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12-08-2016, 03:49 AM
ARELI
Do you still believe in love, I wonder?
Do you still believe in love, I wonder?
She left the Throat without what she had been seeking, and Areli’s heart was heavy as she took off. The nerve-wracking flight across the channel provided distraction enough—fear had a way of providing a respite from pain, she had learned. But as soon as she tumbled down to earth on the other side and Bee came loping up to greet her, the adrenaline began to wear off and the sadness crept in again like a mist over a meadow on a still morning. Not find? Bee asked, though she already knew the answer. Her mistress shook her head, and the wolf growled gently before resting the narrow sand-colored muzzle against the girl’s foreleg. What now? she questioned then. “We’re going home,” Areli replied, “c’mon.”
Together, the pair turned and headed north.
The journey back home was long and tedious. While earlier in the season, the pair had been able to move with relative freedom, the heavy snows did much to hamper their progress. Luckily there had been no blizzards, but the dense drifts made travel difficult. Would be easier if flew, Bee had pointed out more than once, but the girl disagreed. The ground was much safer, she argued, and besides, what would the wolf do if she took off? Would find way, Bee grumbled, adding, Have before, as a pointed reminder of the time she had spent waiting for her mistress across the way from the Dragon’s Throat. Privately though, she was glad for Areli’s company. While the trek was arduous, they made a good team with Areli blazing a trail for them through the deeper snow and the young wolf keeping an alert eye out for danger.
It was Bee, therefore, who first sensed that they were being followed. Though she could not pinpoint who (or what) trailed them, from time to time the hair on the back of her neck would stand on end and she would stare into the woods or let loose a single bark. Who’s there? Areli always asked, ready to draw the dragon dagger. But the wolf could never answer, for she never saw their tracker, only felt its presence—and her mistress couldn’t very well fight a ghost. And so they moved on, with the wolf casting a constant watchful eye behind them.
The hunter revealed herself as they were crossing the Thistle Meadow. A long howl split the morning and sent roosting birds flying up from the meadow. Bee’s ears shot upwards and Areli wheeled, the knife already drawn and clenched between her teeth. A flash of silver fur broke from the woods and into the snowy field, then disappeared. The only trace of the creature were the waving plants as she streaked…past them? Confused but still on edge, the duo turned again, only to see the animal coming at them again. Wolf, Bee growled, lips parting into a snarl. While most other predators sent her scurrying behind her mistress, she was not as easily intimidated by her own kind. She planted her legs and issued a warning bark.
But the creature had stopped running. Slowing to an easy trot, then an earnest walk, the silver-furred wolf approached the pair with head and tail down—clearly submissive. It shifted, and Areli, knife still raised, caught a glimpse of the ivy markings trailing down the animal’s side. She nearly dropped the knife.
“Iwwy?” she murmured around the dagger, “’zat…you?”
"speech"
@Ilios
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