I walked through the trees barefooted and dazed until I heard the river, water always calmed me.
I knelt beside it and looked into the reflection,
my face stared back but it was different.
My eyes once brown now glowed with threads of silver and gold.
My skin shone faintly like ash left behind after a holy fire.
I touched my cheek, It felt like mine but I no longer recognized the girl staring back.
I was becoming the prophecy whether I wanted it or not. Then I heard a branch snapped behind me.
I stood up quickly my fingers grabbing out my dagger out of instinct.
"Del!"
Veran came out from the trees breathless, his eyes flashing. When he saw me, his stopped immediately.
"What happened to you?"
I didn't answer because I couldn't, his eyes searched for mine like he was looking for the girl he once knew under the glow.
"Where's Amalric?" he asked.
I swallowed hard. "She fell."
"Fell?" He asked unable to believe what I said.
"She stepped into the Moon's Core and it consumed her."
A long silence passed between us.
Veran looked away. "I told her not to do this."
"She wanted to be seen," I whispered. "She thought the power would fill the emptiness inside her."
"And did it?"
"No," I said shaking my head. "It tore her apart."
Veran sat heavily on a nearby rock. "Deucalion's moving, the Crimson Maw has begun marching south and the packs are splitting."
"Then we don't have much time."
He looked at me carefully. "Del you've changed."
I nodded slowly. "So has everything."
...
That night we camped near the Whispering Pines where the old Council stones stood.
Veran lit a fire but I barely felt the cold, I stared at the flames and said, "When I was in the realm i saw Sigard."
His head turned quickly. "Sigard? But he's…"
"Gone. I know," I said quietly. "But he appeared anyway, as a memory or test. Maybe even a warning."Veran was quiet staring at me. "Did say anything?"
I nodded. "He told me to stay, to give up and rest. That the world would go on without me."
"And what did you say?" Veran asked frowning.
"I said no."
I looked at him then, "I'm tired of running from who I am, i won't be anyone's pawn anymore. Not Deucalion's, not the prophecy's, not even yours."
Veran flinched at that but nodded. "You're right." he said.
A long silence broke between us then he asked, his voice was low."Do you still trust me?"
I wanted to say yes and believe him again but I said, "I don't know."
He accepted that, he always did when I told the truth.
By dawn smoke rose from the horizon.
"The Crimson Maw," Veran said. "They've started burning villages that won't join them."
My fists tightened. "Then we give them something to fear."
"What are you planning?" He asked looking at me.
"Not just war." I said stepping into the center of the Council circle.
"I'm claiming my right."
"To what?"
"To form a new pack."
"Del…" Veran stood.
"I have Moonblood in my veins, I've walked the sacred realm and I've seen the end. If I don't rise now everything burns."
He stared at me for a long moment then slowly knelt, not as a mate but as a warrior.
"I'll follow you." He promised.
I took a deep breath then howled, not like the girl i once was. But like something reborn, the trees shook and the ground trembled.
One by onewolves began to appear from the shadows. Stragglers, outcasts and even rogues. They approached me.
But far beyond deep in the Crimson Maw fortress, Deucalion knelt before a pool of black water.
He dipped his fingers in whispering words of the old times.
The surface of the water moved and then a hand rose dripping with shadow, clawed and feminine.
A voice followed sharp and low,
"I was never lost only reborn."
Amalric, she was alive! But no longer herself.
I never thought they'd come, wolves from ruined territories. Outcasts, lone wolves, healers who had lost their clans and fighters with no banners to follow.
They stood in the shadows of the Whispering Pines their eyes watching me, some with doubt, others with hope.
All of them waiting but I was no Alpha, not yet at least. I was just somebody scarred by too
much loss, bearing a prophecy I didn't ask for.
Still I raised my head and stepped into the stone circle's center.
"My name is Amalric," I said with my voice steady. "I was born to be forgotten, buried under the pride of noble blood and broken laws. But I stand here today not because the Moon chose me but because I chose myself."
There was silince then soft murmurs, a ripple of movement.
I kept speaking, "I've been hunted, burned, betrayed, and left for dead. And still I stand not to rule, not to conquer but to protect what's left of us."
A younger wolf stepped forward, a girl no older than fifteen with a crooked scar on her mouth.
"What do we call ourselves?" she asked softly. "We're not from the same blood or from the same lands."
"We are the Forgotten." I said smiling faintly.
By nightfall fires burned across the forest,this was our first camp.
Veran moved through the crowd silently watching and listening.
He returned to my side just after sunset.
"Over fifty wolves have pledged already," he said. "More are coming from the eastern cliffs."
I nodded. "We'll need them."
His gaze stayed on me. "You're different now."
"I have to be." I said looking at the moon.
He hesitated then asked, "Do you regret it? Letting her fall?"
My heart twisted, Amalric's scream still rang in my ears.
"She chose it," I whispered. "But maybe I pushed her."
Veran reached for my hand but stopped halfway.
"I'm still here," he said gently.
"I know," I said. "But for how long?"
He didn't answer because we both knew this war would cost something, maybe our lives.