Polaris Skies

Chapter 9

Five days sifted over the treetops and through the underbrush as they waited for Hana to come back to the land of the living. When the camp settled and sleep overtook the group, the wolves emerged, and Sven refused to give up his spot to Nat. The white beast curled around the bird-woman and refused to leave for more than a couple of minutes at a time. The rest avoided drawing too close to the creature. Worry ran rampant, questions about why Nat allowed it free reign tainted the group's opinion.

Pattering back into the ring after a run, the group confronted the wolf. Zola and Sun Hee had taken his spot around Hana, their eyes sharp along his spine.

Wanna tell me something, mutt?

My body. You aren't getting it from me.

Fuck you, snow bunny. You're leaching. Give it back.

Show me those shadows again, and I'll think about it.

Shadows?

Yeah. I haven't seen that in a long time, and I've been around a while.

Tell me how and at this point, I'll tear down the mountains to have my body back.

Kiss her.

Get lost, mutt, ain't happening here or ever. I don't have time for your perturbing peculiarities. Give my body back before the rest of these guys mutiny.

Your altruistic nature is crumbling here.

They're liable to shove me in a cage at this rate, monster.

Oh, they won't. The glendwellers won't let them.

Nat swallowed in the shattering cold of the clearing, the wolf slinking back from the precipes. He grabbed up his clothes, dusting snow off the top and pulled them on, shivering under their chill. Sven slunk away to sit quietly in his dark recesses.

The men studied his jerky movements as the fire snapped in the dusk. "What?" Nat bit out, tugging on his coat and boots. Deck and Yeller shared a worried glance before tossing the play into Benj's ball court.

He snorted at their handoff. "Sit."

Nat frowned, slipping onto the bench next to him.

"We've been talking, Nat." Yeller rubbed at his shoulder nervously.

"Yeah. Sorry for disappearing on you guys for the last couple days. Creature didn't want to let go." He pulled his hood up over his ears and blew into his fingertips.

"The wolf getting to you?" Deck poked at the fire, avoiding meeting his eyes.

"Yeah." Nat tossed a stick in to watch it catch.

"Hopefully, you can keep it under control now that you're back." Benj folded his hands in his lap. Nat nodded in reply.

"Her eyes have been shifting. You saw that, right? Zola said she noticed some of her feathers coming loose. I think she's changing. Dosage might be bad. That has to be why she hasn't woken up." Deck heaved a sigh.

"All right, I got that earlier. What's new?" Nat asked before the wolf could take over for him.

"We can all introduce more of this contagion. She's touched your blood. It took a while to trigger, but this thing, it can't just be airborne at this point," Benj said.

"Or, she's just sick," Nat hesitated, flicking a glance toward the tent where Zola and Sun Hee were watching over the sleeping woman.

"In this fucked up world, is it impossible to suspect that a blood-borne plague from a waste bomb could be detrimental to a bird person with a compromised immune system? Let that whole thing that just fell out of my mouth swirl around in that brain of yours, linguist." Benj hissed.