The morning sunlight shone brightly down the forest, its heated rays dispersing the mist and coolness of the night. 

As the clearing bustled with wolves waking from their sleep and slowly moving about the clearing, starting their day, a large wolf sprinted around the clearing. He was young, but taller and more robust than all of the other wolves around him.

Tasela sprinted excitedly around the clearing, getting some annoyed glances from his tribe mates. He’d woken up early at dawn, when the sky was still dark. He couldn’t sleep, he was too restless. With all his fidgeting and tail wagging, he was kicked out of the den by his sister Nokomis for disturbing her sleep, and so he’d been running around the clearing and the forest since then.

A moon from today, on his birthday and the night of the full moon too, would be his coming of age ceremony, where he’d finally become a full adult. He’d waited so long, he just couldn’t wait anymore. Since he was one of the youngest of his playmates, every time he saw the others celebrate their coming of age ceremony, it only left him increasingly excited for his own. At last, it was finally his turn in a moon.

Tasela giggled at the thought of being an adult. He’d been running around for hours now, but his excitement and energy just couldn’t die down. His tail was wagging nonstop and mouth was in a wide grin.

On his way to another lap in the forest near the clearing, he saw two of his playmates, Chenoa and Sahale. They each had a rabbit in their mouth, and were smiling at each other lovingly. Seeing Tasela approach, their smiles disappeared and were replaced by an annoyed eye roll or sigh.

Tasela had been like this for half a moon now. It was like he just couldn’t run out of energy. Every day he’d wake up early in the morning and run around, howling and barking in excitement, but disturbing everyone else’s peace. 

They understood his excitement, they’d been there too after all, but it didn’t ease their annoyance at his constant prancing and howling. The boy was large too, so the sound of his paws on the ground were especially loud.

“Tasela…” Sahale started with a tired sigh as Tasela ran past him and Chenoa.

“Hm?” Tasela stopped to a halt and looked back to see who was calling him.

“Ah, Sahale, Chenoa! Good morning!” He trodded towards the two with a wide grin, his tail wagging even more rapidly than it already was.

Sahale had grown up a lot since his adolescent days. He was taller than a lot of his tribe mates, and was one of the few to be close toTasela’s height. Yet, Tasela was still half a head’s height taller than him.

As for Chenoa, she’d not grown much since her adolescent days. Tasela was already much taller than her in their adolescence, but with him having another growth spurt, he now towered over her, casting a shadow over her every time he stepped in front of her. Which of course, annoyed her to no end.

Tasela’s family were all big wolves. His parents were the alpha couple, with his mother even surpassing the size of many males. Their daughter Nokomis had inherited this trait, and was tall and muscular, with a size comparable to many males, just like her mother. It was no surprise that their son would be big too, but despite being born small, the boy was now taller and more burly than all of his tribe mates, with only his mother and few wolves like Sahale being able to come close.

“Can’t you calm down a little? There’s still a moon left till the ceremony.” Sahale let out an annoyed sigh.

“What do you mean? There’s only a moon left!”

“Everyone’s been losing sleep because of you…” Chenoa pouted, letting out a tired yawn.

“Ah, sorry…” Tasela lowered his head in apology, before bouncing up and down in excitement again. “I’m trying to stay calm and all, but like, I just can’t help it! There’s only a moon left!”

“Nothing even changes that much when you reach adulthood. Don’t get too excited.” Chenoa mumbled. Tasela flicked his ear in response, but didn’t heed her words. 

“Why don’t you find something to do in the forest for now. Maybe give everyone a chance to catch up on some sleep?” Sahale suggested with a sigh of defeat. It was nice to see his friend so happy, but he really wanted some peace and quiet.

Chenoa brushed her tail against Sahale’s flank in agreement. They both looked at each other with a soft smile, and Sahale gently wrapped his tail around her in a semi-hug.

Tasela watched their interaction. Sahale had a crush on Chenoa since they were still barely adolescents. Watching his friend pine for Chenoa, who was oblivious to his feelings, he’d seen how much the feeling of ‘love’ affected Sahale’s emotions. He’d be stressed and anxious one moment, then happy and excited, then sad and dejected the next, all without much logical sense.

With how many years Sahale crushed on Chenoa without her returning his feelings, Tasela was almost convinced that he might end up like Nokomis, alone and eternally suffering. It was almost like proof as to why Tasela didn’t need love, and why he never wanted to fall in love with anyone. And yet, two years ago, just as Tasela was about to confirm his sentiment, Chenoa reciprocated Sahale’s love. Since then, the two have been inseparable.

