new day | ✔

xiii

Shoulder-to-shoulder, the pair ambled beneath a sky decorated with millions of twinkling stars and a canopy of onyx-black leaves. Snow fell from the heavens and dappled their pelts with fluffy layers of cotton.

But stomachs were not yet full, and they ventured out further in search for perhaps a larger meal. With vigilant noses, the scent of meat led them to a wide, spacious terrain of barren snow. It seemed to be a field - meadow - maybe, just obscured with layers of snow that had built up over the last few months.

It was very bare and flat, no buttes nor plants was visible on its surface. Distant forests surrounded it, and above, hoovered an effulgent moon.

River stood there for a moment, unmoving, her eyes askance with a calculating aura. Something seemed odd about this piece of smooth land, something hidden. Yet she couldn't quite lay a finger on what it was. Nox broke her inquisitive thought by loping straight into the snow, and obediently, River followed suite.

They waded through the high snow, leaving carved trails behind them. They had completed almost a third of the way, before Nox sank right into the ground with a whimper and a splash.

It took a moment for River to understand that they were standing on, not ground, but a lake that was frozen over. Cracks began to spread from where Nox had fallen, like Death's bony fingers reaching towards her. She whirled around as sprinted as far as she could, but her legs failed her, and she slipped. She skidded across the ice on her haunches further away from the riverbank, and before she could regain her balance, the cranks reached her first.

In the blink of an eye, River's body was consumed by a freezing cold darkness that caressed her limbs and numbed them, preventing her from moving. The wolf flailed frantically, but to no avail.

She was sinking. Drowning. Dying.

The icy water entered her lungs in large gulps, her body shuddering in fear and her legs losing strength from the lack of oxygen. She had almost given up, if it wasn't for a kick she received in the face by Nox. Gazing upwards, she could see the silhouette of a wolf struggling to swim, and whose foot had given a blow to River's face. With survival instinct once again newly rushed through her blood, River used all her might to bring herself upwards, and towards the moon that was smiling down at her.

Alas, she reached the surface and beautiful, fresh air entered her lungs new like a flower who had been watered after a terrible drought.

She gasped for air as she paddled to the ominous looking trees, and they grew larger and larger...

The cuts on her torso were washed clean with water, though it did not subdue the pain. The stinging water slithered between her digits as she swam, and her tail lashed as a propeller. River kicked and kicked, determined to make it to the shore. Relief washed over as her paw abraded against a rock, and she pulled herself out of the water, panting and wheezing.

However Nox wasn't so lucky. She was trapped in a circle of ice, and was unable to pull herself out, nor swim around. Her arms flailed in attempt to grab on to anything that could hoist her up, but with claws chorded blunt, it wasn't easy.

River watched, sprawled out on the bank, at her suffering acquaintance with a clinical expression. Her features remained still, neutral and unwrinkled at the sight of Nox's earthly death.

Nox made one last attempt to call for help - she howled, a short howl meant for River and only River, hoping that the silver wolf would do something.

But River merely stood up, shook off the droplets of water from her pelt, and trudged away. Her silver tail hung limp between her legs. She did not look back.

But then, deep in the thicket, she turned around briskly towards the direction of the lake. The she-wolf did not head back, nor did she show any sign, but instead, threw her head back to the dark sky.

She hadn't done this so long, it was almost entirely unfamiliar.

River let out a long, deep howl, a mournful apology and a last call to the first friend she had in a very, very long time.

But as Nox watched her silver tail disappear into obscurity, she let her shaking paws release their grasp on the ice. The water consumed her - like black ink in the darkness - pulling her deeper into abyss.

Nox fell limp, her brown fur swaying in the water like smoke. She never heard River's regretful cry.

Soon she moved no more, and her once colourful eyes were nothing more than lifeless, glassy orbs, gazing up at a beautiful starry night sky that they could no longer see.