Kintla Flatlands DISCOVER · live fast, die young

She didn't know what she had expected from her former leader, but it wasn't the grand pronouncement that Jinx bestowed upon her. Zombie had shifted slightly at that, unsure of what to say or do—and then the gust from the mountain had distracted her attention. She didn't exactly forgive Jinx for leaving; after all, Zombie's life had been a different kind of hell from that day forward. Each day, her resentment for Hawkeye and Pied and the others grew larger. It was a twist in her stomach, worse and more acidic than hunger. But neither did Zombie hate the Kesuk, for as her green eyes burned with defiance something told her that their paths would meet again.

Now, they stood side-by-side, both focused on the crack in the mountainside. Zombie didn't know what to make of the odd smell, or the breeze that seemed to originate in its depths. Jinx glanced at her, those pumpkin-colored eyes speaking volumes in the silence that had fallen between the wolves. No one had ever asked Zombie to lead before; not even in something this small and seemingly insignificant. For a moment, confusion paralyzed the yearling—but Jinx exposed facets of the rust-peppered female that Zombie never knew existed within herself. With a confidence she wasn't sure she truly felt, Zombie stepped towards the entrance.

Pausing there, her face half-cast in shadow, Zombie looked back at the white Kesuk. "What is it like," she began, tone a mixture of awe and fear, "when Sos speaks?"