Azure

Sirena's POV.

I stare in horror as they climb up the tree.

"What do we do?" Breezie asks as the tree shakes from the weight of the approaching wolves.

"I can burn this tree down," Coal suggests.

"You'll burn down the whole forest and this tree has a life!" Lionark whispers over the rustling of the leaves of the tree.

"Then what?!" Breezie questions, getting hysterical. Suddenly, a painful howl echoes through the forest followed by sad whines.

We all look down to see the wolves freeze then turn around, charging towards the sounds of pain.

"That was the sound of an animal in pain!" Breezie yells.

"Shh, be quiet! They might come back!" Coal whispers.

"I think we're safe!" Lionark replies in a normal voice.

"You can't be sure!" Coal whispers, shushing him.

Sactom huffs and whacks Coal on the head with his tail, a little bit too hard though.

I gasp as he fell forward, falling out of the tree.

"SACTOM!!!!" He shrieks on his way down. Sactom gazes at him for a few more seconds before diving down, catching him just before he went splat. We quickly leave the safety of our tree and went to see if he's okay.

"Are you okay?" asks Breezie as she slides off of Zalop's back.

"I'm fine, just a bit... terrified," he replies, laying down with his arms spread out.

I land onto the ground with Ezera next to me and nudges him with my eagle wings. "Did he go into shock?" I ask as he didn't move.

Lionark walks up, "Hey, can you hear me?" He asks Coal.

"No," Groans Coal. Sactom muffles a snort, earning a glare from Zalop, a hiss from Ezera, and wack on the wing from Minbor.

"Get up," Breezie says sternly.

"I can't," Moanes Coal.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I'm dead," he replies.

"No, you're not," Lionark answers, rolling his brown eyes.

"Yes I am," he responds.

I open my mouth to reply but a sad howl interrupts me.

"Do you think we should go see if we can help the wolf?" Breezie asks, looking in the direction of the sound with her hands clasped.

"Of course not!" Coal yells, leaping up onto his feet.

"If the animal is hurt, Lionark can heal it," I say, ignoring the protesting boy as we head in the direction the wolves ran in.

"Guys! We're gonna be eaten alive!" Coal exclaims and runs in front of me, stopping abruptly. Causing me to collide into him.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, falling back onto the ground.

"Are you guys out of your minds?" Coal yells, pointing at us. "Those are wolves. Wolves that are the most dangerous wolves in the world!"

"But we might be able to help," Breezie objects.

"It's obviously in pain!" I say, cringing as another pain-filled whimper reaches our ears.

"Please, just one look!" Lionark asks.

Seeing that it's 3 against 1, Coal sighs in defeat and follows us solemnly. Lionark, Breezie, and I silently celebrate and skip ahead. Our partners looked on in amusement while following us, trying not to make much noise.

We followed the sound of whimpers and peer through the branches of a leafy green bush. What we saw made my heart stop.

The giant wolves are surrounding a pure white wolf. The wolf is laying on the ground, whimpering in pain as it's front paw is caught in a trap. The trap is digging into its leg, blood pouring out of it. The surrounding wolves try to pull off the trap but only causing its jaws to dig deeper into the fallen wolf's flesh. The wolf cries in pain as other wolves try to pry off the trap that's clamped on its leg. They're using their claws and teeth but nothing worked.

"We should help," I say turning to my friends. I notice that Breezie's hand is clamped over her mouth and she looks a bit green. "Are you okay? Breezie?" I ask.

Breezie suddenly jumps up and tries to run towards the wolves, "Breezie! NO! STOP!" I yell, grabbing at her wrist.

Zalop rears up and snaps his teeth at her shirt but missed and slipped on the slick ground. I turn to help him up as the wolves look at us, growling furiously.

"STOP!" I hear Coal yell and turn back to what's happening.

Breezie had ran into the circle and is now surrounded by growling wolves. Lionark and MInbor are also surrounded, they had followed Breezie trying to stop her. Coal and a growling Sactom had followed them into the wolf pack and is currently cornered against 3 trees.

Only Zalop, Ezera and I have somehow remained unnoticed. A wolf snaps his jaws at Breezie as she tried to escape.

They moved closer to each other, preventing anyway to escape.

"Stay here," I whisper to Ezera and Zalop. They both nod hesitantly after a slight pause. I nod, satisfied, and shifts into a wolf.

