Wapun Meadow Slow, I'm getting up

She can hardly contain herself, trembling with exhilaration. She had thought she would never see Ruenna again. "Lightning, " she murmurs as her friend shoots her a questioning glance. How Liri wished it had fried her heart to a stop, before she could learn of Kavik's infidelity. 

She nods, brows furrowing as she listens intently to the sudden flow of information - hoping it might fill some of the gaps in her memory. 

She comforts her friend, a lump rising in her own throat. It means more than Rue would know, knowing that somebody was thinking about her. That someone cared - even if that someone should have been her husband. 

Diaspora was an unfamiliar name, a pack that must have sprung up while she was ill. The news of Ikkanattuk's disbanding and the formation of new packs would have to wait. 

Confusion had flattened her ears as she pulled back with a slight shake of her head. 

"I don't understand...I was there. The coyotes.." 

A memory surfaced from the murk. 

Noises from beyond the awful dark drew her attention - which was not easy of late. Delirious with a fever, she weaved with imbalance as she struggled to her paws. 

She attempted to step forward, forgetting that she was no longer in the den she had shared with Kavik. Where an opening usually would be, leading to the atrium beyond, Liri encountered only unforgiving walls. 

Panicking, the ill she-wolf thrashed, crashing to the floor as her bad leg gave out. 

Hacking up bloodied phlegm as she rose, the distant scent of coyote - of danger - penetrated the haze in her mind. 

A string of memories tugged at her subconscious. The male - dark, dominant, gentle - was associated with safety, with home. She could not recall his name at this moment - she was hard-pressed to remember her own - and her thoughts locked on finding him. 

Other memories fought to be looked upon - another cave, the creeping shadows of wolves who sought pleasure in her pain, the metallic scent of blood and fear. 

Blinded by watering eyes and with her heart pounding in her chest, Liri finally managed to escape her quarantine den and stumbled through the dark in search of her mate - her steps leading her deeper into the recesses of the Door and away from the light.

"The caves, " she breathed in realization. Gooseflesh had raised beneath her coat and a cold, fearful ache settled in her abdomen. 

"I was lost in the Door. I don't know how or when but I must have found my way back out - after you'd all gone." 

As to where she had gone afterward, Liri could not recall. Hard as she tried, a wall seemed to block the memories from access. 

"I don't know...the illness must have confused me and I must have left the plateau, surviving on pure luck."

A bitter smirk twisted the features of her pale face. 

"Some luck."

"I wish I had died in there, Rue, " she whispered in the tones of admittance. 

"How could he do it? How could he throw everything away just like that? Two months...and it was like I had never existed." Tears filled her dark orbs as she bit her split lip, the pain anchoring her to the earth. 

"He didn't even deny it. It was that easy for him to replace me, " Liri murmured, feeling her heart break all over again.