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I didn’t know how long I existed that way. A moment or a millennia.
But slowly...something happened.
The cold emptiness turned warm and full of light.
Light that blinded with facets of amber and gold. Threads of colour appeared, autumn bronzes below and summer yellows above. The silver floating stars undulated, coming closer, dissolving through my darkness, reappearing with tiny tendrils of black from floating through my void.
Each one that passed through me tasted different. Sharp and sweet to bitter and creamy. But all of them hummed with harmony, contentment, and peace.
The tight terror within me unspooled.
I stopped fighting.
I relaxed.
Found peace.
Sinking into it.
Becoming it.
Bursting free of the binds that’d once been body and bones, transcending into something else.
I opened my true eyes.
And I remembered.
* * * * *
I woke explosively.
Violently.
So convulsively that the wolves who’d laid beside my cold, dying body—their fur keeping me warm, and their mourning heavy in the air—leapt to their paws in terror. They scattered with yips and barks, vanishing out the cave before Salak growled and brought them back in.
With their heat gone, my flesh prickled with chills as I slowly sat up. Everything was heavy, aching, and stiff. My fingers felt as thick as tree trunks, my heart as slow as a slug. Groaning, I shook my head, doing my best to scatter the black clouds in my skull, blinking eyes that were filmy and unwilling to see.
Everything was cold.
My toes, my fingers—even my bones.
The centre of my marrow felt as if icicles flowed instead of blood.
I shivered and hugged myself as my teeth clacked together. An awful keening sense of loss and homesickness suffocated me.
I wanted to go back to where I’d been.
I wanted to be who I truly was.
My muscles locked as questions tore through my sluggish mind.
Who am I?
I...I don’t remember.
The fullness in my heart rapidly disintegrated. Everything I’d remembered while in that endless void tore itself into smithereens and vanished into smoke.
The snippets of silver stars and a girl with sunshine gleaming from her fingers...
I slouched with a tortured groan.
I was empty again.
Lost and alone and bone-snappingly cold.
Fur brushed up against me. A wet nose nuzzled mine. A soft whine wrenched open my eyes.
I blinked past the stubborn haze in my vision, grateful when my eyesight returned.
I locked gazes with the alpha.
My body jerked at his closeness, his intensity.
The usual warm yellow eyes of my pack leader were a flat untrusting gold. The tips of his fangs showed, indenting the pink and black flesh of his gums. The quietest growl echoed from him as he lowered his head, his horns sharp and ruff bristled.
“S-Salak?” I coughed, working a throat that felt as if it hadn’t drunk in days. Licking dry, cracked lips, I suddenly craved water. An entire river’s worth. My thirst was as ferocious as the alpha currently glowering at me as if he’d never saved my life nor invited me into his den.
The ice in my limbs faded a little as I winced and shifted onto my knees. My heart pounded with the effort, as if moving my body cost it far more than it had to give. Trembling, I held out my hand to the wolf.
Whatever fullness I’d had from remembering had been replaced with the aching familiarity of forgetfulness, but at least the wolf was something I knew. I needed to touch him, feel him, to assure myself that not everything would abandon me.
He leaned forward, ears flat, a growl still percolating. Sniffing my fingers, he shook his head with a quizzical look.
The chill within me seemed to crack a little, allowing the first tendrils of warmth to flow. A siphon of strength returned, and I sat taller. Dropping my hand onto my lap, I swallowed the sand on my tongue. “It’s me, Salak.” I frowned. “I’m better. I...I think my fevers have finally broken.”
He snorted and sniffed me again.
I let him, fighting the urge to stroke his massive head. Perhaps he acted oddly because I’d been so ill? Maybe the stench of my fevers had drawn other predators to the area, believing the power of Salak’s pack was compromised and a takeover would be easy.
Nerves scattered down my back as I looked to the cave mouth where the rest of the pack sat side by side, their ears creating spiky silhouettes against the moon outside. Even the pups watched me warily without their usual overflowing joy.
My heart clenched.
I hadn’t meant to cause them such worry.
“I’m okay.” I smiled. “Truly.”
A small twinge pulled my attention to my chest.
I stiffened in shock.
In my last moment of coherency before I’d passed out, my chest had been covered with blood. A hole had punctured my side from an injury I couldn’t remember receiving.
But now that hole was nothing more than white puckered skin.
I scowled.
How was that possible?
How had I healed so quickly?
Exactly how long had I been unconscious?
