Broken Moon

Lina's Sixth Birthday

Lizzys POV, 12 years ago

It was starting to go dark. We knew our parents were probably already looking for us. But we were having too much fun.

We were playing hide and chase in the forest. Only our closest friends were still with us. During the formal part of the party all the children of appropriate age in our pack were there. That was just the way it was when the alphas children had their birthdays. But this part was the real party. When we were in our favorite place, playing our favorite game.

I was eight and Lizzy had just turned 6. Our friends were all around the same age. This meant that none of us had received our wolves yet. We all still had heightened abilities though. We were faster and stronger than a human child. We had better night vision

and we had an amazing sense of smell. Our instincts also made us behave oddly. If one of us was hurt suddenly all of us would be there ready to protect our injured friend. There is a reason the packs separate their children from human society. Pups have the hardest time pretending to be human.

The game had a simple setup but was really hard to be good at. 5 people were hunters and would count. Meanwhile the

others would use whatever they could to get away. We could hide (first needing to mask our scent) or run (preferably while creating several fake and confusing pathways for the hunters to follow). Once the hunters were done counting the would find and pounce on the runners, the prey. The more captured the more prestige. And the longer one avoided capture the more prestige.

We were just about to start a new round when Altic and Mars walked up to us. Altic was visiting from the Bonecrusher

tribe and Mars from the Rainfall tribe. Mars was actually a fairly good friend as our tribes were next to each other and on good terms. He must have shown Altic our playground. Altic was not someone we had met before today. The Bonecrushers

were considered the most violent and dangerous of all tribes. They were the biggest muscle the Council of the Moon could send. The fear this tribe created was one of our best defenses against the other supernatural species. A small group of them were currently here due to a rumor that someone was about to attack us. Clearly the threat was not taken very seriously as we were still allowed to play unsupervised in the forest, they brought a child along and it was only a small group of protectors. It was more like an investigation.

We had enough respect to let them both in and let them choose their roles. Both Altic and Mars chose to be hunters.

Marissa, Max and me were also to be hunters. Before I started counting I gave a blink to Lina indicating I would be hunting her first. I had been training her in how best to not get captured. Once we stop counting we all instantly start heading after the prey. I pick up 3 trails belonging to Lina. She has done a good job as they are about as strong. Usually the latest scent would be the strongest. But by marking certain areas purposely we can make an older area smell as strong as the latest one. I hear several shouts indicating others have been located.

I see a missing piece of bark indicating that Lina must have rubbed against the tree. This makes me exclude this path. 2

more. 50 percent chance. I choose the one which has the most light as I know Lina is still a little afraid of the dark. Altic takes the other path after Lina. I run feeling the wind in my face. Feeling free. Her path is easy to follow. Suddenly I stop. Her scent stopped. False trail? I lost?

I hear her shout to my right. She was taken down by Altic? I hurry over. I thought she would be scared but she

actually looks quite happy.

"I concede I have been captured," she says like a princess.

We keep hunting until all are found. I captured 3, Max 2, Marissa 3, Mars 5 and Altic 7. We applaud Altic and Simon,

the boy who was able to avoid capture the longest. I hate losing but as Mars is slightly older and Altic from one of the best tribes around I handle my defeat fairly gracefully. I do however feel the need to challenge them at something else. As it is now actually dark and I am starting to worry that our parents will be mad I challenge everyone to a race home. I am quite fast, but not the

fastest. Usually that goes to Marissa. But todays victory again went to Altic followed strangely enough by Lina. Lina has always been fast but she was still much smaller than many of us. It was significantly faster than she had ever done before. I hold my hand up for her to high five. This high five she deserves.

We say good bye to our friends and go inside to get hugged by our parents. Lina opens her last birthday present. A

lamp which will create star patterns on the roof. She is really excited about it. We plug it in and the stars light up our room. Our father kisses us good night and our mother starts to read us a story. That’s when the howling starts. First it is just one house but its spreads. It is chilling. I hear people running. I hear the howls of women and children. Our mother looks scared. Lina and I

start crying.

