Things are different, but still the same. There is a story told 'round the fire, of a woman who loved the Forest, and of the Forest who loved her back.
When Ren is little, five years old, she wanders into the Forest. She has been warned against it many times, and respects those warnings. But her curiosity is great and the trees represent a mystery she wants to know. She doesn't plan it; she merely notices that she's not being watched right then, and walks calmly out of the camp.
Years later, she will wonder at that, how she knew to lie with her body language I'm not doing anything I'm not supposed to before she ever thought to do it with her words.
She goes far without incident, rejoices in the new sounds and sights and smells. The forest floor is sharp and soft beneath her bare feet, the bark rough when she touches the trees and tries to learn their language. She is laughing.
Ren almost doesn't notice when the boy joins her, but she does, and she happily invites him to play with her. They play a lazy game of tag, hide-and-seek, before deciding to just run. The boy loves the Forest even more than Ren does. She can tell in the way his hands reach out, almost of their own accord, to touch the leaves and bark of the trees, the way his feet seem reluctant to leave the ground even though he walks like a bird in flight.
Eventually it gets dark, and she realizes how long she's been gone. There is hunger in her stomach and her feet ache. She knows they will be worried for her, and she's still a little afraid of the dark.
The boy has sad understanding on his face as he leads her back to her camp, because she can't get there alone and she's helplessly lost. He winds up carrying Ren home, and as he's setting her down mere feet from camp, her sleepy eyes open and she asks him his name.
Torak, he says.
She dreams of wolves.
They smile indulgently at her when Ren speaks of Torak, like they don't believe her but don't want to destroy her child's dreams. Then they turn away with wariness in the set of their shoulders, and try to keep her out of the Forest. They think she doesn't notice. She overhears them, though, knows they don't want her tempted away by Forest spirits, demons and child-eaters. Lost souls looking for salvation and dragging other down with them.
She doesn't get to see her friend for three years, until she learns to lie and deceive, to keep her mouth shut and pretend she's forgotten about Torak, or that she thinks he's just a dream she had. They don't guard her anymore, and she's being taught the ways of the Forest, to treat it like a kind but vengeful God, who they depend upon for everything.
Ren doesn't tell them they're wrong, that the Forest wants to be loved, not respected. She thinks that's something they have to figure out for themselves. She thinks the Forest should be a friend, not a God.
She sneaks away in the dead of night, under the silver light of a half-moon. Torak is waiting for her as though she had told him she was coming, eyes expecting and cautious at the same time. He doesn't know if she's changed or not, if she's still the same cheerful little girl.
She's not. She has done a lot of growing up in the past three years, and she now knows that the world can be hard cruel. Everything isn't sunshine and white flowers in a field anymore. But there are moments of pure happiness, moments meant for laughing and dancing under pale moonlight, and they make up for the hardships.
She smiles brightly at him, and he knows what she's trying to say.
Ren and Torak spend all night and most of the next day in the Forest, under it's cool shade and loving branches. When Ren gets hungry, Torak shows her how to hunt with nothing but bare feet and a small knife, to track with every sense and instinct. He shows her how to read the signs the Forest lets them see, because they are one of its children and deserve their fair share.
When Ren returns to camp, it is with a full stomach, a contented smile, and a silent walk. Her feet are bare, and she will forever refuse to wear any sort of covering on them. She also holds a knife made of flint with deer antler handle. She didn't have it when she left.
They know she went to see Torak again. They tell her stories of people tempted away by Forest spirits, but she knows in her heart that Torak isn't like that. They try to scare her away from him. She pretends they have, but doesn't promise to never see him again.
She dreams of wings, flying over the Forest.
She sees Torak once a month for eight more years. He is her best friend and confidante. He saves a wolf cub not an hour after leaving her at camp, and brings it with him next time they meet. Its name is Wolf. Ren tells Torak of her dream, and Torak smiles and feeds the puppy more berries.
Ren vanishes for days at a time, and they eventually stop sending out search parties. She always returns any way, and no one has ever seen any signs of her. She asks Torak and he says he asked the Forest to hide her.
She invites Torak back with her only once. His eyes widen in sudden fear and he flits away, faster than she can process. Even one-year-old Wolf cannot find him.
Torak returns the next month and apologizes, and Ren learns to love the time they have together.
Torak tells her the Forest ways in bits and pieces. She is the best hunter in her camp because of him, and they have finally managed to accept that Torak is helping more than hurting. They are still wary that he is trying to steal her away, though. She loves him more than anything, except maybe the Forest. She has adopted his way of caressing it with every movement, of showing her love with everything she is. It unnerves her hunting partners to the point where she eventually has to always hunt alone. She doesn't mind.
When Ren is sixteen, a man two years older than her and from another camp notices her beauty and tries to court her. She deftly returns all his compliments with pointed words that tell him she's not interested. He pursues, because he is handsome and has never been turned down before. She mentions it to Torak because she tells him everything. When the man becomes a little too forceful, she is ready to fight back.
But then Torak is there in front of her, the man's wrist caught in his grip, his wolf-golden eyes on fire. He is growling, echoed just as fiercely by the monstrous wolf beside him. Wolf is eight years old and in his prime, shoulders coming up to Torak's hips.
They make a terrifying picture. The man screams, and Torak pushes him back, letting go only after a sickening crunch tells everyone his wrist is broken. Torak turns to look at her, fearing rejection now that she has seen his worst. Ren hugs him in full view of her camp, takes his hand and leads him back to the Forest. Wolf follows his pack leaders, watching the others with intelligent eyes.
She returns and expresses a desire to be taught as their next shaman. It is lost on no one that shamans are not allowed to be bonded, or to have that sort of relationship with anyone.
Ren spends the rest of her life mostly alone. Word spreads quickly between the camps that she is guarded by a Forest spirit, and she is soon considered the strongest of all shamans, because she has so obviously bonded the spirit of a Forest wolf to her service.
This is why no one asks questions when she announces she is with child. They also do not ask when the baby boy has gold eyes and sharp teeth, or that she is sometimes seen without him but has asked no one to watch. The baby boy speaks in growls and yips before he speaks in words. He holds a knife like he was born with one in his hand. He walks like a bird in flight. He wanders into the forest, and his mother never worries.
The boy's name is Torak. No one asks about that, either.
There is a story told 'round the fire, of a woman who loved the Forest, and of the Forest who loved her back. Her name is forever lost, but maybe the trees still whisper it with longing, and raptors cry it in joy, and wolves sing her love to the moon and the Forest.