I leap into the clearing, growling, and step towards the wolves causing them to back off. The injured wolf whined pain as a wolf accidentally stumbled over him.

"Stop!" I bark, "We're here to help!"

"How can we trust you," the Alpha wolf asks, stepping forward, hackles raised.

I nod my furry head at Lionark, "He has the talent to heal, you can trust us," I say.

"Eldera," the Pack leader calls out. A chocolate-colored wolf comes up to him. "Yes?" she asks. They make eye contact then she nods.

I back away as she silently walks towards me. "It's alright child," she says soothingly.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Let me touch you," She demands.

Knowing that I don't have a choice, I look at my friends then sit down, lowing my head. Eldera approaches me and touches her nose to my forehead. She stiffens then backs off. "You may trust them," she says.

I tilt my head, confused. "Few pass that test," the alpha wolf explains.

"What test?" I ask.

"Like you, humans. We wolves sometimes are born with unique talents. Eldera has the power to know who's trustworthy, kind, sincere, and helpful." explains the Alpha wolf. "My name is Alaska."

"It's an honor to meet you," I say, dipping my head respectfully and turned around to explain what I had just learned to my friend. Who have been released when Eldera said that we can be trusted. They gazed at the horse-sized wolves with wide eyes.

"You said that you can help Azure?" asks a sandy furred wolf. She stares at the snowy white-furred wolf as the blood continued to flow.

"We'll do what we can," I reply. The wolves made way for us to pass, eyes widening as I shift back into my normal form.

"We are honored to have Ezera, Zalop, Minbor, and Sactom among our pack," Says Alaska as all the wolves crouch to the ground, bowing to the legendary beasts.

"I can still understand you!?" I exclaim in surprise.

"Once you hear our voices, and earn our trust. You can understand us in any form," explains Eldera.

"Now please, help Azure!" begs a female wolf with red fur and a greying muzzle.

I nod and approach the white-furred wolf and notices that he has a beautiful icy blue design around his eyes and has bright azure blue eyes. "Is he a Tide Wolf?!" I exclaim out loud.

"What's a Tide Wolf?" Asks Coal.

"Tide Wolves are the rarest wolves in the world. They are usually found near the ocean but have been hunted so much that there are only about 50 wolves left in the world. I've only seen 2 because 2 Tide Wolves have been brought to the palace for the royal vet. No one's allowed to hunt these wolves anymore, it's against our laws," I explain while running towards the wolf.

"That's another reason why we need to help him. What's his name?" asks Breezie. She determinedly marches up to the trap and examines it. Zalop nickers and backs away as the wolf kicked out in pain, letting lose another wild howl. Sactom and Minbor forces the wolves back, clearing space for us to work.

"Azure," I reply.

Lionark starts to take over after examining the trap and injury. "Breezie, hold his leg still. Coal, help me get this trap off. Sirena, since you're the only one who can understand these wolves, explain to him what we're doing and hold his head down. Be careful, he might bite," instructs Lionark.

"Zalop, Minbor, and Sactom go find some moss and bring us our bags. Ezera, go get some water, Sirena would be too busy to summon some. Quickly! And look for more traps. If you find one, throw a rock or tree branch at it to make it close, once it's closed, it's harmless. Don't get too close to them, and be careful. Bring them to us once it's closed so we can destroy them," Lionark continues. Our partners nod and quickly fly off in 4 different directions.

"Sirena, try to calm him down. We can't get close to him when he's whithering around and kicking," Breezie says, stumbling back as a paw collided with her knee.

"Okay, okay," I mumble and step towards the withering wolf, I jumped back as he twisted his head around, snapping at my feet with his deadly sharp teeth.

"Azure, it's okay, we're here to help," I whisper, bending down.

The wolf stopped moving for a second, staring at me then continued to try to kick the trap off.

"Azure! Please! Calm down!" I cry as I notice the movement of the wolf is causing the teeth of the trap to dig deeper into his flesh. The wolf ignored my pleas and continued to struggle with the trap.

I noticed that the wolf isn't looking at me so I tackle his head down. "Stop moving, you're making yourself weaker," I say, holding his head in a way for it to be hard for him to bite me.

Azure stares into my eyes then whimpered before calming down and laying his head onto my lap.

"Good boy," I say, stroking his soft head. "Are you thirsty?" I asked, noticing him panting.

