Do you believe in Ice or Fire

*Kumiho*

The sea was an unruly mass of inky black water crashing into his improvised vessel from all angles, giving him no quarter or pause from the relentless assault against the small raft floating aimlessly in the turbulent ocean. Rain pelted him from all sides, soaking through his fur while lightning split the sky and thunder exploded like bombs overhead. He tried to hold the rope keeping the sail taut at securely as he could, but it was no use. The rocking of the raft over monstrous waves he couldn't even see in the void of night very nearly capsized him or threw him off his feet. He clung to the mast of the raft for dear life, closing his eyes to try and drown out what was happening around him in the maelstrom. Was this his just desserts for daring to step out of the comfort of his homelands? Was this how he died, lost to an angry sea, never to be seen by anyone ever again? The fear was too much to bear.

A strong gale of wind tugged at the sail and ripped the rope from his jaws, sending the raft hurling directly into an oncoming wave. He screamed as gravity shifted, the raft flipping under the wave, and as water crashed down all around him, he felt the wooden planks beneath his feet disappear. The raft exploded into pieces of broken wood and soggy rope, and then he was just floating weightless as his body was tossed and thrown around in an endless abyss. He couldn't breathe, water was crushing down around his head. Paws kicked and flailed to try and right himself and find the surface, but all he could see was darkness. Only the occasional flash of lightning guided his way, head bursting above the choppy surface with a desperate gasp for air. Down he went again beneath another wave, spiraling about in the sea, doomed to repeat the process over and over until his body succumbed to the ocean's torment.

The last thing he remembered before darkness claimed him was screaming out for help from someone—anyone—into the emptiness of the vast sea, and then he was dragged under the surface again and everything went black.

The world was calm and peaceful again following the storm, but it was unnoticed by the wolf sprawled out across the narrow strip of sandy shore along the water's edge of the swamplands. To a passerby, he would appear to be deceased, lying unmoving and waterlogged to the point of his fur clinging to every inch of his skin. Eyes were closed, lost to unconsciousness, mind drifting in an empty black void and waiting for the end. The pale gray and white fur on his right thigh was stained a dark red and damp with the freshly flowing blood from a shard of wood jutting from the muscle where his raft's debris had impaled him during the mayhem, running down his leg to drip onto golden sand beneath him. The wolf was a sorry sight, barely clinging on to life, reliving his last horrific moments in his head until that moment when his body would finally give out its struggle.

"Kumiho"

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Do you believe in Ice or Fire

Joe

Kumiho