The meadow is alive, and it can feel my presence through the air – thick and electric. My limbs shook, but I forced myself to remain firm.

I look right into his eyes. He slowly inches closer as he speaks, “You shouldn’t have come here; this was not for finding.”

I breathe steadily, the tips of my fingers grazing against the cracked pendant on my chest. “I did not come here accidentally,” I say, firm words that oppose the trembling.

He cocks his head to one side, a gleam seeming to pass over his green, shining eyes as he looks at me inquiringly, as an analyst might. The place around us suddenly starts to change; the roots of the trees begin to hum with faint, quick pulsars, almost in rhythm with some heartbeat.

“Truth is a dangerous thing, Luna,” it says in a low, rumbling voice. “Once seen, it cannot be unseen.”

“Who are you?” I ask, my pulse racing.

“I am Lirien,” it says after a long pause. “The Keeper of the Grove. A guardian bound to this place since Kael’s betrayal.”

The name sends a shiver down my spine. “Betrayal?” I echo, my voice barely above a whisper.

Lirien nods, his form rippling like smoke caught in the wind. “Kael’s greed corrupted the roots of this grove. His pact with the Moon Goddess was meant to preserve balance, to protect the pack. But he broke that pact, and in so doing, he cursed this place and everything tied to it.”

I swallow hard, the weight of Lirien’s words settling. “The curse… it’s the reason the pack suffered? Why there was so much loss and pain?”

“Yes,” he says. “The corruption has echoed throughout generations, tainting tragedies and giving birth to threats like the Nameless. The power of the grove is tied into the lifeblood of the pack, and it was poisoned by Kael’s actions.”

Anger blazes inside me, eating away some of my fear. “Then tell me how to fix it,” I insist. “How do I break the curse?”

Lirien’s eyes flash, its voice heavier with meaning. “The inscription on the tree holds your answer.”

I turn back to the big tree over there; its roots shine like veins stretched along the ground, and my eyes catch an inscription on the trunk:

“To restore what was lost, one must give what is most dear.”

“What is it?” I ask, although I know it deep inside.

“A life for a life,” Lirien says in a serious tone. “For the grove to heal, for the curse to be lifted, there needs to be one of free will who must give his life. Only then will the balance be restored.”

Weight feels like it presses down upon me, the feeling like something hangs heavy in the air.

“A life?” I whisper, my head shaking in denial. “There has to be another way, another thing we could do.”

“There is no other way,” Lirien says. “The corruption of the grove runs deep, its roots tainted by centuries of sin. Only the purest act of selflessness can cleanse it.”

My chest tightens as I take a step back. “You’re asking me to give up everything… for what? A chance that this might work?”

Lirien’s form flickers, his voice softening. “This is not a demand, Luna. It is a choice. One only you can make.”

I press a hand to the pendant on my chest, its faint warmth a fragile comfort. “What if I don’t do this? If I just leave the grove as is?”

“The corruption will spread,” Lirien says, his voice unyielding. “The pack will keep suffering, and in time, the grove will collapse. And with that, the balance between the mortal and divine realms will break.”

A thick silence falls between us, the only sound the soft hum of the roots of the grove. Before I can answer, the earth around me begins to shudder and buck like a wild animal. I stumble, barely keeping my footing as the roots twist and writhe like living things.

“What’s going on?” I yell, panic clawing at my chest.

“The corruption has sensed your presence,” Lirien says, its voice keen with urgency. “It will not let you leave without a decision.”

Tendrils of darkness spring from the earth, their undulations wild and predatory as they slither towards me. The pendant answers with a weak flare, the light dancing within it like a candle in a windstorm.

“Run, Luna!” Lirien shouts; its voice rings out across the glade. “Run before it devours you!”

The tendrils lash about, one flicking along my arm. A shock of cold shoots through me, deadening my limbs, and blurring my vision. I scream, tumbling backward as the roots below my feet suddenly twist treacherously.

Lirien gets between me and the tendrils, his body inflating to a towering mass of shadow and light. The pulsating light of the grove surges, pushing from between us to beat back the encroaching darkness.

“Go!” it rumbles, its voice thick with command and desperation.

I hesitate between turning back and not. The words on the tree swirl before my mind like some sort of chorus.

“Luna,” Lirien says, his voice soft once more, “this fight is not yours–not yet. Leave now, while you still can.”

With one last desperate glance at the glowing tree and its shifting roots, I turn and run. It’s as if the grove fights me… twisting roots and pulsing light forming a disorienting maze. The whispers are back, louder and frantically panicked now. They swirl around me, their words indistinguishable but urgent.

I don’t stop. I can’t.

As I reach the edge of the grove, the mist reappears and begins to curl around me in ghostly tendrils. I tried to move my frozen legs. Finally, I burst through the boundary of the grove and fall onto the forest floor–the air is impossibly light.

The pendant clutched weakly against my chest is failing; its glow goes out as the whispers die. I lay there, staring up at the darkened sky, my breath coming fast.

The weight of the grove’s revelations is heavy upon me, its truths too huge and horrific to truly comprehend in one sitting.

What am I going to do?