through the darkness to the dawn
How desperately he misses the sun.
The darkness had reduced most of his family to bones.
And so came his first taste of true sadness.
He mourned for them, those of them who could not help it.
He did not know how to deal with this new sadness, so he struck out on his own. He wandered through the forest, sunk into the comfort of his canine form. He wanders still, trying to find some sliver of light in the darkness. He chases fireflies, harmlessly flexing his powerful jaws, nipping at them without ever really coming close to crushing them between his teeth. But laughter does not come as freely as it used to.
How strange a wolf he is, shot through with gold, striped like a tiger. But there are much stranger creatures here, he knows that. Creatures he should be afraid of, things made of darkness and madness. Alas, he is too consumed by his sorrow to dwell on fear.
He is aware of the mismatched pair in the darkness only because of the wolf’s hearing, the sounds they make are altogether different than the other things that lurk in the shadows. But he makes no effort to catch up with them, to cast himself into their space and force his company on them. Not until he hears it, too. The unmistakable sound of a limb cracking beneath considerable weight. And he might have thought the equine responsible if the sound had not come from someplace behind him.
Instinctively, he shifts back into his equine form and quickens his pace. Her winged form comes swimming out of the darkness and he exhales sharply. “Did you hear that?” he asks without greeting, his heart racing.
@[Chel]