Northstar Vale i lie inside myself for hours

The boy had continued to sequester himself away from the pack and had done little. He barely ate and rarely left the small depression of a bed he had made for himself beneath an undercut bank. Once more, there were objects arranged in neat piles around him, and protruding roots and twigs had all been clipped off so that they were of even length. The ground had been carefully swept so that he laid on bare earth free of any stone or leaf or debris. There was an unnatural sense of orderliness to his nest, and yet, despite all this strange effort, he was unable to sleep. His face was gaunt with hunger, his eyes sunken and weary.

He got to his paws and started to move. He knew where he was going, but he objected.

"I'm not thirsty."

"Yes, you are."

Euron sulked. He willed himself to twitch his tail or flex his toes but could do neither of those things and could only watch at his paws carried him stiffly toward a nearby stream. This kept happening; he routinely found himself trapped behind his own eyes, confined to his own skull. It was mostly only because of this that he ate or drank or moved at all; as was the case now. He was beginning to recognize a pattern, but struggled to grasp what was happening.

"I don't understand."

"You will."

He was at the stream. His head lowered toward a swath of open water where the ice had been unable to hold, and for the first time he beheld his own reflection. He gasped, but like the words he wanted to say, the sound existed only in his head.

"Who are you? How are you in there?"

The face peered back at him, but in the murk of the water only the brightness of a silver eye was apparent. It blinked once.

"I am you."

"No, you are not."

"Yes, I am."

His tongue lapped at the water, and he could feel the thirst he did not want to admit to be quenched, and a sort of relief fell across him. He drank more and then was sitting down. He shut his eyes, but reopened them as the sound of a twig snapping drew his attention. He turned his head, abruptly jumping back when he realized from the corner of his eye that his reflection moved. That he had moved. Immediately, Euron wiggled his toes and lifted his paw to watch them obey his will.

He narrowed his eyes on his reflection then. Every twitch and movement he made was mimicked in the water by the wolf with the silver eye and he crinkled his nose. "Stop that!" He demanded, and when his mirror image shouted back at him he growled and smacked it with paw. The water was shallow, and his action stirred the sediment and clouded the stream. The other wolf was gone, and he was alone. Tired, mentally and physically, he laid down with a sigh.

Gradually, the stream settled, and he found himself looking on his own face again.

"Which one of us is me?" He asked.

But the wolf did not answer him.