The shadow cloak forest felt alive with the rustling and cracking of dried dead leaves scattered around the forest floor.
The transition from night to day would begin soon.
The air smelled of nature, rich and exotic. A blend of cold and damp musky air carrying just a trace of musty smell from decomposing dry leaves,rotten fruits, and moist earth.
Deep in the shadow cloak forest, three young werewolves raced each other as they trained hard for the moon festival contest that evening.
They were finally old enough to compete for a position in the Shadowfang Army. A special and elite royal force, headed by the crown prince himself. Known for their superior and extraordinary military and combat skills.
The winner of the contest would be awarded nobility by the king because only nobles were allowed into the Shadowfang elite force. And he would be bestowed with the honour of becoming a General in training.
Every year, young boys from seventeen to twenty years old await the chance to prove themselves as worthy in combat, speed, military tactics and war strategies. And more importantly, to prove their honour and courage.
The three friends ventured deep inside the dark forest to intensify their training and increase their chances of winning. They each had a personal reason why they wanted to win badly.
For Aman Stone, he could finally have the power to protect his sister from the maltreatment of their stepmother and her daughter.
For Carl Brutcher, he could finally be able to live his brother's dream of becoming a Nobel general before he was killed years ago trying to save him.
For Max Storm, he wanted the respect. The ambition and the power he would get if he became a general in the king's Army.
For Max, pride and power came before duty.
All was going well for a while as they intensified their speed and efforts in the training, with Carl taking the lead in the race. The red jade necklace that hung around his neck glowed softly under the light as he moved with incredible grace and speed. In his wolf form, he was considered one of the fastest werewolves in the kingdom.
They raced on a narrow track at the top of a very high cliff. It was a dangerous track with many tricky slopes, but it was the perfect place to train. The uneven tracks kept the training real and interesting.
After several failed attempts to get ahead of Carl in the race Max became visibly irritated.
"Look at that jerk always getting ahead of himself." he sneered in his mind.
As he watched Carl excelling in the race, a bitter taste of envy rose like bile in his throat. His extremely competitive side kicked pushing aside every humane instincts.
They each had areas where they excelled better than each other, but Max hated to come last in anything. Sometimes his own ambitions and love for competition clouded his basic human principles and drove him into recklessness.
A low growl escaped his throat as he kept watching Carl through narrowed eyes that held the unmistakable glint of rage and desperation.
Just before they reached the end of the track that would mark Carl as the winner of that session, Max snapped. Timing their paces and speed,he suddenly leaped forward slamming right into Carl, sending him off the tracks and tumbling over the edge of the cliff. With less luck, he would be dead.
But half way down the cliff,Carl quickly recovered from the shock.
With his werewolf supernatural speed and agility, he twisted his body mid air and leaped onto the rocky walls of the cliff, digging his claws into the rocks as he desperately tried to stop his fall. Beneath him was certain death.
He could hear the powerful rush of the river below the cliff, and he knew a sharp bed of rocks lay scattered all around the bottom of the cliff.
Pain tore through his arm as he struggled to pull himself up. Aware that even a single slip on his grip will send him plunging straight to his death.
"Carl, are you alright?" Aman yelled above him.
Carl only grunted in response. A clear sign that he was in pain trying to balance his grip on the rock with nothing but his wolf claws.
"There's a rope in my bag hold on." Aman quickly took out the rope.
He swiftly tied one end to a large rock and threw down the other end for Carl.
"Grab hold of the rope Carl and secure it tightly around yourself, we will pull you up." Aman shouted down again.
After a while of trying to catch the rope without losing his grip, Carl finally grabbed it. He managed to secure it around himself just before he lost his grip on the rock and found himself falling again.
"This is it. A battered brutal end." he thought.
Just when he thought he would hit rock bottom, slam hard on an icy river, or be pierced to death by a bed of spiked rocks, he suddenly stopped falling.
He spent a terrifying moment dangling mid-air, slamming into rocks, with only the rope suspending him from falling to his death.
On top of the cliff, Aman desperately clutched on to the rope to break his fall.
