The White Wolf (2020)

Chapter Ten

SYDNEY

The ground beneath her feet was chilly and licked up the skin of her bare legs. It looked to be made of clouds and fog and crawling mist. The sky overhead was dark, like one was on a moist morning with a storm leaving the vicinity. The place smelled of wet dew and freshly cut grass, despite the lack of vegetation other than a handful of weeping willow trees that emerged out of the cloud like ground and the small patches of grass surrounding them. The trees swayed in a light breeze that had Sydney wrapping her arms around her body. It was then that she realized she was only covered in a thin white slip, but with the sluggish feeling that overcame her body, she was convinced this was a dream.

"Young One," A silky voice addressed.

Sydney turned around to find a man with shaggy black hair that fell around his naked chest. His chest was a sandy brown, and it seemed to have a shimmer as though he was made from sand itself. He wasn't looking at Sydney but moving to sit on a thick stone bench.

"Hello? Who are you?" Sydney inquired heading in the direction of the man.

"The question is do you know who you are Sydney?"

She felt her lips bow down at the deviation of her question.

"You look to be wounded, the animal spirits are already not treating you kindly."

She scanned her body to find blood dried along her shoulder and down her arm and chest. Gliding her hand gingerly, she found scabbing over her aching neck as well.

Memories of Elliot brutally attacking her and the events of Mat and Jay coming to her aid crashed into her.

"What happened?"

"Come sit," he patted beside himself. "I have much to tell you."

Hesitating, she slowly and cautiously walked over to the mysterious man's side. She was unnerved by being scarcely dressed, but this place stuck her as familiar. Maybe she had dreamt it before.

Surprise took her when the man grabbed her hand and placed it between both of his large ones. He turned her palm to face upwards and with a gentle brush the tip of his finger traced the lines of her skin.

"How do you know my name? And what do you mean 'do I know who I am?' Of course I do. Actually, where are we, that's my first question?" She asked him.

"We are in what our kind calls the Expanse."

"And where is this Expanse?" Sydney was beyond perplexed.

"It is the layer of the universe that connects all life."

"What does that mean? Is this the afterlife?"

He paused the tracing to chuckle, "No, Young One, you are not in what the humans have cultivated to be the afterlife."

Pulling her hand from his hold, she crossed her arms defensively. "Am I dying or not?"

"No, Young One, you're not deceased or in the process of expiring."

"Expiring, that's an unpleasant way of putting it."

Another quant smile graced the man's lips. "An animal spirit by the calling of Elliot bit you. Young Jaycen and his friend discovered you and brought you to their packs home. You fell unconscious upon your arrival."

"What do you mean 'pack home? And how do you know about...?"

The savage memories of the crazed man in the forest had her body tense but hands trembling.