Urania’s movements came to a halt as she attempted to recall the predominant characteristics of this tribe. It was challenging; she wasn’t familiar with the people in this region. The Frost Moon Pack and Blue Moon Pack occupied vastly different territories, and the environment determined available resources, which, to some extent, influenced the personalities of those raised in the area.
People living on the island were more reclusive, connected to the world only by an endless river. Those surviving in the mountains were more tenacious, better at enduring hardship because they had to continuously work to cultivate crops from barren land. Those residing in the forest were more adaptable and resourceful, facing various poisonous insects and wild beasts.
Blue Moon Pack and Frost Moon Pack clearly developed distinct personalities in response to these significant differences.
The people of Blue Moon Pack, near the forest and river, were more inclined to socialize and gentler. They didn’t easily provoke conflicts because they lacked urgent survival needs; their terrain could generally fulfill their basic needs, and they often acquired various fresh foods. In contrast, Frost Moon Pack, surrounded by icy, hard stones, where even wild grass couldn’t survive, let alone other creatures, needed either thick fur for insulation or formidable strength to withstand extreme cold.
This led to the gradual development of a belligerent, irritable, and somewhat volatile disposition among the Frost Moon Pack members. Consequently, few tribes liked to interact with them, as no one enjoyed dealing with a rabid dog, especially one that was a wolf in disguise.
Urania understood how these differences had shaped the distinctive characteristics of the groups over time. However, despite the years of evolution, the Frost Moon Pack members hadn’t grown any wiser. Their thinking seemed stuck in the primitive era, believing that territorial expansion and unification could be achieved solely through violence. This greatly annoyed her.
Maggie, noticing Urania’s prolonged silence, thought she might not understand or be unwilling to discuss the Frost Moon Pack tribe.
“It’s okay; you don’t have to know or don’t want to say. I’m not forcing…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Urania interrupted her, “I certainly know. I’m aware of everything related to the werewolf world.”
She slowly unfolded the divination-specific star blanket. It was said that this blanket bore the magic left by the gods, and when used by someone with sufficiently potent magic, it would stretch into a vast star map containing answers to everything.
Maggie looked at the blanket in awe. “It’s truly beautiful.”
“Everything related to the gods is beautiful,” Urania arranged candles and a stone carving symbolizing questions. “It will be a while before the divination begins; I can tell you about the Frost Moon Pack, including their current alpha and his troublemaking son.”
First, there was Peirene, a character who was half-wolf and half-vampire.
“She possessed immense strength, intelligence, beauty, and ambition. Currently, she’s the alpha of the Frost Moon Pack, with Alexander as her support. She was clever and wise, but her greatest virtue soon turned into her greatest flaw. Ambition devoured her rationality. She became dissatisfied with merely being the Luna of the Frost Moon Pack; she wanted more. She aimed to become the ruler of the entire northern continent. To achieve that, she needed to break through the barrier of the Blue Moon Pack, represented by Elwin at the time. She invaded our borders more than once, and while many times it was just minor probing, everyone knew she wouldn’t stop there. A major war was imminent.”
Although it’s in the past, Maggie couldn’t help but feel a knot in her stomach. “And then? Did the two tribes launch a war?”
“No. When Elwin was prepared for a confrontation, he unexpectedly received a complete ceasefire proposal from Alexander. He sent a letter expressing that he had no intention of starting a war between the two tribes. Everything was Peirene’s unilateral decision, and now, coincidentally, with Peirene losing her sanity, they decided on a permanent truce.”
“Lost her sanity?”
“Yes. Alexander feared that a new war would plunge his people into an even more dire situation, so he sought a wizard to suppress Peirene’s power. However, the wizard feared Peirene’s half-wolf identity and her endless ambition. From the beginning, he intended to kill her and crafted those shackles. By the time Alexander realized it, it was too late. Killing the wizard didn’t change anything; the curse persisted. All he could do was exile his Luna to the Moonlit Forest, where she could escape the scorn and hatred of the tribe.”
Maggie found the story profoundly sad. However, she quickly realized something she should have noticed earlier, something her mother had told her about the woman she encountered and sent away in the Moonlit Forest being the Luna of the Frost Moon Pack.
“Her son is Ethan!”
“You finally remembered.”
Maggie’s eyes were filled with disbelief. “Ethan is also a half-wolf, half-vampire?”
“Yes, you got it right.”
Maggie took a while to recover from the shock. “But who could tell? He doesn’t seem afraid of sunlight, doesn’t need blood much, and rarely shows the instinctual craving for blood.”
Urania calmly sipped her herbal tea. “A vampire’s desire for blood depends on the purity of their bloodline. His purity is quite low, so the instinctual urge of a vampire exists in his body but doesn’t constantly affect his rationality. If he’s a disciplined person who knows how to control his desires, that instinct has a weaker impact on him.”
“But Grace is easily affected.”
“She wasn’t born a half-wolf, half-vampire. Her genes got contaminated when she reached a certain age. The two sets of genes fight, and the original werewolf genes can’t accept the new ones. They can’t effectively merge, causing a severe rejection reaction. That’s why she’s extremely photosensitive, even more so than some pure-blood vampires.”
“That makes sense.”
“Does Ethan know that his mother was exiled?” Maggie imagined a prince without maternal love, unaware of anything related to his mother, with only a father. “In that case, it seems like all his motivations make sense.”
Urania wanted to mock her naivety.
“Having reasonable motivations is not a justification for harming others. The world needs order, and order needs to be obeyed. It’s not as simple as having a reasonable motivation to overlook everything. Maggie, this is the last time I’ll emphasize this: gods can be compassionate, but it shouldn’t cloud your judgment.”
“I’m not against you empathizing with the pain he went through, but when the time comes for you to face the fact that he needs to be stopped, you can’t let his past suffering cloud your judgment, trying to spare him because of the pain he endured.”