Hello Readers,

This first chapter is a little different from most things you might have read. I wrote it from the point of view of a child who has never experienced much of what is happening to her. She sees things that we see everyday, but has no idea what they are. So if anything is confusing keep reading because it's only this chapter. Then she grows and learns what most things are. :)

When I was just a small child my mother said to me, "Be good and kind and everything will come to you in time."

I remember that moment clearer than anything else in my mind. I remember the way the light reflected off of my mother's golden hair as the wind tugged its wispy tendrils in all directions. Her green eyes were kind and her whole face seemed free and full of joy. She knew that nothing in the whole world could change her and nothing in the whole world would hurt her.

At that age I didn't realize what a harsh woman my mother was. I just wanted to grow up and be just like her, free of obligations and able to enjoy everything. I wanted to roam the forests with her forever never letting anything change the way we lived.

That was until the day I met my first human. It was a strange curious creature. So similar to my mother and I, yet so vastly different. Its face was cold and calculating. Its eyes saw only profits and worth, where ours saw beauty. Where ever it trod death seemed to follow. The entire forest seemed to dim and fade away as it approached us.

The strangest thing about it was that it had a strange type of fur covering its body. My mother and I were much paler and our lack of fur was what made us the rulers of the forest that we resided in.

I knew right off that it was wrong. It was just way too different from us in every way. A cold chill went down my spin as it looked at us. Its stony eyes assessing our worth. It seemed like a cloud passed over the sun then and the world became a worse place.

"Mommy, we need to go." I said tugging her arm. She didn't notice the way it gazed at her as if it was a starving beast. "Mommy, please."

Then it opened its mouth in greeting and it was the most amazing thing I had ever heard. The different tones that sounded just like my mother. I thought that we were the only ones who spoke the way that we did in the forest, but these strangers used the language as well.

My mother smiled and ushered it over to us and while the forest seemed dimmer my mother seemed to shine brighter. As curious as I was about this strange being, my fear of what it was, what it represented kept me firmly behind my mother as it came ever closer.

"O Great Goddess of the Forest," it said as he came near us, its voice quivering. The only thing that gave me pleasure about this human was seeing how obvious it was that it was more frightened of us than we were of it.

"Yes, my child." My mother said to it her voice higher and more regal that usual.

The human came forward and knelt in front of my mother presenting her with a red fur thing that it seemed to be wearing. "My son is deathly ill and nothing that we do is helping him," it said tears in his cold eyes, "The village herbalist says he will be dead by morning if we do nothing. I offer you the finest silken cloak that I have ever made. I have put my heart and soul into making this and I have no greater possession. My son is all I have and he is worth more than this to me." it pleaded.

My mother frowned, "Yes, it is quite beautiful, but if it is not worth your son's life why should it be worth it to me and as I am sure you have noticed, I have no real need for such frivolous things as that." She scoffed at the shaking creature.

Tears began to fall from its eyes and as empathy shot through my guts I tugged at my mother's bare arm, "Mommy, please. No creature should watch their offspring die."

My mother patted my golden hair, "It is the way of nature my daughter."

The human threw back its head and howled in agony.

I shot my mother a horrified look as she turned her back on the creature, took my hand and began to walk away, back into the forest. Never before in my life had I ever doubted my mother, but this time I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was wrong. So, I pulled my hand out of hers and walked slowly towards the humans clutching the silk to its chest as it sobbed. It was a creature reduced to something barely alive. It had nothing at all, and I could help it. I vowed then and there that I would never again turn away from something in need.

As carefully as my tiny child's hands could manage I placed my hand on human's shaking ones. It looked right into my eyes and the coldness was gone. I could see something in them that I knew my carefree mother couldn't. I could see that this human was not different from her or I.

"I will help you if I can." I said my voice shaking almost as much as that strange human was.

My mother was suddenly at my side, yanking me back, shouting, "Never help humans! They will try and steal you or take you. They have no respect for us!" Gone was the joy and freedom in her eyes. It was replaced with a wild fear and a past pain. It was so foreign a sight to behold in my mother's eyes that I stepped back shocked.

I looked at her fear and was about to apologize and go with her, blindly trusting her once more, but the words that came out of my mouth were not what I had intended. "I need to help this human."

I think that was the day my mother really looked at me for the first time. She gazed deeply into my soul and her pain faded. She nodded once before taking off into the forest in the direction that the man had come in. Her pale form blending into the forest as she raced out of sight.

