The Forest Road
It was deepest night. The old carriage rattled over the frozen ruts of the logging road, the horses breathing white plumes of steam into the freezing air. The forest here was ancient, the pines thick, gnarled, and heavily laden with resin, blocking out the scant moonlight.
Eiden held the reins, his eyes scanning the pitch-black tree line. His injuries—the gunshot, the broken ribs—were a dull roar of pain, but he pushed it down. He didn't have time to bleed.
Beside him, Emily was wrapped in a heavy blanket, shivering not just from cold, but from adrenaline.
"We're close," she whispered, looking at the map by the dim light of the carriage lanterns. "The ridge is just a few miles up. Then the path narrows. No cars can follow."
"Good," Eiden said, his voice tight. "Because we're not alone."
He pulled the reins, slowing the horses.
"Why are we stopping?" Emily asked, panic rising.
"Listen."
Silence. Absolute, suffocating silence.
"I don't hear anything," Emily said.
"Exactly," Eiden replied. "No night birds. No wind. Even the wolves have gone quiet."
He looked back down the road into the crushing dark.
Far in the distance, a beam of artificial light cut through the trees. Then another. And another.
The roar of engines broke the silence—heavy, military engines tearing up the quiet mountain.
"They found us," Eiden said, snapping the reins hard. "Hya!"
The horses surged forward in a panic. The carriage lurched violently, bouncing over stones, the oil lanterns swinging wildly on their hooks, casting frantic shadows.
Behind them, the forest lit up with dozens of headlights. Jeeps, trucks, and motorcycles were tearing through the undergrowth, ignoring the road, cutting straight for them like a pack of mechanical hounds.
"Faster!" Emily screamed, holding onto the bench as the carriage drifted around a muddy corner, nearly tipping.
"I'm trying!" Eiden yelled over the roar of the chasing engines.
A gunshot rang out. CRACK. A sniper bullet splintered the wood of the carriage frame, inches from Eiden's head.
"They're shooting!"
"Get down!" Eiden shoved Emily into the footwell, shielding her with his body.
He whipped the horses, driving them into a frenzy. The carriage was flying now, the wooden wheels screaming in protest against the frozen ground.
They reached a clearing. Ahead, the path rose steeply toward the mountain pass—the safety of the Den.
But blocking the path was a massive, ancient fallen pine tree.
Eiden hauled on the reins with all his strength. "WHOA!"
It was too late. The horses reared, screaming. The carriage skidded sideways on the frozen mud.
The iron-rimmed wheel hit a rock. The axle snapped with a sound like a cannon shot.
The carriage flipped.
Time seemed to slow. Eiden grabbed Emily, pulling her close, burying her head in his chest as the world spun.
Wood shattered. Metal groaned. The carriage lanterns smashed against the frozen ground, spilling oil onto the dry, winter-brittle underbrush and pine needles.
A steel horseshoe sparked against flint rock.
WHOOSH.
The oil caught instantly. A wall of orange flame erupted around the wreckage, consuming the dry wood of the carriage and spreading instantly to the resin-soaked pines surrounding the clearing.
Eiden groaned, pushing burning debris off his legs. The heat was intense, warring with the freezing night air. "Emily? Emily!"
"I'm... I'm okay," she gasped, crawling out from under the burning frame, her face streaked with soot.
Eiden stood up, swaying in the searing heat. The fire was spreading fast, climbing the trees, turning the clearing into a bowl of flickering orange light and choking smoke.
He checked his weapons. His pistol was gone, lost in the crash. He had Charlotte's combat knife.
He looked back at the tree line.
The vehicles were stopping at the edge of the firelight. Doors opened. Boots hit the ground.
Silhouetted against the headlights and the growing inferno were not ten men. Not twenty.
There were a hundred.
Akuma's Shadow Guards in black armor. Rook's mercenaries in tactical gear. A wall of guns and steel, blocking the only way out, their faces lit by the dancing flames.
Then, the sky broke. A freezing, torrential rain began to fall, hissing as it hit the fire, creating blinding clouds of steam that mixed with the smoke. The ground turned to slick mud in seconds. But the fire remained.
A voice amplified by a loudspeaker cut through the hiss of rain and crackle of fire.
