Reborn

Chapter Twelve

The morning brought the call of birds and dew with it. Renee, who heard the sounds of the birds, slowly opened her eyes. She stared blankly up at the already blue sky for several long minutes. There was something in the back of her mind, a trail of thought, that slipped slowly away from her, further and further.

She could feel the fur that she had curled into around her and feel the heat from Alec's body along with his soft breaths. Oddly, they seemed far away and incredibly distant from her. For a long time, she just stared at the sky and listened to the birds, his breathing, and the trickling sound of the river not too far away. She was lost in a daze that she couldn't wake up from.

She had dreamt again last night. She couldn't remember dreaming in her old life as much as she did here, and all of them were weird dreams.

In this one, a wolf was leading his pack through the woods, they were running, hunting, just living. She and Alec were also traveling through the woods and stumbled across that small pack of wolves. Suddenly they all had stopped and faced each other. That wolf who led the others turned his eyes on her, cold and judging. A shiver of fear traced down her spine as she remembered the look in those eyes. It was as if he was determining whether he should kill her or not.

After a long time of them just staring at each other, him judging and her frightened, he finally moved. Step by step he moved closer and closer to her while her heartbeat rose sharply in fear, her eyes widening as her limbs began to shake. She wanted to run, God how she wanted to, but she was paralyzed with fright.

The alpha wolf stood before her. His body was taller than her own and his face lowered slightly to meet her eyes. His face grew closer and closer to her own, slowly. When she couldn't handle her fear anymore, she closed her eyes tightly. She could feel his warm breath against her face and knew he was so close to her he could kill her in seconds, and she could do nothing about it.

One second.... Two seconds... three seconds... time passed slowly, but nothing happened.

Her body was stiff with fear, her limbs still shaking, but she opened her eyes to see the giant wolf in front of her. The next thing she knew, she felt soft fur rubbing against her own cheek, coaxing and gentle as he rubbed against her. After he moved back enough to meet her gaze once again and tilted his head at her. This time, his eyes were calm and patient. As if waiting for an answer.

Before she could figure out what he was waiting for, she had woken up.

What a weird dream.

Giving herself a shake, she pushed the dream aside, and slowly sat up. She looked blankly around their small camp. Oh yes. They were traveling. She was standing watch last night and sharpening Alec's stick into a spear... she must have fallen asleep.

Slowly she pushed the fur away and sat up to stare at the coals that were barely even smoking anymore. She should start a fire.

Then she looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun was high in the sky. It must have risen a while ago.

She moved her gaze and looked towards the river, watching the water slide on by. The sunlight glistened on the river's gentle waves as it moved quickly towards wherever its destination was.

Renee pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms tightly around her legs, just sitting there for a long time, not moving. She knew she should do things, but she just sat there instead. Her gaze moved back to the fire pit and the dark coals that no longer held any embers and just watched as the smoke slowly died out.

Eventually Alec sat up and rubbed his eyes as he yawned. When he opened them, he froze for a moment when he saw Renee just sitting there. She was like before, still, and silent. He pursed his lips tightly together, then leaned over hesitantly and shook her arm.