The moon hung low in the sky as the sun's rays finally left the world behind and gave in to the cool, crisp night. For miles on end, oak trees spread below the blackened sky, their leaves rustling in the calm breeze that overtook the world. This forest was surrounded on all sides - the city of New York to the North, a range of mountains to the West, ocean to the East, and more human settlements to the South. However, very few dared to venture to the heart of these huge woods, because those with bad intentions who entered hardly ever came out. Not alive, at least.

Nobody knew what horrors lay within the woods, and none would prefer to, either. Few brave folks had entered, but their bodies were found by the tree line, mauled as though something had deliberately ripped them apart to show their families what had become of them. But some people had seen behind these brutal killings to the surprising truth behind it.

Out of the very few people that dared to enter the harsh woods, half of them had been men, while a quarter had been children, and the last part had been women. Only the men were killed. Women and children came out unscathed, scoffing at the mildness of the forests. Even stranger, not all of the men were killed. Only hunters or villains.

This truly confused people, but they couldn't determine what creature could tell who was a hunter, and who was a normal man. Even worse: what kind of animal would slaughter a creature so cleanly? Some speculated birds, others insisted that a wildcat was on loose. Few believed that a pack of wolves hid deep within the trees. Those groups of crazy people said dragons - and they were the closest to the truth.

The truth was, that the animals killing humans were thought not to exist. They were the ancestors of the animals we use for sport and companionship.

Yes, the animals attacking the humans were indeed a group of two hundred or so horses, but unlike any horses ever seen by the human eye. They were almost a head taller than a Clydesdale, and had a long, pointed horn jutting out from their foreheads, while enormous wings enabled them to fly for miles without tiring.

Pegacorns.

They ruled the lands then, and they still rule them today. They look and act like horses, yes, but they think and speak like humans. They unknowingly waged war on humans, determined to keep hunters out of their world. This war has been fought for generations, and unbeknownst to humans, they are winning. Because they have a weapon unlike the humans do. Something that is both human and animal. Both beast and girl.

They have Shapeshifters, the last two in the world.

"Shine, can we go see the owls?"

The little girl with flame-colored hair and a phoenix-like animal on her shoulder looked up innocently up at the golden pegacorn, who met both dark blue gazes with her own gentle brown one. "You're not old enough to leave the camp, Kyran." Her voice was smooth, like honey, and had a singsong ring to it. It was as if the melody of the forest were etched into her soul. She knew that, though only addressing the child, the bird also knew her words were directed at him. He was, after all, Kyran's spirit animal.

"That's not fair." Kyran crossed her arms. Her voice differed from her foster mother's to the point where they were almost complete opposites. While Shine had a melodic voice, the child had a rough scratchy one that made her sound angry all the time. It was fortunate that - as a young human-Shifter hybrid, she was able to change her vocal cords as well as her body. "I'm four years old. Micah and Midnight are four years old, and they can leave the camp."

Shine tossed her head, the golden horn gleaming in the pale moonlight and her bronze mane catching in the winter wind. "Horses age much differently than Shapeshifters. And besides, don't you have anything better to do?"

Kyran snorted. "No. No one wants to play with us." Her voice changed from upset to sad, and a pained look crossed her face, making Shine feel instantly guilty. She should have known that the child she adopted would be an outsider among the other young ones. And the bird would be the same. Though it pained her that no one besides her and the rest of the royal family accepted the two or Kyran's twin.

"Why don't you go play with Bryan?" The pegacorn nodded toward a little boy with blonde hair near the edge of the clearing, jumping up and down ridiculously despite the snorts if mockery that came from the foals nearby. They only choked down the laughter when the grizzly bear nearby - the boy's spirit animal - roared at them and they scattered in fear of the predator. Kyran scoffed at the foals, watching her twin brother flap his large silver wings and scatter his feathers all over the ground while the bear watched, intent on helping his partner.

"He's practicing to fly."

Shine blinked, surprised at the bitterness in her daughter's tone. "You could practice too." She offered.

The child unfurled her enormous white wings, which flopped uselessly behind her. "Me? Fly?" She growled, meeting Shine's gaze with her own nasty stare. "I can't even lift my wings, and you expect me to fly?"

