Mount Apikuni so let go, let go.

read only!

It was nearly dawn and the silence that had settled upon the Spire was full and complete. Until suddenly it was marred with the horrid choking, coughing, retching of one of its canine children. Summer coughed after the vomit had exited his body, spitting out the remainder with a whine. There were tears in his eyes, his thin, frail frame trembling violently. His stomach now seemed to be willing to let him off the hook, but the boy's mind was not yet prepared. He felt exhausted and miserable as he turned away and took a few steps. He didn't get far before he fell to his haunches, head slung low as he shut his eyes tight and tried to remember how to breathe at all.

Summer was so tired. Tired from never sleeping, tired from feeling constantly sick, tired from the way his heart was always throbbing on the edge of a panic he knew had no reason whatsoever to be there. All he wanted to do was fall to the ground and sleep, but he knew there was no point. Sleep was temporary--thirty minutes at best and he'd be jolted awake again as the nightmare came to a climax and the new, living nightmare started. He rolled his shoulders and lifted his head, eyelids peeling back to reveal the bright yellow orbs that had given him his name, dull and swimming with anguish that he was just too tired to fight.

The Ostrega pulled himself to his paws and began to walk. Somehwere in the haze, he knew he needed to do something to pull himself back out. Setting his mind to other tasks usually did it for him, but as he found himself walking along the borders of the pack lands, he didn't really even know he was there at all. The borders were safe, he knew it. So there was no use in being there. It wasn't enough. He needed something else. He needed to do something else.

And then he was beyond the borders. A black shadow walking on lands unfamiliar to his paws. The pack needed food. He would hunt. He followed a trail for a while, only to lose it as the whatever it was had dove down into a system of tunnels far beneath the earth. Summer bit back the demons that told him how foolish he had been for picking that scent, how disappointed and angry his packmates would be when he returned empty handed. He moved on, wandering even further from his home into a territory unknown.

He needed to bring them something else. But what? Summer blinked the weariness from his eyes and looked around, finding himself in an empty field. He wondered vaguely how he had gotten there and where he was, but he was too exhausted to remember. The boy wandered further, only stopping when he felt something strange bumping against his sides. He blinked curiously at the bizarre plants that he was walking through--like little tennis balls on stalks. He peered thoughtfully at them, their shapes blurring in and out of focus. They had a sickly sweet scent about them, likely from the milky liquid that was leaking from the sides of one that he had accidently stepped on.

Summer wasn't sure what inspired him to do it, but after a few seconds of thought, he leaned down and ran his tongue numerous times over the rough surface of the bulb. The taste was not pleasant, but not so horrible that he wasn't willing to take the entire thing between his teeth and begin to chew.

The plant satisfied the ache that had been left over in his belly after getting sick that morning. Knowing he wasn't likely going to manage to hunt down something real to eat in his state, he snatched another and began to chew. And another, until it occurred to him that his anxiety was dissipating, and he actually felt rather like he could sleep. It was something he hadn't felt in so long, but he was not in the state to question it.

Summer went to lay down upon the ground, only vaguely surprised when he realized he was already doing so. He rested his head onto his paws and shut his eyes. He didn't want to fight, he didn't want to struggle. He just wanted to feel okay, to be okay, to sleep. To finally, finally sleep.

</style>

Night had fallen by the time Summer revealed his bright lemon eyes to the world again. For a moment, he didn't know where he was, but slowly it came back to him. The memory was a hazy blur for he had been too exhausted to retain much else, but what he did know was that he was farther from Sunspire than he had been since he had joined the pack. And given the recent events that had transpired, he really needed to get back before anyone missed him.

Little Levi pulled himself onto his paws and began to head home, only to stop after taking a few steps as a sudden realization swept over him.

He felt fine.

Not something any other wolf would brag about, but for Summer Ostrega, it was as though he were no longer himself. He looked down at his paws, the strange feeling that they didn't belong to him settling in. These were not the paws of a calm wolf. This fur didn't belong to a being whose mind could think clearly, that wasn't polluted with darkness and worry. This heart could not be his for certain. It was beating steadily, gently even. Summer's heart throbbed on the verge of attack even when he laid down to sleep.

Summer looked around himself with wonder. He wasn't even tired. Had he truly slept without constantly tossing and turning? He tried to remember what he had been dreaming about before he awoke, but came up with nothing. No nightmares, nothing. But why? How was it possible?

A wind swept up across the field and a familiar knock began upon his sides, drawing his gaze to the foliage at his paws. The bulbs--did this have something to do with them? He leaned closer to sniff at one, leaning back when his memory responded to the smell with enthusiasm. He looked dawn warily at it, something telling him that this was a plant that he was supposed to stay away from. But if it had helped him, then how could it be bad?

Summer turned away and broke into a run. He needed to return to the Sunspire and away from those strange plants. The change in his mood was because he finally got a good day of sleep, and he was able to sleep only because he had been so exhausted. That was it. There was nothing else to attribute this to.

Only time would prove to Summer that he was wrong, that his healing had come from eating the strange plant. And once it did, he would return, and not for the last time.

</style>