"End of the road, Wolf."
It was Rook. He was standing on the hood of a jeep, his gold rings glinting in the firelight, safe behind his army. The flames, now fighting the rain, cast frantic, dancing shadows.
"Give us the girl," Rook shouted over the roar of the blaze. "And maybe I'll kill you quickly."
Eiden looked at the army arrayed against him. The heat was searing now, the smoke thick and acrid. He looked behind him at the narrow goat path leading up the mountain—a path too small for vehicles, barely wide enough for two men. He looked down at Emily. The firelight danced in her terrified eyes. "Run," Eiden said softly. "What?" Emily grabbed his arm, ash falling on her coat. "No. We fight together." "There are too many, Emily. Look at them." "Then we die together!" "No," Eiden said, his voice hard. He turned to her, cupping her soot-stained face in his hands. The fire raged around them, a hellish halo. "You have to get to the Den. They can send backup."
"I won't leave you!" she sobbed, the heat blistering their skin. "You have to," Eiden said. "Because if you stay, they kill us both and take you back. If you run... I can hold them here. The fire will bottle-neck them." He leaned in and kissed her forehead, tasting smoke and tears. "Go. Bring the army. Bring the fire." He spun her around and shoved her hard toward the goat path, away from the flames. "RUN!"
Emily stumbled back. She looked at him one last time. He stood silhouetted against the towering wall of fire and steam, drawing his knife. He didn't look like a boy anymore. He looked like a demon risen from the ash. She turned and scrambled up the rocks, disappearing into the dark, smoky throat of the mountain pass.
Eiden turned back to the clearing. The fire was roaring now, consuming the fallen log, narrowing the path ahead. One boy against one hundred men in a burning forest. He took a deep breath of smoke-filled air. The pain in his ribs faded, replaced by adrenaline. The exhaustion vanished, burned away by rage. "So, how many of you are there?" Eiden shouted. One man replied, "One HUNDRED." Eiden raising his knife,
"That's not enough. Bring me a Hundred more." his voice echoing over the roar of the fire.
The soldiers hesitated. The intense heat, the smoke, and the sight of the scarred boy standing amidst the flames unnerved them. He looked at home in the hellscape. "Kill him!" Rook shrieked, furious. "SHOOT HIM!" The army charged through the smoke. Eiden didn't wait. He ran to meet them right at the edge of the fire. He moved like a landslide. He dodged the first volley of bullets, using the thick smoke as cover, weaving through burning trees. Kicked the guy who shouted earlier. He crashed into the front line. "Who wants to burn next?"
It wasn't a fight. It was cinematic violence written in fire, rain, and blood.
Eiden used the environment. He used the blinding steam. He kicked a mercenary into a burning rhododendron bush, his screams joining the roar of the flames and the hiss of the rain. He used their own numbers against them in the confined space.
He slashed tendons in the flickering light. He broke bones with brutal efficiency. He moved so fast, his silhouette flickering against the orange backdrop and the downpour, that the Shadows couldn't track him. He was a whirlwind of steel and embers.
He took a bullet to the shoulder, the blood looking black in the orange light. He didn't stop.
He took a knife to the leg. He ripped it out and used it to pin the attacker's hand to a burning log.
He was the Wolf protecting his mate. He was the Bear protecting his territory. He was the Devil in his element.
He piled the bodies in the narrow pass between the burning trees, creating a wall of the dead to slow them down.
"Is that all you have?!" Eiden roared, covered in ash and blood, standing atop a mound of fallen mercenaries, backlit by a fifty-foot wall of fire. "I am the King of the Iron Peaks and you shall not pass!"
The Den
Miles above, the air was thin and cold. The rain had just started to fall here, slicking the stones of the Den.
Oliver stood on the high watchtower of the Wolf's Den, his breath misting in the air. He was supposed to be resting, but he couldn't sleep. He felt a pull to the south.
He looked down the mountain. He saw the orange glow of the fire miles below, now mixed with steam. He heard the faint echo of gunfire over the drumming rain.
Then he saw movement on the ridge just outside the gates.
A figure. Small. Stumbling.
