Aetherworld

The Saving Light - Chapter 6

Stretching felt nice under the warm sun, the fresh scent of wildflowers and dew-covered grass filled my nostrils. A smile appeared easily here. Mornings were always cold at the crack of dawn, but the tiny fire at the edge of the meadow and the warm morning sun at my back left me with no complaints. The peace was disturbed only by a twig snapping in the distance. I sat up, straining to see the wolf emerge gracefully from the thick brush, a rabbit limp in his jaw.

"You didn't harm the coat, did you? Would make for good trading in the next town we go." I felt strange, a strong sense of Deja-vu filled me. The wolf cocked his head questioningly, noticing my unease. Where am I?

- - -

Wakefulness took me like a drill pounding behind my forehead, breaking through the skull. My eyes hurt like I'd been crying, and the scent of blood filled my nostrils.

When I lifted it, my head complained; the whole world spun, and bile rose in my mouth. A concussion. Damn. The light hurt my eyes forcing me to squint. At first, it seemed I was alone, until a shadow departed from the edges of the light to tower over me.

His actions confused me, but it became clear he was revelling in the light; looking from paw to paw, inspecting my face, my body, and the room around us. James had mentioned the 'kings beast' was down here for years in the dark. Was the light keeping me alive? It was dimming, meaning it had been just under four hours since I'd fled the camp.

"The lamp will die soon," My hoarse voice hurt to use. The wolf barred his teeth at me, startled by the sudden noise but I continued, "And only I can charge it." He growled, hackles raised but didn't strike. It hurt to talk, but I gritted the rest out, "Do you understand? If you want the light, you can't kill me." The edges of my vision blurred; my strength was leaving me.

A low growl rumbled through the floor as he lowered his head to my neck, centimetres away from killing me. Like a punctuation to my statement the light died plunging us both into darkness; with it, my own consciousness fled.

- - -

My body jolted awake sending sharp stabs of pain rocketing through my skull. Everything was stiff, hurt, and the taste of bile was a permanent guest in my mouth.

In the dark I heard James knock the lamp towards me. It rolled to a stop against my cheek. I wanted to berate him for being so lazy until the memory of the previous night flooded me. Tears once again painted my face.

It was a small feat simply heaving myself off the ground. Every movement caused swathes of pain through my head. With the lamp in hand its familiar whine filled the room, though the process had to be done in the dark; the world would shift with every attempt to use darkvision.

I expected relief to flood me when I turned on the lamp, instead fear struck me. Directly in front of me the wolf sat staring. My pounding heart could be felt through the floor and a searing pain in my head caused my eyes to tear; but I didn't scream, or move, for a long time.

"Holy shit," My voice could only whisper, "Do you mind giving me a bit more space?" Apparently, he did mind. It was like he was drinking in my features... As if he'd never seen a human before. The only way I was going to cope was to will my fear into anger, "What? Something wrong with my face?" Of course, he couldn't respond, but a few more minutes of this had me truly mad. This wolf had killed five people in front of me, had nearly torn through my own leg, and now it was sitting within biting distance staring at me. "Either fight me or fuck off, pick one." He didn't seem to understand English after all.

Now that I was sitting this close to him, I finally noticed a giant clunky collar wrapped tightly around his neck. His skin on either side bulged around it and his breathing sounded strained. The collar itself was made of metal and leather with intricate designs carved into it, it was a series of big boxes chained together around his neck.