Polaris Skies

Chapter 25

Nat slipped into a deep sleep, only emerging when his body demanded other base needs. He slept on and off in the cave for the better part of three days. By the second day of his sleep, Hana's wings had completed sloughing off. The group had taken the decaying matter far down the river before submerging them under several rocks, hoping that they'd disappear before Michael's cronies could find them and trace them. With any luck, the birds wouldn't have vultures in their genetics. The wolves didn't hold their breath.

While the men roamed the woods and the outskirts of the city for food, the women tended to Nat. Hana had been tasked with caring for his punctures. The group hoped that by having her work with the fluids, she'd absorb Sylvi faster. It seemed to be working. Frequently after caring for Nat, she would end up with short-term pain that didn't last as long as it had in the past. It was at the point that Deck was only ever rarely disturbed by the pain.

Zola and Sun Hee learned a new trick in their boredom that amused them greatly. They used it to make Nat chuckle when he was barely conscious. He had a lot less restraint on his embarrassment and tended to laugh more for it. With some practice, they figured out how to pinpoint certain aspects of the wolf to come out. They were able to grow their ears into their furry pointed counterparts. They even achieved a wagging tail.

Nat gained a semblance of conscious thought by the third day outside of general feelings of amusement or uncertainty. His ribs and face were still killing him. His body didn't feel like he was going to die immediately if he tried to move at least.

He woke up freezing. The group had left off lighting a fire, huddling together for warmth. A drizzle sprinkled the rock out front of the cave.

Nat blinked, confused. Drizzle. Not sleet or snow. It was actual light rain. He crawled toward the entrance, the women watching his every move. The exhausted man reached to cup the modest flecking on his hand. Water. It hadn't legitimately rained in months. He couldn't remember the last time he saw real rain. "Warm rain," he whispered. Swivelling his head around, he fixed Sun Hee with a questioning look. "How long have we been out here?"

Sun Hee shrugged. She had lost count a long time ago. Anastasia responded to his question, "The bomb that released us was dropped in the beginning of January. You've been on the road since then for probably...eight weeks? I think... It's near the end of February now."

"Spring? It's almost spring?" Nat rolled over, enjoying the few sprinkles of rain that found their way to his face at the lip of the cave.

"You seem rather happy about this," Anastasia observed the grey wet.

"How long have you guys been out of circulation?" Nat blinked up at the wolf.

She sat down next to him and contemplated it for a while. "We were taken near the end of your great war. They were burning the fields and forests, desolating the villages. Massive machines rolled through our little cottage town. The people called them tanks. Many of the things we have seen with you humans have been new to us," she supplied.

"Great War? Tanks...that could be World War I or World War II," Nat contemplated.

"There was a second war?" Anastasia asked in surprise.

"You guys haven't been in our world in almost three hundred years," Nat struggled to sit up. Zola shifted him until he rested in the hollow of a rock overlooking the woods outside the cave entrance.

"If you say so. Time for us wolves draws on differently than it does for you humans." Anastasia shrugged.

"This is our fourth war, though politicians like to not call the third a true war. The last broke out shortly after a war between India and China during a pandemic that wiped three per cent of the population off the map. The states fell apart and re-conglomerated. Our basic system of government was turned on its head from an economic crash and drought and wildfires. The pandemic led to a shortage in the meat industry, impacting corn and the other grain industry. Things never got better after that," he told her.