"Lock the door. Barricade the room. Don't open unless you hear me or pappa." She goes outside and Lina and I

help each other barricade the door. The howling feels like it is getting closer. I am certain I am starting to recognize voices. Their screams are not like when we pounce in the woods. They are screaming in fear, in pain and in heartbreak.

That is when I hear running in our house. I hear things smashing. I hear doors opening and people fighting. And I

am really afraid. The most afraid I have ever been. Someone is running up to our door. The perosn starts pulling at the handle.

"Lizzy, Lina, open up. It is Mars. Help me!"

I look at Lina. We don't know what to do. Mars is our friend but mom told us to only open the door for her or dad. He

is pulling the handle in a panicked way. Lina and I silently agree that we need to remove the barricade and help him in. We only move things a small bit so we quickly will be able to put it back once he is in. The moment we open the door we realize our mistake. His eyes, normally a honey brown are red and menacing. I try to slam the door shut but he pushes his foot in. I slam the door on it

repeatedly and Lina hits his foot with a fire poker. I take the fire poker from her and use all my strength to slam it into his leg seeing the skin break and hearing his bone shatter. But it is too late. I see other men from the Rainfall tribe moving towards us. They all have the same red eyes.

They push the door open and grab me and Lina. They ignore the bleeding Mars on the floor. We try to fight back and

escape but they easily pull us downstairs. I see mom and dad still fighting. But something feels wrong. I have seen some of these people fight before and the Rainfalls should not be able to beat us like this. They all appear stronger than usual. I manage to bite the man holding me and he momentarily let’s go of me. I'm about to grab a knife I know is hidden under the couch when I hear the

most frightening sound I have ever heard. My mother gasps and falls to the ground. A wolf has her heart in his fangs. My father immediately stops fighting and falls to the floor. A warrior takes his head off with a sword. I see the men moving towards Lina. Their hands are on her throat and she is crying.

And after that I remember nothing more. I wake in a bed next to Lina. There are some people there I know. Most notably,

the handler for the Moon council Maron and Altics father Varin.

"What do you remember about what happened?" Maron asks kindly.

I say I remember the howls, and Rainfalls with red eyes. I choke on my words as I say:

"They killed my mom and dad. They were going to kill Lina.” I look to my side again to once again confirm that

Lina was in fact alive. “What happened. Who saved us? How many of our pack are still alive?"

"You saved us, " Lina looks at me concerned. "You started glowing and everyone fell to the floor howling

in pain. Then you turned into a wolf and killed them."

"Don't be ridiculous Lina," I say. "I can't turn into a wolf. My sister is traumatized. Please don't

think negatively of her for her active imagination."

Someone opened the door quickly and startled me. I panicked thinking they were coming for us. And in that moment I

met Darkness for the first time. Somehow, I morphed into a fully adult wolf and snarled at the woman entering the room with a tray of food. This shocked everyone except Lina. Most of all it shocked me. But even possibly Darkness.

"Who are you?" She asked in my head.

"I am Lizzy. Are you my wolf?" I responded.

"You're just a pup. And I feel hurt. Something does not feel right. I don't understand."

I fell my stresslevels rising instead of settling. Lina comes over and strokes my neck. I instantly start relaxing and so does Darkness. It is a slow process but I manage to became a human again and the adults in the room look at one another. The woman with the tray left it on the table and left the room quickly. Maron looked thoughtful. Altics father chose to answer my question.

"Most are dead. All of the Rainfall tribe who were on Blacktail land are dead. We have found maybe 50 survivors

among the Blacktails, all of them on Rainfall land."

"50, we were a pack of 3000," I respond. Tears start falling again. My friends, my pack, my family. "What will happen to us?"

Maron answered:

"You will go to your mother's pack, the Whitestones. We will help everyone enter the pack they have the closest

bond to. You will inherit the packlands once you come of age. But the pack known as the Blacktails is dissolved."