As we got closer to the edge of the woods, a large bird landed and shifted into a young man. He untied a small bundle around his leg and pulled out a pair of pants from it. I tried not to look as the young man put on his pants to cover his nakedness. Trent didn’t say anything, being a shifter himself.

“Your region has some good timing,” Trent mentioned to the young man.

The young man looked at the forest, “I’m just glad that we came up with something to help you guys with the fire disasters.”

The other bird shifters landed and shifted into men ranging from different ages. They then ran off to gather whatever they had used to put out the fires. It made me wonder what they used. Also, how did they expect us to use it if we didn’t have any bird shifters left in our region? The disasters either killed them or pushed them out.

“We saw the smoke a while back and decided to demonstrate our new idea,” the young shifter mentioned, “Just don’t ask us how we came up with the idea or how we got it. It’s too complicated to explain.”

Trent nodded in understanding. It's probably something that was mentioned to him before about the machine keeping him alive. But there was still the question that was running through my mind and I didn’t hesitate to ask it.

“So what did you use to put out the fires and how are we supposed to use it?” I asked. Making the young shifter look at me with a smile.

“We made tarps that could gather a large amount of water to be poured on the fires. Sadly, only bird shifters can use it at this time and we heard you guys are a little short of those,” the shifter answered, “It’s why some of us are moving out of the snowy lands to live here. Maybe we even find ourselves a wife to have a family with.”

Trent stood between the bird shifter and me in a protective way. It was like he was claiming his property to the shifter. It kind of took me by surprise and brought back the mention of his words earlier. His actions were saying that he was willing to take on a new wife. But part of me was that he was just protecting me from being taken advantage of. Trent never showed interest in any woman since his wife died.

“Luna!” Luke’s voice shouted from somewhere in the forest. The sound of him calling my name made both Trent and me tense. But I’m sure it was for different reasons. What those different reasons would be weren’t something I wanted to further explore quite yet.

It didn’t take long before Luke came running through the forest towards us. A new bandage wrapped around his left arm, hinting that he was hurt at some point in the fire. Obviously, it didn’t hurt him too much as he ran up to me and wrapped his arms around me.

Stolen novel; please report.

I never realized how big his arms were until he had me in a tight embrace, “Thank goodness you are okay,” he said with relief in his voice.

As much as I was happy to see him, his long embrace was making me feel uncomfortable. I put up my hands and tried to push the bear shifter off of me, but it only made him hold onto me tighter. Trent must have seen my struggle and patted Luke’s shoulder, making him look at him.

“I told you I was going to get her somewhere safe,” Trent told him. He even pulled me away from Luke a little bit. Which didn’t go unnoticed by my best friend’s eyes. I could tell by the look of displeasure in his eyes and a hint of jealousy.

The two shifters stared each other down, much to the bird shifter’s amusement. He just stood there and smiled at the show playing before him. Something told me that this bird shifter was one of the new additions to our region. Which is also going to stir a lot of commotion towards the peace that we had. I’m sure the Blizzard Regions ran things a little differently than how we did things.

Eventually, the rest of the Blizzard Region meets up with the bird shifters in the clearing. The moment I saw some of them, I could tell why people thought my father was from them. Even though the bird shifter had light brown hair and light brown eyes, the rest of the group had almost white hair and light blue eyes. Their skin was also as pale as mine.

We didn’t stay long to talk or introduce ourselves. Instead, we all just headed to see what was left of the region that I had called home. I didn’t expect much. There was also a good chance that the fire didn’t spread as far as it looked, but we wouldn’t know until we got there. But the smell of burnt wood filling my nose wasn’t making any promises.

With every step towards the city, my heart broke. The trees were barely standing and the ground was just covered in ash. Everything just crumbled under my feet as I walked closer. A group of people had already started migrating towards the city with the same emotions as me. There was most likely nothing left standing. I could already hear whimpers in the distance. Whimpers of those mourning their homes or loved ones that weren’t able to escape in time.

My mother didn’t even give me time to register that she was here and headed towards me. Instead, she wrapped her arms around me in a tight embrace. She was probably so happy to see that I was alive after being told I was trapped in the fire.

Holding me at arms length, she checked me over. Once she was satisfied with how I looked, she looked at Trent, “Thank you Trent. I don’t know how I could ever thank you.”

He just nodded his head, “I’m just doing what is expected of me. No need to thank me or repay me.”

I’m pretty sure my mother would have married us if he asked. She was so grateful to the point that she hugged me yet again. But her hug suddenly didn’t feel like a loving embrace. Her body stiffened as her embrace turned into a protective one. I couldn’t understand why she suddenly hung on to me so tightly. Curious, I tried to see what made her this way. My eyes landed on a set of eyes that looked exactly like mine.

“What is he doing here?” I heard my mother ask herself. Something told me that there was going to be some major life changes about to happen. And it started with the man who was staring right at us.