he road into Evergreen Forest had always been narrow, but at night—under storm clouds and the aftermath of the wolf's haunting howl—it felt more like a throat closing around them. Branches clawed the sides of Merlin's car, leaves slapped the windows, and the air grew colder with every meter they drove.
Crafter's breathing rattled in the back seat. His gaze flicked left and right rapidly as though he saw things no one else could.
Lucy hugged her arms, trying to silence the trembling inside her bones. "Merlin, are we… actually going the right way?"
"I'm following the GPS," Merlin muttered. "Unless this forest uses black magic to mess with satellites, we should—"
The GPS glitched.
The map spun in circles.
Then the entire screen went black.
Merlin frowned. "This place is cursed."
Crafter whispered, "Not cursed… angry."
Lucy turned toward him. "Angry at who?"
Crafter's voice trembled like a man confessing a sin.
"Angry at you."
Lucy froze.
"…Me?"
Crafter nodded slowly, staring at her with those trembling, hollow eyes.
"You promised to come… but you left him waiting for thirty years."
The sudden silence in the car was suffocating.
Merlin slammed the brakes. "Okay—STOP. She's twenty. Twenty, Crafter. Not fifty. She was not alive thirty years ago!"
But Crafter only repeated the words, holding his chest as if the memory itself was burning him alive.
"You promised… you promised… and you didn't come…"
Lucy shook her head violently. "That's impossible. I wasn't even born…"
But deep inside—where the dream of the burning forest still echoed—something twisted.
A strange ache.
As if a memory she never lived was tugging from beneath her skin.
Merlin exhaled sharply and started driving again.
But after ten minutes, Lucy's stomach dropped.
She recognized the broken tree stump on the left.
The curve in the road.
The same twisted roots.
"Merlin…" Lucy whispered. "We… passed this already."
Merlin clenched his jaw. "No, no, no—not this supernatural looping nonsense again—"
Crafter looked out the window and gave a hollow laugh. "Forest doesn't want you to leave. He doesn't want you to run away again."
Lucy's voice cracked. "Crafter, I didn't run away! I didn't even know—"
The forest answered her.
A howl tore through the night—long, deep, trembling with fury.
Then another.
And another.
Then dozens.
Hundreds.
Wolves, surrounding them from every direction.
Merlin tensed. "They're circling us."
Lucy pressed her hand to the window. She felt it—pressure in her lungs, a pull in her bloodstream—something tying her to the forest like an invisible chain.
"There's something wrong," Lucy whispered. "This place… it knows me. It's pulling me back."
Crafter nodded, rocking back and forth.
"He waited thirty years… thirty winters… thirty blood moons…
He waited… you never came…"
Lucy shouted, "Crafter, STOP saying that! I wasn't here—"
Her voice broke.
But before anyone could respond—
The sky lit up.
A blazing sphere dropped from above the treetops—screaming as it tore through branches, igniting everything it touched.
Lucy screamed. "MERLIN!"
Merlin swerved hard as the fireball smashed into the road ahead.
BOOOOOOM!
Flames erupted outward, a shockwave slamming against the car and sending it spinning halfway across the muddy path. The windshield cracked. Smoke billowed across the forest.
Trees collapsed in burning heaps, embers dancing in the rain like sparks of war.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Merlin shouted.
Crafter covered his ears. "Not him! Not him! He doesn't use fire—this is someone else."
Lucy's heart pounded. "Someone else?! There's MORE than one… creature?"
Crafter shook his head violently. "Not creature… protector. But one has turned black with rage… black with hunger for blood…"
Another explosion lit the dark sky.
The forest was no longer a place.
It was a battleground.
Merlin cursed. "We have to get out of here!"
He shifted gears just as—
A new path appeared.
A road that didn't exist moments ago.
Formed not by construction
but by force.
Trees bent aside as if pushed by invisible hands.
The forest was opening
but for who?
For her?
Merlin didn't wait.
He took the new path, tires screeching against wet gravel.
As they sped away, Lucy saw movement above the cliff.
A figure.
Tall.
Barefoot.
White-haired.
Rain pouring over his skin.
His body shimmered faintly under moonlight, even through the veil of storm.
It was him.
The wolf-man.
But now—he was in human form.
And he was staring directly at her.
Lucy's breath hitched. "He's here…"
Merlin glanced out the window. "Where—?"
Then he saw him too.
Standing on the cliff
like a fallen god,
like the forest's forgotten king.
His wet white hair streamed down his chest and back. His bare arms were marked with pulsing blue veins that glowed like moonfire. His gaze was unblinking, piercing, pained.
Lightning flashed—
And Lucy could see it all clearly:
The anger.
The loneliness.
The betrayal.
The recognition.
He wasn't just looking at her.
He was accusing her.
Merlin whispered, "Holy… damn."
The figure raised his hand.
Not to wave.
Not to attack.
But to reach.
Reach toward Lucy
like someone reaching for a memory slipping away.
Lucy felt her chest clamp. "Why… are you looking at me like that?"
The answer came in the wind.
A howl—lower, cracked, almost human—escaped his lips.
"I don't need anyone…"
His voice was faint but full of pain.
"Humans lie… they always lie…"
Then his body contorted.
Bones cracked.
Muscles stretched.
White fur exploded outward.
A tail whipped through the air.
In seconds, the man vanished—
And the white wolf stood in his place.
He leapt from the cliff, landing silently behind the flaming area the fireball had scorched.
Fire roared around him.
He didn't care.
He walked through flames as if they were nothing but mist.
Fire tried to swallow him—he swiped his paw with a single motion.
The flames split apart.
As though scared of him.
Crafter whispered in awe, "He commands moonlight… forest… animals… but not flame. And if flame burns the forest… he will tear apart the one responsible…"
Lucy's skin prickled. "Who threw the fire?"
Crafter's voice broke.
"Not a who… a what.
One of the divine. One who no longer cares for balance."
Merlin swallowed. "You mean… one of the four beasts you mentioned?"
"Yes," Crafter breathed. "A divine has awakened."
Lightning cracked.
The forest shook.
And the white wolf—Volmer—lifted his head and howled again, so loud the trees bent as if bowing.
Crafter grabbed Lucy's arm.
"He still cries for you… even after thirty years…"
Lucy shook her head. "I wasn't here thirty years ago!"
Crafter looked at her with heartbreaking certainty.
"Your body wasn't.
But your soul was."
Lucy froze.
Merlin gripped the wheel harder. "Lucy… don't listen to that. He's confused."
Crafter continued, trembling.
"He remembers your soul.
He remembers the promise.
He remembers the night you said you would return."
Lucy stared out at the white wolf, whose blue eyes still glowed through the flames.
And deep inside her—
something felt like it was finally waking up.
Something ancient.
Something tied to him.
Something that had waited thirty years.