He was born and raised in the forest, where he was taught to worship eternal love.

The golden rays of sunset stretched across the forest, painting everything it touched a brilliant shade of orange and gold. A light, breeze blew across the green summer leaves of the trees, carrying with it a few golden leaves that had fallen from the branches. The breeze carried with it a sliver of coolness that contrasted with the hot air around it, signifying the looming arrival of autumn.

In the fields of grass outside the forest was a large pond lush with life, half circled by the dense forest, half open to miles of grassland. During the day, it was a beautiful blue, surrounded by the expansive green forest and grassland. They were a vibrant green only found in the lively months of summer, yet now, everything was a shimmering gold from the rays of the sunset. As the breeze exited the forest, it blew onto the the pond and the grassland, sending ripples down the crystal clear water, and rustling the blades of grass. The rustle of the summer grass was melodic, almost like they were singing in tune a song of welcome for the arrival of fall.

One by one, speckles of phosphorescent green started to rising from the grass, shining beautifully as they flew around. Fireflies. The last batch of the summer. Flying across the golden pond field, a firefly gently descended to rest on a blade of long grass by the water. Using its front legs to brush its antenna, it was completely unaware the grass around it had started to gently rustle. Suddenly, with a loud rustle, a giant wolf pounced out, it’s claws stretched and mouth gaping. With a loud splash, the wolf landed in the shore of the water, the long blade of grass in its mouth. The firefly had escaped just in time from the clutches of the wolf.

Tasela spit out the blade of grass in his mouth. He didn’t want to kill the firefly per se, but he had wanted to catch it. He and his playmates had come to the field to compete to see who could catch the most fireflies. So far, nobody had much luck, so it didn’t frustrate him too much that he'd lost another firefly. It did frustrate him though that the splash from the water had left his front paws, and some of his neck and belly fur wet. He didn’t like the feeling of wet fur sticking to his skin.

With a huff from his nose and a rough shake to get the water off, he turned towards the field where his playmates were. There were eight wolves sprinkled across the field, all either stalking or pouncing at a firefly. It was hard to make out who was who, as despite all of them having different fur colors, the sun had made everyone unanimously golden or brown. Even Tasela, who was a black wolf, now looked a golden brown under the sunset’s rays.

Raising his head, Tasela let out a small howl to draw everyone’s attention, beckoning them. In unison, the other wolves raised their heads to look at him, then slowly trodded to where he was. They were all around the same age, with Tasela being the youngest one. Maybe it was because he was slightly taller than his playmates, and young wolves like him and them tended to look up to the tall adult wolves, but the pups all had a tendency to listen to Tasela. He was like a de facto leader of the group.

The eight young wolves stood there, looking at Tasela curiously, wondering why he had called them over. One of them was missing. Including him, there were ten wolves in total. When looking at the field prior, he had just thought that she was somewhere out of sight. Now that he had called everyone over, it was strange to not be seeing the last member.

“Where’s Chenoa? Has anyone seen her?” He inquired. The other pups shook their heads and shrugged.

“Maybe she’s in the forest so she didn’t hear you?” Sahale, one of them suggested. He was a sandy red wolf with dark brown ears and amber eyes, speckled with bits of sandy white fur along his neck and his back. Sahale was the second oldest member of the group, and the tallest pup after Tasela, yet he only reached to Tasela’s chin.

“Should I go to the forest to look for her?” Sahale offered, an oddly lot of enthusiasm in his voice.

“No need. She’d probably somewhere close around here—” With a loud shriek, a small barn owl swooped down from a nearby tree, transformed into a white wolf midair, and landed on Tasela. Caught by surprise, Tasela lost his balance and fell on the ground. The white wolf had pinned him down, and was now looking down at him while laughing in triumph. He’d recognize that laugh anywhere; it was Chenoa, the missing member.

