🩸 Crimson Moon Oath
Chapter One – The Stranger Beneath the Blood Moon
The forest was different that night.
Still, Avaline couldn't explain how she knew. The wind had teeth in it, sharp and cold, carrying whispers that didn't belong to the living. The moon—bloated and red—hung low above the treetops, casting its strange light across the path she took every evening to gather herbs.
She clutched her basket tighter, the woven handle biting into her palm. Her lantern flickered as though afraid to breathe. The air smelled of iron and rain, of something heavy that waited beyond the next bend.
She should have turned back.
Every sensible thought told her so. But curiosity had never listened to sense.
Then she heard it—
A low, strangled sound. Like a growl swallowed by pain.
Her feet froze, heart beating fast against her ribs. Someone—or something—was nearby. The sound came again, followed by the faint crackle of broken branches.
"Hello?" Her voice wavered. "Is someone there?"
No answer. Only silence thick enough to make her skin prickle.
She stepped forward, pushing past a curtain of wet leaves. The lantern light trembled across the ground—and found him.
A man lay half-buried in the shadows, his clothes torn and dark with blood. He was impossibly still, the kind of stillness that belonged to statues or the dead. Yet there was power in it, an unspoken command that made her want to kneel without knowing why.
Avaline knelt beside him, fingers shaking as she checked for breath. His skin was cold as river stone, but faint life pulsed beneath it. She tore a strip from her cloak, pressing it against the wound that carved across his chest.
"You'll bleed out if I don't stop this," she whispered.
He moved before she finished speaking. His hand—strong, cold, and fast—snapped up, gripping her wrist. His eyes opened.
Crimson.
Not the dull red of blood, but a deep, glowing hue like wine caught in firelight.
Avaline's breath hitched.
"You shouldn't touch me," he said, voice hoarse but commanding. "Go, before they return."
"Before who returns?" she asked, though fear curled down her spine.
"The beasts that hunt me." He struggled to sit up, his fangs catching the lantern light for the briefest second before his lips hid them again.
She saw them. She pretended she didn't.
"You're wounded," she said. "And you'll die if I leave you here."
A faint smile ghosted across his lips. "Humans shouldn't care for monsters."
"Then it's fortunate I'm not easily frightened."
For a heartbeat, their gazes locked—the mortal girl and the dying creature beneath the crimson moon. The forest around them seemed to hold its breath.
Avaline tore another strip of cloth, binding his shoulder. Her hands trembled only once. "What's your name?"
He hesitated. "Kael."
She nodded. "I'm Avaline. Try not to move, Kael. You've lost a lot of blood."
His eyes softened slightly, though pain shadowed them. "You shouldn't be here, Avaline. When night calls the wolves, even the moon hides."
A howl echoed far off, deep and wild, sending a chill through her bones.
Avaline glanced toward the darkness. "Then we should leave before they come closer."
He caught her wrist again—gentler this time. "If they smell me, they'll find you too."
"Then you'll just have to walk faster," she said, forcing courage into her voice.
Kael stared at her for a long moment, something unreadable passing through his crimson eyes. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Very well, little healer," he murmured. "Lead the way."
She helped him rise. His weight leaned into her, heavy but steady. As they began to move through the forest, the blood moon lit their path like a watchful eye.
Behind them, in the far-off shadows, the first answering growl rolled through the trees.
To be continued....