Max was just sitting down to a cup of tea and a book out on his patio to enjoy the brisk autumn morning when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand up. He could hear something in the distance, seeming to come from the other side of his wooden cabin in the middle of the woods. Footsteps, one pair of two people, and they were getting closer. Fearing the worst, Max stood at attention and slowly, ever so carefully, set his cup down on the table beside him. With his breath becoming shakier by the second, and the sound of his own heartbeat reverberating in his ears, he gathered his courage and slowly creeped out into the woods on the side of his house, getting closer to the front of it so that he could get a better look. He was surprised to see, the two people, who he had heard only a minute ago had already reached the front door.
The couple, a man and a woman, both dressed head to toe in black leather and with face masks that covered them from the mouth below had spared no time in kicking his door down. Max watched in horror through the window on the side of his home as the man who had just broke into his home stared down his wife, and snapped his fingers. Sparks flew off of his gloves and then enflamed his hand. He then spoke in a deep rasping voice, “Where is he? Tell me or I’ll burn this entire place to cinders.” Max’s wife was mentally prepared for this situation however and replied “Who? My lousy husband? He hasn’t been home in days I tell ya’!” The leather-clad woman shook her head in silence and then spoke in a whispering voice, “Why bother even questioning her, we already know he’s in the area, and she obviously isn’t willing to tell us anything.” The woman snapped her fingers. “Sleep.” Max’s wife fell onto the floor and closed her eyes, falling into a deep slumber instantaneously.
The two strangers recklessly stomped onto the patio in the back of the house and began to scan the area for their target. “This isn’t good…” Max thought to himself. “They’re gonna’ find my tea.” Just as Max was thinking of it, almost as if the duo had the ability to read minds, they spotted the tea sitting on the table. The woman picked it up and examined the leaf floating inside it. “Lunar leaf…” she said, then darted her head quickly to look at the man. “We just missed him, he can’t have run far.” Max was only a couple of yards away from the two when they both looked in his direction. Luckily, the bush that Max had taken cover behind provided a good enough hiding spot that they couldn’t spot him from where they were standing, though if they decided to walk in his direction, Max would quickly regret his decision to not run away the instant he heard their footsteps creeping to his doorstep. Just then, as if the forest spirits had decided to shine their favor on him, a wolf on the other side of the forest from Max howled into the sky, and ravens scattered in every direction, revealing its location. “Looks like he’s challenging us directly.” The man started sprinting maniacally toward the position of the wolf, away from Max, with the woman following him right on his heels.

When the duo could no longer be seen from Max’s position, he broke his extreme stillness and shook his head, then muttered to himself “Idiots. You’re just lucky I’m not in any condition to fight.” Max turned around and began running at an inhuman speed into the forest toward the safe haven that he had set up months ago in preparation for this exact moment. It was a cave a couple miles away from his home, covered by a large, daunting boulder that no normal person could possibly push. At Max’s speed, it only took him three minutes to reach the cave from his home, and once he reached it, he pushed the boulder out of the way, stepped inside, and then re-covered the entrance. Max looked up at the hole in the ceiling of the cave, squinting at the sun, and then he sat down on the hard floor and began to wait, hoping that he could bide his time for several hours until the moon would arise and he could claim his power.