The Duel, the Cry, the Cravern
1445 Words
Averie stood before the Elder Ring, carved into stone by wolves who’d ruled when the moon was still young. Selene circled her like a vulture in silk.
Around them, thousands watched — packs from all ends of the territory.
Selene’s voice rang like crystal:
“I challenge you, Flameborn, by ancient right.
One duel. One winner.
The Alpha of Alphas will rise by the moon’s decree — or fall by it.”
Gasps. The crowd murmured.
Kaelen stepped forward, fury blazing in his eyes.
“She can’t challenge — not with blood on her hands!”
Elder Liora’s voice silenced all.
“The flame may burn unjustly. But fate shall still test its worth.
The duel… begins at next moonrise.”
Selene smiled.
Averie didn’t flinch.
“I’ll be there. But I don’t duel for thrones.”
Selene’s eyes narrowed.
“I duel to end the lie you built your throne on.”
---
That night, as stormlight cracked across the sky, Averie was visited by a whisper.
At the edge of the scent barrier, a girl stood — trembling, collar flickering with dying suppression magic.
Her voice was hoarse.
“I remember… my name,” she said. “Please… help me… before it’s gone again.”
Kaelen caught her before she collapsed.
Her eyes glazed. “They said… if I spoke your name… they'd take the rest.”
Averie’s rage swelled like wildfire.
“No one takes you from me,” she whispered.
“We go tonight,” Kaelen said.
Myrra nodded. “We rescue her… and burn their labs to the ground.”
But first, Averie needed answers. Real ones.
Ancient ones.
---
Beneath the Hollow Cliffs lay the Caverns of Moon Memory — sealed for centuries. Myrra led Averie down jagged paths, to the mouth of the sacred tomb.
Only Lunas touched by fire were allowed here.
Inside, the air pulsed with ancestral whispers. Wolves long dead. Bonds long severed. But their memories still lived.
Averie knelt before the crystal pool at the cavern’s heart.
“Show me the first scent,” she whispered.
“Show me where fate began to break.”
The water shimmered.
Visions surged.
She saw herself as a child — before her scent was dulled, before the bond was stolen. She saw the ritual used on her — a spell layered by Rowen himself. It was never fate. It was manipulation.
And then…
She saw Selene’s name burned in a forbidden moon text, marked "Descendant of the Unbound."
A bloodline known for destroying scent magic to rule by will alone.
Averie’s voice shook the cave.
“She was never bonded. She was born to steal bonds.
This is bigger than me.”
The wind howled as Averie crouched behind the obsidian ridge, eyes locked on the Frostvale compound.
From here, it looked like a shrine — glass towers and clean lines. But inside were cells. Collars. Children.
Wolves with no scent. No past.
Kaelen touched her shoulder. “We go in. We get them out. We send a message.”
Myrra cracked her knuckles. “And we don’t leave a single collar standing.”
They moved in shadows.
Kaelen disabled the outer guards with precision. Myrra led a storm into the eastern wing.
Averie kicked down the main door — and the scentless girl from before, now conscious, met her eyes.
“You came,” she whispered.
“I always will.”
Averie shattered her collar with a strike of flame magic that roared blue-hot — not the usual orange. It was awakening.
The scentless wolves began to stir — sniff the air. Whimper. Remember.
Selene’s Second-in-Command arrived in full armor, wielding a scent-stealing blade.
“You’re too late,” she hissed. “The ritual is complete.”
Averie’s eyes flared.
“Then let’s undo your sins with fire.”
She burned the blade to ash and knocked her unconscious.
As they escaped, Averie turned and watched the lab explode — blue fire rising into the sky like a signal.
A message to Selene:
You do not own fate. You only borrow time.
---
The ancient arena trembled with anticipation.
Selene wore frost-metal armor — elegant, deadly. Her hair bound in braids of ice.
Averie walked in wearing no armor, no crown — just the mark of the Flame and the look of a storm about to break.
Elders lined the edges. Alpha Rowen sat in shadows, watching with clenched fists.
The Moonstone Bell tolled.
Selene drew twin daggers. “Still think you're fire enough to beat me?”
Averie raised her hand — flame danced in her palm, but she didn’t throw it.
“I’m not here to beat you,” she said.
Selene lunged.
They clashed — blades against flame, ice against soul. Sparks flew, blood spilled. Selene landed a s***h across Averie’s shoulder.
“You’re weak,” she sneered.
Averie smiled — blood on her teeth.
“No. I’m remembering.”
With a roar, she unleashed blue fire — not from rage, but from memory.
The flames sang.
It wasn’t a weapon. It was a voice.
---
As Selene staggered, the moon above flashed red. The arena shook.
From the flame, voices rose — not screams, not fury.
But song.
Wolves howled in harmony.
The First Flame had awakened — the memory of the first wolves, the first bonds, the first truth.
“No scent is ever stolen,” the song echoed.
“Only forgotten. But we remember.”
Selene screamed, clutching her head as the fire surged around her.
The ancestors didn’t curse her — they named her.
Selene of the Unbound. Destroyer of Memory. Betrayer of Flame.
And then — silence.
Selene collapsed.
Rowen vanished.
And Averie stood in the center, burning blue, her flame now sacred.
The Elders bowed.
Kaelen ran to her side, but stopped — stunned.
Because behind her, glowing faintly, was not just her own flame…
But a second, older fire.
The mark of the First Luna.
Averie was no longer just Flameborn.
She was the Flame Remembered.
---
For the first time in three decades, the Council met with no Alpha of Alphas presiding. The chair at the center stood empty — until Averie entered.
She did not sit.
“I didn’t come to claim a throne,” she told them. “I came to return what was stolen.”
Elder Liora, voice weary but respectful, asked: “Then what do you propose, Flame Remembered?”
Averie turned slowly, gaze meeting every leader’s.
“No more scent rituals by force.
No more bond branding.
From this day forward — fate is a flame, not a leash.
And every wolf will choose whether to carry it.”
Some nodded. Some whispered.
Alpha Tyrus stood. “And what of Selene?”
Averie’s eyes flared. “She faces me next.”
---
In the mountain prison, Selene sat cross-legged in silence, her silver hair undone, her gaze distant. The scent collar around her neck now flickered weakly — not suppressing, only reflecting.
When Averie entered, Selene didn’t look up.
“You came to gloat?”
Averie shook her head.
“I came to see the girl who was told she had to destroy others to be enough.”
Selene laughed — cracked and bitter.
“I was born Unbound. You don’t know what that means.”
“No,” Averie said softly, “But I know what it means to feel broken before you ever had a chance to be whole.”
For a moment — just a heartbeat — Selene's mask broke.
Tears shimmered in her eyes.
“They made me forget my own scent… before I even knew it.”
Silence.
Then Averie placed a single flame crystal on the stone between them.
Not an execution.
An invitation.
“Remember.”
---
Later, Averie stood on the balcony of the Moonrise Keep, arms wrapped around herself as dawn touched the mountains.
Kaelen approached, slow and uncertain.
“You lit the world on fire,” he said, a faint smile on his lips. “Now what?”
She leaned into him, her scent no longer masked or stolen — just hers. Just real.
“Now… I let it burn what needs to die. And rebuild from what remains.”
Kaelen’s hand brushed her cheek.
“You know you could rule everything.”
Averie shook her head, resting her forehead to his.
“I don’t want to rule. I want to belong — to myself. To you. To fate, if it still wants me.”
He kissed her then — slow, fierce, full of everything they’d survived.
And the wind carried a new scent between them.
Something unmarked.
Something free.
- Writer
