The Verdant Wilds breathed.
Fenra could feel it beneath her feet—the slow, ancient pulse of the forest moving through root and stone like the steady heartbeat of something vast and alive. The wind whispered through the towering trees, carrying the scent of pine, damp earth, and something darker that set the hair along the back of her neck on edge.
She crouched atop a moss-covered ridge, one hand pressed lightly against the forest floor.
The ground answered.
Roots stirred beneath the soil, responding to the quiet surge of power that lived in her now. Since the Heart Spring had remade her, the forest did not merely surround Fenra.
It listened.
Her silver-streaked hair drifted around her shoulders in the wind, strands catching the dim light filtering through the canopy. One of her eyes glowed faintly blue. The other, a deep wolf-green, flickered as the spirits within her stirred.
Two wolves shared her soul now.
And both were restless.
Fenra exhaled slowly.
"You feel it too," she murmured.
Inside her mind, the wolves shifted—one older, ancient and steady, the other younger and fierce. Their instincts brushed against her thoughts like cold wind across snow.
Something was wrong.
Behind her, a branch snapped.
Fenra didn't turn.
"You're getting sloppy, Kael."
A chuckle came from the shadows.
"I stepped on one twig."
"You stepped on three."
Kael stepped into the clearing, hands raised in mock surrender. Moonlight caught the faint emerald glow that threaded through the veins along his forearms, barely visible beneath the skin.
The Verdant energy had changed him just as deeply as Fenra.
He was taller than most men, broad-shouldered but lean with the strength of someone who moved constantly through wild terrain. His dark hair had grown longer since the Heart Spring, often falling into his eyes—eyes that now shimmered with swirling green and silver light.
When he looked at the forest, it looked back.
"Next time," he said, stepping beside her, "I'll bring a marching band so you really hear me coming."
Fenra smirked faintly.
"You'd still lose the hunt."
Kael leaned against a tree, arms crossing as he studied her.
Even after everything—the battles, the transformation, the bond that tied them together—she still looked half like a myth stepped out of the forest itself.
Silver fur traced lightly along the ridge of her shoulders and forearms. Golden runes glowed faintly across one arm like living tattoos. And her eyes...
One wolf blue. One wolf green.
Fenra tilted her head slightly, listening.
The forest whispered around them.
Leaves rustled though the air had gone still.
Kael felt it too.
His expression shifted.
"Something's moving."
Fenra nodded.
"North ridge."
YOU ARE READING
Shadowed Howl
ActionThe Verdant Wilds are alive-and restless. Fenra, the last of her sacred wolf lineage, and Kael, a human bound to the forest's ancient magic, have become fully awakened guardians of the Verdant Wilds. Their bond-spiritual, physical, and mystical-has...
