Dedicated to our Mother Nature - the Earth - magnificent creation of God that we so poorly look after. 

I tried conveying the idea of forest wildfires, however, my writing will never paint the whole picture clearly.

☽☽ ☆ ☾☾

When Aedan was just a little werewolf, who still couldn't shift into his wolf form, his mother would take him to the woods with a tiny Gabriel tied with fabric to her chest. Aedan's senses still weren't enhanced, therefore she would introduce him to the trees and plants that inhabited the area.

His mother would tell him how to never lose yourself in the forest, how its inhabitants always aided you to find your way back.

"Mushrooms tend to grow on the Northern side of stomps and bushes, just like moss and lichen would thrive on the Northern side of aspen' and larch's trunks," she had told him once.

"When berries season occurred, they would ripen earlier from the Southern side, Aedan," she had said, "just like that, sweetheart," his mother had drawn back branches of wild strawberries to reveal bright-red sides of pale green berries.

But as time passed, Aedan matured into a shifter, whose senses had been enhanced by the process of growing up. He wouldn't need to look for moss or lichen, ripe berries or mushrooms: he would just trace his steps back, catch various scents in the air or listen to any familiar sound.

However, this gift his mother had given him - the ability to read the forest - Aedan kept very close to his heart. It had helped the boy to mature into a true werewolf, who felt connected to the place he lived in. Since the forest was his home, Aedan realised it was crucial to treat it like one.

One thing he knew beyond any doubt - his mother didn't wish for Aedan to rely purely on his werewolf senses and instincts. Even though Elias, his father, scolded Marvel for softening their son, she never stopped weaving threads of compassion, love and scrutiny into Aedan's developing character as if she was embroidering an already beautiful fabric with gold and silver.

Aedan often thought why Elias hadn't been overfond of him, and it was due to his soft heart and affinity to studying. His mother had always said: "Learning is the eye of the mind," while Elias preferred Aedan and little Gabriel to train, day and night, and become warriors.

That way, Gabriel was more like their father with expressive storm-grey eyes and fair hair, tall and strong with muscle, whilst Aedan was all angles and lines with his willowy limbs and slender frame, resembling their mother's pale blue eyes and raven-black curls.

Unlike Gabriel, Aedan never enjoyed fighting or training, although he was a good defender whenever it came to combat. Besides, he was of much more help in his study or the experiment room, where he invented new things or recorded observations made in the forest, rather than on a field of battle.

Gabriel and Idris - along with other mature werewolves - were then old enough to start training younger werewolves, and after a long day, the three of them would gather in Idris's huge manor and scarf down large meals of dinner, cooked by Greten, Idris's mother.

The sight of forest, meadows and paths were reminiscent of Aedan's childhood. Aedan wasn't sure how old he was, but a few winters back when the three of them were shorter, thinner and more nasty-looking, they spent evenings, sometimes nights, playing in the forest - their home. They invented all sorts of games to keep themselves occupied and away from academia. The Moon Weaver, their teacher, never reprimanded them for that, only shouted their names after them as they shot out of the classroom with the other children once lessons were over, on their way to find yet another troublesome adventure.

Aedan also wasn't sure how Gabriel and he coped with their dear mother's death exactly three winters back. Their father had left two full moons before she fell ill. He left their pack of the Silverfang Prowlers and moved to the North. Elias joined the Onyxtooth Pack of Hilcress and became Thyrius Blackfang's right hand. Marvel was a vulnerable soul and soon after her spouse's departure let the darkness of grief and yearning take over her body, leaving no place for love and hope within her.

She passed away during the night of a warm summer day. Aedan and Gabriel were by her side, holding her delicate hands and patting her parched lips with a moistened cloth.

"The ring," she had gasped.

The ring. Aedan gently swiped it off her bony, ring finger and placed it onto her palm. The silver glinted under the candlelight, the carved leaves on the ring's surface catching the light.

Smiling at Aedan, she had pointed feebly at his heart and handed the ring to him, whispering, "Beloved."

Give it to your beloved.

The pain of losing their mother squeezed his heart with powerful, rapacious hands, and his mother's wish settled in sorrowfully. He had become convinced that there would not be a single woman in the whole world who would replace his mother's place in the centre of his heart.

Elias carved that ring for Marvel and gifted it to her on the Day of Promises; the day before they mated for life. He loved their mother dearly, as much as he could, even though he was an uncouth werewolf with a hardened soul.

Gabriel had said to Aedan that their father left because he loved their mother. Indeed, Elias was different and wished absolute power for werewolves. He believed humans poisoned Starleten with their greed and gluttony. Just like Herielle did, Elias had found support in Thyrius's beliefs and morals regarding humans. Thyrius, like Elias and Herielle, wanted humans cleared off the realm's ground.

We are almost there. Concentrate on any foreign scents. It is clear that Madhorn was set on fire by the Onyxtooth, said Idris into the mind link.

