David Clement-Davies

“Brassa,' she whispered, 'what is the moon? Why does it grow in the sky?''Because the moon is the goddess Tor,' answered Brassa softly, smiling down at Larka, 'looking down on us all. As some say the fury of the sun is the hunter Fenris snarling at the Varg, so they say the moon is the wolf goddess, opening her eyes wider and wider and stroking the world with her kindness.”

“And, Kar, love is not a commandment, it is a need, as real as eating.”

“They came silently as ghosts themselves, swept along like leaves being scattered about them in the scurrying east wind. Yet their running forms seemed carved out by the wild landscape, in the natural facts of evolution, so they were almost perfectly camouflaged, shielded by the deepening colors of autumn change.”

“Not stories told by wolf or man to frighten children, of Wolfbane and of werewolves, of grasht and goblins and of silly vampires, fables to frighten cowards with the threat of evil and of sin. But the power that lives beyond those stories, and makes them strong indeed, that lives in nightmares and in sleep. That is ribbed into the very fabric of conscious being. The power of love and hate.”

“I'm frightened of nothing anymore," answered Fell simply, "except lies. For they're the real killers.”

“Why does death engender fear? Because death meant change, a change greater then we have ever known, and because death was indeed a mirror that made us see ourselves as never before. A mirror that we should cover, as people in olden days covered mirrors when someone died, for fear of an evil. For with all our care and pain for those who had gone, it was ourselves too we felt the agony for. Perhaps ourselves above all.”

“In that moment Alina Sculcuvant knew that of all life's great journeys, perhaps the greatest was to come home, and to know the place for the first time.”

“Our destinies are our own, if we have the courage to take control of them.”

“Life is wonderful, so revel in its beauty. Be all you can be, and let go of the past. It is nothing but shadows.”

“In that moment she learnt one of the greatest secrets of life: It is often easier to fight for others than it is for yourself.”

“It's those that fight hardest for freedom who are never free.”

“Real courage is not to give up hope, even in the most terrible darkness, and to carry on. That if courage and love is deep as despair, deeper, then light may come again”

“You are not evil, Fell. You have just been robbed of love. Of light.”

“Fear is an instinct, like hunger or anger. We need it to help us survive, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. It lets us know whether we should fight or flee.”

“To you, Fell. Can't you feel it? Inside you, as it lies inside all the Lera. Know thyself, wolf.”

“Wolves hate farewells,...”

“Life itself is dispare, so we must make darkness our ally”

“Everything Dies. That is the law of life-the bitter unchangeable law”

“...at times, the greatest courage of all is to live.”

“But life is not a legend or a story. Reality is far more precious than a story...”

“That we can never know," answered the wolf angrily. "That's for the future. But what we can know is the importance of what we owe to the present. Here and now, and nowhere else. For nothing else exists, except in our minds. What we owe to ourselves, and to those we're bound to. And we can at least hope to make a better future, for everything.”

“know that without night there is no day; without lies, no truth;without despair,no hope. Beware above all of hate, but call to its opposite too. For all things have an opposite and, if you choose it, with will and care, you may turn one thing into its reflection.”

“On his brow a leaf of oaken, Cangeling child shall be his fate. Understanding words strange spoken, Chased by anger, fear, and hate.”

“Death,' whispered Tarlar, 'you do not fear it, Fell? By water, or any other way?''What is to fear?" answered the black wolf. 'If it is an end, then so be it. For there is no pain in that, except the pain left to the living... And if death is not an end, then what more than a wonderful journey...”

“But of all the animals, man holds the fate of the world in his hands.”

“I wish the battles of men could be solved in their heads.”

“The future?' came the voice sadly...'And do we really pass anything on to the future, except mirrors of ourselves? What if the future is as painful as the past?' 'That we can never know,'answered the wolf angrily. 'That's for the future. But what we can know is the importance of what we owe the present. Here and now...What we owe to ourselves, and to those we're bound to. And we can at least hope to make a better future, for everything.”

“Yes,' growled Fell, 'for animals do not know what they do, but man has knowledge of his cruelty.”

“Man, who thinks he knows everything. But what does man know...Man cares only for himself, in his fear and hate.”

“...man will try to guard his faith more preciously even than his gold.”

“Christians believe that God came amongst us as a man, do they not? Yet the Muselmen say he was only a prophet, and that God has no name...We fight and kill each other so readily, yet if I had been born in the East, would I not believe the stories they believe, and if they had been born here, would they not be Christians?”

“That story placed man above the animals, until man's fall at Eve's hand, and linked humans to God himself, fashioned in his image. But now the black wolf was telling the girl a grave secret. That man was an animal too.”

“I must try to remember that a boy's heart is not a man's, and perhaps a teacher must learn from his pupil, too, eh?”

“The deer hovered by the trees beyond as the sounds of the ravening wolves came to them across the grass, their own senses almost frozen in impotent horror.”

“Now go away, or I'll get my friends the Bats to bite you.”

“Stones are raw, they blunt my paw,but words will never hurt me.”

“Mamma," whispered Rannoch as he nestled by her side, "what is man?" Bracken looked into her calf's eyes. "Man? Man is something you must always fear." "But why must I fear him?" asked Rannoch. "Because, my little one...man is cruel and cold. He eats up everything he touches. He enslaves Lera and breaks the laws of the forest. Because, Rannoch, he is the only creature that hunts without need.”