Tsuki

Chapter Two: Mitsukatta

(Note: Possible trigger warning for partial drowning)

Days quickly gained little meaning to Tsuki. As he bobbed along in the waves of the merciless ocean, he tried to preoccupy himself with memories. When one is in a helpless situation and truly can not do anything about it, focusing on it would only drive oneself mad. Instead of entertaining the mocking waves, he focused on the cherry blossoms that danced behind his mind's eye.

The spring held many fond memories for Tsuki and his recollection of them was so clear that it was as if he'd never left. The cherry tree's gnarled and twisting trunks raised into the sky, their low canopies of pink blossoms weaving amongst themselves like a basket of nature. It was a breezy day, plucking any loose petals from their purchase and flipping them through the air. Small eddies of wind would toy with them, sweeping the little pink blurs around Tsuki like a tiny tornado as he spun around to try and follow them. His jaws fell open in a happy smile, but he suddenly stopped when his gaze landed on the most beautiful thing he'd ever dreamed of.

"What's with that goofy look?"

Her coat was a light cream color and with its length, floated in the breeze like a brook across babbling pebbles. She had sweet blue eyes that put the sky's best evening painting to shame and her slender figure, approaching him at a sauntering walk, sent his heart aflutter. She leaned forward after drawing to a stop, her slender muzzle approaching his cheek before her jaws opened and they playfully nipped at his ear.

"Don't look so serious!"

At first, he simply gaped at her, awestruck at how the light danced in her fur as she quickly turned and bounded away.

Don't leave, he pleaded. Don't leave me!

Without realizing it, his paws began to move on their own and he was propelled forward in a run. He gradually picked up speed, but no matter how fast he went, the female before him only seemed to be further and further away. Her figure danced in front of him, slowly getting smaller and teasing him with a warmth he feared he would never get to feel again. Tsuki stretched his legs as far as they would possibly allow, pushing himself to his limit as he pelted after the ghost that haunted his horizon. The trees and petal rain around him became brown and pink blurs as they zipped past. His heartbeat crashed in his ears. Suddenly, the female he was chasing disappeared from view. He soon reached her last seen location and barely skidded to a stop in time to avoid the dark, rushing waters below. Atop a steep bank, all he could see was a furious river of mud and debris. His gaze desperately searched its banks and then its surface for any sign of the cream-colored wolf, but he could see nothing that insinuated she did not fall in. When his eyes landed on the skid marks at his paws that led down to the angry bank, his heart plummeted. She couldn't have; not her!

His breath catching in his throat, the male crouched at the riverside. He sniffed at the drag marks, but no scent could be found clinging to them. In fact, there was no scent at all. The smell of the forest had faded from him so subtly that he was unsure when it left at all. Was it even there to begin with?

In the time that he had lowered himself to the ground, the water level had risen and when he finally snapped to, it was lapping at his paws. Horrified, Tsuki lurched back, tucking his tail behind him in confusion and fear. With it rising like this, it was bound to overflow its banks.

The pack!

Whirling around on his heels, Tsuki suddenly took off in the direction he had originally come from. Once more, he sprinted for a goal he would not reach. He took a path that he knew well and that should have taken him back to the camp he called home, but it did not take him to his desired destination. Instead, it took the desperate male to the top of a hill that rose above the forest itself. His lungs felt constricted and as if they could not breath. He couldn't even inhale a breath at all. He soon collapsed, gaping for air as a dark brown mass swept through the forest towards the clearing he held so dear. He was helpless to cry out and warn them; powerless to stop the flood from sweeping over his home.

In an instant, all he saw was darkness and a bone-chilling cold surrounded him. His eyes opened, becoming flooded with a strange scene of nothing but blue. He was underwater! Instinctively, Tsuki clawed for the surface, breaking his head over a wave and finding his log right beside him. He grabbed onto it, hacking and spitting as he cast the sea from his body. He must have dozed off and fallen in. Staying balanced on the darn thing was a constant task with the rocking ebb and flow of the ocean. He had lost count of how many times the waters had tried to claim him. Sleep constantly tried to drag him down and tempt him into submission, promising a relieving escape from the problems that sat on his shoulders. He fought it best he could, but after nearly three days (or so he thought, at least) it was becoming nearly impossible to keep his eyes open.

How much longer did he have to remain here, hopelessly marooned? Everything happened for a purpose according to the spirits, but what purpose could this possibly serve? What productive end could possibly be met with stealing from his home? Was his home even still there?

In his weak state of delirium, Tsuki was losing his grip on his mental control. It had already been slipping, but now it was breaking down entirely. Insecurities leaked out from their locked box and began to poison his mind, stealing the exercised calm he'd originally had. It all felt so hopeless now. As time crawled on, he continued to doze off and slip from his log. Each time, it took him longer to reach the surface again. By the time the large piece of driftwood bumped into something solid, he was far too weak and exhausted to realize it. He no longer had the strength to shiver and his eyes were finally shut for good as he slipped one last time from the poor raft. His body slipped into the water one final time, never to climb aboard the log again.

The last thing he saw before succumbing to his exhaustion was the cruel blue of the sea, glinting dangerously in the sunlight.