A few days passed, and new snow settled on the slippery ice that had formed as the temperatures cooled.

Salim no longer dared to go to the southern border, where Freya's territory still lay. Instead, he was increasingly roaming the north, where the stinking steam path and the graves of his dead lay. He couldn't help hoping to catch a glimpse of Valja's bright fur and hear her laugh again. Even though he knew that she would not return to him but would remain out there forever. Maybe she was already dead, maybe she was living happily with a partner by her side. Salim simply didn't know and that drove him mad.

The lynx tried to distract himself with the graves of Miles, Akuma and their mother, to lose himself in the memories that were only so speckled with their presence, but it didn't help.

He never thought he would feel lonely in his territory. His journey here had taken several moons and never had he longed for company, never had the thought of a companion crossed his mind. The new surroundings had been enough, as had the delicious meat, to make him happy and fill him completely.

But something had changed in him since he had met Freya and let Valja go. The lynx no longer felt the desire for his rest and a lonely night's meal, instead he would have liked nothing more at that moment than to have someone with him. Be it a lynx, a lynxess, a cub. He needed someone to take care of and worry about.

As silly as it sounded, without a lynx by his side to cheer him up and distract him from his rash actions, he felt strangely empty. Salim himself couldn't explain the feeling he had when he thought of his cubs, of all the lynxes he had met on his journey.

It was as if someone had hit his chest with a huge paw, making it empty and squeezing all the air out of it. Only to have his mouth and snout clogged with snow as he frantically gasped for air. It was the darkness and hopelessness around him that he felt when he moved, when he saw the trees and bushes that held so many memories and days gone by. And the worst thing was, he didn't know how to get rid of these thoughts, how to see the sun again without noticing the clouds in front of it. Not to pay attention to the darkness at night, but to the brightly shining moon.

Salim knew that he missed the company of his cubs so terribly that any lynx that invaded his territory would have been fine with him. Now, of all times, no one was doing what he wanted most.

Until Salim finally tackled it. The thing he had avoided so much and wanted to push out of his thoughts until he could remember nothing but the shadow of her. He was afraid to face Alicia's, Miles' and Laisa's murderer, to talk to her as if nothing had ever happened. But he was just as aware that he couldn't let it all sit on him.

The lynx thought for a long time before he finally made his way to the bush that marked the border between his territory and theirs. He didn't know why, but somehow this bush had become a strange meeting place between the two of them.

Once there, he sat down in the snow and, to pass the time, listened to the gentle wind that brushed around his body and played with individual tufts of hair that weren't too wet from the snow.

And indeed, it wasn't long before Salim heard distant but rapidly approaching footsteps that mingled with the sounds of the wind like a soft sound pattern. He could hear Freya's strength as her strong paws creaked on the snow and hear her breaths as they became irregular.

Until he finally saw her, trotting along the forest, straight towards him. Her light brown eyes narrowed curiously into slits to prevent that very impression. The lynx didn't know how she had noticed him so quickly but decided to believe that she had just been nearby.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

A few fox bodies away, she sat down in the snow and opened her mouth to speak, “What are you doing here?” It was probably as much of a mystery to her as it was to him.

Salim took a deep breath before answering: “I want to clarify the fact about the dead lynxes with you.” Those must not have been the best words, because Freya rolled her eyes and all the curiosity in her body immediately escaped.

“How many times do you want to hear it?”, she asked, almost a little aggressively, “I didn't kill anyone. I don't know what you smelled, but not me.”

“Calm down.” Salim closed his eyes for a moment to organize his thoughts. “I just want to make sure you're really telling the truth.” He wasn't too quick to trust her, even if she hadn't seemed to have killed anyone since she'd lived here.

“I'm telling the truth!”, she bellowed at the lynx, growling, but hardly as threateningly as if she wanted to send him running. “I abide by the law of the lynx circle.” She nodded vigorously to emphasize her statement.

Salim seemed to have no choice but to buy all this. But she probably didn't realize what the consequences would be. He, on the other hand, did.

It would mean that the murderer of his loved one was still out there, continuing to kill and never showing any consideration for the bereaved. Salim didn't even want to imagine how many mothers and fathers had already found their offspring dead in their territory. Or the offspring their parents. Dead and covered in blood. Not a single sign of life.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up involuntarily and the lynx swallowed hard. If he believed her and she wasn't the murderer, then who was? Who could have the cruelty to kill innocent lynxes?

“Then...” Salim didn't know how to put it. “If you really speak the truth, then I apologize. For... For the fight and my rash thoughts.” Although he had probably thought far too much, not too little. It all fit together so nicely, and he would have found out a motive eventually.

“I'm not lying”, Freya repeated sharply, drawing his attention back to her. He couldn't help thinking that she was offended by his accusations and was barely trying to hide it. But that could also be one thought too many that he was once again entertaining.

Salim briefly caught a glimpse of her cheek, which was still not healed. But he could smell some herbal residue mingling with the lynxess’ scent and concluded that she had indeed tried to get the remedies he had told her to get. Only her attempt had not been too successful.

Instead of chickweed, he could smell wild garlic, which was not at all helpful for scratches of her kind. And there was no broadleaf plantain in the extremely random mixture either. But there was parsley, which also grew close to the Baldskins.

Salim let out a short, amused snort, drawing a confused look from Freya.

“I'm sorry”, he apologized, but could barely suppress a grin. How had someone with such a lack of plant knowledge passed her exam? But he refrained from making a comment about it.

“Maybe I'll see you around.” The lynxess said goodbye to him and turned around, disappearing into the forest just a few heartbeats later.

But just as the lynx was about to leave, he could see her light brown eyes peeking out from behind a tree, watching him. This elicited a slight and suppressed grin from him as he actually retreated to his territory.

What a strange lynxess he had come across.