Phoenix of Dawn

Ricochet

Good thing about having wolves around was a quickly dug grave. Standing there watching the dirt fly, the steady tempo of paws to soft soil, made it easy to fall into an anesthetizing trance. The reproduction of a memory played on a look in my mind, surfacing again and again until I had no choice but to acknowledge it. 

"I didn't ask you to save me!"

Clara and I were at one, in a long succession, of safe houses. Her mate had just died a month before. She had been a wreck since the moment it happened, barely keeping her wits about her. I'd overheard the stifled sobs she'd attempted to muffle in her pillow at night, the puffy eyed sniffles each morning. 

"That's what family does, Kyra."

Family.

The word still felt foreign on my tongue. After spending so much of my life presuming to be alone it was odd to suddenly not be alone. My life felt like a series of twists and sudden drops. Nothing was predictable, nothing was safe. 

All of a sudden, once more, I was alone again. No more family. 

"Kyra?"

I nearly jumped at the sound of my name, so solid and real just a foot away from me. Bex was standing, a few small girls around her all holding blue and white flowers. Their eyes all shimmered with the same hopeful spirit, that this would be the thing that helped.

It wouldn't be.

Nothing ever would be. 

"Do these look okay," Bex nodded toward the flowers.

She was a beautiful woman. In my jealousy I'd failed to fully recognize it when we'd first met but she was truly beautiful. Her kinky dark curls framed a heart shaped face. Her fully lips had a subtle pout to them that would have most girls green with envy. 

"Yes, they'll do."

So formal.

I closed my eyes for a moment to keep from rolling them outwardly at myself. The last thing I wanted was for Bex to feel her efforts were unappreciated. She had gone through a lot of trouble to make this happen with such little resources. 

"Good, I'm glad. We'll put them over here for now girls."

My eyes went back to the Lakeland who's tongue was hanging out as he finished up his task. He looked so much like an overgrown puppy that it nearly made me smile. Prancing on his paws he made his way to me, thumping down onto his haunches beside me. 

I waited for him to shift back, glancing in his direction once he had. If it hadn't been for a funeral I was sure he'd be grinning ear to ear at his handy work. 

"Deep enough?"

I nodded.

The air had cooled as the sun began to dip behind the trees. It was hanging low, it's now orange belly touching the distant hilltops and stretching wide. The white bark of the trees were almost glowing yellow and orange in the light. Streaks of sunset streamed through the multitude of branches like hundreds of spotlights, minuscule particles dancing in the beams. 

It would have been lovely if it wasn't the setting for my farewell to Claira. For all I knew this was the way it was meant to be. Claira had always been such a luminary source in my life. It was fitting that I would say goodbye to her just as the sun said goodbye to all of us. 

"We're ready," Sam smiled somberly at me.

Without warning the urge to high tale it out of there overcame me. Saying goodbye to Claira was never even remotely near my scope of things to do. As far as deaths go, hers was not one I had planned on. She was supposed to live, to see the other side of all this shit we've been through. She was supposed to live long enough to see the end of this stupid war.