Chenoa was a white wolf, with bits of light golden fur speckled across her back resembling a barn owl, and gray blue eyes full of energy and fighting spirit. She was the oldest member of the group, yet she was the shortest of them all. Originally, since she was older, she was the tallest of the group. Yet, as the years went by, everyone started to exceed her height, leaving her very annoyed. She loved to challenge Tasela to fights because he was the tallest of the group despite his young age. While Tasela was big, bulky and strong, Chenoa was small but very swift and agile. They always end their fights with a tie, but that never stopped her from continuously challenging him.

Pinned down, with his head under Chenoa’s paw, Tasela smirked. He knew what this meant, it was another challenge to a fight. With a quick turn of his head to bite at the paw pinning him down, which Chenoa easily dodged, he accepted the challenge. The duo rolled around the grass, jumping at each other and dodging attacks. The other eight wolves watched them spar from the sidelines, some laughing and some sighing.

“That’s the third time today. Don’t they ever get tired?”

“No wonder they’re so good at fighting, they’re at each other’s throats every day.”

“I wonder how they’ll be like when they become adults.”

“Probably the same.”

The pups talked amongst themselves as they watched the match between Chenoa and Tasela go on, no winner in sight.

“Should we break them up? It’s almost nightfall now.” One of the pups suggested, turning to look at Sahale. Just as the words left their mouth, a loud howl sounded from the forest. It was the adults from the tribe signaling for them to return.

All seven of the pups turned to looks at Sahale, who sighed in return. In the beginning, Sahale would often intervene to break up the duo because he didn’t want either one of them to get hurt. As their sparring sessions increased, Sahale’s times breaking them up increased, becoming a tradition for everyone in the group to turn to him whenever they had to get Chenoa and Tasela to stop.

Slowly, he padded towards them. The grass underneath the two was flattened from all the activity. With a sigh, he lunged at Tasela and pinned him down.

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“Hey!” Tasela protested.

“Ha!” Chenoa scoffed.

“Come on, the adults are calling us back.” Sahale said calmly, releasing Tasela and turning to walk towards the forest.

The other wolves followed behind Sahale. Tasela got up with a grumpy ‘hmf!’ and followed. Chenoa surpassed him, her head and tail held high with a big grin as she hummed a song of victory. Just you wait, I’ll get you tomorrow, he pouted.

Chenoa transformed into an owl again and flew up to land on Sahale's head, who welcomed her company with a wagging tail. Sahale and Chenoa were very good friends, but Sahale seemed to pay extra attention to her lately. He’d often treat Chenoa with a bit more care than he would with Tasela. Tasela wondered if something was going on between the two.

At the entrance of the forest stood a deer. A tall doe with a dark pelt and sharp green eyes. It was Nokomis, she was waiting for her little brother. The other wolves greeted Nokomis with a small nod or a smile, but when they passed her, some of them turned to look at her with a sad or pitying look. Nokomis didn’t take notice, but she was aware of how they were looking at her.

As Tasela approached last, being at the end of the group, Nokomis walked forward to greet her brother. She didn’t need to lower her neck anymore to greet Tasela like she used to when he was a small pup, he was now much taller than those days. He wasn’t an adult yet, he was barely adolescent in fact, but he was almost at the height of her chin now.

“There’s so much grass on you. Did you fight with Chenoa again?” She asked softly, licking off some of the grass that had stuck to his fur.

“Yeah. Sahale broke us off today, but I’ll get her back tomorrow.” He huffed.

“Anyways, how was you day, sis?” He gently asked.

He looked as his sister. These days, it was hard to ever see her in her wolf form again. Nokomis used to be like Chenoa, energetic and full of spirit; she used to be the joy of the tribe. Now, the energy in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by hollow, bitter sadness. So much had happened to her during the years. He loved his sister very much, it saddened him to see her this way.

“It was the same as usual. I’m glad to hear you had fun though.” She responded with a bitter smile, averting her eyes from Tasela’s and changing the topic.

“Come on, I heard the elders are telling a story tonight.” She turned and started walking towards the forest. Tasela followed with as sigh.

