SPACE BOUND ROCKET SHIP

The seas wine red; This is the death of beauty

this is the time and this is the place to be alive

. . .


"Hey! came a sharp, deep voice, "Hey! Are you okay?"

Champion didn't usually make a point of babysitting others. But this guy looked like he was having some serious issues. The gold and white bear of a she-wolf had been wandering, just as her heart always desired, but in this land of grey ground and black spires, she'd found herself pausing, sniffing, taking in the terrible grimness of the place. On the edges life had begun to creep back in - grasses and ferns and vines climbing the once proud trees. But here? Here there was far more death than life.

And in the middle of it was one strange black and white male who might as well have been an embodiment of the terra. In the time of Champion's observation he had stared at a certain tree, laughed at it, gasped at it and then quaked in fear as though he were going to wet himself. Maybe something was going on that Champion knew nothing of. Maybe the wolf was insane. Or maybe - maybe he'd taken some sort of poison. He smelled pretty off. A sight like this, espically in such a haunting place, would be enough to turn off most normal wolves, or at least put them quickly on their guard. But Champion was what anyone would call a normal wolf. Not in size, not in shape, not in story, not in desires, not in personality. She trotted forward on oversized paws to come and stand about a pace or so from the male. She was ready to step forward and support him if he started to fall - but also ready to hop-scotch a step back if his madness turned nasty. He could have rabies for all that she knew.

Just in case she hadn't caught his hazed attention already, she gave a quick whistle through her teeth. "Hey Joe, you don't look so good. How about lying down for a bit, huh?"


. . .