The wolf nods. He can't speak to me because he's a Tide Wolf, not the same wolf species as the rest of the pack.

I summon a blob of water and hold it up to him. He laps the water as Breezie, Coal, and Lionark move quickly to get the trap off.

"Shhh," I say, calmly pushing down his head. "I know it hurts." The wolf looks up at me and whines. The pack of wolves watches us with weary eyes as they settle down around us. I notice that they're very tense and don't take their eyes off of us for more than a minute.

"It'll be off soon, then Lionark will heal you," I say soothingly.

The sound of flapping wings causes us to look up. Minbor has returned with our bags. He sets them down and flies away to search for more of the dangerous traps.

"We should help with the traps," Alaska says, getting onto his paws. Barks and yips of agreement come from the pack.

"You can get hurt!" I reply "Are you sure?"

"We are sure, there is no reason for you and your friends to stop and help us when we haven't done anything but try to attack you," replies Alaska. He then turns around and assigns teams of three to the wolves who want to help look for traps. The run away in different directions and began searching.

Azure watched as the wolves ran away and began whining again.

"It's okay, they'll be safe," I reply, stroking his neck.

"GOT IT!" Coal shouts as he forces the trap open, grunting as it tried to close again.

Breezie moves Azure's leg out of the trap. Once his legs out of the way, Coal let go of the trap, quickly snatching his hand away before it closed on his hand.

"Where's Ezera?" Lionark asks impatiently as I struggle to calm down a squirming Azure. He starts to thrash around and Breezie and Coal are trying to hold his leg in place before he breaks a bone or makes his injury worse.

Sactom flies towards us, dropping 2 closed traps and a pile of moss. "Thanks!" Coal calls out to him as he flies away to search for more traps among the large forest.

"Now all we need is Ezera to return!" Lionark says, looking through the trees, searching for the large cat.

A mew came from my left and Ezera zoomed past the trees and almost collided with the standing Lionark. A large amount of water hovered above her head, she offered it to Lionark and stared as we struggle to hold down the injured wolf. "Thanks for the water," Lionark says, nodding to the cat. He summoned a rock and shaped it into a large bowl so the water can sit in it.

Ezera nods and spread her wings, leaving to search for some traps.

"Azure! Please be still!" Breezie exclaims after getting kicked in the face.

My grip on him slipped and he snapped his teeth at their hands. "Azure!" Coal exclaims as he moves his hand away from the sharp teeth.

"Lionark! Hurry! The blood is pouring out now!" I cry, pushing Azure's head away from my friend's hands. Zalop appeared from the forest and dropped 3 traps he had collected, and watches us before turning around, braying nervously.

Lionark grabbed a handful of moss, dunked it into the water. Running towards us.

"Hold still, Azure! I need to clean the injury first!" Lionark says.

The wolf calmed down just a little. "Azure, please," I beg. He looks at me, then settles his head onto my lap again as Breezie and Coal holds down his leg.

Azure winced as the cold water touched the injury. "Shh, it's okay, he's cleaning the wound. No, don't look," I say, pushing his head back down.

"It's bad, isn't it?" I mouth to Breezie who's looking away. She nods and mouthes back "Really bad."

I nod to show that I understand and look back down. Azure's eyes are filled with pain. A clatter of metal caused me to whip around. 2 groups of wolves have returned to drop off a few traps. There's a lot of traps! My eyes widen as I count the amount they have collected. 14... 15... 16... 17! They found 17! I watch Lionark clean the wound, trying to distract myself from the growing number of traps.

"Okay," sighs Lionark, sitting back. "That should do it, now I'm going to try to heal you, okay?"

Azure replied with a whine and trembled. I lay my hand upon his head and whisper to him "He'll heal you very quickly. You'll be free again, it shouldn't hurt." He licked my hand and gazed up at the sky.

"I'm going to start now," Lionark says and places his hand onto of the injury gently. Azure's leg twitched after the contact but he kept still.

I watch in amazement as the skin healed itself. The flow of blood slowed, then stopped completely. The wound started to scab over and fur started to grow around the injury.

Lionark sighs and takes his hand away after the injury looked mostly healed. "That's all I can do right now, you should be able to walk." He whips away sweat from his forehead and looks around. Only a few wolves have remained with us, the rest have been searching for traps.

