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Crescent Forest – Bank of the River of Tears
Three Nights After the Eclipse Awakening
The silver-gray wolf walked in slow circles around the small fire, almost dead. Each pass made the dry leaves creak like old bones.
He stopped.
He tilted his head towards the sky.
The two moons were still there: one silver and indifferent, the other red like an open wound.
Karma — or what was left of him with that name — let out a low growl that sounded more like a sigh.
"I used to fly," he muttered to himself, voice too hoarse for a wolf, too human for the night. — Planes. Helicopters. Parachute jumps just to feel your stomach rise to your throat. Now… — He looked at his own enormous paws. — Now just thinking about leaving the ground makes my ribs close.
A dry laugh came from behind a gnarled tree.
— The great Central Coast killer with a fear of heights. — The voice was feminine, sharp like a newly sharpened blade. — Who would have thought that the man who killed without blinking would tremble before a bottomless precipice.
Karma didn't turn around immediately. I knew who it was.
— It's not time, Ana. It's… falling. Falling without having anywhere to return.
The figure stepped out of the shadows.
High. Broad shoulders of those who have already carried heavy hoses and even heavier bodies. Short black hair, messy by the forest wind. Eyes that seemed to hold the same fire he used to fight in Beaverton.
But now there was something more.
A crescent-shaped scar pulsing faintly on his left forearm.
And the pupils… vertical when the firelight hit them.
Ana crouched on the other side of the almost extinguished embers, facing the wolf.
— You brought me here — she said, without accusation, just stating. — Or I brought you. I still don't really know how this shit trip works.
Karma lowered his head until it was almost at her eye level.
— I wasn't the one who tattooed the circle of thorns on our skin. It was time itself that did this. Or the Hearts. Or both of us, when we try to fix what should never have been broken.
Ana shrugged. He took a stick and fanned the embers.
- Whatever. What matters is that now I am… this. — She opened her hand. The nails lengthened on their own, turning into black claws. — And you are… that. — He pointed to the wolf. — We kind of shed our skins, didn't we?
Heavy silence.
Then, far away, came the howl.
Not an ordinary pack howl.
It was serious, full of hunger and ancient hatred.
Kaden's howl.
Ana jumped up.
His lips curved, showing teeth that were already longer than they should have been.
"He's coming," she said. - Again. Always.
Karma growled lowly.
— He wants the Hearts. He wants power. He wants what he thinks we stole from him when we got back.
Ana laughed, a short, humorless sound.
— He doesn't know we didn't steal anything. We just… swapped places on the board.
The howl grew closer.
Branches breaking.
Heavy steps.
Smell of fresh blood and burnt leather.
Then he appeared.
Kaden emerged from the tree line like an avalanche of muscle and scars.
Almost black skin, tribal tattoos that seemed to move on their own under the moonlight.
Yellow eyes shining with the certainty of someone who has already won before even fighting.
— Karma... — His voice was gravel and venom. — Or should I call you a coward now? They say the Central Coast's great killer can't stand flying anymore. Who is afraid of falling. — He smiled, teeth sharp. — Maybe I should help you overcome this fear… by throwing you from the top of the Fang Gorge.
Karma didn't respond. He just lowered his body, ready to jump.
But Ana was faster.
She crossed the clearing in two impossible, almost blurred steps.
The right hand was already transformed: claws extended, muscles tensed under the skin.
Kaden laughed, raising his own arm to block.
It didn't help.
The blow came from below, clean, brutal.
The claw went through flesh, bone, tendon.
And Kaden's head flew up.
Literally.
He rolled across the earth, eyes still open in shock, mouth frozen in mid-laugh.
The headless body remained standing for a full two seconds before collapsing.
Absolute silence.
Ana breathed heavily, looking at her own bloody hand as if she couldn't believe what she had done.
Karma approached slowly, sniffing the air.
— You… killed him.
"I cut him off," she corrected, her voice shaking just a little. — There is a difference.
Then she looked at her brother—or at his reflection, or at whatever they were now of each other.
— Karma… have you noticed?
He tilted his head.
Ana smiled, sad, almost affectionate.
— I'm not your half-sister.
I never went.
She took a step toward him, her claws slowly retracting.
— I am you.
The piece that stayed in Beaverton while you turned wolf.
The part that still remembered what it was like to be human.
The piece that was afraid of flying… because it was the only piece that could actually fall.
Karma closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, there were tears in the wolf's yellow eyes.
First time in years.
—So who am I now? — he asked, voice almost inaudible.
Ana reached out and touched his snout with fingers still covered in Kaden's blood.
— You are what was left when we broke in half.
And I… am the mirror you refused to look at.
In the background, the two moons watched.
A silver one.
A red one.
And somewhere very deep, inside the earth, inside the night, inside the Hundred Hearts…
something laughed.
Shortly.
As if he knew the game was just beginning.
**End of Chapter 2**