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The wolves continued to move in, unphased. The moonlight glinted off their teeth, visible in their twin snarls.
They were close enough now that Nayome felt a warm puff of breath brush against her cheek, coming straight from the closest creature’s snarling maw.
Desperate, she threw her empty water bottle at the beast. The last few drops of water she had salvaged sprinkled out as it swung through the air. The bottle only spurred the wolf on, hitting its muscled side. Its eyes flashed with what looked like a predatory thrill.
Grabbing a handful of dirt, she screamed again—the sound guttural, ripping from her belly in her desperate fight for survival. Tossing the dirt, Nayome aimed for its eyes, but nothing stopped the creature’s forward momentum.
Fumbling in her pocket, she drew out her measly pen knife and swung it around in front of her in wide arcs as a desperate last resort.
Just as she saw one of them tense, as if bracing to pounce, something else emerged from the woods behind them. Hundreds of something else.
Fireflies.
Their soft glow, flickering between green and red, the light, at first ambient, grew so bright that Nayome had to shield her eyes. And the wolves…they went still, frozen like fearsome statues, lit up by hundreds of, no, it must be thousands now, fireflies.
As if calmed by their presence, one wolf let out a whine and dropped its guard, laying down and pawing at the forest floor. It appeared to bask in the light surrounding them, though Nayome must have been imagining it. The wolves suddenly did a couple of playful rolls on the ground before racing back into the woods, nipping at each other’s heels.
Awed, and reeling from the shock of the near-death experience, Nayome reached out as the fireflies surrounded her. It was like it had been back in the clearing, except this time they were surrounding her, rather than the tree.
As her finger brushed against a flutter of wings, Nayome felt a pulse of energy rush through her, electric, standing her hairs on end. Like the electricity she had felt before when she had blown backwards from the yew tree, but gentler, her body warming and inviting the sensation.
Nayome felt another surge as the firefly’s closed in, delicate wings brushing against her skin. Rolling up her sleeves, wherever they brushed past the skin on her arms, they left behind a trailing silver light, sparkling like moonlight. Gasping in fear or awe, she wasn’t entirely sure, Nayome felt something electric building in the air surrounding her.
Then came another flash of light. Except this time it felt as if it came from within her, blasting outward. The force took all of her pent-up fear, adrenaline, and awe with it. As the blast subsided, Nayome felt herself deflate and crumple forward, exhausted and empty.
With no reserves remaining, emotionally or physically, Nayome could not deny the wave of exhaustion this time. Letting it take hold of her, she collapsed forward; the moss-covered earth pillowing her fall.
