Wapun Meadow want to fly to a place where it's just you and me - nobody else so we can be free

Backdated to around Feb 17th or somethin'.

His lungs were burning. There was no where to go. No trees, no brush, no escape. It was him, the far reaching swath of meadow, and the devils. They circled him ever lower and tighter. He slowed his gallop to a jog, and then spun to face them and stopped. Braced and snarling, his eyes locked on the long, dark object they thrust toward him. He was ready. He waited for the crack of that flesh-ripping thunder.

Go on. End it then. I'm done.

It was only fitting he should go out the way she had. He had been the one to bring such ruin on her. He would be laid open; a paw-sized hole smashed through his ribs. His flesh reduced to spatter across the snowbanks. It would be quick at least. Not that he deserved it. He would gasp and try to take a breath with decimated lungs, but choke on his blood instead, and then... then it would be over.

Skwol shut his eyes and held her in his mind. He hoped then the stories were true. He imagined her and him soaring on the dark wings of their second life, but a sharp bite to his flank spooked him. Panicked, he snapped at the unexpected object buried in his haunch. He ran a few feet, and was enveloped in shadow. Dead, he would have thought, if he could have thought at all.


—


She was leaving him again. Fading away.

Stop... Please...

Skwol staggered to his feet. But he could not get his hindlimbs to coordinate with his front. He stumbled sideways and dropped to his haunches, dizzied and confused and with his eyes squinched against the raw force of daylight. Swaying and sickened, he let his front quarters drop into the snow too and bowed his head. His nose, between his forelimbs, sank into the cold as the world spun around him.

His ears flattened against the cacophony that suddenly surrounded him, and he felt the snow lash at his face. There was silence and stillness soon after. It was another half hour before he would try to stand again. Returning to his senses, Skwol soon realized that the scent of the devils was all around him, and he became aware of the thick strap that gripped his neck.

"No!" Skwol raged, twisting and thrashing and snapping at himself. He whirled and reared, each grief-stricken and furious word punctuated by the stomp of his forepaws on the ground. "Why. Am. I. Alive."

the skies once more were punctuated by the blackened monsters -- this time the demons descended as indra was in the open plains. she fled in fear, hiding under the cover of a collapsed pine as she watched the thing descend on rapidly swirling wings. fear seized her heart as things rappelled out from its suddenly opened stomach; whatever this blight was, it was unnatural - a corporeal monster given form.

indra remained rooted as she watched whatever those strange animals were that crawled out from its stomach put something on the ground -- and then bizarrely enough, they blithely crawled back into the thing's cavernous belly. she swallowed fearfully, ears flat against her skull as she watched the metal bird suddenly lift off from the ground and climb rapidly up the sky far faster than any bird she had ever seen.

the woods were quiet long after the demon's departure. at length indra unfolded herself from the ground and pulled out, curious to see what it was that the demons had left behind. as she pulled closer the form of a wolf became evident; it stirred drunkenly from the snow and clambered like a fresh-born foal, uncoordinated and buck-wild. there was something dark across its neck - a wound? it was not red -- indra drifted closer to decipher it. she paused as she watched, troubled by the wolf's sudden turn on itself - there was a rage in its voice and a ferocity in its step as it lashed upon itself as if out of its mind.

she thought about turning then, for she assumed the creature to be struck down by rabies -- and as she made her leave the wind carried skwol's unmistakable scent to her. in disbelief she turned back around and took a few unsure steps closer to him: if he was rabid, she did not want to get within biting distance. indra's voice called out feebly amidst his snarls:"skwol?"

He was supposed to be dead. It was supposed to be over.

He could not get his teeth into the collar. He could not shake free of it. It was far unholier than the ropes he was familiar with, and while it had been fastened to his thick neck with due care and had been properly adjusted to him, the white wolf felt he was being choked. Wheezing for breath and still afflicted by the strange malaise that had taken over him, Skwol stood swaying and hung his head in utter despondency. There was a soulless look to his eyes as they fixed into snow ahead of his paws.

He was unable to summon the will to turn toward Indra when she called his name, and regarded her only briefly in his periphery. His reply was empty, and scarcely above a whisper.

"Leave."

as she pulled closer his struggles ceased, and he seemed to visibly crumple though his body never collapsed to the ground. indra stopped, ears cupped forward, a deep furrow knitting down her brow. she could not see his face, only his haunch and flank -- and his thick neckscruff concealed all but the faint dark appearance of the collar.

indra wanted to come closer, but she wrestled with her own emotions - fear and reluctance being at the forefront. she barely knew him, but he didn't seem right - he seemed affected by some dark malaise.

"leave?" she repeated back dumbly, one paw raised in a doubtful pose as she tried to creep a little closer. "why? are you okay?"

Had he not given her enough reason to leave the last time he had seen her? He had not missed the look she had given him. She had spurned him, as he would have spurned any male that pressed in unbidden the way he had. He had committed the utmost of crimes against his own principles, against his very character, and to be confronted with a reminder here, and now, in this place... there were few stitches left to pluck from the wounds in his soul before the white wolf would be unravelled; he was truly held together by but a fragile thread.

"Because you are not safe and you have no reason to care about me." He stated louder, with a harsh edge to his deep rumble that invited no argument, and a fierce but brief look in her direction. A keen eye might detect the way his forelimbs trembled or how forcefully he bit down on his own teeth. Skwol was anguished, inclined to either fall further into despair or rise in mad fury. He straddled the line between them, bitter to be in the position, when he could have been dead, and re-united with the wolf he yearned to run with.

"Leave."

indra's brow pulled into a conflicted scowl. she dared go no further. skwol's frame looked anguished, bent -- his muzzle turned away from her and the almost-cowering of his tense body alarmed her. the harshness of his voice and the strident manner in which he insisted she quit his company was met with a darkened scowl.

she need not be reminded twice about their last encounter, where he had acted most uncharacteristic -- perhaps this was the real him, not the wolf that had trotted behind her with the bird?

drawing a loud and reluctant sigh indra stepped back. "fine." she issued with resignation, somewhat hurt anew by his coldness. it chilled her and she felt a strange sinking sensation in her stomach. "you're right." she added immaturely, expelling a sigh before she turned away from him and made for home. she was hurt by his odd behavior - she was hurt he had lunged at laurel -- and now she was hurt he had rejected her attempts to help him.

she didn't understand anything - not him, not xan, not that mute wolf - her life felt like it was going spiraling out of her control. why had skwol been acting so weird, when he had seen so normal on the slopes the first time she met him? what had changed? darkly she wondered if it was something wrong with her -- was her company that untenable that it compelled all to react violently to it?

before she knew it her legs were pounding against the frozen ground in a rapid gallop, and a flush of uncontrollable frustration heated her face. her eyes stung. she would not cry. she would not cry. she would not cry.

It felt as though all his blood pooled into his paws when she left. He was keenly aware of the harsh thump of his heart in his ears and the crippling weariness that bore down on him. Skwol shut his eyes and listened to the sound of his breathing as it slowed. Spiritless, the white wolf did not quarrel with what happened next. His legs gave out beneath him and he crumpled into the snow with a whump.

—

Hours later, over the roar of the engine and slash of blades, the pulse of the tracking signal quickened and drew surprised and sorrowful looks from the crew.

The collar's mortality sensor was going off.