It didn’t dishearten Tasela though, seeing that his sentiments were disproven in this case. In fact, he was glad to see them so happy with each other’s company. He still firmly believed that love, eternal love, was a curse. After all, if the feeling are unreciprocated, then one is left to suffer all their life. Even if it is reciprocated, unless the other party was a werewolf too, then there’d always be the risk of them falling out of love. What then would be left of the one who can’t change their heart?

He didn’t hate love per se. He liked seeing his tribe mates happily in love with their partners. It was especially reassuring for him to see if both parties were a werewolf, as then it would be a given that they’d live happily ever after. He just thought that they were lucky. Seeing Sahale’s years long crush on Chenoa, it only confirmed that. After all, what if Chenoa never reciprocated his feelings, would he just be doomed then?

With werewolves only being able to love one person their whole life, the chance of loving someone and then having your heart broken for one reason or another was too high. Without the ability to move on, too, there was just too much to risk, too much to lose in this situation. You were forced to gamble with a high chance of eternal suffering for a low chance of eternal happiness. It was an unfair gamble of extremes that Tasela did not want to ever partake.

Tasela blinked. He’d gotten lost in his thoughts about love again. Growing older, he watched as more and more of his playmates and tribe mates found their love, so the concept of love often lingered in his head. He shook his head to clear of the thoughts.

“Speaking of finding something to do, Chenoa,” He approached Chenoa, who flattened her ears in annoyance, already knowing what Tasela was about to say.

“Are you free this afternoon? Wanna have a sparring session with me?” Ever since Tasela exceeded Chenoa’s height many years ago when they were still children, she’d often challenge him to fights. A test of strength of sorts. She was one of the best fighters around, so soon, Tasela became one of the only few who could handle a spar with her. She’d still often challenge Tasela to fights, it was fun after all, but Tasela had been pestering her to spar with him at least five times a day for the past half moon, and she had grown tired and annoyed by now.

“I’ll give you the morning to rest, so you have energy in the afternoon to spar with me! Aren’t I nice? What do you say?” Chenoa looked as if she wanted to strangle Tasela.

Sahale chuckled at Chenoa’s reaction. He quickly stepped between them to rescue her from the evil Tasela.

“Maybe tomorrow. How ‘bout you go hunt for some bunnies today? There’s lots by the pond this morning.” He pointed to the two rabbits on the ground that he and Chenoa had been carrying earlier.

“Ah! The pond! Of course!” He exclaimed, before turning his head and sprinting to the forest. Sahale and Chenoa chuckled as they watched him go, then shook their heads as they picked up their rabbit and headed back to the clearing.

“Let’s hope he calms down after the ceremony.”

“Yeah.”

Tasela sprinted through the woods, his large paws leaving loud thuds on the ground as his body made loud rustles while going through the foliage, scaring critters away wherever he ran past. The pond was his favorite place, how could he forget about the pond? He must’ve been too focused on celebrating his coming of age ceremony.

As he neared the pond, the scent of rabbits reached his nose. It was just as Sahale said, there were lots of bunnies by the pond this morning. He came to a halt and crouched down, slowly walking forward, ready to ambush his unsuspecting victim.

As he drew closer to the clearing though, an unfamiliar scent reached his nostrils as well. It was a scent he never encountered in the forest, yet he had smelled long ago. Human.

A long time ago, there used to be some humans living in the plains outside the forest, the Navajo people whose divine spirit they worshipped came to the forest and became the ancestor of all werewolves. In a way, the werewolves viewed these people as a spiritual kin, and would often interact with them. A few of the elders had human mates that came from the Navajo tribe. 

Tasela had encountered a few of these Navajo humans as a young pup, but not long after, foreign humans came and drove them out of the plains, building their own settlements on the land. In fact, not too far from the forest, there was one of these settlements. A town, he heard it was called.

The human scent he caught seemed to belong one of these foreign humans. He followed the scent to its origin, it was a small house in the middle of the plains, near the forest and the pond. But why would he be catching the scent of a human here? This house had been abandoned for over fifty years. After the tragedy that happened to Nokomis, no humans came to this house anymore.

The sudden rustle of grass carrying the strong scent of a rabbit interrupted Tasela from his thoughts. He decided to focus on the bunny first, and investigate on the human scent another day.