Set Me Ablaze

. . .


Cross had given his response, and now, after another crack of lightning, the she-wolf did too. So curiosity was at the heart of her reasoning too. And what's more she had defied her fears in the completion of the adventure. Was there perhaps a bit of the thrill seeker in this wet, timid yearling? Cross wondered whether she had snuck away from some pack, or if she had no one to tell her that to swim through the ocean alone was treacherous. What with all the saltwater and rain he had no chance of picking up any scents but her own personal one.

There was a silence, which Cross didn't seem concerned with breaking, and then the sound of a sigh could just be heard over the rain before the girl spoke again. Seemed that laying down had done just the trick. It defused the tension between them and showed that he was more willing to be uncomfortable than to have her see him as a threat. Already Cross's denmate seemed to have decided he wasn't going to rip out her throat, and even invited him to come closer. He heard another rustling of damp fur as she moved about, he assumed, to make room for him.

He stood, resisting the desire to shake, knowing it would only get the cave more wet. Cross lowered his head and padded lightly to the back, curling around, trying to be careful and not to step on the other wolf. He lowered himself with a flop of a huff. Though his tail, as it rested beside his left hip, brushed tight against the wall, still the fur of the two wolves couldn't help but brush at least a bit. Cross wasn't sure if that was a shoulder or a footpaw that he'd just felt. He guessed that a little of the apprehension would return to the girl's mind, but he didn't seem to feel any tension. He lay down with his chin flat on the stone, and his forepaws out, one of them crooked sideways so that he could see his sand encrusted pads.

After that, his only shift was to perk his ears sharply when another blinding white light light up the world, followed almost at once by a deafening BOOM. They were in the thick of it now. The boy voiced a question that had been on his mind, giving it a slightly lighter, more joking air than most in the situation would've managed. "Don't you have parents to tell you that this sort of thing was bound to happen?"





. . .