The Black Wildwood is a beautiful forest despite the terrifying tales of the monsters that inhabit it. Like a death trap, it lures you in before swallowing you whole.

It is a dense and seemingly peaceful forest. Kaer feels furtive glances following his intentions even if the atmosphere does not instill in him the feeling of being in the position of a victim.

Kaer noted the lack of a path. Instead, one’s imagination creates noises and shadows.

Kaer stopped and gave a loud cry.

“I’m looking for Lyra Swiftclaw. Lyra Swiftclaw. Lyra Swiftclaw.”

A woman appeared accompanied by three men.

The Alpha Female of The Lycan Pack conveys strength and safety. Her face, her allure, combines human and wolf features. On her shoulders, she wears elegant, predatory fur that covers her powerful hands. The nails are long and sharp, resembling real deadly weapons. The sharp eyes and ears are connected to the life of the forest.

With graceful movements, the woman approached Kaer. She walks around Kaer a few times and smells him.

“Who are you, stranger, and where did you hear the name you called?”

“My name is Kaer, and I was raised by the fighter Syberta. Here, I came at the urging of an older man.”

“Does that older man have a name?”

“Berntunn,” answered Kaer.

“What exactly did this Berntunn tell you?”

“To come here and look for my past.”

They went deep into the forest and reached a cave through a secret entrance. There, they sat comfortably.

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Lyra cried for a long time. Then he took Kaer in her arms.

“You are my boy. I don’t even check the sign on your chest on the left side, where there is a dark spot. I was hunting when the village was attacked, and you were kidnapped. I looked for you for a long time after that but in vain. I had heard that you by a miracle, by an incident that remained untold to me had reached some merchants. I couldn’t find you because you were already at Syberta. Now I have solved this mystery that has haunted me all my life.”

Kaer didn’t have much to say; he was so emotional.

“Do you have the power of magic? Your father was a great Summoner and a powerful Mind Controller.”

Lyra Swiftclaw narrates to Kaer the tale of her encounter with his father, Ersol Dennholm, the esteemed wizard.

“I was in a fight with vampires. Ersol appeared out of nowhere. He fought alongside the vampires, he was their ally. Ersol wreaked havoc around him, and knocked me down; he had a foot on my chest. He looked at me for a while and spared my life. He came with me and stayed in our tribe. Ersol had told me that monsters sent from the dark would come to help the vampires. Your father often knew what was coming. He had this grace.”

“What monsters?” Kaer asked.

“A creation of demons, powerful and bloody warriors called Natorhog, led by Garrmud. When they arrived, your father told me to run with the rest of the tribe, and he was left to fight alone. Only when I witnessed his abilities did I understand that he was not of this world. He had never revealed his place of origin or birth to me.”

“These Natorhogs also killed Syberta, the one who raised me.”

“Yes, they are looking for you because you are Ersol’s son. I think they are afraid of you.”

Kaer fought to digest Lyra’s words and the weight of his history. He had always felt different, a sense of power within him that he couldn’t explain. Having learned of his father’s enigmatic past and the perils that lingered in its shadow, he understood the wizard’s immense power—so much so that even years after vanishing, foes still sought to erase all traces of his existence.

Questions flooded Kaer’s thoughts. Why had Ersol kept his identity hidden from Lyra? What secrets are hidden within his father's lineage, within the core of his existence? How could he hope to face creatures as fearsome as the Natorhogs, beings born of dark magic and destruction?

As he gazed at Lyra, her eyes intense with emotion and traces of old wounds still visible on her face by the evil that sought to destroy it, Kaer felt an angry impulse coursing through him.

“We will fight against the Natorhog and protect The Lycan Pack at all costs.”

“They will not rest until they find you, Kaer. We must prepare for the battle that looms on the horizon, for the shadows of the past are stirring once more,” says Lyra.