The War of Eternity

Chapter 1

Moonstone's POV

Moonstone blasted a bluish-red fire at the dragon as she battled in the sky. She whirled under another dragon, clawing at its open stomach. The dragon shot fire at her, but she spun away, pain sprouting from the tip of her wing where she was singed. She battled a few more dragons, all of it a blur as claws and wings and teeth slashed together. Though with her fellow wolves below her and with Moonstone dominating the air, they drove off the dragons back to the mountains.

She picked up her wolf sister, Starclaw, from the dragon and wolf blood-splattered ground and flew back to the lush, green forest beyond, away from the border where the forest combined with the rocks of the mountains. This was where the border for the wolves stopped and the border for the dragons began. The wolves lived in the beautiful and vibrant forest while the dragons lived in the harsh, gray, and black mountains. The wolves lived in Elara, a beautiful village of wolf dens and trees in the center of the forest. The best part of Elara was that it was so tree-laden that it was impossible to spot from the air, making it impossible for dragons to spot it from the air and maybe even the ground.

Moonstone set Starclaw down with a thud on the soft soil in the doorway of the den in which she and her family lived, taking care not to land on her.

"Alright, so I'm going to go take a nap, you can do whatever! I'm exhausted and my wings are aching like crazy. So, see you later!" Moonstone said cheerfully as she walked off to a small cave in the den that was her room. They had no school today even though it was the middle of the week. School days would sometimes be canceled so that the wolves of Elara could participate in the battle. The dragons and wolves had been rivals for decades, and war had now become a way of life.

She went to her room glad to be home and that all the wolves in the battle had all survived another day. There wasn't much in the cave where her room was. A ledge just her size covered in patches of leaves and moss sat in the corner for her bed, and scroll racks and battle training equipment covered the walls. Her homework was scattered across the floor that she had yet to finish. Her only personal item was a tapestry of a Lunarstone that she wove when she was a hatchling hanging on the wall next to her bed.

A little fuzzball flew over and sat on her shoulder. That was her pet jacemp, Flick. Jacemps are just a ball of fluff about the size of an apple with two beady brown eyes and bat-like wings on either side. Flick had no legs —she assumed— so to move, he had to fly. All his fluff usually hid his mouth, and his little pink tongue would always greet her with a soft lick. She had rescued him from the woods once when she was a hatchling, practicing hunting with Starclaw. He had been caught in an old hunting trap that mortals had probably set up there before the wolves had come to claim this forest. She nuzzled Flick affectionately, his small mouth opening to make a purring sound.

Moonstone practically collapsed onto her bed with Flick curled up beside her and instantly fell asleep. Her dreams —like usual— were filled with battles and what Queen Alda would ask her to do next. She couldn't help but wonder if Queen Alda kept her around for a purpose much more significant than just fighting battles.

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She woke up with a start, nearly falling off the ledge and scattering moss everywhere. A tiny squeak of protest came from Flick who she had accidentally smashed with her wing. She lifted her wing, revealing Flick with all his fur flat on the top, and she couldn't help but laugh. He made a huff of outrage and flew to where she had built a tiny treehouse for him out of wood in the top corner of her room.

Bong! Bong! Bong! A loud noise rang from outside. She blinked and realized that the sound was a gong being rung somewhere in the forest. She had listened to the gong a few times before, never knowing where it came from. Her wolf-like ears pricked up just as she realized that the queen was summoning her and Starclaw to her palace. Each wolf —or dragon in her case— had a specific ring that they somehow knew instantly. Maybe it had something to do with the Lunar Stones embedded in every wolf's forehead. No one except the queen and whoever rang the gong knew how it worked.