"What are you doing standing over there?" he angrily snapped at Max. "Come over here and help me pull him up."
Max grudgingly went over to assist. He hadn't intended to seriously hurt Carl by pushing him into danger. He had just wanted to knock him aside and replace him in the lead position. But he had underestimated the danger of pulling such a trick on a narrow track at the edge of a cliff.
It wasn't his fault Carl was too pathetically slow to grab on the ledge before falling. Max assured himself as they finally managed to pull Carl back to safety.
The moment Carl got on his feet after fear had released its terrifying hold on his spine, he swiftly leaped toward Max slamming him hard into a rock.
"You nasty, mean scumbag!!! do you realize you could have gotten me killed?" The fury poured out of him like waves but Max only grinned back in answer.
"What's wrong pipsqueak, afraid of a little tumble?" Max smirked.
"I should break your jaw with my fist." Carl gritted his teeth in anger.
"I'd like to see you try." Max pushed back.
"Calm down guys. There's no point in fighting over an accident." Aman said, stepping in between the two boys.
"Why don't you tell that Jerk," Clark snapped, pointing at Max. " to act according to the rules of the training."
"What are the essence of rules in a competition by the way?" Max shot back. " It just makes everything less interesting."
Carl spared him another furious glance, his body trembling with barely contained fury as he turned around to look for the necklace that had fallen off his neck when Max forcefully slammed into him. It had belonged to his father before he was killed… and losing it would break his heart. He felt a part of his father whenever he wore the necklace so he had never taken it off.
After a moment of searching he finally spotted the dark red jade crystal gleaming slightly under the light. Carl quickly grabbed the necklace and fastened it back on his neck. He finally allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.
The incident with him almost losing his life left him badly shaken. But if he was going to become a general in future, he would have to get accustomed to many near-death experiences. Carl thought as he tried to brace himself to return to their training.
But just then, he caught sight of a weird rock shaped like a bat just at the end of the cliff where they had been heading. He froze as recognition registered in his mind.
His eyes widened in terror as a dark memory from his childhood flooded his head assaulting him from all angles. Memories long suppressed by grief.
His mind traveled back to several years ago.
The sickening sound of throat ripping, the metallic smell of blood splattering everywhere, his father's lifeless body falling down with his throat ripped open and an arrow piercing his heart.
The desperate shouts of his brother urging him to run as he fought to give him a chance to escape was the last thing he heard as he ran through the narrow cliff with all the speed he could summon. He was only eight years old.
The first time he had had to run wasn't in a race. He had been running for his life.
"Run Carl, run I'll hold him off."
"Don't look back, keep running."
Carl quickly snapped back to the present. Terror rippled through his veins as he fought to steady himself. But everywhere he turned, he could clearly see the image of his younger self running for his life as his older brother fought to the death with a crazed being.
Unaware of the turmoil going through the mind of Carl, Max snapped.
"If you're done looking for your stuff, can we proceed now? He asked with irritation written all over his face.
"Wait!" Carl exclaimed. "Nobody takes a step further."
"Why! Are you tired already? Is this how you plan on winning such an important contest? A little tumble and you're ready to scurry away like a frightened little girl." Max scoffed. "I've always known you were a puss."
"That's enough Max!" Aman said calmly. Only his eyes reflected his fury at Max. Then he turned to Carl…"it's okay if you want to head back and rest Carl. You just had an accident. I understand you must be exhausted…we have been in the forest since before dawn."
"You don't realize where we are, do you?" Carl asked with a look that mirrors the deep terror he felt.
His two friends looked at him in confusion as they turned to look at their surroundings. Everywhere looked the same. Nothing but thick forest and dangerous cliffs like the one they were standing on surrounded them.
"Did you bump your head when you fell?" Max asked with irritation. "You're wasting our precious time."
Ignoring him Carl took a deep breath to steady himself.
" This is the border between the wolf kingdom and the vampire kingdom territories. Take one step further and we will all be in a hot mess."
"Define hot mess?"
Carl turned to look at Max who still hadn't grasped the seriousness of the situation.
" The kind of mess none of us might come back to tell the story."