Shine gave a deep sigh, feeling the cool night breeze ruffle her wing feathers. "Right, I forgot. Sorry." The pegacorn tore her gaze from the limp mass of feathers and instead met the eyes of her foster daughter and her spirit animal.

Kyran's gaze softened, but it was still full of rage. "It's not fair." She said after a moment, tears welling up in her dark blue eyes. "I'm stronger than Bryan and I have a bird as a spirit animal, but he can fly already. My wings are just too heavy." A single tear escaped her eye, rolling down the pale skin and dropping to the snow-covered ground where, a moment later, a bright orange flower sprouted.

"You'll grow into them," Shine stretched one golden wing to embrace her daughter warmly, ignoring the blossom. "You're still very young, and your wings are very powerful. One day, you will be the strongest flier in Eagle Feather."

"Do you really believe that?" Kyran asked, looking into her mother's eyes hopefully. Shine gave a firm nod and stamped her hoof on the ground, crushing the flower, but neither took any notice.

"I do, my dear," she whispered. "I can't wait to watch you fly one day."

Kyran nodded, wiping the tears from her face and looking at her spirit animal with a renewed determination.

Shine took a deep breath. "Now, you said something about wanting to go see the owls, I recall?"

"Yes!" Kyran looked up as Shine began to walk toward the camp entrance.

The golden pegacorn swished her bronze tail. "Come along, then. We might be able to get you a glimpse of them before the sun sets."

Kyran leaped with joy as she charged through the snow-covered clearing after her mother into the dark woods. Leaves rustles with every step, and Kyran found herself shrinking closer to Shine as the pegacorn continued onward, her hooves creating deep prints in the snow. Shivering, she called upon the warmth of her Firebird, who lent her his body heat so she would not freeze in the uncommon chill of the winter.

"Where are we going?" Kyran asked once she had stopped shaking. "They don't nest too close to human camps, do they?"

Shine laughed. "No, of course not. They live in the Old Oak."

This response surprised the child, as the Old Oak was the very tree Shine came come to a halt beneath. Kyran tipped her head back, trying to glimpse the snowy white feathers of the two owls she had been told so much about. "Shine? I don't see them."

"Be quiet." Shine's voice startled Kyran - it was filled with alarm - and she turned to see her mother staring into the trees, eyes narrowed, wings up in a defensive position. At once, the girl went still, horror numbing the cold in her fingers. Even the warmth of her spirit animal died down as he too, became immersed in fear.

The woods were eerily silent, even the bats were quieted by the shrill snarl that rang through the night. Kyran gasped when a creature larger than her leaped out of the bushes and lunged for her.

"Kyran, Phoenix, get down!" Shine shrieked, jumping forward to intercept the creature before it reached her daughter and her spirit animal. Claws flashed in the moonlight, and another snarl ripped through the air.

When Kyran could see again, the sight that greeted her was horrifying. The clearing was soaked with the blood, the white snow stained red. Before her lay the cougar, a gash in its head that still poured blood from where Shine had struck the blow with her powerful hooves. But that wasn't what caused the next screech of pure grief to slice through the night.

Shine lay in the snow as well, a few steps away from the cat. She was a crumpled heap of golden feathers, and the wound in her throat showed that the cat had struck the fatal blow even before Shine had ended its life.

Kyran collapsed beside her mother with a wordless shriek, burying her nose into the scarlet-stained fur while her spirit animal wrapped his dark flame-colored wings around her neck to comfort her. The wind picked up, and snow began to fall - as though nature were also grieving for the gentle mare. Despite the numbing cold of the snowfall, the child could have cared less. Her only concern was her mother - the mare who had saved her life.

"You can't leave me," she pleaded, shoving the mare in a vain attempt to rouse her. "You promised to watch me fly one day!"

"As long as you hold the spirit of goodness in your heart, she shall never leave you." A melodic voice - sweet as honey - spoke from behind.

"Young child. Why do you grieve?"

These new voices caused Kyran's eyes to widen. She turned around at the words that sounded like the wind itself had spoken, shocked to find two white birds standing there, wings folded neatly to their sides.

Two snowy owls.