They reached the clearing after a while, the sun having already disappeared then to be replaced by the stars and the moon. Fireflies speckled the forest scenery, and crickets sounded from within the bushes. It was a peaceful evening, like always.

Tasela picked up a piece of meat from the food pile and headed towards his playmates, who had huddled together at the center of the clearing. They chatted while enjoying the meal, feeling rested after a day of playing around. Beside them, in the very center of the clearing, was a large rock. It was where the alphas or elders who had something to announce would stand.

Slowly, an elderly dark grey wolf approached the rock. It was Elu, one of the tribe’s great elders. His muzzle and face was white from age, and it was harder to tell he was once a dark grey wolf as white fur started to grow along his body as well. He slowly ascended atop the rock, and looked down at the group of young wolves huddled beside the rock. With a small cough, they stopped their chatting and retreated a little from the rock, before sitting down to look at the elder.

“As some of you may have heard, I’ll be telling you younglings a story today.” The elder spoke, laying down on the rock and looking down at the young wolves with a loving smile.

“It’s nice to see you pups have grown so much. You’ll be adults in no time, rest assured.” Elder Elu looked into the distance.

“With adulthood comes many new experiences, some good, and some bad.” His eyes landed on Nokomis, who was listening from a distance. She averted the elder’s eyes.

“Say, have you pups ever heard the tale of how us werewolves first came to be?” The pups shook their heads in unison.

“It’s a story I tell to every new generation of pups who reach adolescence, and yet I never seem to get tired of it.” The elder chuckled.

“Thousands of years ago, a divine spirit from the tribe of humans who live in this land, the Navajo they call themselves, met a wolf in the forest. The spirit fell in love with the wolf, and swore to love no one else. The spirit transformed himself into a wolf to chase for her love. The wolf eventually reciprocated the spirit’s love, and the two lived in eternal happiness. Their children were born as wolves, though larger than any other wolves. The spirit blessed their children with the ability to understand other animals. Should they ever fall in love with someone other than a wolf, the child would gain the ability to shift into the species of their loved one. The spirit wished for his children to be just like him, to chase for their loves, and to love eternally.” The pups listened in awe, while the adults passing by smiled from hearing this tale again, remembering when they were once in the place of these pups.

“That is why love is a most sacred and beautiful thing. We werewolves love only one person our whole lives, unending and unconditionally.” The elder finished.

Everyone smiled from listening to the story. Love is a most scared and beautiful thing. Having lived their whole life in the tribe, the pups had all seen how happily in love their parents were. They’d seen how happily in love the other adults in the tribe were with their partners. They’d even seen how some adults had partners from other species, and how happily in love they were with their partner nevertheless. What else could love be but beautiful and sacred?

Amongst the crowd of smiling wolves, one pup frowned. Love. Eternal love. Unending and unconditional. If it is not reciprocated, is it not a curse?

Tasela gritted his teeth. He’d heard that other species don’t love eternally like werewolves do, and he had seen first hand the pain it would cause if a partner had a change of heart. It was a pain he wouldn’t wish even on his worst enemy.

He turned to look at Nokomis, who returned a sad apologetic smile, as if knowing what was on his mind. Seeing his sister like this hurt him more than anything. It was all because of love, the very thing everyone said was sacred and beautiful. Because of love, a once energetic, joyful spirit was now cursed to forever live in pain, pining for someone who won’t reciprocate her feelings. On top of that, there was Bidzii….

A low growl sounded in Tasela’s throat. He shook his head at the memory of Bidzii. How could everyone be smiling at this story? Did they forget about Nokomis? Did they forget the pain she went through? How could they still worship love? He didn’t understand, and he didn’t ever want to understand.

He knew how everyone looked at Nokomis. Whenever they passed her they’d give her looks of pity. He hated it. He hated how they looked at his sister. He hated even more the fact that they knew the pain love could cause, yet they still chose to worship it. It was asinine.

Tasela did not need love. He had his family, his sister, and his friends. That was all he needed.

But Uncle Sunny did not want to fall in love with anyone.