It took them most of the morning to get down. When the shaded greenery of the forest enveloped them, she breathed a sigh of relief. Liran gently grabbed her arm and led her a few paces away from the others, letting them continue without them for a moment.
She swallowed. It was time for them to go their separate ways, but she didn't know how she could say goodbye. There were no guarantees. In Terradin, with the way things were, and with the way things were heading, none ever knew at parting if they would see each other again.
He looked at her intently with his golden-amber eyes, and released the hand that held her elbow down to his side. She watched it slowly clench into a fist, and her heart started pounding. She swallowed again, her mouth refusing to say the words. In the end, she found that she couldn’t. Not again. She had no more words for painful goodbyes.
He nodded curtly, as if he heard the feelings choking her heart, and spun away from her, moving quickly into the dense, green canopy.
The air suddenly started pulling into her lungs dizzyingly fast, making her head spin. Her feet moved forward without conscious thought.
“Liran?” she said, a plea in her voice.
He stopped dead, and she stumbled to an ungraceful halt behind him. She reached a hesitant hand up to touch his shoulder. As his muscles went rigid beneath her palm, she swallowed again. What? She wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what it was. The words wouldn’t come to her lips, to her mind. She had become mute, incapable of speaking. She could only stand there with her hand on his shoulder, waiting helplessly for him to say something. Only he didn’t. He stood stone still for another moment, and then a shudder passed through him before he spun around blindingly fast, startling her.
One hand shot out—again, blindingly fast—to the back of her head, where it gripped firmly. She blinked, and then his mouth covered hers, fiercely and possessively. She reached out and clutched his shirt for balance as her whole entire world shifted and spun beneath her.
He finally pulled away with a groan and rested his forehead on hers. His breathing was fast and ragged. She was startled to realize that hers was too. “I can’t,” he whispered in an agonized voice. “I tried so hard . . . I tried so hard not to need you, to stay away from you.” His eyes burned into her, the color of liquid, molten fire. “I’m sorry,” he ground out in a raspy whisper. Then he kissed her again, hard and consuming, making his indelible mark upon her forever.
When she opened her eyes again, he was gone. The barest swish of leaves was the only sign of his passing.
Later that night, Wolf caught up with her. He appeared suddenly, almost like a phantom in the dark night. He scooted on his belly over to her beside the fire, and laid his head down onto her stomach. His eyes were troubled and watchful, his coat warm and slightly damp with sweat. She looked over at the others. Dhurmic was snoring ten feet away from her, and Nachal . . . Nachal was missing from his bedroll.
“I don’t suppose you could tell me if the doubles worked?” she asked Wolf idly, rubbing the tufts of fur over his eyes. “Though the fact that we haven’t been attacked probably means that they did.”
Wolf whined softly, his eyes troubled.
Auri sighed. Her hands stilled. “Did you see Nachal on your way here?” He gazed at her steadily. “No?” she sighed again. “He left several hours back. I can’t feel him anymore, and that worries me.”
After several more minutes of listening to Dhurmic’s snores, she sat up. “I need to walk,” she announced quietly. “Want to come with me?”
Wolf rose quickly to all fours, and followed behind her as she left the clearing. After several minutes, she found herself standing beside a small, shallow stream. Wolf sat back on his haunches beside her, looking up at her instead of at the water. It seemed like he was waiting for something. Some cue from her. Some command.
The thought came faintly at first, slowly, and then more forcefully―she needed to go find Liran. If she hurried, she might be able to catch up with him and be back by the next evening. She knelt down beside Wolf. “I need to go see Liran. Why don’t you stay here with Nachal and Dhurmic? You’ve been running all day.”
He whined in protest. She sighed and hugged him, then got up and started to move away. The sound of fabric ripping and a short tug on her shirt stopped her in her tracks. She turned, looking down in disbelief at the piece of her shirt that Wolf had just spat out onto the ground.
“I just need to see him briefly,” she explained in a low, cajoling voice. “I’ll be back by tomorrow night.”
He ignored her, caught part of her pant leg between his sharp teeth, and started tugging backward until she lost her balance and staggered toward him. She swatted him away in irritation. “I’ll be fine,” she huffed, trying to loosen his hold on her pants without ripping them. They wrestled for a few minutes. Obviously, Wolf won. She yelped when he nipped her finger. Not hard enough to draw blood, just hard enough to get her attention.
“You bit me!” she accused incredulously, holding her finger gingerly with her other hand. Wolf frowned at her, and snuffed out a blast of air in protest. “Alright,” she amended with a slight smile. “Maybe bit isn’t completely accurate, but your teeth did leave marks on my finger.” She held her finger out for him to see them. He snorted another blast of air through his nostrils, making her laugh quietly. Her laughter trailed away into silence as her thoughts came back to Liran, and she sighed, closing her eyes against the sudden surge of pain.
“You’re right,” she whispered. “It would only make it worse if I saw him right now.” She sat down on the bank, and brought her knees up to her chest, gazing unseeingly over the water. “This hurts so much. I feel like I’m being ripped in two.”
Wolf put his head against her legs, and she looked down at his sad, ice-blue eyes. “I love them both,” she whispered. Her head dropped to her bent knees, her eyes closed, and tears trickled down her cheeks. Thoughts and memories of both Nachal and Liran ran through her mind, making the tears fall harder.
She reached out in desperation with her senses as Liran had taught her, and immediately the memories bombarding her tumbled to a standstill. Her thoughts became focused and clear. Her mind expanded, drinking in the calm of the night like a desert flower, until only one thought remained―Liran’s life.
Wolf watched her, expectant and waiting. She reached out and cradled his face with both hands. “I need him safe, Wolf. Can you keep him safe for me?” Her eyes pleaded with his cool blue ones for help. She knew that Wolf was her protector, but he was also her friend, and she hoped that he understood that what she needed most in the world right now was the knowledge that Liran would be kept safe until she could see him again. “Please?” she begged.
He sighed—a sound that was so human—and rose to his haunches, staring intently at her face. Suddenly, he leaned his body forward so that his muzzle grazed her neck, and gathered up her scent, inhaling deeply, then he licked her cheek, and bounded away silently into the forest.
“Goodbye, my friend,” Auri whispered into the emptiness.
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