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Chapter Seven
Oz
As the sun dipped down in the sky, I took a long breath and grabbed my bag. I would’ve given the rest of my dried meat for a dip in a cool river or maybe even the chance of a waterfall. Dust and sediment clung to my skin and in every crevice despite my hat and coverings.
As I began to walk, my eyes already surveyed the sky to get my bearings, and a sharp pain pummeled me right in the center of my chest, making me gasp for air and drop the pack I’d just hefted onto my shoulders.
“Ugh!” I fell to my knees, the breath having been taken from my lungs and replaced with some kind of panic, a fluttering in my stomach, and a weight on my chest, heavier than any anvil. “What the hell?” I asked the night sky, not really expecting an answer but hoping for one, at least a clue as to what this was.
But as soon as the feeling came, it left. My spine tingled as pain was replaced by relief and, for the first time since the sensation hit, I could take a long, deep breath.
My eyes darted to the sky once again, checking the Cursor. Fear whittled its way into my head for a split second as I noticed the constellation that marked my way to her had moved and faded the tiniest bit but was still pointing the way.
The way to her and, in turn, to my fate, my destiny, the fulfilling of my hope.
I got back onto my feet and looked around, thinking maybe there was some spellcaster or bruja on the horizon, making me feel this way. There was nothing but dirt and emptiness. Every once in a while, there was a stray patch of dried-out grass, one that sprouted from the dirt, toying with Fate despite the evidence surrounding it, boldly telling it not to even think about growing, much less thriving in this climate.
I opened my lungs and took in a long drag of the cold night air, ignoring the slight burning in my nostrils. Metal and crumbling bricks pocked the lands as I walked through the night. The bumpiness of the terrain underneath my feet told of what once was a blacktopped street, one used in cities. That would explain the metal and bricks. This place must’ve once been a bustling town or maybe a small city. There were no signs of a freeway or interstate but still, in the past, this place was someone’s home.
In one day, it was all ruined.
Well, not exactly one day, by the writings. The solar flares had come in all over the globe, one by one, causing damage, but the outlook was that they were temporary and nothing to worry about.
Then they began to come down like rain, beating the Earth into submission with blazing balls of heat, incinerating anything in its path. Buildings, infrastructure, schools, churches, temples, fields and fields of food. All of it gone within a month.
Most humans called it the apocalypse.
Most shifters called it Fate coming to claim what was owed to her after decades and centuries of mistreatment of the planet.
We survived but barely. There were losses. Entire packs perished at the unmerciful hands of the solar flares. Mothers left without pups or cubs. Males having to watch their females burn alive without being able to help them.
“Who goes there?” A voice, slithering and damp, came out of nowhere until a man stepped out from a pile of charred rubble.
“My name is Oz. I’m passing through.” A good rule of thumb, my father had told me, was to state your intentions outright. That way there was no confusion.
“Is that right?” The man, frail and thin as a twig, raised his nose in the air. His nostrils flared as his fists balled on either side of him. “A wolf. A meaty wolf at that. Well fed.”
Oh boy. I was afraid of this. Not afraid of him, but this situation. This was a reptile shifter. They hid in places, awaiting a victim.
That wouldn’t be me. I had too much to live for.
“I’m on a journey to find my mate.”Yeah, Oz. Try to appeal to his emotional side. That will override his hunger. Good job.
“I had a mate once. The fire took her.” He turned around and began rooting through the rubble, talking to himself and mumbling. Maybe my mention of mate had hit a nerve. Enough of a nerve to let me slip away without harm to me or him.
And so I did. I veered off the path, enough to ensure more shadow but not enough to put me off course.
I was able to tell the time by the position of the Luna in the heavens. She was bright and bold that night, showing off her fullness in front of her mate, Sol.
Maybe that was the reason for the uneasiness in my soul tonight. I knew that the moon above had impacts on not only the Earth in her phases but also had a direct impact on shifters as well, females more than males, but all of us to some degree.
My wolf wanted out. It was hard to keep him jailed inside me for so long, but the journey would be cumbersome, especially trying to carry my pack in my mouth. My teeth and gums would surely be sore after dragging it in my teeth the whole night.
Still, he whined and growled inside me, wanting out, maybe even just for a few hours.
I would have to let him out before the night was over. He had become downright unbearable since we left.
It was the promise of her that put him on edge more than anything.
And it was the promise of her that would keep me putting one foot in front of the other, defying the self-talk of defeat my brain insisted on sending me. Ignoring the pain in my feet as well as my head.
Surrendering to the not knowing.
It would have to be enough until I got to her.
