THE CURSED LUNA'S RISE

Episode 1 Elara could feel her heart beating so violently it could have burst through her chest. The clearing was now covered by the Moonfire Festival, and the full moon silver light had fallen upon all the wolves. The wolves trotted gently over the moss-laden terrain with their eyes gleaming in the brightness like glass. The pine smoke of the ritual fires swirled through the air and writhed in her stomach. The power was electric and vibrant, every cry and song forming a tune that caused her to feel that she was a part of something greater. She clasped her cloak more closely, but it had little or no effect on the tremor that was passing through her when she rubbed her leg against Seris, which was always warm and soothing. She attempted to balance herself and crammed her lungs with the frosty, chilly night air. Focus. Focus. This is the night. This has to be the night. However, her thoughts were a lie, and they kept on recalling all the moments they shared with Kael Draven, the Alpha head of the pack. The boy who had always been so close, tormenting her, laughing with her, guarding her without her remarking on it. She recalled all the nights when they had been running in the woods, the glances they snatched, and the words they had said no. She even felt her chest tightening when she thought of him. A derogatory voice behind her stated, "You are staring. Elara leaped as she turned and saw Mira smiling at her. "I'm... I'm just..." Her voice faltered. "You are hopeless, you are hopeless," Mira said and laughed tenderly. You have got your fingers around his finger, and you stand there waiting like a lovesick fool. Not... not like that, I said to myself, but the warmth that was creeping up the backbone of her neck was unfaithful to her, Elara. She made herself stare elsewhere, but her eyes slid back to Kael. The moon rose and shone silver upon the empty space. The elders were chanting in a subdued way, and the rhythm of their voices, as they flowed through her chest, was very pleasant. The energy was palpable. The quickening of her heartbeat gave her a tug at the breast, which she could not resist. She looked directly into the eyes of Kael, and the world had contracted, and she was alone, and she was there with Kael. She sighed, and her heart began to throb. This had to be it. She has sensed it—powerful and unquestionable. Yes... yes, it is... it is him... she thought. "It has to be." Their past together made her think of him, how he had rescued her during a training session, how they used to laugh at night under the stars, or how they used to spend some time together without saying a single word. She experienced the connection to spark, wild and fierce. However, his face then brightened. His lips closed, and his eyes were a little narrowed. She felt more confused and frightened. She would have liked to know what he was wrong about, but she did not know how to express herself. "I reject you, Elara Veyron." Her words to her were like a knife. Swallows fell all round the clearing. Wolves were fidgeting about, some whispering, some laughing, and some in horror. She slipped off and dropped onto the ground, her hands plowing deep holes in the moss to keep herself in reality. Seris screamed inside her head, with anguish and terror. Kael, who had started to walk to Lyanna Crestfall, the daughter of the Alpha of the Shadowfang Pack, placed his hand into hers. The smile of Lyanna was triumphant, smug, and utterly merciless. Each beat of her heart, each breath, was a betrayal of her body. "No... it can't be," she crackled. Move aside, Veyron," sneered some voice behind her. Her ears were hot, with all their eyes upon her, accusing, scorning. Her wish was to sink away, to be melted down. The blaze that had flashed within her just a moment ago now seemed to have been torn out and in its place to have left but cold vacuity. "Is this real?" she thought desperately. "Was I ever...?" And her memories became her betrayal, showing her every laugh, every glance, every moment that she had lived with him. Humiliation, betrayal, and powerlessness wrapped around her chest, causing difficulty breathing. "I choose Lyanna. She will be on my side, and you... you will know where to go, Kael, detached, sharp voice. The hands of Elara turned into fists, and the nails pierced her palms. Her mind screamed, and her soul flamed with a mixture of rage, sorrow and disbelief. She heard Seris throbbing and throbbing in her mind. You are not broken. You are becoming. Becoming? How was she to get up when all that she knew had fallen? There was a spark inside her that was so faint and strange, yet not dead. Kael and Lyanna moved off together and left her standing in the middle of the clearing. The moonlight flashed on her shaky figure, the shouts and scorns of the pack like knives in her brain. She leaned her forehead on the ground and sniffed of pine and smoke. The fire... the relationship... it had been there. She had felt it. It hadn't been a dream. Can they really do this? Is that what we were supposed to be, that Kael can simply wipe out? She looked up at the moon, and the light of the moon flashed along in the streaming tears down her face. She had been humiliated by the pack, but there was still the spark, the fire, the power, and the defiance. "They have not yet seen the last of me..." she whispered. "They will regret this." With a yell of a wolf in the far distance, sharp and piercing and reverberating in the forest. The black eyes of Elara came to a narrow, the spark in them leaping, answering the moonlight. She could clearly sense the slight movements of her fire, trembling and yet still unequivocal. Who, who will I be to live through this... and get back what's mine!? Her heartbeat quickened, her breast ached, and the night was alive upon her. All the shadows appeared to be threatening and promising, and as both the figures of Kael and Lyanna slipped into the shadows, Elara understood that she was no longer the falling girl. She would rise. And then, there was one thought that resounded in her head with cold certainty—how dearly should she pay to have her fate restored!?