Moana
"Edrick?" I called out. My voice was only met with nothing but an echo. The world around me was silent... In fact, as my eyes slowly opened, I realized that I was no longer on the cliff.
The only thing that I could see around me was a soft, golden light that was somehow blinding yet calming at the same time. Was this what it was like to be dead? The last thing I could remember was the blood on my fingers. Michael must have stabbed me and finally got his way, and now I was dead. I quickly looked down at my hands.
There was no blood. No pain... In fact, I didn't feel anything at all. I could hardly tell where my skin ended and the golden light began. My body felt weightless and free, like my entire existence was just a feeling and not a physical mass. But it was strange.
When I was in my coma, everything was just a black void. But now, it was all golden and peaceful.
"No." I jumped when I heard my wolf's voice call out from the golden light. "Mina?" I asked, looking around wildly. "Is that you?"
"Yes, it's me." Her voice seemed to be echoing all around me at first, but then it started to coagulate into one place. Finally I could pinpoint where her voice was coming from, and I spun around in that direction. My eyes widened when I finally saw her standing there for the first time... In the flesh.
"Mina," I whispered, reaching out my hands as she slowly approached me. "You're so... beautiful." She was everything that I imagined, and more.
Her fur was a beautiful, vibrant golden color, like the color of the sun. She had a little white swirl on her forehead that came down her muzzle in a thin line. That same white patch was on the front of her chest. When I tangled my fingers into her fur, it was so silky and soft. It felt as though I was touching feathers, or nothing at all.
I gasped when I saw her tail. It wasn't just one tail, but three. She was unlike any wolf I had ever seen before. "Like it?" she asked, twitching her three tails back and forth. I nodded, then looked up with wide eyes to meet her gaze.
Her eyes were different colors; one was bright blue, like the color of the sky on a sunny day, and the other was green, the exact same shade as my own eyes. But although I was so fascinated by her beauty, I still felt sad.
"What's wrong?" she asked. I shook my head and stared down at my feet.
"I'm sorry we couldn't shift in time. I feel like I failed you. Like I failed the world by allowing the last generation of the Golden Wolf to be destroyed." Mina gave me a puzzled look. "I said no, though," she said,
chuckling a bit. I furrowed my brow.
"Huh?"
"I said 'no'. Earlier, you were thinking to yourself that you were dead, but you're not. You're just shifting."
"I am?" I asked. "How? Where am I?" Mina chuckled again.
"Time feels frozen right now, doesn't it?"
I nodded slowly, then bit my lip. "It feels nonexistent, actually."
"Well..." Mina flicked her tail and looked around. "This is what it's been like for me for the past three months. I guess you're getting to experience it now. Most people never get to visit the place in their mind where their wolf lives, but I guess you
and I are special."
I had to laugh. "I guess so," I said. "But how do I get out? I need to make sure that Edrick is okay. And the baby..."
I suddenly looked down at my belly. Even in this strange nonexistent place, it was still protruding with the little life inside of it. I ran my hand across it, and found that there was no wound.
"The baby is fine," Mina said. "The knife shattered, and you healed almost instantly since you had already shifted.
But Edrick..." My eyes widened.
"Is he okay?" Mina paused for a moment before answering.
"Are you sure you want to go back?" I felt my stomach drop.
"Why? What do you mean?" I asked, storming closer to Mina and staring up at her. "Is he alive? What happened?" Mina simply shook her head.
"I don't know. But he was incredibly close to you during your shifting process, and the knife shattered right next to him when he was already injured. There is a chance... Are you sure you would want to go back if your fated mate might not make it?"
Suddenly, I felt sick. Tears welled up in my eyes and I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle my sob. "You're joking," I whispered. "He'll be okay. He has to be okay." Mina just stared at me and said nothing. An uncontrollable, vile scream of pain erupted from my mouth. My throat felt as though it was closing up, and everything started to blur around me. My chest caved in, and it felt as though my heart was plunging into the depths of my stomach. I couldn't imagine a life without Edrick.
But Ella... And my baby... "I can't just stay here," I said once I was able to speak. "Even if he's gone, staying here would mean that all of it would be in vain."
Mina was silent for a moment. "I could take over for you," she said. "It wouldn't be in vain, but you would lose your human form. But you would never have to live in a world without him."
"So you're suggesting I just... stay here?" I asked. Mina nodded slowly.
"Only if you want to. Only the Golden Wolf is capable of something like that... If the bearer of the Golden Wolf doesn't want to bear the burden, they can live here, in paradise. Everything else will melt away, and you'll have nothing but eternal peace."
"But it wouldn't be living," I said, shaking my head and taking a step back. I touched my belly instinctively, and thought of the little life inside. "I would be robbing not only myself of a real life, but also my baby. And Ella would never understand."
"So you want to go?" Mina asked. "Do you want to return to the real world now, even if your fated mate is dead?" Without hesitation, I nodded vigorously and held my head high. "I want to do everything I
can," I said, blinking back my tears. " Mina simply nodded.
"Very well, then." Suddenly, I opened my eyes. The golden light was gone... I was lying on the ground now, in the grass. I jerked my head up and looked around; I was still on the cliff, but it was no longer raining. In fact, it was beautiful and sunny. "Edrick?" I called out. I instinctively spoke telepathically, and felt puzzled for a moment, until I realized that I had shifted
after all. I was not in my human form.
I was the Golden Wolf now. But somehow, that didn't matter to me. All that mattered was finding Edrick. I looked around wildly until I spotted two human figures lying on the ground in the distance. They were both motionless.