The Rise of the Fire Moon

Defense of the weak is a lofty ideal. But in this world, weakness is punished.

A devastating fire has swept through the forest above the ridge, killing the wolf Tir’s pack and leaving him captive at the mercy of strangers. One of these strangers, Palva the Gatherer, had apparently been expecting his arrival; unbeknownst to Tir, a prophecy had warned her of an approaching disaster that would be heralded by the appearance of a swollen orange moon. Palva’s secrecy and cold resolve does not put Tir at ease, but he is determined to create a new life for himself.

Meanwhile, in a nearby forest, the renegade wolf Alanki plays both sides of the old game of Hunter and Hunted. Abandoned as a pup for the birth defect of being born a runt, she was taken in by a herd of deer who hold a tremendous respect for the old tales as passed down by designated storytellers. The deer give Alanki her name, A-Lankhi, meaning that she is the daughter of the Predator; there is a legend in the herd that any acts of mercy done for their natural enemy will be repaid in kind, when the herd is threatened with destruction.

Tensions come to a head as Tir’s new pack begins to hunt the deer and Palva’s fire moon waxes in the sky. Alanki jumps to defend her foster family but is disturbed to discover the extent of her own brutality. Tir fights to earn and maintain his place in a strange pack where unknown outsiders are mistrusted—for good reasons—and Palva struggles to sort through the threads and knots of resurrected old crimes that threaten to strangle everything she knows. But amidst all the fear and chaos, one thing is clear to all sides: self-preservation may drive some creatures to do terrible things, but most will stop at nothing to protect those that they love.

Aoife Fallon was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, where she currently resides with her family and armloads upon armloads of pets, many of them carnivorous. Her hobbies include reading, climbing trees, cleaning aquariums, and not going to bed on time.

The Rise of the Fire Moon was, for the most part, written and edited when she was 12-15 years old; its publication was delayed due to the author's having the attention span of a rutabaga and charging right ahead to write a sequel before editing the book she already had.
Fallon currently attends the University of Notre Dame.