The New Light of Hope: Books I to VI.

Chapter XIII: A New Threat?

Aurora:

Our responsibilities and duties as Heroes continued on for three whole days, and there were overall no reports on any sort of threats that may have been lurking in the forest. But all of that soon changed.
…
As we were walking to the Southwest Forest, we saw BlueFire, TimberHeart, DoveFeather, FalconTalon, and GorseHunter running towards us. "There you all are." BlueFire said, catching his breath. "We have been looking for all of you."
"Is there a problem?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "there is"

FalconTalon: "Which is why we had to meet all of you half way before any of you got to the forest. And there is a good reason as well, just follow us."

We then followed them.
…
Amethyst:

We came to a stop where Chief CrimsonPelt, Chief CedarFur, Chief ShadowHeart, Chief AshPelt, and Chief RuneTalon were waiting for us. "You wanted to see us?" I asked. "Yes, there is a good reason too." Chief CedarFur. "Follow us." And we did exactly that.
We came to a halt where we saw the mauled corpse of a buck; his stomach was cut open, all of his legs were torn off, and one of his antlers were torn off as well. We saw a trail of blood going into the northwest direction and we saw his missing antler with blood all over it. "Dear Lord have mercy! What happened here?" I asked.

Chief CrimsonPelt: "We are wondering the same thing. Usually whenever we send out a hunting patrol, they bring the carcass back in one piece with only a few bite marks here and there."

Summer: "Did any of your hunters do this?"

Chief AshPelt: "No, and that is the thing: There is no trace of scent from any of our Divisions."

Aurora: "I'd say we'd send a tracking patrol to investigate this; we'll have one Lead Tracker and one tracker from each of the Divisions. Y'all know what to do."

We all then went to our assigned Divisions to do exactly that and once we came back with the trackers, we let them investigate. They sniffed the carcass, it was not long until one DragonflyWing said: "Perhaps this could be a sign of a potential threat that could be lurking in the forest."

Aurora: "A new threat?"

Tracker: "Indeed."

Aurora: "All right, looks like we need to be on high alert from this point onward. We'll have to organize tracking patrols and if possible maybe even fighting patrols if a threat does attack us at some point in time."

Amethyst: "Be on the lookout for any strange animal, they could spies for who it is they're working for."

Chief CrimsonPelt: "That is good advice that we should most certainly keep in mind. We were not very cautious about last generation's threat and as a result, the Heroes ended getting killed, not just our Division members."

BlueFire: "In fact, if we do send out a tracking or fighting patrol, we should also send the co-leader if necessary. For they were once in that same position before becoming the second-in-command for their leader."

Jemma: "Sounds good. Let your Divisions know as soon as possible about this and don't until it's too late to tell them."

Chief CrimsonPelt: "We will inform them right away."

The leaders and their co-leaders then left to go to their respectful Divisions as well as the trackers', leaving us alone. Aurora then turned to face us, there was meaningful glare deep in green eyes. We knew exactly what this, while Summer did not clearly understand what the glare meant at first, but she seemed to understand where it was going from there. Aurora then said: "It looks like there's a threat watching out every move."

Sadie: "This is why we were brought to the forest; to protect the animals from whoever it could be."

Abigail: "I'll make sure to tear them limb from limb if they decide to mess with us!"

Summer: "Hold on! We don't know who this is yet, we were just now informed about it, so let's not just jump to conclusion 'cause of something we were just informed on. We gotta be patient yet alert at all times."

Aurora: "You're right, Summer."

Jemma: "Yeah, and besides, we just recently learned about this threat, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be too cautious about it."

Then we all came to an agreement: Protect and monitor everyone in the forest and not just ourselves, for their lives depend on us to defend them at all costs. This was why we were even called to the forest to begin with, and that was to protect it and the animals that reside within it from any sort of entity that would try and bring harm to them physically, mentally, socially, and even… spiritual.