A Trade of Sacrifice: Part 1
Luna glanced back at her pack as she stood on the cursed cliff. The elder wolf looked at her and nodded.
“Go on,” he said.
Luna trotted over to the cliff’s edge. There, she took a deep breath and howled an eerie tune. As she finished, the clouds all parted, and the moon seemed to melt away. In its place was a single eye with white, dove-like wings spreading out from it. A voice appeared in her head.
“What do you desire here, awakening me?” it asked.
Luna closed her eyes. “This year has been very harsh. There are very few animals this year that we can prey on, and many of my people have died of starvation. I pray upon you to restore our good fortune.”
The voice inside her head laughed. “Why, I am merely Voidalis, the ruler of darkness. I have no control over the forest whatsoever. I am the king of night, not life! If you want to restore your forest, call upon Nature herself, not me!” Luna swallowed, then began again.
“That is exactly why we call upon you, Voidalis. We have no clue how to contact Mother Nature. Indeed, this is the only ritual we know of. We need you to contact her. Voidalis chuckled a bit.
“I do not believe that I can call upon her. However, I can give you the steps to the ritual. That is, in exchange for something else,” he said, ominously. Luna perked her ears up.
“In exchange for what?” she asked, excited.
“For the soul of a man.”
Luna froze. Men had guns, knives, and specialized in hunting wolves! They were the ultimate evil!
“But, but men, they-I,” she stuttered.
“It is that, or you will continue to live in hunger,” said Voidalis coldly. Luna sighed.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” she said.
“Good. Come back when you are finished with your task, and I shall give you my end of the bargain,” said Voidalis. And then the moon faded back, replacing the eye and wings. The clouds returned to their original positions, and everything looked normal. Luna turned back to her pack.
“My People,” she started, “We have to kill a human man.”
Everyone gasped at those words.
“A man!?” cried a mother wolf. Her pups began to whine and cry at the mere mention of the word ‘man.’ The pack of wolves feared men more than they feared starvation. Man was ruthless. Man would kill, not for food, but for sport. But the wolves had to contact Nature. Otherwise, they would starve for generations to come. Then, the elder wolf spoke.
“Alas, our fate has come. We must kill a human! But let us show no fear at all, comrades! We must prevail! We will prevail! We will kill a man at any sacrifice, any cost. It is not only for us, but for our children and grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. Rally about, comrades! We shall begin this perilous quest at once.”
At this speech, all the wolves went wild. They howled in agreement, threw themselves into the air in accord. And thus, the mission to bring a man’s soul to Voidalis began.