He wanted to do something to drown out these images that kept assaulting his mind in the black of this death trap that he willingly entered. He was getting lightheaded as the darkness swirled around him. If he didn’t get a hold of himself, he was going to pass out. He tried in vain, and the fear continued to grip at him driving all reason from his mind.
Just when he thought he must go insane from the images that assaulted him he felt a warm presence brush up against his leg. He jumped back and away from the unknown form in a purely fight or flight reflex. He couldn’t see, but he knew that the form was the she-wolf. She pressed her body against his leg rubbing up against his furs. He reached down and put a shaky hand on top of her head. He felt her thick fur through his fingertips, and he felt her warmth.
He kept his hand there for a moment, unmoving then he removed it from her body. She pressed up against him moving and aiding him. His fear dissipated from him, and he was able to calm down and get control of his breathing. He took several deep breathes and cleansed his mind from the images and the fear that he had let get the better of him.
The wolf moved away from him, but he could still feel her presence. He could hear a barely audible clicking bounce off the tunnel walls around him. It took him a moment to figure out that it was the wolf’s claws upon the rock floor that was making the sound. Every few steps he could hear the soft click of wolf claw against rock. The sound was reassuring and the fear that had gripped him so thoroughly a few moments before did not threaten him again.
They exited the tunnel a lot sooner than he had expected. The exit was smaller than the entrance and the forced perspective that he had viewed the exit made it seem a lot farther away than it actually was. They stepped through the small opening in the rock and breathed in the cool, open night air. The stars were shining and the moon was less than half of her true brilliance. He was struck with a sense of deep sadness seeing his mother wane like this. It was a feeling of deep melancholy that he just couldn’t seem to explain or shrug off. He had never felt this way when he was living in society but looking at his mother fail in the night sky was like watching someone he loved die. It happened every time she was this weak. He knew better than that. His mother wasn’t going anywhere and that it was nothing more than the earth’s rotation. That her shape was nothing more than where sunlight happened to reflect off the moon’s surface. Still, he couldn’t help what he felt and no amount of logic could ease that sense of loss.
The wolf had sat down beside him and her head was moving back and forth, searching. Her deep eyes were looking out over the mountain. Neither he nor his companion could hear any sign of pursuit. She had her ears cocked ever so slightly and he knew that she was listening for the things that he couldn’t hear.
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She must have been satisfied with her investigation because she began to move in the darkness away from the tunnel. She wound her way through the boulders and crevices that made up the path that they now tread, and he followed her.
His eyes had adjusted as much as they were able to in the night’s darkness. The path the wolf was leading him through was deep and the night’s gentle light didn’t penetrate to the mountain rock on which they now traveled. His feet were covered in deep shadows, and he was unsure of his footing. He had to travel much slower than they had been able to the previous night but it was still faster than he had been forced to move while inside that tunnel.
Using his hands for support against the rock wall he let his feet probe in front of him. It was a taxing process but the only way to ensure that he didn’t impale his feet on the sharp rocks of the mountain. He couldn’t see anything more than five feet in front of him. The path was winding and twisting. The wolf was never more than two steps in front of him though, and he felt comforted by her presence.
The wind did not relent in these deep passages of rock. Its swift movement was stealing his body heat as it whistled through the deep channels of rock. He began to shiver. His mother was of no comfort, and he knew that the cold was only going to get worse. Winter was getting closer and as they continued to move northward and higher up into the mountain the suns influence would weaken more and more. Of course, the sun had nothing to do with the night. The night was its own province and he started to wonder if he would make it to wherever the wolf was leading him.
As if the cold wasn’t enough to drive the hope from his mind, his stomach chose that moment to make itself heard. The familiar and almost painful crunching and growling sound of his stomach met his ears and his companions’. She jerked her head around at the loud uncomfortable sound and he massaged his mid-section. It’s been almost two days since I’ve eaten anything. He knew that he could last a while longer. Hunger, like pain, could be ignored but eventually he would have to eat something or risk passing out from hunger.
He leaned on the surrounding rocks for support to ease the stress of movement. He had to make it to wherever the wolf was taking him. He hadn’t come all this way just to give up now.
The path began to straighten out and he could see it unfold in front of him. He had lost his sense of direction in the crags of the passage. He couldn’t tell which direction they were going. He had a feeling that they were traveling a little more east than they were earlier, but he couldn’t be sure of anything. He concentrated on putting one foot out in front of him, probing for rocks, putting weight on that foot then probing in front of him with the other. It was a tiring process.
They had been traveling for several hours and he noticed that he was moving faster. The wolf had been increasing their speed in the darkness as the night passed. He found that he had gotten used to the new way of moving his feet and he was walking much faster than he had been when they exited the tunnel.