<h4>Chapter 165: The Future of the Werewolves-1</h4>


    The entire werewolf race had already begun preparations for the uingpetition. Following their King’s decree, they recognised it as a golden opportunity for the younger generation. Regardless of size or status, every n aimed to seize this chance to elevate the strength of their future generation. After all, though werewolves lived long lives, it was the youth who brought prosperity, strength, and prestige to their ns.


    It wasn’t that the elders stopped contributing as they aged... it was moreplicated than that. Living among mortals came with its constraints. Werewolves couldn’t maintain the same identity for too long in human society. Sooner orter, they had to change their appearance or relocate entirely, starting over from scratch.


    Relocating an entire n was no small task. It was a process filled with risk and logistical nightmares. That’s why werewolves had adopted the tradition of passing on the legacy to the younger generation. Even ns that ran businesses had to ensure that their human employees believed a legitimate transition of ownership was taking ce. Continuity, even if only in appearance, was essential.


    In the Raynor n, the responsibility of organizing thepetition fell upon Xavier Raynor, following a formal n meeting. Once the schedule was finalized and announced, over fifty young werewolves registered topete.


    Xavier felt the headache arrive almost instantly.


    Managing that many participants would be a monumental task. The biggest hurdle was to set a Venue. The Raynor n didn’t own a private arena or stadium suitable for such arge-scalepetition. And this wasn’t a game... when two werewolves fought, they would inevitably use their wolf abilities. Hosting the event in a public ce would lead to a potential supernatural disaster.


    Two days passed. Xavier brainstormed, calcted, and stressed, but came up with many things, but nothing substantial. Finally, frustrated and out of options, he decided to call Fiona.


    After hearing him out, Fiona exhaled slowly.


    "Your real problem," she began, her voice calm, "is just the final match. The preliminary rounds... you can arrange those at our ancestralnd. But the final... that’s going to be tricky."


    "We’ll need to invite the other n heads to witness it. I’ve already received an invitation from the Fenroth n, and I’m sure others will follow. We can’t ignore them. We need to prepare a proper venue... even if it’s just for one day."


    She paused for a moment, then added, "Don’t worry. We’ll hold the final at the Raynor Estate. I’ll bring in an array master to secure the area. They’ll set up a protective array around the arena to contain everything. You just need to build a temporary arena... something practical, but elegant. Ask Ethan to design it without ruining the estate’s natural beauty. Thest thing we want is for other ns to show up and start criticizing us."


    Xavier let out a visible sigh of relief. "Understood. I’ll contact Ethan right away."


    Before ending the call, he added, "Thank you."


    On the other end, Fiona smiled. "This boy... he can run the entire police force of Manchester but can’t organize a simple werewolf tournament." The thought made her chuckle softly.


    With a quiet sigh and a long stretch, Fiona swung her legs over the edge of the bed and padded barefoot across the polished wooden floor toward the tall window. She parted the curtains as if unveiling a dream.


    A sudden cascade of golden sunlight poured into the room, spilling over pale linens, painting the walls in soft hues of rose and amber. It was one of those rare, soul-stirring awakenings where the world feels alive with promise. Fiona blinked against the brightness, her eyes adjusting slowly.


    Beyond the window, Hallstatt’s peaks still wore their snowy crowns. The Dachstein Mountains glittered under the morning sun like cut crystal. And yet, change stirred beneath the snow.


    She slid open the window, and a sharp, invigorating wind swept across her face. Not biting cold but clean and gentle,ced with the earthy scent of thawing soil, pine, and distant warmth of light. The gust lifted her hair slightly and sent a delightful shiver down her spine. She inhaled deeply, as if drawing strength from the breath of the earth.


    Outside, the vigey in serene grace. Sloped rooftops bore their final shawls of snow as thest remnants of a long Alpine winter. Droplets fell steadily from leaves and branches, pattering onto cobblestone paths and ivy-d ledges. Beneath the melting crust, small patches of green peeked through. Fiona watched as snow slipped from the arms of fir trees, revealing jade-like needles catching the sun.