"Where is she going?" the human said raising it's head slightly seeing her gone.

I flashed my brightest smile at the poor creature, "She has gone to save your offspring, your son."

The human looked amazed at me and then threw itself down at my feet. It gently kissed the tips of my bare toes. I giggled because it's lips tickled and it smiled up at me. "Whatever can I do to repay the favor that you have done for me?"

I knew that I should have blushed and said no, but that cloak was so beautiful and I had never had anything to myself before, let alone my own fur. The human saw my eyes flick to the cloak and it smiled offering the soft material to me. My small hands caressed the fur and to my amazement it smooth, nothing like any fur I've ever felt before.

The human patted my head and fastened the cloak around my neck. It was so soft against my bare skin.

I heard a soft growl behind me then and turned to see my dearest friend Elberernia. The human moved in front of me as if to protect me from my wolf companion, but I darted past it laughing as I threw myself on Ellie's back. She took off running and I waved back to the human laughing at its shocked expression.

We vanished into the woods as fast as my mother had, but in the opposite direction, deeper into the woods. Soon we were flying past trees so old they had no beginning and I could see no end in their future either.

This was a place that no human had ever stepped into before, and it was my mother's duty to protect that sacred grove. Ellie stopped there and gave me a look that clearly disapproved with what I had done.

"It's so beautiful though." I said stroking the material once more.

"I would hide it, love." Ellie said nudging my side and pushing the cloak away from my skin.

I shed the cloak and hid it in the roots of an ancient oak asking the tree to protect my only true possession. The tree shuddered in laugher as it promised to keep the soft red fur safe.

"Ellie, where did that human come from?" I asked as I walked beside her to the center of the forest where my mother and I had a cave we kept warm in.

Ellie stiffened at the innocent question reluctant to answer, so I answered for her, "I don't want to know, but I want to know who I helped. Can you help me with that?"

Her yellow eyes stared at me disbelievingly willing me to take that request back.

I looked straight at her as the last rays of sunlight touched the horizon and the forest began to grow cooler. "It will be an adventure."

Sneaking through the forest was easy. There was a full moon that lit the path before us and with me riding on Ellie's back the forest melted past us. It was getting even colder as the night wore on. The first snow fall would be on us in only a few more weeks. I shivered my bare skin covered in goosebumps, but that was from something other than the cold because nothing in nature could harm us, my mother and me. I shivered because of the lights ahead of me.

There were so many all together. Many more than I could count, but Ellie veered away from the mysterious group of lights and raced towards a single blip that was much closer to my home then the others. It was a type of cave, but there was no rock. The dwelling seemed to be made of trees that no longer spoke. It was so strange and alien to me and when I heard voices from the inside of it I crouched down to hear the words spoken in my language.

"He's getting so much better," said a voice that was lower than the one that had asked my mother for help. Thinking now, the human that had begged my mother for help was probably a female. Females usually had higher voices than the males. "Did you do anything to him?" He accused.

The woman who came to us for help answered, "No, he must have found some more energy to fight this," she whispered.

The man's voice softened, "Come to bed dear. We will see what happens in the morning."

I heard them leave the room and I chanced a glance in the whole in their cave. I saw a little room and could see a little body in a nest, wrapped in furs. I pulled myself through the hole and landed by the tiny body.

He must have once been bigger than me, but he had lost much strength and weight with the sickness that threatened his life. His breathing was deep though and I could feel his energy. He was determined to live, and with the extra help my mother gave him, he was going to win his struggle.

He suddenly gasped and sat straight up looking right at me. His brown eyes were glazed with fever, but he seemed to know what was happening. He looked at me and smiled before his strength left him and he fell back into his nest. What I saw when he fell was something unlike anything I had ever seen before. His paws was just like mine. Nothing else in the world had paws like me or my mother. I lifted his sweaty overheating palm and pressed it against mine. His fingers curled around mine. It was all I could look at for what seemed like forever. Our two hands intwined together as he slept.

Without me noticing the door swung open and a hulking human larger than anything I've ever seen before came rushing at me. It's fist connected with my skull and everything spun. The man was screaming, "Devil, witch, how dare you poison my son in his sleep! Begone and do not ever come back!"

Terrified beyond anything I have ever known before, I propelled myself through the hole in that strange cave and ran from it, back into the forest where I was the only one or my kind. Where I was alone.