The War of Eternity

Chapter 2

Starclaw's POV

They arrived on the fresh lawn in front of Ultimuna. It was the only school in the town. 'Where pups become wolves!' as the stuffy principal or stuck-up teachers might say. The school itself was absolutely beautiful. The walls were entwined with the thick oak trees so that you couldn't tell the rest of the forest apart from the school walls. There were two giant towers carved into tall oak trees on the sides of the school, the taller one for the omega students indicating the highest level wolves could be in the school and the lower one for the alpha students which was the second-highest level.

There were three ranks in the school; beta, alpha, and omega. A student typically spends four years in beta before moving into omega for two years, then alpha for their final year. The students were separated so the older students didn't accidentally hurt the younger students when they were practicing battle tactics, which is almost all they teach in the upper years. She and Moonstone were both still betas, Starclaw having enrolled in the school only one year before Moonstone.

Starclaw slid off Moonstones' back, pretending not to notice the snickers and glares the other students gave them. It wasn't Moonstone's fault for being a wolf-dragon hybrid. She just grew that way, and Starclaw loved Moonstone for it. Her sister had started as a dragon but as she had grown up in the wolfs' village she had somehow turned half-wolf. She had overheard her parents say that they think some of the Lunar Stones' power might have somehow taken place inside Moonstone which caused her to become half-wolf. It was one of the many theories and rumors that had spread throughout the village.

The sisters entered the beta's part of the school that was surrounded by pine trees in perfect alignment. The inside looked even better than the outside. It had little holes along the tree walls with leaf and stick woven doors to keep the students' school stuff in, with moon-lit lanterns hanging from the tree branch woven ceiling. The lanterns were each powered with a piece of Lunar Stone kindly donated by the wolves who have passed in the war. Mostly these lanterns were just for the wealthy and the queen but somehow one of the principles from a long time ago found the money to string them along the roof, lighting up the hallways and making them look even more beautiful than when they were in the dark.

The wolves' Lunar Stones were the power source of their whole village. They were unique stones that came from the moon itself. Each wolf was born with a full moon-shaped Lunar stone, somehow embedded in their foreheads when they were born. But, Moonstone only had a crescent moon, which most wolves thought it was because she was only half-wolf, therefore having only a crescent. Many of them looked down on her sister for it just like they did about the fact that Moonstone was a part dragon and might be 'conspiring with the enemy'. Though most wolves don't know that her sister came to Elara as an egg and was in no way in contact with the dragons. Besides in battle, Moonstone had never met another dragon.

The wolves had full power and were at full strength on a blood moon that occurs once every year because of the Lunar Stone. The Lunar Stone somehow possessed the wolves to make them more aggressive and blood-thirsty. According to the elders, it was both a blessing and a curse. For some reason, it hasn't happened in years. So only the elders and queen have ever experienced one before. Wolves shudder at the thought of Moonstone on a blood moon. Most thought that once it finally happened again, Moonstone would betray them and work for the dragons. Most wolves didn't know this —the only reason the sisters know was that they had overheard it on one of their many visits to the palace— but the next time it happens, the queen plans to raid the dragon palace and finally end this war with the wolves ruling both parts of the terrain, forest and mountain.

Moonstone and Starclaw stopped right before the main hallway split into a bunch of smaller ones. There was a map there, so pups —pups were what the school calls students—could find their way around. Even being here for two years Starclaw could still not find her way around the giant campus. The halls twisted and turned so many different ways because of how the trees were originally set up.