Thunder Dome At my high school, it felt more to me

For how long he’d laid there, how long he’d been cold, the boy could not be certain. Seconds lasted hours, minutes days, and all he could think about was how huge of a mistake he’d made. Sure, he couldn’t stand being around his mother for any longer that what was necessary, but had he really needed to venture so far in order to get away from her? Certainly not. Yet, he had, and he’d gotten himself so turned around and lost in the process that he knew not how to return home. Death was not something that he was familiar with, but, from the recesses of his mind, he could hear a little voice calling out to him; it spoke of dying and how that was in his near future. Oh, how convincing the voice was, that he’d nearly believed it. The trap had been set and he’d started stumbling towards it, steered away by a feminine voice just in the nick of time.

Lifting his head up from the ground, Eros glanced around at his surroundings but saw no one. The woman’s scent had been the only thing to confirm that he hadn’t been hearing voices, that there really was someone there. Whether they were friendly or not hadn’t even crossed his mind, his sole thought having been to survive. With very little prompting from his brain, his body had pushed itself off of the ground so that he was standing, and then relied upon his nose to guide the child towards the stranger. He’d yet to stop shaking, trembling, the fear of the unknown entity that was Death and the cold both having prevented him from finding a way to relax. Something inside him urged the wraith to ignore such things, however, and focus on moving forward. Even after he’d spotted Vixen, the child hadn’t stopped. In fact, he’d started moving faster, which had eventually resulted in him tripping over his own feet and throwing himself towards her. One, maybe two, rolls later and he’d found himself splayed across the floor, staring up into the face of someone he’d never before seen; if she’d been a member of the pack, they’d never met, and so he felt uneasy.

Eros hadn’t lifted himself back up after seeing that it wasn’t someone from home. He’d remained sprawled out on the ground in front of her, watching with wide, pleading eyes. She wasn’t his mother and (hopefully) didn’t know Amara, either, so she had to be okay to trust, right? Driven by his instincts, he’d inched towards her, seeking to touch his nose to her leg and then gauge her reaction. If she didn’t attack, then maybe she could give him the warmth that he both wanted and needed so badly.