Elder Tharos was already shouting when the clearing came into view.
His voice rolled through the lower training grounds, thick with fury, echoing off stone and ancient trees alike.
"I will not have this rot spreading through my pack!" he roared. "You think strength is noise? You think recklessness is courage?"
Dust hung in the air. Broken earth marked where bodies had slammed into the ground. One of the stone markers used for sparring lay split clean in half.
In the center of it all were four youths who had clearly forgotten where play ended and violence began.
A broad shouldered boy stood laughing through a split lip, blood on his teeth like a badge of honor. Another leaned against a tree, eyes sharp and calculating, watching everything without stepping in. Two girls circled each other slowly, neither willing to back down. The last boy sat on the ground rubbing his ribs and grinning like the pain amused him.
They did not stop when Tharos shouted.
That was the problem.
The air shifted.
Not from the clearing but from behind it.
Tharos felt it before he turned.
Power moved differently when the twins were near. It bent rather than pushed. Pressed rather than announced itself.
He turned.
They were walking toward the chaos side by side.
Sammy moved first, as always. Fast. Restless. Energy barely contained beneath his skin. His eyes were already dark with irritation.
Sunny followed half a step behind. Calm. Controlled. Watching everything without letting it touch him.
Their shoulders nearly brushed yet there was space between them that had not always been there.
The clearing quieted as they approached. Even the laughing boy paused.
Tharos narrowed his eyes.
So the storm brings the lightning.
"Good," Tharos said sharply. "You two will do."
Sammy frowned. "Do what exactly"
Tharos raised his staff and pointed it toward the five troublemakers. "These cubs believe rules do not apply to them. They believe strength means chaos."
His gaze cut back to the twins. "You will remind them otherwise."
The five misfits straightened.
One of the girls smiled slowly. "We get to fight them"
"That depends," Tharos said coldly, "on whether you survive the lesson."
Sunny took a breath. "Elder Tharos this is unnecessary."
"Silence," Tharos snapped. "You do not decide what is necessary."
He stepped back and lifted his staff.
"Fight."
The word landed like a spark on dry ground.
Sammy moved instantly.
He crashed into the broad shouldered boy with enough force to send both of them skidding through the dirt. The boy laughed even as he rolled, scrambling back to his feet like the pain thrilled him.
Sunny intercepted the quiet one as he lunged forward. Their movements mirrored each other, precise and controlled, neither gaining ground.
One of the girls darted toward Sammy from the side. He twisted and blocked her strike barely in time, teeth bared in a grin that did not reach his eyes.
"You hit hard," she said.
"So do you," Sammy replied.
The other girl came in low. Too fast. Too reckless.
The ground cracked when Sammy planted his foot.
Sunny felt it immediately.
A pressure coiled inside his brother like something waking from sleep.
"Sam," Sunny warned quietly.
Too late.
Power surged.
Not a full shift. Not yet.
But enough.
The air darkened. Dust lifted. The laughing boy was thrown back like a rag doll. One of the girls lost her footing and slammed into the ground. Even Sunny staggered as the force rippled outward.
Gasps rose from the watching wolves.
Tharos slammed his staff down with a sound like thunder.
"Enough!"
The power did not recede.
Sammy stood rigid, chest heaving, eyes glowing faintly with something that did not belong to a boy.
The world leaned toward him.
Tharos's voice dropped into something ancient.
He spoke a name that had not been used aloud in years.
"Saereth Morvane Nightrend."
The sound tore through the clearing.
The ground shuddered.
The darkness recoiled as if struck.
Sammy froze.
The glow vanished. His breath left him in a sharp gasp as his knees hit the dirt. He clawed at the ground like the name itself had wrapped around his spine and dragged him back into himself.
Calamity howled somewhere deep inside him and fell silent.
Sunny turned sharply, heart hammering.
Tharos did not stop.
"Solaryn Kael Ashguard."
The air snapped into place.
The pressure vanished entirely.
Sunny stiffened as if struck from stone. His hands curled at his sides, jaw clenched so tight it ached.
Silence swallowed the clearing.
Even the wind seemed afraid to move.
The five troublemakers stared.
Those were not names spoken lightly.
Those were names bound to blood and fate.
Tharos looked at the misfits. "Remember them," he said. "Outside this territory those are the names the world will use."
He turned back to the twins.
"You will not be called boys forever," Tharos continued. "And when those names are spoken again it will not be to stop a fight."
Kaelion and Elyra stood at the edge of the clearing, having arrived unseen.
Elyra's gaze lingered on the five youths in the dirt. Measuring. Considering.
Kaelion's eyes stayed on his sons.
Six figures stood there in the dust.
Not friends yet. Not enemies.
But something had begun.
And far above, hidden behind cloud and moonlight, something ancient watched and did not intervene.