She stood on the roots of MotherTree, towering over us. Wolfskins draped over her tiny, sturdy body. The wolfskins passed down for hundreds of generations. A gift from the wolf gods that were once friends of our clan. More than friends, they were our gods and protectors.

  Each of the clans has a founding god like that. It’s more than just a way to make a name. It’s what binds us to the forest and our ancient gods and our ancestors who knew the gods.

  First Mother raised her hands and the entire clan silenced. Even my mother, though a scowl itched at her lips. All the songs and games came to an end. Her voice was harsh and scraped by age, but it was also steady, like MotherTree in a storm. Unbent, unbroken.

  “The Shattered Moon and the Lunar Archipelago were once one. They were whole. One great glowing sphere, larger than all her sisters. They circled around Saol, giving her faint light. The world was a sorrowful, cold place then, infested with dragons. The Ageless. They burned in the sky like stars and fought endlessly in the halflight of the moons. The world was a sorrowful place. A dead place. Cold on the surface, the air burning above with dragons, and the moons so far away. The moons wept for her. And then, from within the great moon, the wolves howled. They were born within that moon and their howling caused it to break. To fracture. That broken part fell from the sky.

  “Many wolves rode the broken moon down to the land. They burst past the dragons and their fiery screams. The broken moon smashed into the ground. The many wolves howled into the night for their brothers and sisters still living on the shattered moon. A sorrowful, lonesome howl. The wolves of the shattered moon howled back encouragement, and the wolves now on land ran. They ran and ran and ran for a thousand thousand years. From the place of impact, where the moon hit the surface, sprouted the Lunar Forest. Full of trees and Lunar Flowers, the most beautiful life to ever grew on this world. But the Lunar Forest went deeper. Its roots dug down down down to the very bones of Saol. They wrapped round her bones and heart and became one with the planet.

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  “And the wolves kept running. In their wake grew the forest that is the world. Every step planted another blade of grass, bloomed another Lunar Flower, sprouted another Lunar Tree. The world became a forest and the dragons fell in love with the wolves, their little sisters. So in love were the dragons, that they gave the land to them. The dragons took to the air and the bowels of the world. The veins of her enormous body. Two dragons, who loved the wolves most of all, were so elated by their forest and their howls that they flew into the sky. They met the wolves of the Shattered Moon and helped shape the Lunar Archipelago.

  “The surface was too dark, so they thought. So they became our twin suns. One blue and one red, to burn forever together. To burn forever for their friends, the wolves.

  “After another thousand years, some of the wolves grew tired of running and howling. They stopped. They settled. They stood on their hind legs and became women. They tamed fire and stone and tree. They wandered the forest and gave names to the world. Back then, they still spoke the tongue of the gods, which is why all that is sacred and timeless carries an ancient name given by gods.

  “The wolves who became women then found the many MotherTrees that held the hearts of wolves and spoke the language of the wolves. The MotherTrees sang to them. The entire forest sang for them, and they settled here. In this clearing. They made homes of skin that we still use. The wolves, their sisters, gave them their own skins, to ornament the First Mother, and every First Mother going forward for a thousand thousand seasons.

  “It’s why we celebrate today. It’s to commemorate the birth of our clan. But more than that, it’s to remember the birth of the land. The birth of the wolves and how they shaped the world for us, as a gift.”

  She lowered her hands and smiled.

  Then the celebration flared.