As the figure came closer, illuminated by the moonlight and the rain, Oliver's eyes went wide. The hair. The face.
"She's here," Oliver whispered, his voice trembling. "She's actually here."
He didn't wait for the guards. He turned and sprinted toward the War Room, slipping on the wet stones but catching himself.
At the main gate, the heavy iron bars groaned open.
Emily stumbled through. She was covered in soot and mud, her dress torn, bleeding from the climb, soaked to the bone. She looked wild. She looked terrified.
Liam, Noah, Charlotte, and Emma were already there, alerted by the sentries. They rushed to her.
"Emily?" Noah gasped. "Where is Eiden?"
Emily pointed down the mountain, to the distant raging fire and the storm.
"He's alone!" Emily cried, grabbing Liam's arm. "He's fighting them all! You have to help him!"
Liam looked at Noah. He looked at Charlotte and Emma.
They didn't need orders. They didn't need a plan.
"Go!" Liam roared.
The four of them—the Pack—sprinted past Emily. They didn't look back. They ran down the mountain, weapons drawn, charging into the freezing rain and fire to save their brother.
Oliver burst out of the War Room, followed closely by Master Durai, Kael, Malachi, and Jiro. "Where is she?" Durai demanded. They ran into the courtyard. The Pack was gone, racing toward the battle below. Standing alone in the rain-slicked snow, shivering and confused, was Emily. Durai slowed. He stopped running. He walked toward her, his eyes locked on her face. He saw the firelight reflecting in her eyes. Durai dropped his claymore. It clattered on the wet stones. He fell to his knees in the slush. His head bowing low. "You are finally here." Durai choked out, his voice thick with awe.
Emily froze. She looked at the giant man kneeling in the rain. She looked around.
One by one, the other Masters followed. Kael bowed. Malachi knelt. Jiro lowered his head.
The entire village, hundreds of warriors who had gathered, dropped to their knees in a wave of silent reverence, the rain soaking their furs.
The only sound was the wind, the rain, and the distant fire.
Emily looked around; her eyes wide with total confusion. "What... what are you doing? Please! Get up!" She didn't understand. Why were they bowing? Her father said these were monsters. He said they were killers. But they were looking at her like she was a god.
Master Durai slowly raised his head, rainwater mixing with the tears streaming down his scarred face. He walked past her, to the center of the courtyard. He grabbed the rope of the heavy canvas tarp covering the massive object. He pulled the rope. The canvas fell away, heavy with rain. Gold glinted in the light. It was a statue. Ten feet tall. Solid gold. It depicted a woman in warrior's garb, a sword in one hand, a dove in the other. She looked fierce, kind, and beautiful. And her face...
Emma, Liam and Noah were running as fast as they can towards the burning jungle. "I hope he is alright." Noah said in a worried voice. Charlotte was running on top of the trees to guide the wolves of any danger. Liam worried inside, "I know he is strong. But if there are too many fighters there he might be in trouble." Emma Rushing and stumbling. Charlotte screams from the trees, "I SEE SOMETHING!!" Finally, they make their way to the fight. Only this wasn't a fight anymore. Eiden was standing in the middle with the whole place burning around him. He stood with Rook in front of him begging for his life.
"Please, boy leave me. I beg you"
"Leave you? Again?"
"I will give you anything you want."
"Anything? Fine I want your head as a trophy."
Eiden beheads Rook with only one slice. Eiden still stood in the middle with a knife in one hand and an axe in the other. A hundred men army on his feet. And the wolves could just stand and watch. Liam noted "So, this was the strength master Sabastian always warned us about. Eiden's true potential."
Emily stared up at the golden giant. She looked at the curve of the jaw. The shape of the eyes. It was like looking in a mirror. She backed away, her hands trembling. She looked at the "killers" kneeling in the rain. She looked at the statue that must have taken huge efforts to build. "Who..." Emily whispered, her voice breaking. "What is this?" She looked at Durai, pleading for an answer that made sense. "Why is there a statue of me here?" she cried, tears and rain spilling over her face. "Why do you look at me like that?" An old elder stepped forward from the crowd, her hands clasped in prayer.
"Because you have returned to us," the elder whispered.
"Our Evergreen has come home."