1 Let Tonight Be a Bright Night

That which was shimmering… wasn't clusters of stars nor glowing clouds of dense cosmic dust… but that light that shimmered many colors was resembling a massive curtain—of bright blue and deep purple—which seemingly was hovering peacefully in the boundless and cloudless and moonless skies amongst many other star clusters, and few other sporadic shooting stars falling from the skies that supposed to be engulfed in perpetual gloom of the night… but not for tonight apparently… because apparently…

'Please let tonight be a bright night.'

…was a little wish that came true after a lone wolf wishing upon a star that came falling before his yellow eyes. And so, his yellow eyes now were embraced by the many light of colors other than the gloom of the night,

After leaving his own pack against his will… to wander alone and survive the frigid cold of the snowy wilderness on his own. And after being condemned to banishment… to force himself seeking for a moon where he may wholeheartedly howl, expressing his sorrow from the pain—and perhaps from his crumbling pride as well—that he got from the wounds spread all over his white furs fluttering along with a gentle breeze… turning most of it red. And with limping steps he got here… atop a cliff of ice where the view was clear for he was closer to the night skies to seek for a moon yet he could not; in exchange for his loss, however, he found something more dear to him,

Something that he could not find if he was to remain with his old pack; to be alone—to be in a bonafide solitude—seemed to be what allowed him to see a scenery that once was overlooked. Unlike shine of the moon that urged him to howl before the moon's surface looked like full of dirty spot, that one new scenery made him to sit squarely… tight and quiet; hips, knees and hocks he had were being aligned nicely, and legs kept close to the body while head looking up and his tail unmoved… as though being mesmerized by that one new scenery… for it was the first time he seeing it,

Aurora Araviksne; many known it as the Northern Lights. A beauty of natural phenomenon and quite a rare sight; could only be seen and be appreciated by the people who lived here and came far to this faraway land in the north. Knowing that, he might now have found a tiny piece of peace inside his beastly heart; to live and born on this everlasting winter of wonderland, even though being a lone wolf in the end… yet to be able to see other shines that was embellished with other colors in the skies to contrast what was below it—endless plain of wilderness full of white that was blanketed entirely by snow and ice—he had lived, so far, a satisfying life; even after leaving his pack, enough time he had spent wisely… sitting sedately while staring at the Northern Lights,

And now, it was the time for him to move on… to see a vast landscape of frozen lake before his yellow eyes once his head was being lowered and his neck being relaxed to relieve the strain. A frozen lake that shone with many colors, staying faithful to reflect those shines in the skies above its frozen surface that played a role of a giant mirror… a kind of resting place he'd gladly be falling himself onto,

And now, after taking his one last dying breath, he'd soon be taking a leap of faith from atop this cliff of ice… a high enough place to splatter the red liquid and brain fluid all over the iced ground below. His head ought to land first though, and ought to reach a high velocity as he dove onto the frozen surface of the lake,

And so he did, with no hesitation left inside his beastly heart nor angst… without fear he began to take one of his paw forward to the edge of the iced cliff, and then letting it fall. The other paws of his, as well as his dying body, began to follow after it as gravity began to take care of the rest,

Ten seconds. That was all gravity needed to pull the white wolf down to the iced ground right at the bottom of the ice cliff, hence high enough velocity the white wolf successfully reached. His large body size and heavy body mass contributed a lot to succeeding his demise that was quick and painless, as he managed to control himself while in the air – to point his head first hitting the iced ground, splattering whatever inside the skull and breaking the neck,

Couldn't move. Had stopped breathing. And when the beastly heart had been losing its ability to control its own heartbeat, they appeared seemingly out of nowhere… or simply they had been waiting for it to happen. Biding their time with calmness—being patient—at the bottom of the ice cliff, they began to swarm in droves around the dead body of their former members of their pack led by an alpha,

That which was approaching a dead body of their kin, was the leader of the pack… a wolf whose body the biggest with densest furs shaded in most black and brown; barely any white like the rest. He walked on all fours and circled around the listless white wolf before his light brown eyes as though making sure whether or not the life of that white wolf had been reaped out of the body. Sniffing the listless body, especially at where the blood was spurting out the most, then proceed poking the white wolf's head with his large and long muzzle to see at least a frail reaction the white wolf would show,

Nevertheless after a few seconds of waiting however, there was nothing… only sporadic sound of a benign breeze that came through fluttering the wolf's white furs, while the rest, there was only stiffness. And thus turning his attention back to his pack, the black alpha wolf began to bark,

Two barks were enough to move all five of his pack members—the smaller wolves—as though giving them a green light to approach closer to the dead white wolf; began to swarm around that stiff dead body whose flesh and blood were still warm. And then each of them began to take a bite. Everyone had their fair share of fresh meat to be torn and chewed before ultimately being devoured and digested to sate their hunger of fresh meat… and didn't seem to care if the said fresh meat was coming from one of their own kin, because they seemed to share the same thought…

'Meat is meat. Food is food.'

Such a thought, despite a twisted one, was the only mean he and his pack could survive on this faraway land with its seemingly everlasting winter. After all, they chose an old, fragile and dying from the past fight for an alpha position to be sacrificed for the greater good, and their pack leader already gave them a green light as he then joined in with the rest after making sure all five of his pack members already swallowed a mouthful of meat,

The white wolf's skull was what he had been waiting for. The only body part—his food ration—that only he could tear and chew with his big, extremely sharp rows of teeth and incredibly strong jaws, and could even sheer the skull away from the body using a mouth bloodier than the rest five wolves. Such was a trait—his odd quirk—may be that was what made him fitting to be the new alpha of the pack; other than to look menacingly more fierce than the rest, he willingly took a bite where there was the less meat. Yet nevertheless, he could still enjoy the main course for a few quiet moments, along with a handful members of his pack,

And that was it… until something happened not far from their position... from the night bright skies something just happened, turning it brighter and even blinding their eyes for a split second. Following right after it, a thundering roar was heard from the skies that supposed to be clear hence it startled the wolf pack in the middle of their dinner. Instead of revealing a lightning shortly after, it was a burst of white light like a Sun… turning momentarily a bright night into a bright day. Being mesmerized by such a phenomenon, as they in tandem stopped what they were doing at the moment just to relish what the skies had to offer this time… might there be a falling star that they may make a wish upon,

From what their eyes were able to catch however, it wasn't just an ordinary star that was falling to the frozen land. When the colorful curtains of Aurora Araviksne were as if being opened; what was coming out of the crack of the Northern Lights, did not seem like a falling star. That, as if having been born out of the celestial curtains of colorful light, was a human… a female, long-eared human,