Thunder Dome full circle

the wolf's jaws closed with the determination of a vise and shardul, who had come close to deal what he hoped was a final and fatal blow, checked his attack. paw fell back to earth and his eyes widened as airflow to his lungs began to stifle -- he dragged the wolf backward, snarling hoarsely past the noose of teeth, his claws lashing out to gouge and to cut the other's flesh.

for the first time, terror rose in shardul -- he did not immediately identify it as such, but he burned hotly for one moment, and then it was as if he had been bathed in icewater the next. his bowels loosened; weakness flooded his limbs. shardul writhed in hatred, drawing the wolf closer and tumbling onto his back, that he might grip the tenacious pale creature.

two strokes of his hindpaws and entrails looped from their ripped chamber to entangle his legs and shower him with gore. but still the wolf held, and shardul saw the grey mists of death swim before him. "no!" he hissed, struggling feebly against the shale, until one final burst of strength and desperation o'ertook them, and he dragged himself to the edge of the cliff.

the grey darkened to black, swimming before his dulling eyes -- shardul flung himself from the rock and with him descended the gutted wolf, for in his madness he thought only to drown the millstone 'round his neck.

it was the pale jackal that dragged him down, the water wringing the last breath from shardul's kicking body until he moved no more, eyes wide and rife with the horror of facing the same death that he had brought unto so many others.