Forget the world. Forget them. Forget him and everything else you love. There is no one left to love. Everyone else is gone. Forget them, but don’t forget yourself. But forgetting yourself was easier than remembering you had to leave behind the world you knew. The man you trusted and loved with your life. Forgetting yourself was easier than carrying on a mission for one, but a mission nonetheless that would change the entire world. So you had to give up on the pursuit of happiness to save a bunch of strangers. So you had to pick up your head, wipe the tears, sweat and blood from your brow to carry on like none of that mattered. But that wasn’t me. It would never be me.
I shoved sticks and low hanging branches out of my way as I limped through the forest. Tears and sweat pouring down my cheeks. Dirt caked into drying battle wounds. Feet tired, and lungs burning as I pushed myself forward. My clothes are ripped and running ragged. My sword dented, chipped and thickly coated in crimson and bark. Panting hard, I forced myself to stop running for just one moment. The sun was beating harshly down on my bare neck. I found an old pine tree to nuzzle under and gingerly placed my sore ass down on the hard ice. The wind was picking up, the black clouds storming furiously toward me. Soon the snow would fall. I’d only have another moment under this tree. The weather was changing rapidly on this planet. I looked to the North, the direction guiding me with a star, at the far twin mountains. Between the jagged cliffs and steep inclines was a valley. Sitting soundly on that valley nestled a castle. A castle, to which I belonged and needed to get home to. A castle I hoped with every ounce of my torn and mutilated being was still standing.
I picked up my sword, sheathed the blade and tossed my bag of arrows over my shoulder. My bow was gone. The hickory wood splintered after so much use and this terrible chill that had settled over the land a month ago. I picked up what was left of my strength, holding onto it like a dream tethered in my mind, began limping again over the slippery terrain. Behind me, I could hear the soft patter of paws over the ice. The nails clipping the frozen water like bells to my ears. Finally… I whispered in my mind. I crouched down, wiling my body to Shift.
Through the other wolf’s mind I could see me clear as day. Battered, limping, and bleeding. My mixed gun metal gray and white fur coated with a thick layer of blood that dripped off the hairs, pooling beneath me the longer I stood in one place. When my mind was once again my own, I felt every bruise and broken bone. Every gash in my skin. The russet wolf nudged me in my shoulder, nipped me beneath my chin. I’m okay, I whispered.
You’re hurt so bad Kizzamine, Arielle whined.
I nipped her ear and raised my muzzle to howl loud and clear. After a couple of seconds, following her alpha, Ari lifted hers and joined my chorus. The other members of my pack followed suit, deep in the woods.
Come, I whispered inside her mind.
I began to run, forcing my body further along the path to the castle.