A Drizzle of Home

10 | A Drizzle of Light

Cloud's words were faint, her voice growing quiet as she recounted the tale in her vacant eyes. "The story starts with two wolves, growing up together in the sky. Not made of flesh and blood like us, but formed from dust in the dark expanse above. One called Sol, and the other, Luna."

My ears straightened, and I locked my eyes on her muzzle. Those very words, I'd heard them before.

"The two were so different," she said, "yet so alike. Sol was a wolf of brightness, joy, excitement, and love. Luna was the opposite, shy and content on her own. But she couldn't help but be drawn to Sol's glow. She noticed the changes he made in her, the way he shared his light and it bounced off her fur. It made her bright too."

Cloud paused for a moment. "Sol would give every drop of light he had to make her happy, and Luna, she shed her darkness like a second pelt." Then, her voice grew quiet. "Until Luna grew ill. With pups in her belly, she lay in her twilight den, growing weaker as the days went by.

"Sol set off alone in a desperate attempt to find her a cure. But there was nothing in the empty sky that would help her, so he turned to the earth. It was a place that neither wolf knew much about, or ever dared to go. He wasn't sure if he could even make it, an expanse of nothing between the clouds and the darkened soil on the other side." Cloud clawed the earth beneath her paws, the brown crumbling between her toes.

I closed my eyes, and warmth tugged at my chest. The feeling swaddled me, and the gentle pulse of their bodies pressed against my sides. Heartbeats filled my ears, like small, rhythmic footsteps. Blood pumped through their veins, the same blood as mine.

A single heart thundered even louder, like the beastly storms that roared from outside. My head lay against her belly. A thick layer of fur was the only thing between my ears and the life-giving stomp inside. I curled up in her snug and silky coat, letting the sweet scent of milk fill my nose and remind me fondly of my full belly. I took in the dark and hazy sights, but all I could see were her deep brown eyes, glowing with something she called love.

"But Sol wouldn't let anything get in his way," her soft voice thrummed. "With his eyes shut tightly, he soared down from the clouds with a mighty leap." Growing in volume and pitch, it paused at its peak. My tail tapped the ground, and the tense silence crumbled with the echo of my siblings' eager wags. "And he landed on the earth. Safe and sound." She released the breath she'd been holding, a long sigh of relief.

Safe. Just like we were with our mother, who cuddled our hearts with gentle words. Even playing with my littermates, rolling around in yipping laughter, or piling together with their soft and cozy forms––it couldn't make me happier than breathing in her scent, listening to her soothing stories, and feeling her affection with a tender tongue.

"But as for Luna..." My attention snapped back to the deep, saddened softness of her tone. "Away from her love, her light began to dim. Her glow dwindled each night, sliver by sliver till a mere, curving glimmer was left in the sky."

It was strange to hear Mother speak of it with drooping ears, the source of the pale blue light that seeped into the den from the mouth of the tunnel. Usually, her voice was filled with awe and wonder. First there was a gentle hiss, followed by a sharp, cracking stone in the middle. She sighed the wide-lipped ending, and it faded into the air. I'd never seen it, but Mother said that it stood high above us all.

I whispered it beneath my breath, mimicking each sound of the strange and foreign place. "Sssss-k-yyyyy."

"Sol looked up from his place on the earth as it happened, watching her fade away." She stopped to lick her chops. "He longed to be by her side, knowing his mate didn't have much time. But still, he'd found no cure. He couldn't stop just yet.