The Last Kingdom Book One Padling

Prologue

His piercing gaze never strayed from my own. In his eyes, there was a light but also a darkness. I shivered. His thin strands of silvery fur blew gently in the wind.

I groaned and fell backward onto the soft grass. Through the haze of my blurry vision, I looked down at myself. I was wounded severely.

Shakily raising my blood-drenched gloved hands, I watched the thick warm blood drip through my fingertips and pool onto a deep stab wound in the center of my chest.

I put a hand on my wolf as he laid down beside me with his own beautiful pelt soaked with deep red.

"We failed," I whispered solemnly.

"No." The wolf said though it came from neither his own jaws nor mine, but a voice humming soothingly through my head like the sound of a thousand wing beats, "You have not failed. Neither have I." He laid his big fluffy head down on my chest, whining softly from the pain of his wounds, "We have just set in motion his path."

"Then," I asked, my voice barely grinding through my throat, "Who is it? Who will succeed!?" I questioned again.

It was becoming harder and harder to breathe. My sentence was broken into rasps, as each breath sent a chorus of grinding pains streaking through my chest, but I had to know. I'd fought until the very end, and now it seemed my turn was over, no matter how badly I wanted to see it through. I heaved a labored breath of the warm air.

"We shall know him soon. We have set the example and given hope." The wolf replied, closing his eyes, "We shall meet again, Jayk." Then I felt him grow cold. All the warmth faded from his body. I could feel his life slipping away from his mortal vessel.

I clenched his fur with my fists. White-hot agony burned through my chest. I choked for air. Tears slipped down my cheeks, "Sheenan." I whispered through sobs.

My companion. My friend. My good boy. He was gone.

Then something came over me like a calming ripple through my body. It was time, time to go. I breathed one last painful breath, taking in my last glimpse of this world. Then, I let myself go.