Feral Bonds

Chapter 40

The trees looked wrong, black and oozing. Some of them were highlighted with odd colours you wouldn't expect on a tree, blue and purple. Most of them were a deep, despairing black. A thick grey fog seemed to coat the air, making it feel heavy. Gretchen turned slowly, looking for a path to take, but there were only trees in every direction.

Gretchen focused on that rope again, the connection to Natania and could just barely make out a shimmer of gold leading between the trees. She followed it, then froze as she brushed against one of the trees and visions flashed in her mind.

Natania crouched over a wounded grey wolf, eyes wide and alarmed. "He's hurt because of me. I brought him here. He has to live."

Gretchen pulled away with a gasp, then did a double take at the woods. Are these her memories? Tentatively, Gretchen reached out for another one, also pulsing with deep black energy.

Natania sat in front of a burning fire, the stench of death lay heavy in the air. She bowed her head with shame. "If I had been stronger, I could have protected you all."

Gretchen brushed her hand over the rough bark. "I'm sure you did your best," she whispered. "You always do."

She looked for the rope again and followed it, running her hands over a few more trees as she went, the memories they shared were heavily centered around guilt or shame. The wolf's head was a graveyard for her mistakes, piling up and never forgiven. It made Gretchen's heart ache for her. No one should carry blame for things that weren't even their fault.

One memory in particular made her pause. The tree was the same as the others, but more heavy, more menacing, swallowing up some of the trees around it and tainting them with its shame.

The wolf pounced at a child, knocking them backwards then recoiled with horror as the beating of their heart stopped. "I didn't mean to-"

Time seemed to skip and Natania was hovering over another dead wolf. "It's all my fault. You never should have died to save me."

Gretchen frowned as she pulled back. Natania had told her about this incident. "It wasn't your fault," she murmured softly, running her hands over the pulsing bark. "Your father made you do this."

She knew she should be hurrying, but curiosity dragged her to explore more. A fearful feeling green tree drew her attention and she walked towards it, then recoiled at Natania's memories of Rigaldo. Gretchen hissed as she touched it. "You don't need to fear him. You're stronger than he is. I know you are."

The deeper she went the more bleak the woods became. Like the memories Natania held close to her were all centered on her failings.

A fight where she almost killed her opponent. A blue wolf staring at her with a fearful look. A wolf freezing to death in the snow. Rigaldo snapping the neck of a brown wolf.

As she drew closer to the center, two more caught her attention, one because it was golden and glowing, a stark contrast to everything else she had seen, and the other because it wasn't a tree, but seemed to roar with more energy than any other before it, prickling vines with roots burrowing out in every direction. She approached that one first and blood dripped from her hand when she grasped a spiked vine.

A small child stared longingly over at a tall man as he walked through a crowd. "If he just looked at me, maybe he would want me." Her heart seized with hope when the man's gaze finally flicked in her direction that was quickly crushed when his face contorted with disgust.

"You're still weak." Natania was older, stronger, facing the same man as before, but they're fighting and she's losing. A bone cracked in her thigh and he turned away with an irritated hiss. "You'll never be strong enough."