, barbaric inhabitants, moving trees and the like, got branded as people who became maddened by the forest's evil nature.
Depending on which side was asked though, the tale of the forest would become a different story.
The bushes and grasses swooshed as a black and red furred wolf chased a blurred silver light deeper into the forest's darkening woods. The wolf left great trails of large animalistic tracks on the ground wherein if a hunter found these paws, he or she would be able infer the size of the wolf to be twice that of an average man.
It, however, wasn't alone. Beside the great wolf were its pack of different colored wolves, brown, gray, and yellow. Then the black and red wolf stopped, it howled, causing the brown and gray wolf to go to the flank of their prey, the silver furred rabbit, in order to make it run in a straight line.
The silver furred rabbit did as its predators had predicted. However, with it hopping straight, it somewhat gained speed as it beelined toward a fallen tree. It went underneath the log and tried to change directions, but it never knew an ambush was waiting for it on the other side. A white wolf caught the silver furred rabbit with its mouth the moment the rabbit exited under the tree. The silver furred rabbit was still alive but no matter how much struggling it did, it couldn't break free from the maw of the white wolf.
It didn't take for the rest of the pack to arrive and howl together expressing their joy that the hunt they had been doing for days had finally come into fruition.
Night was fast descending upon them, so the pack went away with the silver rabbit.
They were about to enter a village where the warrior guarding nearby didn't seem to mind the fact that a pack of giant wolves was about to come into their midst. On the contrary, the guards seemed to treat the giant wolves with great respect as they bowed in greetings to the great pack of wolves. That wasn't surprising though because the local residents of this place was called their village Felaenalion, home of the forest people and fey creatures.
The village didn't appear anything like the human villages in the seven kingdoms. The places of residences where the people lived were made out of hide, makeshift wood, and the tents and huts were scattered everywhere without a clear pattern. Some residences were also situated on the huge branches of the tall trees with wooden ladders coiled around the tree trunks, hence, enabling the village to house around more than a thousand residents.
Finally, the pack of giant wolves arrived, welcomed by about a hundred of the villagers with great clapping and shouting after seeing the silver furred rabbit in the maws of the white wolf in the middle.
The red and black furred wolf went inside of one of the tents first followed by the white wolf and then the rest. Once they were inside, they began to transform into that of a human woman before proceeding to pick up the clothes that had been prepared on the ground.
"Sister Morgana, thank you," said one of the girls holding the silver furred rabbit on her hand. She placed the rabbit tight into one of the hide bags before she jumped and hugged the red haired girl, Morgana.
Morgana didn't say anything as she simply smiled and patted the back of the girl with pale white hair.
"Ahh, the hunt is always enjoyable whenever sister Morgana leads us," said a girl with an amber hair.
"Agree, agree," said a girl with hazel hair.
"Now that we have the silver rabbit, you can finally be officially ordained as the fifth member of our pack, Glita. Ah, I wish I could experience that ceremony for me again, but anyway, I'm so happy you," said the gray haired girl to the girl with white hair.
"Thank you so much, really, everyone," said Glita, holding up the bag, which stored the silver rabbit.
Although these five girls called each other sisters, they were not related by blood, rather they were girls chosen from the many tribes that inhabited this forest and raised together as sisters by the head priestess of the forest people. The young ladies' ages ranged between fourteen to eighteen but the most respected from them wasn't the oldest, instead it was Morgana.
Her four sisters looked up to her because she held the most charisma between them, as well as being the strongest and fastest among the pack. Hence, her being of the pack was cemented in stone and none of the other fey wolves dared challenge her authority.
The girls were selected by the high priestess because they had shown signs of one particular unique trait since birth; they carried the legacy of the Mother Earth. From a young age, they were able to transform parts of themselves into a beast and the moment they were able to fully transform into the wolf, it also meant they had matured. And if that happened, a ceremony would take place as recognition of their unique ability.
"Morgana, the High Priestess said you are to follow the chief tonight," said the grey haired girl.
"Then does that mean you'll not be able to join the ceremony?" said Glita, disappointed.
She was silent for a while before answering, "It is the will of the High Priestess, I must comply."
She then exited the tent and proceeded to head to the center of the forest where the chief lived nearby.
Morgan and her sisters were part of the priestess faction. Their objective was to understand and convey the will of mother nature led by the High Priestess. Aside from them was another group called the Akavi Warriors.
These Akavi Warriors were all male members from various tribes who also had a gift similar to Morgana and her sisters, but instead of being able to transform into a beast, the males received increased strength which was evident by the black markings on their bodies. The more marking they had, the more powerful they were. Hence, the forest people call them the protector of the forest.
There was also one more faction, but it was more of a leadership instead of a faction. They were the elders of the tribes, they ran the day to day living of the people, managed disputes of the locals, set what production should be focused on such as food, clothing, etc. but most importantly, their main task was to lead the forest people.
Morgana, being a member of the priestess faction, was adored by the people due to not only being the strongest fey wolf, but she had proved her physical prowess in a human form against the male members of the warrior faction. She was in good relation with the elders as well, since the strong belief of the people, including the elders, from the High Priestess transferred over to all the members of the priestess faction.
She found it quite odd though why the High Priestess had ordered her to follow the chief tonight. In fact, Morgana wanted to attend her sister's important day, but instead she was given a task to follow the chief who would be soon making patrol in the forest for any outsiders that may have lost their way. Nevertheless, she placed that thought in the back of her mind, because to follow the High Priestess was to follow the will of Mother Nature and she shouldn't question that.
Now that she was out on patrol with the Akavi Warriors, a sudden news arrived from one of the Akavi Warriors from the village.
"The silver rabbit was taken by an outsider!" said an Akavi Warrior.
"What? How is that possible?" exclaimed Morgana as she immediately transformed and began tracking the thief who stole her sister's silver rabbit. Finally she found the thief, but among the thief's group, was a young man whom her blood immediately boiled the moment her eyes laid vision on him.
The young man had one arm, a thin body, and was not tall. However, she had seen him fight multiple members of the warrior-guard faction and defeat all of them. He had also used magic, which reminded her of the High Priestess.
She wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, but when she was blocked by him on the river and received a nod from the chief to fight the young man, it felt like her whole body was burning not from rage, rather from excitement, as if she wanted to prove against this young man that she was on top, that she was the alpha.
She proceeded to fight him and during their doubt, she finally understood why her blood was boiling this whole time. She was like him, a fey who could transform. However, how could that be? All the males with the same gift had no such abilities. And in that moment though, her recklessness became her demise as the young man managed to jump on her and things became blurry. The next thing she knew, she was wearing the young man's mantle and awoke. The young man had changed back to his human form as well and was standing before the chief.
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