The forest was quiet as the Silverfang Prowlers trotted in between the naked trees. The sound of a seething Cobalt Brook river that ran underneath thin layers of ice filled their ears. Piles of greyish snow dotted the ground, gathering below the trees.

The temperature had dropped low, and, being located near the base of the Terran mountains, Madhorn experienced the first dry snow, unlike Springville, which was situated more to the Western South. It was an early morning, and the air was as still as the forest itself. Heavy clouds hung low and stretched across the sky; somewhere distant in the sky smoke of coal-black swirled, emitted from the village of Madhorn.

Isaac had told them to keep close to the river in case the fire had spread from the village into the forest and they needed to aid in quenching it. Isaac himself broke away with the Elders and other mature wolves to join the Paclave gathering of the Nightshade Keepers, local pack of Madhorn, leaving Aedan, Gabriel, Idris and ten younger werewolves to investigate the perimeter first and attend the gathering later.

Their scents are literally everywhere, huffed Zeff.

A bunch of yapping mongrels, Onyxtooth are, Gabriel grunted.

The scent of intruders was mixed with the smell of smoke and burnt wood. Approximately two miles away the village started, and Aedan looked ahead, Idris's burnt-ochre wolf body running in front of him and Gabriel's tawny fur flecking in Aedan's peripheral vision as the three of them moved in front of the group, overtaking the elevating ground.

Once they reached the peak of the rocky hill, surrounded by trees, Aedan's heart fell to the bottom of his chest.

Overlooking the forest beneath, Aedan observed how fire set the area ablaze ruthlessly. Dried grass caught at the licks of flame and soon was wrapped in the fire's wrath, too. Smoke rose up and fumed above the ground, covering the burning area in a blanket of darkness.

Aedan couldn't see through the smoke, but it seemed that only a small portion of forest had been caught on fire. The wolf breathed out in relief. The villagers had done an excellent job at maintaining the fire within their village. A strip of fires started from Madhorn and continued for less than half a mile, although it began to spread in width, rather than in length.

Aedan, Idris snapped. Aedan spun his head to the left and stared into Idris's wild amber eyes. You and Gabriel must shift and set the watering hose. We will chop the trees down along the perimeter of the fire to prevent it from spreading further.

Gabriel shifted first beside Aedan, followed by bones cracking and fur retracting into his skin. He then untied the bag around Aedan's body and fished out a shirt and trousers, into which he dressed swiftly.

Whilst Gabriel raced towards Idris and other werewolves to unfasten packs from their bodies, Aedan shifted into his human form. The cold air hit his body instantly, pinching it with cold as he stood up and clothed himself into the same attire as the rest of the werewolves. Aedan rolled his head side to side and rotated his arms in huge circles to release the pressure that built in his muscles.

"Aedan, I got the bag, we shall hurry," Gabriel said from behind Aedan.

He acknowledged his brother, and together they sprinted down the rocky hill towards the river.

"We have got a good control line there," Aedan said, pointing to the hill they had run off from. "Rocks will slow down the fire, and we'll have more time to douse it. But we can't save the burning trees if we want to save the untouched ones."

"Alright, I will extend the hose up the hill while you set up the water pump," Gabriel shouted over the crackling of wildfire. He pulled the roundly twisted hose out of the bag, gave one end to Aedan, seized the other and darted back to the hill.

Aedan jogged towards the riverbank, his bare feet padding on the soft but icy ground. Miniature glaciers floated down the river, tiny islands of ice forming along the banks. The river flowed slowly as if the imminent winter had slowed down the natural clock of water. The opposite riverbank was far away, its horizon blending into the accumulated snow under the trees.

He poked ice that formed below him with a stick he had picked up on his way. The ice split with spiderweb fissures and disappeared into the river. Aedan submerged the pump into the water; it was a heavy one cast from iron but the werewolf handled it with little effort.

Once the device buoyed, Aedan gripped the lever and started pumping, up and down, the plunger hissing as the air was sucked in and out, water filling the vessel up and leaving through the hose under pressure. Aedan followed the hose with his eyes up the hill until they met Gabriel's. His brother gave him a brief nod and turned the hose towards the inferno that was overtaking their home.

Sweat poured in rivulets down his back, arms, face. It drenched his shirt, and it stuck to his back and chest like a second skin. He ignored a whining strain in the muscles down his arms, and he kept pumping water, squinting occasionally at the hill and Gabriel, who had been swinging the water hose over the trees before the crag. Aedan continued to pump, hopeful it was going to end the fire in assembly with his friends, who diligently chopped down trees that hadn't been caught on fire yet.

"Aedan!" Idris hollered after some time from a long distance. "I need you here, help the others with those trees!"

Confused and irked that his job had been terminated, Aedan pulled the pump out of the river and discarded it on the bank. He then hurried to the base of the hanging cliff, from which Gabriel was standing. Aedan arched his neck to look up at his brother and waved his hand, gesturing him to come down.

