A Tail of Stars

A Tail of Stars - Chapter Four

I scanned my surroundings, a small, grey room with no windows and a substantial door.  The view was mostly of the ceiling and upper walls.  Even that was limited by the range of my left eye, which was the only thing that didn’t hurt to move.

I groaned and my chest convulsed.  I would have screamed again, if my throat didn’t already feel like someone had taken sandpaper to it.

There was rustling coming from the corner behind me.  I froze and the noise stopped.  I couldn’t ignore the tingling feeling running up my spine.  It felt like a warning, like my skin was bristling.  I gritted my teeth and rolled onto my other side.

I should have been afraid.  There was a dark brown and black wolf with a white face staring at me.  It whined and lowered his head to the ground, resting it between his paws.  Something about it’s eyes disarmed me.  They looked so intelligent, and sad.  What really got me though, was that they seemed so familiar.

He whined again and started inching slowly towards me, keeping his head low.  When I didn’t flinch he nudged me under the chin and licked my cheek.  I slowly raised my hand and stroked his neck. He curled up next to me and rested his head in the crook of my neck and closed his eyes.  I continued to stroke his coarse fur, occasionally burrowing my fingers deep into the downy fur beneath.  The motion soothed my aching muscles.

I was just drifting back to sleep when the wolf lifted his head, ears perked and whined at the unopened door.  I lifted up and watched it, unsure what we were waiting for.  Then I heard the commotion that my less sensitive ears had not been able to pick up until it was closer, nearly directly outside the robust door. 

“What the hell is he doing in there?” someone with a deep voice yelled.  I dragged myself to my feet, ready to meet whatever wrath was coming, on my feet.  The deep voice didn’t let whoever it was he was demanding the info from, answer.  “She’s awake now and she doesn’t know—“

The door banged open and in the frame stood the man from my dreams.  His mouth hung open. Whatever it was I didn’t know had died on his lips.  There was another, more brawny man standing just behind him with his meaty hands on my dream man’s shoulders but with all his muscles, it appeared he’d had little, if any effect on him.

Both men stood frozen as if someone had hit a pause button and that was when I realized I was standing there as bare as the day I was born, for all to see.  The bulky man averted his eyes, turning his whole head to the side and slightly down.  His cheeks flushed a bright scarlet.

“Sorry,” he breathed.

The other man, the one who has haunted my dreams for longer than I can recall, however did not look away.  Though his dark, earth colored eyes did remain on my face, shock still holding his features fixed in the expression he wore when he burst into the room.

“Out!” I said, jamming my finger at them.  That brought him out of his stupor.  He turned his gaze toward the wolf but did not leave.  The other man made a hasty retreat.

“Davin!” the remaining man said, swiping a hand out the door, the authority in his tone almost made me tremble and left no question where the animal belonged.  The creature dropped his head and disappeared through the opening between the doorframe and the man’s muscular legs.

“There are clothes in the corner,” he said, just before the door clicked shut.  His words were soft.  They almost sounded like an apology.  It made me wonder: first if he was the one who left them and second why I needed them?  Where were my own?  Who had undressed me?