The first came forward, and this one had almost no black speckles on its plumage, suggesting that it was a male. He stared at Kyran with his deep golden eyes.

"Surely you cannot be upset that she gave her life for you?" He spoke regally, observing the patch of orange flowers that had sprouted around the grieving child. "She would not want you to stand over her body and mourn. She would want you to go back to your home before more vicious predators take advantage of the bloodscent."

Kyran shook her head. "I can't leave her here." She protested. "It wouldn't be right."

The second owl - the one with multiple black speckles on her head - stepped up and brushed the girl's cheek with her cloud-soft wing, wiping the tears to prevent the sprouting of more FireFlowers. "It's alright, dear child." She cooed. "We will not let any predators near the body of the mare. She died an honorable death, and we should be able to hold off wolves until your tribemates come for the body."

"Please," Kyran whispered, her grief turning to anger. "What can you do? You're just owls, after all."

The two birds glanced at one another, and something close to amusement sparked in their yellow eyes as the FireFlowers wilted due to the cold. Then, the male opened his wings, revealing his feathers for all to see. Kyran gasped - as did her spirit animal.

Multiple feathers of all sizes and colors were weaved into the snowy's wings. Kyran crouched down, suddenly realizing who these owls were as the female revealed her own assortment of brightly colored feathers.

"We are the Guardians of the Forest." The female owl said, her eyes sparkling like the flaming petals of the flowers that grew from the tears of the young Shapeshifter. "We are older than time, and we protect all animals who live under these trees."

"Each feather represents a noble pegacorn that died within these woods." The male said in a melodic tone. "With your permission, we would like to add the mare's feathers to our collection."

Kyran paused, her dark blue eyes flickering with indecision as she gazed at the two snowies. Then, with a dip of her head, she turned back to Shine's body and plucked three feathers from her soft wing. She dropped one at the male owl's talons, one at the female's, and then kept the last for herself.

"Thank you, dear child," the male owl said, taking the golden feather in his beak and weaving it into his left wing. "We promise that we will hold her voice with us for all of eternity."

The female repeated the action with her own feather, before she leaned forward and plucked a single white primary from her wing and handed dropped it at Kyran's feet. "Keep this feather." She advised. "And give me one of yours, so that we may always remember you, and you may always remember us."

Kyran obeyed, plucking two white feathers from her oversized wings and giving them to the owls just as they each gave her one of theirs.

"Your wings are very powerful," the male snowy observed as she tucked them back into place. "Just like the child they belong to." He then straightened. "And the flowers - it has been over a millennia since I have seen a FireFlower. You are truly a special child." His eyes went to the Firebird perched delicately on her shoulders. "And I have waited long to see the day when the great Firebird chose a Shapeshifter to bond with. What is his name?"

The girl didn't have to answer, as the Firebird spoke in a deep voice before she could open her jaws: "My name is Phoenix."

The male snowy dipped his dead. "Greetings, Phoenix. My name is Crispin, and my mate is Iclyn."

"Go well, Kyran." Iclyn dipped her speckled head. "And remember that we will watch you. You have a special destiny, and I can't wait to watch you discover it."

Giving a small nod of gratitude as she weaved her own three feathers into her hair, Kyran turned away from the owls and began the short trek back to her camp, where she could alert her father of Shine's noble death. She turned back one last time to see her mother, and watched the two owls position themselves near her body in order to defend it until others of the herd came to retrieve it. She dipped her head to them - a symbol of the deepest respect - before turning away for perhaps the last time and diving into the snow-covered underbrush.

As she ran, the whispers of the forest became clear for the first time. The wind spoke, the snow sang, and the water held conversations with her.

Kyran charged by a puddle, taking no notice of her reflection. But what she didn't know - as the ice tore away from the small body of water due to her unusually warm skin - her reflection remained. It watched from its puddle as Kyran charged away with a Firebird on her shoulders, before turning to its own and giving a wicked grin. Then, it unfurled oversized white wings and gave a cackle - one that was lost in the howling winter wind. Kyran did not hear it, but she heard instead the whisper of the owls in her mind.

We are with you, Child of the Wild, now and forevermore.

And for the first time in her life, Kyran truly believed it.