"That's all the traps," A voice says from behind me. Alaska the rest of the wolves have returned. They dropped the traps onto the ground and look at us. "You healed him!" Alaska says in surprise as he notices the blood has stopped flowing.

Minbor, Sactom, Zalop, and Ezera fly in and drop more traps before landing nearby.

We back away from Azure as he tries to stand. I rush forward as he tumbles. He whines and tries again, this time, with my help. He stands on 3 legs then slowly puts his injured back leg onto the ground, putting some weight on it. He yips happily and walks around, with a limp... but he's still walking!

The wolves make sounds of relief and rush forward to greet their friend. I step back and watch the happy pack of wolves.

"That's so cute!" Breezie squeals and hugs Zalop, he neighs and nods his head in agreement.

Sactom just rolls his eyes, still being his stubborn self. Coal stares at him and shakes his head. "You seriously never show emotion," he says. Sactom blows a puff of smoke at him, causing Coal to cough.

Lionark is sitting on the ground watching the happy reunion. "Isn't it cute?" he asks Minbor who nods and settles down next to his tired partner.

Ezera starts to lick my had, trying to get Azure's blood off of it. "Thanks girl," I say and scratches her behind her ears.

Azure broke away from the surrounding pack and runs up to Lionark, kissing him all over his face. Happy whines coming from the back of his throat. "Aw! You're welcome!" Lionark says and hugs the Tide wolf. Azure turns to Breezie and suddenly disappears from Lionark's side and lands next to her. "He can teleport!" Coal exclaims as Breezie's being covered by kisses.

"So cool! He must have a talent, like what Alaska told me!" I say. Azure teleports away from Breezie and lands onto of Coal. "Ow!" He says, from underneath the dog. Azure lets out happy whines and paws at him, covering his face with slobber.

Lastly, he turns to me and runs at me. Knocking me down with his weight. I fall back onto the ground and hug the white wolf. "You're welcome!" I laugh and wrap my arms around his neck. He licks my face and settles down and lays onto of me. I stare at the sky through the tree branches and notice that the sun's rising.

"I would like to thank you," Alaska says, stepping forward. "You will be forever welcome into this pack and forest."

I stand up and brush myself off, "Thank you, we're happy to help." Alaska nods and turns away before spinning around. "Azure has bonded with you," he says before walking away.

"Wait!" I call out, "What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Young pup," Eldera calls out, pacing towards me, "he means that you and Azure are now bonded, you have a connection. He belongs to you now. He has chosen you."

I stare at her for a few minutes and turn to Azure, "Is that true?" I ask him. He pants happily and nods.

"Century soldiers!" Lionark suddenly yells. He had just gone flying with MInbor for one last check around the forest. "They caught up to us!"

"What?!" Coal asks, leaping up.

"They're here!" Lionark exclaims again. Right as he said that, soldiers came pouring into the small camp.

"We'll fight them off! Children, you must run!" Alaska growls and leaps into action, his black fur shimmering in the weak light of the morning sun.

Eldera runs up to us as we gather our stuff, pack our bags, and fight off soldiers. "Here's a cart, you must escape," she says motioning towards 2 wolves who are approaching us pulling a wooden cart. "They will take you to the edge of the forest."

The wolves create a protective circle around us. Lionark leaps into the cart, calling Minbor into Passive state. Sactom disappeared in a flash as Coal climbs into the cart. Zalop reared in fright as an eagle dove at him, clawing at his eyes, Breezie summons her bow and shots at it, carefully aiming. She released her arrow. The eagle falls down onto the ground, flapping around helplessly as an arrow's sticking out of its wing. Zalop nickers and disappears. My 3 friends gaze at me as I stand on the ground, hesitating.

"Come on, Sirena!" Calls Coal.

Ezera nudges my hand and gazes up at me. Azure's standing on my other side, he stares at the fighting wolves and whines.

"I'm staying here to help the wolves," I announce, "I need to help them."

"No! Sirena! How will you find us again?" Cries Breezie.

"Azure," I reply simply.

"What if you don't make it?!" asks Lionark.

"The wolves and Ezera will protect me, I need to help them, I'll see you later," I say, creating a sword with my elemental power. "I'll see you soon." I say and waved as the wolves pulling the cart starts to run away.

I leap into action, Ezera on my left and Azure on my right.