Ice -- Wolv book II

4 - Not alone out here

I ran over the granite, feeling the wind wash over me as I darted forward. I looked down, seeing two feet instead of four paws. I lifted my arms up and inspected them: my blonde fur coat was gone, and my fingers were, in fact, fingers once more, capped with blunt nails.

I was human.

I stopped running and pondered my form. It felt so strange, running on two legs rather than four.

Something snapped behind me, and I whirled around, catching sight of a grey figure racing towards me. My heart began pounding in my chest, and I turned and sprinted as fast as I could. I quick glance over my shoulder revealed that I was quickly losing ground.

I'd had this dream a thousand times; I knew exactly what was going to happen, yet it still terrified me. Ever since I'd been bitten, I'd seen this dream everytime I closed my eyes.

The grey wolf finally caught up to me and sunk its teeth deep into my ankle. I let out a bloodcurdling scream, and fell down to the ground.

"Stop! Mingan, stop! Don't bite me!"

But the wolv ignored my cries. He deftly flipped me onto my back and crashed his teeth down into my right arm, crushing his canines down until they pierced my bones. I howled in agony as white-hot, acidic pain raced through my joints. I struggled and twisted, but the wolv kept his jaws firmly in place, staring at me all the while.

I blinked tears out of my eyes, and looked back at him. His eyes were strangely soft, and he blinked back at me apologetically. My vision began to blur to white--

"Ah!" I sat up in the cave suddenly, my tongue lolled out of my mouth as if I'd been sweating. I looked down at myself--I still had four paws, fur, and a tail. Thank goodness.

My eyes traced their way down my right forepaw, and came to a rest on a tiny set of scars that wrapped their way around my limb. The bite mark burned from the dream, and I bent down and licked it in an attempt to stop the stinging.

"Same dream?"

Nadie was sitting next to me, a concerned look on her face. I'd woken her up.

I huffed loudly and nodded. "Always. I just can't get the picture of Mingan biting me out of my head."

She looked away, her eyes clouding over with a thousand-mile stare. "I know the feeling. I don't think I'll ever forget when Kémé bit me."

Mingan was one of us; he was a wolv. He was also a friend, one that we'd left behind in Atikaki. We would've taken him with us, had it not been for the bullet lodged in his spinal cord, leaving him barely able to walk, despite the enhanced ability to heal that our kind possessed. He was also the one responsible for biting me, making me what I was.

I slunk my way out of the tiny cave and into the dawn, feeling an incredibly cold breeze wash over me. A quick look revealed a thin layer of winter fur sprouting from my skin, despite the several patches of summer fur that still stubbornly clung to me. At least I'll have something for the winter!

I stretched my front paws down on the ground and raised my hind into the air, cracking the joints in my back pleasantly.

I took a deep breath, and nearly choked on the scent that entered my nose. Tar. What the heck? We've gotta be at least twenty kilometers from the railway! I looked around, sniffing frantically, and sure enough, the smell of the train tracks lingered in the air.

I trotted away from the cave, letting my nose guide me forward--strangely, the scent was coming from the opposite direction of the railway we'd previously crossed. As I drew closer to the source, the scent began to change. It smelled older; while the scent of tar was still present in the air, the slightly sweet smell of rotting wood was also present, and was becoming much more powerful as I went.