Hoshor Plains A dying boys wish

@Gwen

A crippled and malnourished figure inched across the snow ridden plains, he was dying. Frozen blood clumped together against his fur, bone was visible even through his thick coat. Only one thing kept the wolf from letting go, Gwen. Was it stupid, thoughtless, and rude? The boney shadow of what was once Knew didn’t know, and it frightened him much. What distaste would it be to return only to die in front of her? Who knows if she even cared to see him - he wouldn’t blame her. It was his own irresponsible ways that lead him out of Teekon, to be lost for months. 

His solitude proved beneficial, he learned to hunt, how to survive, and realized what a damn imbecile he’d been - perhaps still is. He never deserved her, just a lazy parasite in need of a host. A once selfish, slothful boy saw the error in his ways, and only wished to apologize. It might be a question, if he learned all the skills to survive why is he worse than when he first entered Teekon? There’s a simple answer, he was attacked by a bear. It was gruesome, and instead of taking the time to attempt to heal his wounds he had a last wish in need of accomplishing. 

With his injuries he could no longer hunt, no longer provide for himself. The only thing he could do was walk, or trudge as death followed behind closely. He once thought he was invincible, death was never an option, yet here it stood so clear and dark. What a fool he’d been. 

Another step, another worry. What if he couldn’t find her? What if she hated him? What if he died before he could apologize? His paw stretched forward before landing in an obscure way, forcing him to fall over into the snow. It was pointless, and he was worthless. His last attempt at reaching her was unlikely to achieve it’s goal, but if he were to die right here, he wouldn’t mind his last words being  “Gwen!”

After the encounter with the terrifying hound and the things he had done... she had fled the meadow and refused to look back. Why was it that her luck in this world was so bad? It was as if a dark shadow stalked her every step, just waiting in the darkness to spring and mindlessly destroy any chance of her recovery. She just wished for peace. The ghost did not even feel sorrow in her heart any longer, no, there was simply a hollow in her chest that she did not have the will to fill. What she would fill it with if she was even able to, she did not know.

Her snow-tipped paws were tired as she walked now, leaving trails in the snow behind her. Each crunch of her feet in the white coat on the ground sent her reeling, the fear rising. Not only was she wary that the man she had recently fled from had found her once more, but the ever-present worry that Storm was still around unnerved her to no end. She had naught to live for anymore - with Knew supposedly dead after the monster had brought his skull to her and claimed that the man had used her, she had little idea of where to take herself. Ganador was no more. She had not yet seen any of the others and for all she knew they might be dead. Her family were long gone. She had no friends that had maintained contact, and so she had no purpose for her long, weary travels.

But sill she padded forward, not able to bring herself to end the pointless suffering. She could not. Coward, coward, you're a coward, the voice repeated over and over in her head, but her expression remained as blank as ever, lithe and strangly elegant figure moving swiftly across the snow. Pathetic, stupid, hopeless, more words, so many words, they had very little meaning to her anymore. 

Her dark ocean gaze fell upon on a figure in the distance, and she paused in her tracks, squinting her eyes. If the dove had still held hope within her heart, she might have considered the chances of it being Knew. But no, he was gone. No belief was left in the girl's chest, nor her mind, that he might be around. He was dead, was he not? Yet still she remained frozen in place, orbs fixated on that same figure as it stumbled and struggled through the Winter's debris.

[size=11.6667px%%%%]The sluggish figure attempted to begin his toiling steps again but instead stumbled once more into the unnerving cold. His eyes grew heavy, gaining more and more difficult to keep them open. He had to find Gwen, he had to or she would never know how deeply sorry he was for the idiotic way he treated her. She deserved a kingdom, a wolf who would travel to the ends of the earth only to see her smile. Knew had been no wolf and who he was now mattered little. For he was just going to die when his goal was accomplished, nothing else kept his heart beating except for her. 

As the weary boy laid hopelessly in his watery bed, his wearisome gaze landed upon a ghostly figure in the distance, watching as he took his last breaths. His eyes began to water, warm tears streamed down his cheeks leaving dark imprints on his fur. He didn't know if it was Gwen, but the angelic silhouette gave him the chance to do what he so desperately was trying. The wolf was delirious at this point, his brain pumping hormones as it prepared to die. "I'm so sorry," His effort to speak only allowed a quiet croak to escape his dry throat. 

He clenched his jaw in frustration, just talk. Just let her know.  He took a deep breath, preparing to shout as best he could to whoever the shape was in the distance. "Gwen!" The tired voice echoed across the silent winter day, "I'm,"  a moment's pause to ready his throat to shout again, "sorry." It wasn't as loud as he wished, but hopefully, it did the job. Knew laid his tear-stained head against the frigid ground, an exhausted smile laid on his maw. He did it.

Whether the wolf was a stranger or just an illusion didn't matter, Knew's mind formed what would allow him to let go and have his final moments be happy. Did they hear his apology? Maybe not, but in his ill mind, she did. 

She did.[/size]

[size=11.6667px%%%%]Ignore the size thing! When I go to delete it, it's not there haha[/size]

@Knew hope you don't mind, I re-wrote this haha. I didn't like how it was the first time :')

The man seemed to break down amongst the snow, but the expression on his face was, from this distance between them, unreadable. A step back was the movement she made, prickles of anxiety stinging at her paws as a desire to flee took hold of her heart. With her own suffering, she was unsure she would be able to bear anyone elses troubles upon her shoulders, and she did not wish to be more of a let down than she believed herself to be already. The dove had nobody to pull her up, to steady her, the darkness the only friend that offered a hand for her to take. But the darkness was not much of a friend, she had discovered.

Still the pale girl stood there, frozen in place, unable to bring herself the courage to move. Perhaps she should leave now - the stranger that had pinned her to the snow and taken from her what she did not wish to give away left an agonizing reminder that to stay was often the worst choice she could make. She would not forget that day for the rest of those she survived. But there was something so painfully paralysing about watching this man weep his sorrows and collapse in the powder that coated the cold ground. Surely no good would come of staying. As she was about to at last take her guilty leave, the mournful cry of a name reached her soft ears and she halted in place. Gwen, he called, and the word upon his lips caused a shocking thrum of her heart. Of course she recognised the name - it was her name. Had been her name. But she was unsure whether or not she was that wolf anymore.

An idea popped into her head, as sudden as the rapid snap of a twig. But no, it could not be. The icy grip of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, wrapped in coils around her roughly torn heart and she gulped audibly, blue orbs widening. Around the dove spun, a gentle whine releasing from her muzzle. Knew? Surely this was not him. The wolf's head rolled limply to the ground, as if all hope had evaporated and the pain he felt had been too much for him to handle. With a pained, almost hopeful sparkle in her sorrowful eyes, frozen heart pouding against her chest, she approached. Her neck and shoulder where the male had torn with his yellow teeth stung as she moved, but her ghostly, lithe and petite form drifted closer in time to hear an apology. An apology, one that seemed so sorrowful in nature that her barely beating heart cracked slightly. As if it was not broken enough already.

Him. He was so similar in appearance, almost the exact picture of Knew in her mind if not for the distraught eyes that dulled as he lay there. More steps drew her closer, and when she was finally standing still above him, a strangled sob fell from her white maw as she peered down at the figure limp in the snow. "K...Knew?" She croaked, voice feeling rough and foreign against her throat. She was painfully aware that she should not get her hopes frawn high when it was likely to end in more hurt and disappointement, but the form of the male reminded her too much of him, and she could not leave without discovering if this was indeed who she believed it to be.