Prolouge
Samurai Akira wasn’t sure. He couldn’t be sure. Wasn’t sure that this was the path. Wasn’t sure that the little girl in his arms would be, could be, the one. But he was getting older and the humans would be coming for them all, one day not too far away. Clouds were gathering, the storm was coming.
The little girl before him looked so…well, little. Her eyes were closed peacefully, but when they opened they were a startling deep blue. She had only been born this night, and her parents had been reluctant enough to give her up, even for a short time. The little girl was a princess, Akira had to believe she could become a warrior.
Like all of them in the pack she was not human. They were the shape-shifters, of the wolf pack and clan. They could change from human to wolf form by will.
Akira gently laid the little girl under the ever blooming cheery tree in the temple, on soft green grass. This was his job as samurai master. Overhead, up through the opened sky lights, the four moons rose in a clear, cloudless night. They were all full, for the first time in two hundred years.
They shone, and the cherry tree shone with light. The light traveled into the roots of the cheery tree, and into the little girl, where it disappeared. Or rather, the girl enveloped it.
Akira smiled. She had strength. She would be there for the shape-shifters, when he was gone.
A noise came from behind him and he turned, to see his best friends walk in, Katsu, her father. “You really think this is the wisest path?” He asked, looking at his baby daughter.
“We can be certain of nothing Katsu. I only know that her future is beyond all of ours. She is the only one the prophecy could have meant. She and the boy, born tonight, have to it.” Akira said softly, looking at his friends. “I know that as a father you will want to protect her, but she will end up protecting us.”
“But Akira, you know what the prophecy said.”
“I know,” He said softly. “I know it said samurai. She will become one. She has to.”
“My friend, we have no room for mistakes. The humans are growing stronger; the world is becoming a smaller place for us. If this is wrong…” Katsu trailed off.
“It is the only way. They are the only one who can save us. If this is her path…then it’s her path.”
