The Amber Wolf (Completed)

31. Shadows

(Morica's POV)

What in the known world is going on here?! My son just told me his male mate gave birth and nobody even knew he was pregnant!! Though, now that I think about it, his scent did change a while back from just strawberries and cream to having the scent of chocolate in the mix. I had thought it was caused by the two mating. Well, I guess it was, in a way....

Keaton's other daughter, who has been crying on his shoulder, now looks at him through red puffy eyes, "Daddy, since I wasn't born yet I can't tell them how the war started, so they're all waiting on you."

Mumbled agreements make their way through the growing crowd. Everyone who is able to walk has made their way to the clearing. There were only a couple humans that were hurt enough to be bed ridden and we gave them some herbs to help with the pain and to help them sleep for a little while.

With every pair of eyes in the vicinity waiting for an answer, Keaton begins his tale, "The war started about 2,000 years ago. It began during my first life when my father was murdered by a hunter. Back then we had a treaty, but the wolves were angered by the fact that the humans broke it. I was yet to be born at the time but my mother knew that one hunter breaking the treaty didn't mean that all hunters would break it and tried to convince the warriors of this.

"However, she was unable to convince them of this. They took it upon themselves to find the hunter that killed my father; when they did finally find him, he'd been torn to pieces already. His hunter friends came to meet with him that night only to find wolves in the room with the body of their comrade in pieces. Nobody would listen to reason, and thus, war was unstoppable.

"Throughout the time of my childhood, I had noticed an odd shadow on multiple occasions and did some research. Apparently there is a race of shadow people that have a knack for violence; they are the jinn. These jinn have the ability to change shapes as they please and I believe it was the work of a jinn that started this war. I tried stopping the war by letting people know about the jinn, but they wouldn't listen.

"I took it upon myself to save as many lives as possible on both sides. In many cases I was able to save both humans and wolves, but the majority of the war resulted in casualties. Every time a battle ended I would come to Dolor Lake for long periods of time to weep for those I was unable to save. The weeping willow that stands apart from the pines in the area has a single leaf for everyone who died during this war. Even after my memories were erased I continued with the guidance of my daughter, Karen. I had never told Karen about the jinn though.

"I didn't want her to spend her entire life hunting the creature that ultimately led to her father's death. I also knew that I couldn't completely neglect my sweet girl to go in search of the creature myself; another reason I had my memory erased. However, my hunt is over anyway. The hunter who woke the Drakon, was in fact the jinn that started the war." the murmurs that had been present during his story have subsided and even the forest around us seems precariously silent in the wake of his tale.