Dark clouds break their entrapment of the moon, making its rays slowly spread beneath.
Leaves rustled lullabies, whispering sleep to the people staring death in the face.
Hundreds of scattered limbs painted the Bone Orchards with blood. Corpses of beast and humans... mingled.
The survivors were encircled by thousands of wolves... at the center was their alpha, staring with contempt at the humans who dared challenge him.
A man, bleeding, walked slowly... dragging...
"I'm a Hunter... and I'll never be the prey."
He looked behind, only to see the people with their hollow eyes.
His gaze swept to the boy with bleeding eyes, his exhaustion obvious... his body slick with blood, yet... not a single wound of his own could be seen.
"Lidien... leave... survive... you being able to see the sunrise will be the revenge for us and those who died..." Tom smiled.
With a reverse grip on his knife, Tom rushed towards the towering wolf.
With a sudden bend of his knees, he jumped high to stab the head of the wolf.
Clang!
The knife shattered upon hitting the metallic bristles of the wolf,
And its disdainful look was the last thing Tom saw before his body separated into three, splashing his blood and organs, mixing with the scattered flesh.
"No!"
As Lidien's rage surpassed its limits, he broke what shouldn't be broken... something in his soul cracked, then shattered into pieces, transforming into something worse than the beast before him.
His teeth changed to fangs, his nails became claws... his red eyes turning darker till they became crimson.
"L-Lidien..."
He looked back and stared at Kanaz's broken appearance, her once-bright eyes now lost their light, her smile faded, turned haggard.
Yet, in the face of impossibility... she chose to point her knife, unwilling to die or surrender her life.
Lidien forced a smile, trying not to show the changes in his physical form to the young girl he loved.
"Don't worry, Kanaz... we will see the morning light, and..." he took a deep breath, suppressing his tears.
"...travel the world together... to those legendary oceans you wanted to see."
With a smile, he followed Tom's footsteps.
'Kill... Kill... KILL!'
He ran, so low... that his claws sliced through the bloody ground.
Scooping a handful of dirt, he hurled it at the alpha, who stood there motionlessly.
Yet, it was analyzing him... studying Lidien's every move with its moonlit eyes.
Lidien pounced, stretching his arms like spears and his claws like blades.
The alpha slashed at him with its massive claws, but Lidien narrowly dodged by diverting his momentum sideways...
Not because he was trained to be a fighter... but because of instinct...
Instinct to kill, and never be killed.
Lidien's rotational force enabled him to stay midair for a second, letting the massive claws pass by him.
A chance...
He drove his black claws toward the alpha's head...
Yet, it was Lidien who got his hands and arms bleeding...
With a forceful kick, Lidien freed himself from the blade-like bristles of the alpha, putting distance between them.
Licking his bleeding arms, Lidien smiled...
A smile that made even the survivors flinch.
But he didn't mind; he'd lost his reasons when his goal became killing the alpha.
Lidien rushed again.
This time, the alpha mirrored him.
The alpha pounced... and Lidien slid... cutting its soft stomach with his claws, but not enough to divide it in half...
Yet, something... he hadn't expected happened...
The alpha continued to rush...
Toward his tribesmen, frozen in time...
Then he saw Kanaz... smiling at him, whispering into the air words only ghosts could hear.
'Live...'
"NO!"
He tried to claw the ground to stop his slide, but the bloody ground betrayed him...
Making him unable to stop his helpless slide back toward his tribesmen...
With a howl, the alpha ordered all the wolves to attack... till it vanished into the mist... and Kanaz with it.
Grrrowl!
Lidien roared as he saw his tribesmen being massacred without a fight by the wolves.
He fought, he killed, he tore...
Anything... just to reach them, to search for Kanaz...
But the beast horde wouldn't allow it...
He drank wolf blood when thirsty, ate the raw flesh of those who ate his kin.
Until the morning light touched his face, and he was the only one left standing...
His flesh was torn, his left arm dangled, held only by skin.
Yet, he walked... without strength, without direction...
Only by instinct...
To see his childhood friend again...
But fate was never his, and never fair.
He saw Kanaz's remains, sitting against the acacia-like tree... headless.
He slumped, face-first...
Lidien crawled to her body... the scent of blood and damp earth clinging to her tattered clothes as he whispered the curse.
'Live...'
And with his last look at his childhood friend, he muttered:
"Please... God... just... take me..."
Before losing consciousness with uncertainty.
***
Waking inside the carriage, Lidien stared at the broken ceiling where the same moon from his nightmare now touched his face.
Lidien couldn't stop himself from crying; even if he had experienced a hard life as an orphan living in the slums, he was not cold enough to not feel the grief of the past Lidien.
Wiping his tears, he took a deep breath and tried to calm his burning chest.
'I don't know if I'll ever see the Alpha Moonlit Wolf that killed your tribesmen, but I swear I'll kill anyone who wants to kill this body you gifted me.'
He let his eyes wander toward the curtain and tried to leave the bed with difficulty, due to exhaustion from his last fight.
After walking out of the room, he saw Lily staring outside, torchlight touching her face.
"You're awake now, Lidien... come... sit with your big sis..."
She said this without looking at Lidien.
Lidien used the carriage wall as a guide to sit in front of Lily before staring outside the window.
"We are still far from the center of the Bone Orchards..." Lily muttered, before taking a worried glance at Lidien.
"You must never trust anyone... including me... unless we exit the Bone Orchards..."
Lily held Lidien's hand on the table and gently squeezed it.
"Beware of the Skinless Leopard."