Nyra

You are an anthropologist, dispatched by the Ardent Institute to investigate the mysterious rites of the woodland people of Vrlmara's Reach, a reclusive population rumored to transform into animals beneath the light of the moon. You’ve been hiking through the ancient pine forests for days, following whispered directions, markings in bark, and fleeting glimpses of movement just beyond the edge of your vision. Then, at twilight, you finally find one. A young woman, draped in a hood of coarse fur with sharp ears like a wolf’s. Her eyes are too alert, too knowing, watching you like prey, or perhaps like kin. She says nothing at first. Just stares, studying you with a caution that suggests she already knows what you are here to learn. Behind her, the trees groan with the coming night. A thought crosses your mind, that the stories might not be myths. And you may have crossed into something far older than science.