To Kill a Wolf Walker || Klance

stories

The end.

What? That can't be the end! Mom!

Shiro, finish the story.

Are you sure, Adam? You know how it ends, is she really ready for that?

She's ready for the truth, and besides, you know how resourceful Rosemary is. Look at who her family is, after all.

Alright, alright. But don't bother your uncle about it, okay Rosemary? 

***

As Keith watched Lance's body fall, a hole was ripped in his heart as much like the one that was ripped through Lance's chest. But Keith's was a wound felt in the very depths of his soul, whereas Lance's was torn through his body. 

People rushed into the forest, dragging out Admiral Sanda and other accompanying soldiers. There were shouts and cries and screams and struggles, but it all went unnoticed by Keith as he dove for Lance, cradling his head in his arms. 

Lance coughed up blood, blood that was soaking through his shirt despite Keith trying to keep it in with his hand. Not that it mattered, as most of it gushed out Lance's back onto Keith's lap, soaking his dark pants and staining them with a red tint. The blood slowly dripped down Lance's cheek, mixing with his salty tears. 

Keith's own eyes were dripping tear after tear after tear down his face and onto Lance, sorrow and pain darkening the bright and vivid violet of his eyes to black pits. He cried as Lance choked on his own blood, droplets of deep scarlet finding their way onto Keith's face. He couldn't stop the bleeding, no matter how much pressure he put on the wound as it just seeped into the dirt beneath their bodies. 

Lance reached his shaking hand up to Keith's face, brushing his knuckles across Keith's cheek, leaving a smudge of blood on his face before Lance's arm and body went limp. 

And that was it. 

Mere seconds of being close to one another one last time before...nothing. No more watching the sunsets, no more stealing small glances at one another while the other wasn't looking, no more running through the woods with smiles on their faces and laughs in their voices, no more. 

They didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. To tell each other how much they loved one another. No final words, no last kiss, Lance was just...gone; in the blink of an eye.

The second his hand fell by his side, Keith's body froze with the impact of Lance's death. Froze before he let all his sorrow, all his loss and pain past and present out one long wail. A wail that made you feel his grief in your own soul. 

And there Keith sat, long after Sanda and the other soldiers were detained, long after Lance took his last breath, long after the blood stopped flowing because there was no heart beating, long after his skin went unnaturally pale, long after Lance's body went cold and stiff, long after Keith ran out of tears to cry and voice to scream. He held Lance's head in his lap, stroking his hair and watching the sun set over the horizon, bathing the world in crimson. 

***

Over the course of the next few days, as everyone was packing up what lightweight belongings they could carry through the forest, Keith mourned. 

He locked himself away in his house and watched over Lance's body, not talking to anyone, not eating, not alive. Because what life is worth living if you've lost the one love of your life? 

No, not lost. Lost is too nice, too subtle a word. Lost is what happens when you don't know where you are, when you can't get something you once had back. Lost in the woods, a lost toy, lost time.

Lance wasn't lost. He didn't get turned around in the woods, he was more than a misplaced object. Lance was murdered, killed in cold blood. He was shot in the chest and bled to death in the love of his life's lap, in Keith's lap. 

So no, Lance wasn't lost. 

When it was time to leave, Keith took the bare minimum, even for him. Others such as Krolia and Adam packed his bag, for he lost himself in his grief, drifting through the world with an irreparable soul. He looked in the bag when Krolia handed it to him, and took out unnecessary personal objects such as his sketchbooks that Lance loved to look through. Things that once brought him joy, an escape, a way to cope with the things he'd already been through. 

He shouldered the much lighter bag, shifted to his wolf form, and placed Lance's wrapped body on his back to carry. 

And carry he did. Keith led the way deeper into the forest, far away from Altea and The Garrison and the war with Zarkon. He led the pack to safety, to a place beyond the mountains and rivers where we could rebuild and make a home for ourselves without having to live in constant fear for our lives and the lives of our loved ones ever again. 

And the entire time, he carried Lance's body on his back.

Once the pack arrived at the spot soon to be called home, only then did Keith shift back to his human form. The location Keith had chosen to relocate to was at the base of a mountain, wild forest on all sides and close to the ocean. Not much different geologically from where the pack used to call home, but it was a new start, the beginning of a new chapter, a new story. 

Keith found a small ledge on the mountain that overlooked the ocean facing west, and brought Lance up with him. There, he dug a grave with his own hands and carefully lowered Lance into it, covering him up with soft dirt after finally saying goodbye. 

***

Keith still visits Lance every day to watch the sun set over the ocean together, just like they used to. Personally, I don't think Keith was entirely looking for a place to relocate the pack, but more for a place Lane would like. He still hasn't returned to the way he used to be, and I don't think he ever will. You can't get back a part of your soul that belonged to someone else once they leave you, you'll never be whole again. So that, my sweet Rosemary, is the story of how we ended up here, of why your uncle goes to that ledge to watch the sun sink over the horizon at the end of every day. And once the sky is dark and the stars are out, he says goodbye all over again. 

To Kill a Wolf Waker

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Word count: 1110

A/N: I thank everyone who has stuck with both me and this story long enough to be reading this author's note. 

I know I left the last chapter on a huge cliffhanger and then just didn't update for way too long, and I apologize. I focused more on school and family, and I don't regret it. High school is hard.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter and the story itself, and I thank you for reading and sticking with me.

Have a good night/day/evening everyone!!

-TJ.