Tiza Narito

Redeeming Love

As it is said—no man was made to live alone. And even in the deepest darkness, light can still be found.

I was lost. Hunted like an animal.

For months I had lived in the thick covers of the forest high in the hills. I did not sleep. I did not rest. Not because I feared death… but because I was tired. Tired of the killing. Tired of the running.

Tired of the stench of blood that clung to me like a curse. They came for me endlessly. Soldiers. Hunters. Assassins. Their mission was clear kill the marked wolf. And they would stop at nothing to complete it.

It was a dreadful night when they found me again. I remember the moon was barely visible through the storm clouds. Rain fell in quiet sheets. My body was bruised, cut, and weak. I had no weapons left. No strength. Only pain.

"Why won’t they let me be?" I whispered to myself, pressing my back against a tree. My breath came in short, sharp gasps. My blood painted the earth beneath me.

It had been a year since the awakening the day the beast within me tore through everything in its path. I had kept it tamed since then, buried deep in silence and solitude. But it always watched, always waited. That night, hiding in the shadows, I somehow survived until dawn.

When the first light broke, I made my way slowly toward the edge of the hill, hoping for a better view or maybe, deep down, for peace. My body gave way just as I reached the edge. The earth slipped beneath my feet. And I fell.

A New Beginning

When I opened my eyes again, I didn’t know who I was.

The sky above was bright, and birds chirped softly nearby. A man with sun-darkened skin and kind eyes leaned over me. He was older, weathered from a life of labor—a simple village hunter named Eran.

“You’re safe now,” he said, his voice low and calm. “You fell. Lucky I found you.”

I could barely speak. My mind was clouded. Names, faces, places—they all slipped through my thoughts like sand through open fingers. I didn’t even remember my own name.

He took me to his village, hidden in a valley far from any war or bloodshed. A quiet place untouched by the chaos of the world. That’s where I met Lara.

The Light in the Silence

Lara was the daughter of the village healer. She had eyes like the dawn sky—soft, patient, always searching. Her voice had the gentle calm of flowing water. She would come to check on me every morning, bring me food, clean my wounds, and ask simple questions I had no answers to. At first, I said nothing. I was a stranger to myself, a ghost trapped in a body with no past. But Lara never gave up on me. She laughed when I was silent. She spoke kindly when I was cold. She walked with me when I couldn’t walk alone.

And somewhere, slowly… I began to feel again.I didn’t know her, but I trusted her. She showed me things I had never seen in all my years of war how to care for the earth, how to listen to trees, how to dance by the fire. She taught me what peace looked like… and what love felt like. And one day, under the shade of a tall tree where we often sat, she looked at me and asked:

“Do you ever feel like you were made for something more?”

I didn’t know what to say. But when I looked into her eyes, I felt something stir inside me. Something ancient and forgotten… but warm. Maybe it was love. Maybe it was healing.

Two Years of Peace...

For two full years, I lived in that village.I helped Eran hunt. I carried water from the river. I held Lara’s hand at the harvest festival. The nightmares stopped. The darkness faded. I was no longer a soldier. I was no longer a weapon. In the quiet, I found myself. I did not know my name. But I knew who I had become. And in the arms of Lara… I learned how to live.