Taina's Legacy
My fingers shook as I wiped away the last of
the green stuff on the rock. There was a small
hidden hole. Taina's secret hiding place. A
sudden strong feeling of excitement hit me.
Next to me, Gareth held his breath, his yellow
eyes looking hard at the opening. Even Silas,
who usually couldn't stand still, was quiet, a
rare moment of calm.
The air inside the hole smelled of dry plants
and something old and like earth. My heart
beat fast as I reached in. My hand touched
rough, old paper. Notebooks. A few of them,
tied with worn leather. And under them,
rolled-up maps with soft edges.
"We found it," I whispered, my voice shaky.
Everyone around me breathed out in relief. We
had followed the old werewolf's confusing
clues, putting together little pieces of old
stories. It had brought us here. This had to be
it. Taina's work. Our last chance to live.
But as I carefully picked up the notebooks, a
new feeling started – worry. The pages had
detailed drawings, not of the forest or the
moon, but of… machines. Wheels, sticks,
shiny tubes. Human things. And next to these
drawings were words, some we knew and
some strange lines and shapes. Taina hadn't
just watched humans; she had tried to
understand them, to figure out how their
things worked.
"What is all this?" Silas asked, his usual happy
face now confused as he looked at the pages
with me.
Gareth ran a rough finger over a careful
drawing of something that looked like a metal
bird. "She was… learning about what they
made?"
My mind raced. Taina, a very old werewolf,
spending her time trying to understand
human machines? It was not what I expected,
and it confused me. But a small bit of hope
started in me. If she understood them…
maybe she found a way to fight their
weapons, their constant moving closer to our
land.
We put the notebooks on a flat rock, and the
afternoon sun made long shadows. Each
page was like a puzzle, showing how carefully
Taina had watched. She had drawn everything
– their cars, their shiny boxes that talked, their
sticks that shot fire. But her notes… they were
a mess of technical words and her own
strange names. She had used our words for
their things, making it very confusing. 'Metal
beast' for a car, 'light cage' for a television,
'fire stick' for a rifle.
"This will take time," I said quietly, looking at a
drawing of the inside of a clock. My head
already hurt.
"Time we don't have much of," Gareth said
sadly, reminding us of the human guards who
were coming closer every day, the traps they
set, the loud noise of their machines that
came further into our land.
Days turned into nights as we looked at
Taina's notebooks. Elara, who was smart and
patient, became the one who figured things
out. She would spend hours on one page,
looking at the drawings and the strange
words, slowly understanding what Taina
meant. Silas, surprisingly, was good at seeing
patterns in the machine drawings. His
hunter's eyes could see small similarities
between different machines. Gareth, always
watching, kept us safe, listening for any sign
of humans.
My job was to connect Taina's notes with
what we knew about the human world. I had
spent more time near their homes than the
others, a dangerous job to get information. I
knew some of the things, what they did. But
Taina's detailed explanations, her trying to
understand 'how' and 'why' they worked, were
too hard for me.
I felt more and more frustrated. We were so
close, but still far away. The answer, the way
to stay alive, felt like it was in these pages, but
we couldn't quite reach it. I argued with
myself inside. Was I smart enough for this?
Were we wasting our time on something that
wouldn't help? Taina had been amazing, a
legend among us, but her interest… it was so
strange. Why was she so interested in human
machines?
One evening, when the moon made the forest
look scary, Elara shouted. "I think… I think I
found something."
Her finger was on some drawings of a small
thing you could hold in your hand. Under it,
Taina had written: "Sound cage – louder voice
– weak spot in the sound."
"A loudspeaker?" Silas frowned. "So what?"
Elara's eyes were bright with excitement. "No,
listen. She writes about a special sound… a
vibration that stops it from working. She even
has a set of sounds…"
Hope rushed through me, fighting the bad
feelings of the last few days. Could this be it?
A way to stop their warnings, to confuse
them?
The next day, we stayed close together. Elara
carefully made the set of sounds Taina had
written down. Silas, with his very good
hearing, helped to make the sounds exactly
right. Gareth, even though he wasn't sure it
would work, stayed hopeful and loyal.
Finally, Elara looked up, her face tired but
determined. "I think I have it."
We found an old human place, a small
building they had used to talk to each other.
From far away, Elara turned on the thing she
had made – a simple speaker connected to
some whistles that made special sounds. She
played the sounds Taina had written.
At first, nothing happened. Then, a loud
screech came from the loudspeaker in the
building, followed by silence. We watched, our
hearts beating fast, as a human soldier came
out, hitting the machine in confusion. He
spoke into it, but no sound came out. He
looked angry and went back inside.
We all cheered quietly. It was a small win, but
it was still a win. Taina's strange research
might actually help us.
But our happiness didn't last long. As we were
happy, a small branch broke nearby. Gareth's
head shot up, his eyes wide with fear.
"They're here," he whispered angrily, his body
ready to fight.
Before we could move, a net with heavy metal
pieces fell from the trees, catching Silas.
More people came out of the shadows. Their
faces were serious, and their weapons shone
in the dim light. They weren't the usual
guards. These were hunters, and they moved
quickly and knew what they were doing.
"Attack!" Gareth shouted, changing into his
wolf form instantly. I did the same, feeling the
familiar power go through me. Elara jumped
back, holding Taina's notebooks tightly.
We fought hard, our claws and teeth against
their sharp metal and shooting things. But
they were ready for us. They knew we were
coming. How?
Then I saw it – one of the hunters held a
small metal thing with a stick sticking out,
pointing it towards the hidden hole where we
found Taina's research. A tracker? Had they
known we were there?
The thought hit me hard. The old werewolf's
clues… had they been a trick? Had someone
led us here? But who? And why?
The fight was desperate. Silas, stuck in the
net, growled in anger. Gareth, fighting many
people, was fierce. I jumped and moved
quickly, trying to protect Elara and the
important notebooks.
Suddenly, a sharp pain went through my leg. I
fell to the ground. A hunter stood over me, his
weapon ready.
"Elara, run!" I shouted, pushing myself up,
ignoring the bad pain.
Elara stopped for a moment, her eyes full of
fear but also determination. Then, she turned
and ran into the dark forest, the notebooks
held tightly.
Gareth yelled my name, trying to get to me,
but he was surrounded. Silas, finally getting
out of the net, jumped at one of the hunters, a
fast blur of fur and anger.
The last thing I saw before everything went
black was Elara disappearing into the trees,
the future – and our lives – depending on her
and Taina's work. Had we found hope, or had
we walked into a trap? I was afraid it was the
second one, and we might lose everything.