The fire had stopped at the trees that lined the rocky hilled cliff; some trees in between were still being scorched. The earlier ones had charred completely, piles of cinders on the ground, leaving coal-black sticks with short projections that had once been branches, as they had been chopped off. Smoke loomed over the trees and werewolves, its pungent smell filling Aedan's nose; bitter taste lined the back of his throat.

His eyes shot towards Zeff and Mena when Illana had shouted words of encouragement to push it and swing the axes faster.

Aedan rushed to Mena's side, her flaxen hair sticking to her dampened neck. She glanced at Aedan, ruby-red eyes dull with exhaustion and canines sticking out of her panting mouth. Seizing the axe from Mena's small hands without a word, he switched positions with her.

Raising the axe above his head, he brought it diagonally to the trunk with a loud thump as the iron blade connected with soft wood. A continuous wave of adrenaline rushed through his blood, emitting power through his muscles, and sweat rolled off him like a waterfall. Mena was catching her breath, while Aedan hit the wood with newly-mobilised strength.

Gabriel joined his brother later and aided by bringing his weight to bear on the dissected trunk to take trees down at a quicker pace.

They carried on chopping trunks and knocking healthy trees to the ground along the perimeter of where the fire had affected the forest to terminate it from spreading deeper into the forest. Aedan saw Idris from the corner of his eye, helping Mena and Zeff gather long trunks in a heap and tie them together with a rope they had brought from their pack quarters.

After healthy trees had been bound in manageable heaps and the ongoing fire had been put out by a water hose, Aedan's senses returned. An icy gust of wind struck Aedan's body, causing a series of shudder waves to rush through his skin, hairs along his bare arms. Tendrils of sunlight reached the cold ground, warming it in vain.

Aedan looked towards the sun that hid behind grey clouds, hoping for it to warm his frozen face. Someone nudged his shoulder, and Aedan rotated his head slowly to see Mena handing him a woollen coat.

"Thank you, Mena," Aedan muttered. She smiled at him and strolled towards the other girls, who had made a fire and were heating up a stew.

Gabriel let out a heavy sigh, wiping his face with a cloth and walking towards Aedan. "This is the best training you could have ever wished for," he declared. "You wouldn't be so tired now if you had visited at least one training five days ago."

"Clever of me to assemble that water pump a full moon ago, isn't it? Otherwise, I wouldn't have been of any use at all, eh?" Aedan scoffed at Gabriel, receiving a stern stare from his brother. "Life is not all about training, brother, stop thinking about it all the time."

Gabriel's steel-blue eyes focused on Aedan in scrutiny. He swung the cloth over his neck. "What has gotten into you? We were all in it together. You better gather yourself together before the Paclave meeting, you don't want to be seen like this in front of the Elders and other packs."

Aedan plopped down onto the ground, crossing his long legs. "I think I have had just enough of you all telling me what's best for me, Gabriel."

"Someone is being," Idris paused, looking down at Aedan, "capricious today."

Aedan sucked in a breath, rolling his eyes. "You are here, too."

"As you can see, body and soul in front of you, ready for your next caprice," Idris smirked, gesturing from his head to toes. Brown hair fell to his jaw in waves, amber eyes glowing like embers of the fire. His face was smudged with coal along his forehead, and his shirt was no longer crisp white as it had been before they set off from their pack's headquarters.

Aedan couldn't help but notice how radiant Idris had been for the past fortnight. Especially, after finding out that Isaac, Idris's father, assigned his son to lead the group into the forest to control the spread of the wildfire. Idris felt the rightful authority and responsibility for the decision his father had taken, therefore, with his commands and teamwork, the werewolves were able to act promptly.

Gabriel had never felt so distant to Aedan than ever. Aedan heard unspoken words that persisted in the air between him and Gabriel.

Aedan sat in between the other werewolves, sipping on the tea the girls had prepared. His body had warmed fully, so he removed the coat. Facing the sky above, his eyes fluttered shut, shadows playing over his face. Everyone around him was chattering, making it difficult for him to concentrate and listen to the Whisper of trees around them.

The wind howled; birds flapped their wings as they jumped from branch to branch; the distant flow of the river rushed with the current of water. Trees whispered to each other, solemn as ever.

~ Most unfortunate what happened to Madhorn at night, they cried.

~ The fire has taken up the whole village. People are left with no roofs to sleep under.

~ We were lucky to be saved by the Silverfang Prowlers!

~ Is Thyrius to blame for such an occurrence?  they hushed.

~ Most definitely. I am afraid the Silverfang Prowlers will be next.

~ Poor Enchanted Forest! We don't want our fellow sisters and brothers there to fall, too!

~ Bushes around the Great Hall told me the Paclave meeting has been gathered! one of the trees whispered.

"We have got to get going," Aedan announced, standing up. "The Paclave meeting will commence shortly."

Silence pierced the circle of werewolves like lightning pierced the sky.