A Drizzle of Home

34 | A Drizzle of Promise

"Good morning, sweetie." A squeaky voice from above roused me from the dark and shifting fog of unconsciousness. I tuned my ears to its grating undertone. Was Cloud sick? But the words dripped with a saccharine sweetness, mocking. And she'd never call me sweetie.

My eyes finally adjusted to the dim light above to find a dark-pelted wolf. My eyes scanned his body with the blur of sleep still in them, my eyelids weighed down with a drowsy weight. Then my gaze met his yellow one. Golden irises bore into me, specked with orange flecks that seared themselves into my brain. My heart took off in a sprint, burning bile rose in my throat, and before I could stop them, my legs were throwing my body backwards. But my instinctual, uncoordinated attempt at escape did nothing more than throw my balance out of whack, and my ribs slammed against the cold stone floor.

"Woah!" The dark wolf breathed a laugh. "Take it easy, Drizz. I didn't think Cloud was that scary."

His image focused. My heart tripped and stumbled just as I, but it picked itself up at a steady pace. Why was I so stupid? This wasn't a monster, not some evil, shadowy wolf having come to claim my life––like the one that took my father in my dreams.

I rolled my eyes, trying to maintain a look of nonchalance as I shook out the dust from my fur and sat upright. I returned a glare to his smirk-contorted face. "She isn't," I snapped. "You are."

His tongue lolling, he turned on his paws and trotted a few steps to the den's exit. At his heels were two more balls of dark fur, surprisingly quiet for this late in the day. The two male pups had really taken a liking to Spruce lately, and being latched around his ankles wasn't a new development.

"Come on, sweetie," he sing-songed from outside the den.

With another sweeping glance around the den, and an annoyed groan bubbling up without much thought, I followed. I wasn't sure why Cloud had left without even waking me, but I assumed it had something to do with today's ceremony. Mist had been keeping us all busy over the past few days, making a much bigger deal out of this than there needed to be.

After a few sprinting steps to catch up with Spruce, Buck, and Badger––already headed down the trail to the forest ahead, I stopped to take a breath and refuel my lungs. "Where are we going?"

He squinted in feigned thought. "Well, Mist wanted me to say that we're just patrolling," he droned, "y'know, making sure nothing's going to go wrong on your big day..."

I eyed him sideways, urging his trailing voice to continue with a nudge on his hip. "And?"

"We are, but really I was bribed to keep you and––ow!" He jumped sideways, yanking a paw from Buck's small jaws. With a glare that was more playful than mad, he gestured to the pups who took to growling and batting at each other instead. "These guys out of the way," he answered. "I didn't agree to keep their secrets. Not worth it for pupsitting the three of you."

I ignored the shining grin he flashed me, jogging to keep up as he took off again. "Out of the way of what?"

Spruce didn't look back until we'd reached the bottom of the slope. "Now that you're invested," he chimed, "I think I'll keep the rest to myself."

I groaned again as he galloped into the trees. With a defeated sigh, I bounded after him. But with the information he had given me, I could make a decent guess. Mist wanted to get me away from the cave, thus, away from the site of the ceremony. I hadn't seen so much as a tail flick of any of the girls, so it must've meant they were out getting things to bring back. Tipping my nose to the sky, which was already paling with yellow streaks of sunset, I breathed in the smells of the forest. The springtime air was rich with the smell of growth, of bursting berries and colorful blooms. The faint scent of my pack members lay somewhere in the weaving scents, having taken a path opposite to the one Spruce led us down.