Ankyra Sound Πως θες να αρχίσω;

For @Val!

Countless times he'd returned to this place, in this life and the last; a different time, a different face, but he was unchanged. Panacea cut slowly through the fog, his lungs aching in the cold of the morning. His eyes were turned to the sea. Beyond the hazy shoreline, he knew the Blackwater Islands were still there somewhere, but it didn't feel real. It still felt like a dream he'd once had.

He hesitated. On the islands, no one would ever find him. But was that really what he wanted? Freedom at the cost of his sanity; he was certain he'd lose it, all alone like that, forever. I could join a pack, he thought, gripped by tension at the very idea. Shelter, protection, companionship; he wanted it but he didn't, already imagining others coming to harm because of him. He stepped into the water uncertainly, aware that it was the wrong time to cross and willing to swim if he had to. But he couldn't decide.