The Hidden Forest

Many years ago, the Moon goddess decided after seeing how brute mankind was against the poor animals for centuries long, that she needed to start over. Making her own ideal forest realistic. A place where the animals of the forest don’t have to hide themselves from the bloodied hands of humans. In the beginning of time, the Moon goddess allowed the humans to hunt for food, as food is necessary for humans to live. But the humans got greedier over the years. They hunted animals for sports, as a hobby. They skinned the ones whom weren’t supposed to be hunted and made decorations of their skin. Hanging their heads on the walls as trophies. This angered the goddess to a point where she made the forest inhabitable for the humans. By growing poisonous fruits, bushes and flowers with thorns, deadly insects and the list goes on. But no animal would get hurt by those things. As they were meant to hurt humans. To scare them away and force them to move out of the forest. The humans were driven to a corner and decided to leave the woods. They settled down on land and that’s when their nomadic life stopped. They started building cities and planted their food on their own. Realizing that this life is better than living in the dangerous woods. The Moon goddess was proud her plan worked, but the damage the humans did to the life within the forest was far too big to fix. She watched in horror when she saw a pack of wolves hunting down rabbits and when she looked on her other side she saw a bear eating a dear. The bigger animals became predators, as the smaller ones became prey. The goddess broke down in tears, “What have they done to my poor souls” They weren’t supposed to become food for each other. The animals of the forest were supposed to live together in peace. But they watched the humans hunting over and over again, for so many years, that they started hunting too. And soon it became their instinct. The instinct for the preys to run away and hide, as for the predators to seek them out and hunt. Discouraged, the Moon goddess became quiet. She was no longer in state to hear the screams of the animals in anguish and closed off communication between the goddess and her creations. Their prayers were left unanswered for years. Prayers with wishes to go back to the time where humans haven’t yet set foot in the woods. Even when the goddess already shunned out the humans, they came back. More prepared. They felt no need to live in the forest anymore, as their life outside was more peaceful. And yet, they came back. When the first humans set foot again within the woods, all animals halted. Both the small as the bigger ones. They all went in hiding. Traumatized about how their life was when they still lived with the humans. This alarmed the Moon goddess whom left the forest on its own after her failed attempts to rescue it. She watched the humans in disgust as they were stomping around with smirks on their faces. Then she heard it. The prayers flowing back to her. She thought the animals would hold a grudge against her for disappearing, but it was far from that. They were overjoyed that the connection was back in place and thanked the goddess for coming back. But the Moon goddess was powerless against humans. She could do them no harm directly and her earlier attempts seemed in vain as they’re back. But she noticed a special prayer. This wasn’t like the others whom where asking for help. This one was asking to make them stronger to protect the forest. It was a wolf pack. They were already ready to pounce on the hunters, but knew that they were lacking something. The humans had always had the upper hand against the animals, so the goddess decided something. She let the wolves be able to shift into humans, but they will still be wolves at heart. And they will be the new protectors of the forest. The werewolves. This seemed to work. The humans were petrified when they saw wolves turn into humans and back into wolves. Also this new blessing cast upon the werewolves, made them more powerful and smarter. They were able to cast the humans away as they knew their fear will spread all over the human world. Soon the humans will tell their children stories about what happened that night, telling them to not set foot inside the woods. The Moon goddess was delighted with the results. As a token of gratitude she gave the werewolves a new blessing. A mate. Each one of them will find their soulmate at an appropriate time and fate will let them meet. Their mates are their souls other half, bound to love and care for them until their last breath. Its a blessing that anyone who has found their mate wouldn’t give up, not even for all the power in the world. Only a sniff of their scent and a glance at their face is enough to identify them as their mate. The werewolf pack was happy with these new blessings and promised the Moon goddess to protect the forest from humans. The only thing that was still bothering the goddess, was that as soon as they shift into their wolves, their hunt instinct surfaces and shred the other animals apart. They were also stronger than before and would fight against other predators too. This concerned her but all the options seemed wrong. She thought about letting them become wolf only on a moonlit night. But that’s too cruel for their wolves to be only let out once a month. She thought about only giving mates to the ones who resist the urge to hunt. But she realized none of them would be able to do that. She thought about making the small animals stronger. But then they would start hunting too and she wanted to protect their innocence. Then she came upon a good idea. She will give the werewolves a territory. Big enough for them to live comfortably, but with borders. Their body will resist to go further than the borders and make them go back. Only the werewolves will live inside the territory. The other animals will be outside of the borders, safe from the werewolves. The goddess did realize that this would make it hard for them to protect the forest against the humans. So she turned three other wolf packs in werewolves too. Each one of them will settle either in the north, east, south or west side of the forest. They all swore an oath to protect the woods and if they broke the laws of the goddess, she would take their mates away. As they wouldn’t deserve them. Things were going smoothly. Its been 70 years since a human could set 3 steps inside the woods. The werewolves were no longer a threat for the animals outside, but they still couldn’t resist to hunt the ones whom came inside their territory. And the secret new world the Moon goddess made in the center of the forest was successful. A couple years ago she decided to make a new forest. She decided to keep it a secret from the whole forest until it was complete. It was a place, hidden inside the center. A forest she had been longing to see for over 100 years already. A place where all animals of different races can live together in peace. But this one is still not like the perfect one she had in mind. It needed more time and more solutions to all the problems. The only ones who knew of it’s existence were the lost souls who happened to find it while running away from predators. They were allowed to live inside and leave whenever they wanted, but not to speak about it to anyone. It wasn’t ready yet. She was one who believed in fate and only if fate brought them to this place, they could stay. The place was getting livelier and even big animals are now living at this place. Together in harmony with all kinds of other animals. Just like she wished to see for a century long. But then it happened. It went unnoticed for so long, no one saw it coming. The werewolves whom were supposed to guard the east side, were poisoned to death. It was the humans who did it. Each week, they poisoned the water and after 5 months not a single one was found alive on the east side. Excited that they finally took down the fearful werewolves, the humans started penetrating the woods. Thankfully each side had their own separate food banks and rivers. So the other packs were unaffected. The humans didn’t know this and were faced with the wrath of the werewolves on the other sides. But the humans who sneaked in from the east side were successful. They went deeper in the forest looking for things to hunt. The goddess was terrified. She worked so hard and it took so long to make the hidden forest, she couldn’t stand it that the humans were about to take that away. She casted a spell upon the hidden forest. There was no one to guard the gate. So the moon goddess casted a powerful spell that anyone who gets near, would get lost. Their feet would instead bring them to the borders of the other packs. In the future, she’ll find out that it contrasted the reason why this place existed. Because even the animals who had a right to enter the place, got lost in the trees. Lastly, to end the battle, she allowed the alphas of the three packs to leave their borders and attack the humans. But only the alphas, because they had the most resistance to become murderous beasts when met with other animals. So much blood has been shed that day. But the moon goddess was thankful it was mostly human blood. To close this day, she casted rain clouds above the forest. To wash away all the blood.