    Just beyond the garden, a narrow stairway climbed a hill, nked by terraced flower beds that clung stubbornly to the stone. There, in quiet defiance of winter, the first bursts of colour had arrived. Pale crocuses, violet irises, shy prims, and golden alpine asters swayed delicately in the cold breeze.


    It was as if the earth had exhaled, sending out these fragile messengers to announce the uing spring.


    Theke belowy still and vast, mirroring the sky so wlessly it seemed to stretch into forever. A thin veil of mist hovered across its ghostlike surface, and reluctant to let go. Boats bobbed gently in their moorings. And behind them, the ancient facades of timber-framed homes stood proud, bathed in light... timeless, enduring, beautiful.


    Fiona leaned forward, resting her elbows on the cold window ledge. A sense of quiet awe bloomed in her chest. This ce felt carved by gods or spirits... a world untouched by rush, by noise, by burden. Here, time feels slower and kinder, which soothes one’s soul.


    "I could fall in love over and over with this kind of silence," she whispered to no one in particr.


    Soon, the snow would vanish... but this moment, this whisper between seasons, felt sacred. As though Hallstatt had embraced her gently and whispered: This is beauty, if you know how to see.


    A pang of sadness stirred in her.


    For the past week, she’d let herself breathe here in this alpine cradle. But the npetition loomed ahead. It was time to return to Manchester and oversee preparations. The estate had to be wless. The other ns woulde. Perhaps even the King.


    They couldn’t afford to appear unprepared... not when so much was at stake.


    ***


    The world was silent, save for the wind that screamed like a beast with no face. Deep in the heart of the Himyas, where the sun rarely touched the ground and the horizon was made of endless white, a lone figure moved through the snow... like a ghost in the wilderness, a fire amidst ice.


    He stood like a spear in the center of a wind-scoured valley, his bare chest rising and falling beneath a curtain of bruised sky. His skin, pale as mountain stone, glistened with sweat despite the biting cold. Each breath he drew came out as steam, torn away by the storm before it could fully form. Around him, the air swirled with a chaos of shattered ice and flurrying snow, as if the mountains themselves were trying to cut him down.


    His spear danced in his hands with the elegance of a poem. Also, with brutal, relentless precision. Every thrust drove the tip forward like lightning split into steel, the force of it tearing through the frozen air with a sharp boom. With each strike, a pulse of wind erupted from the tip, a condensed roar of power that surged ahead and mmed into the mountainside beyond. There, the snow exploded upward in pirs of white, scattered into the sky like offerings to the storm.


    Ice shards sliced across his body, drawing thin trails of redness that froze instantly against his skin. The wind snarled against him like a living thing, wild and merciless. But he did not waver a bit. Muscles rippled across his torso with each movement... shoulders twisting, spine bending, arms snapping forward again and again, faster with each repetition. The rhythm of his spear was like a war drum pounding against the silence of the gods.


    The valley was his only witness. The sky above was bruised purple, the sun a faint blur behind shifting clouds. Peaks ringed the basin like sleeping giants, their icy heads lost in mist, ancient and unmoved. And in the middle of it all, amidst wind and snow and silence, he kept moving... panting, sweating, and striking.


    He was refining something far more dangerous than technique... a will unbroken by frost, a body hardened by solitude, and a spirit untouched byfort.


    "Rohan, the n has sent word. Thepetition will be held next week. If you want to enter, we must leave now." A voice broke through the howling wind, worn with age but firm as stone.


    The young man didn’t pause, but his eyes flickered slightly as hepleted his strike.


    From the mouth of a narrow cave carved into the cliffside, an old man emerged... barefoot, draped only in a simple white dhoti that clung to his frame in the biting wind. Though his face bore the deep furrows of time, his body still held the weight and strength of years forged in discipline. His chest was broad, his shoulders square, and his weathered muscles remained hard as the mountains themselves. A long white beard clung to his chin, rippling in the wind like frost-streaked silk, and his hair, thick and silver, flowed past his shoulders,shing about like banners in a storm.


    The young man halted his movements and turned toward the cave. Without a word, he set the spear down beside him, its tip sinking into the snow. Then he bowed deeply, the gesture full of respect and calm purpose.


    "As you wish, Gurudev," said the young man.


    He was Rohan Harivamsa, a rising star of the Harivamsa n.