Lost Creek Hollow a lonesome star in a bitter sky

@Harlyn

He started, stirred back into wakefulness by the not-so-kindly ministrations of a raven come to pick at tattered flesh. Never in his life had he felt overcome by such a weakness as the one that plagued him now. The pain was a lingering constant, unlike the ebbing of high tide and more like a flood that pulled him further and further into awareness. He twitched and the raven sprang away, a surprised caw escaping it before it opted to take flight. The carrion creature had chosen wrongly and knew better, thinking perhaps the wolf would ensnare it.

But no thoughts crossed his mind to do so; he busied himself through the haze and nausea of discomfort. He had little concept of how badly his own injures were; even less memory of how it had come about. It was the littlest of things that came to him: the way the frost of the day now clung to his coat, the sound of his breath and the warmth it drew out from him; how the dampness left his prone form with a feeling of hot and cold. He opened his eyes — rather, tried to — and found darkness around him, though the faintest of surroundings came to him from what he could make out. The other eye he assumed was useless for the time being, cut and swollen. For now, he did not sense its absence in lieu of a flash of memory.

The cougar, his entire being seemed to prompt, and it forced him to right himself in a hurry. Though a sphinx-like sprawl was hardly a solution to his problems, yet it did not multiple them beyond the searing sensation he felt in his shoulder. Mute panic flooded his gaze as he scanned through the dim surroundings, but the feline was missing in action. This did not soothe him as much as he would have wanted, and the silent forest felt overwhelming. He breathed out hotly, the chilly air expediting the solitary plume into nothingness. Mordecai couldn't gauge the time at all, thrown off so much by the absent of sunlight; it could have easily been late afternoon or midnight for all he knew.

Then and there, he didn't realize how little he knew about a lot of things.

murder by death — go to the light