Spirits are incredibly powerful beings that can control the elements of nature such as water, wind, fire, and earth. They are able to directly manipulate these things at will no matter the place, making them truly fearsome creatures. Spirits often travel together and unfortunately get easily riled up so it is often better to just leave them alone. There are many types of spirits, with the most common of all being forest spirits, which is actually the subject of this conversation. Forest spirits are very curious creatures, they will go nearly anywhere and are very numerous in population. Though one will almost never meet a spirit much less see one, for how curious they are they don't actually like to mingle for some reason. Now, with that being said there is one thing that forest spirits will never touch or go near - anything tainted by the undead or anything that gives off such a presence. The taint of death is one of a forest spirits' only weakness. If a forest spirit were to come in contact with any kind of mana tainted by the undead or similar enough in nature, there is a large likelihood of them being transferred the taint and then becoming corrupted. This is because a spirit is actually an ethereal being made almost purely of non attributed mana, and as such it is easy for other attributes of mana to greatly affect any future evolution a spirit might have. As such, forest spirits will almost never go anywhere near something with the smell, feel, or sense of undeath.

Excerpt from Vol.1 of the study of spirits

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Rain poured down as a large amount of land to my left broke off and slid down into the large current of water rushing down the slope. Lighting flickered across the sky as the rain started to fall harder against my fur coat slowing me down. My fur shook as my body started to shiver from the coldness of the falling rain. Looking forward my eyes caught sight of our alpha, his legs stood strong and capable as he pushed himself up the wet and rocky path, leading the pack to our new home. Our alphas name was Gray, and he was my brother. His pelt was black in color, and a few shades darker than my own as was most of the pelts belonging to the males of our pack.

But he had a special metallic look to it, making it shimmer in the light of the moon, showing off his many battle scars. Or at least, it would have, if not for the rumbling storm overhead. He was always the strongest amongst our pack, even as a 9 week old pup he was able to go toe to toe against our strongest warriors and come out on top. But as strong as he was, not every member of the pack could go on without rest, we needed a break.

“Brother, the pack needs rest, we should find a safe place to hold out until the storm blows over!!”

I howled to allow my voice to be heard over the thundering storm.

“We are almost there, the pack remains strong, just a little bit farther.”

My brother howled back as he continued to climb up the rocky path. My eyes scrolled around as I noticed the exhausted movements and the shaking of our pack members as we continued to force our way through the storm. My eyes returned back to my brother as I scrambled to think of what was the right solution at this moment. Was my brother right?? Should we continue on?? We were currently on a rocky narrow path with very little space to turn so the chances of us finding a place to wait out the storm was slim to none, but the pack couldn't take much more of this so finding a place to rest might be paramount to our continued survival.

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We had been traveling non stop for almost a week before we were suddenly hit by this raging storm. Me, my brother, and my brother's mate had moved out of our parents' den in order to make a pack of our own. As a sign of non aggression, our parents had allowed any members of the pack that had wished for it, to follow us to our new home. But was that the right choice? Could we just be leading them to their deaths, perhaps we weren't ready.

“Mother I’m so cold, how much farther??”

My ears perked up as the worried voice of one of our young pups turned my head to stare in their direction. He had only just recently opened his eyes so this was all a new experience for the young wolf. My heart panged in sympathy as one of the first things the young pup was to see after just recently being born had to be a raging storm. Slowly walking forward I moved in the direction of the young pup as he turned to stare at me, hearing my approach. The young pup leaned down in fear as I nuzzled my nose against his fur. I gave a toothy grin before saying words of reassurance to hopefully take some of the worry off of the young pup.

“Do not worry young one, it shouldn't be much farther, I'm sure we will be there before you know it.”

The little wolf looked at me with his tail wagging as he gave a small yip before moving closer to his mother. Although my words held reassurance, my eyes held doubt as I looked ahead where my brother now stood, waiting on top of the rocky path watching as our pack made its way up and passed the top of the hill.

“Keep moving, our new home is just right past this hill, we will be able to rest after we have made it over!!!” My brother barked as his eyes swept over the pack.

Hering this, my heart sped up faster as I let out a sigh of relief knowing that we could finally rest, and I wasn't the only one. I could hear the relieved sighs of my fellow pack members as my brother's voice reached them, but unfortunately, the world always has ways of bringing you down when your hope is at its highest point. There was a loud thundering crash as lightning struck a lone tree standing on top of the hill. A large crack sounded as wood splinters flew everywhere while the tree started to fall down the hill heading towards the rushing water on a downward slope. And unfortunately my brother was right in the way.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

My howl rose over the roaring wind as my body moved on its own. Rushing forward, all my exhaustion was gone as I ran up the rocky slope forcing myself to keep purchase on top of the wet rocks making sure not to slip. Pushing past my pack members, my body jumped as I pushed my brother out of the way. Time seemed to slow down as despair overtook my brother's eyes, seeing the rolling tree heading right towards me. Looking down at my brother, tears rolled down my eyes as my muzzle opened up into a large toothy grin as I looked down at my brother. At least you're safe, I thought as my eyes locked onto my brothers. My eyes held acceptance while all I could see in my brothers was despair.

Looking down at my brother my muzzle opened up as I spoke what would probably be my last words.

“I love you brother, be a good alpha.”

Time sped up once again as I felt the painful sensation of the large tree as it impacted my body and I was thrown off of the narrow rocky path and into the waiting murky river below. The last thing I saw before my head completely vanished under water was my brother trying to jump in after me as the rest of my pack held him back.