IN ALL MY DREAMS
I DROWN






Winter was here. The cold embraced her, as comforting as the touch of a lover, and for once the tiny smile that touched at her black lips was not part of the mask she wore. This was the time of the year that she was nothing more than part of the falling snow. Obscurity was one of her favorite things. Childish again, if only for that moment, she gave a small laugh, one meant for no ears but her own. She savored it like a thick hunk of meat, tasting it slowly, letting it roll across her tongue. Odd, but strangely satisfying. Breaking into a lope, she emerged from the tree-line, out into the open fields that touched at the bank of Ruieze Lake.

Lore had expected that she wouldn’t be alone. This was, after all, a popular gathering place claimed by none of the packs, but since the world all around had been frozen, she hadn’t expected more than 2 or 3 wolves roaming around. The gathering up ahead had at least 20 (make that 30) of them huddled together. This stopped the white female mid-step, body held awkwardly. Her ears pricked forward as she assessed the situation, and that was when her sense of smell was assaulted. The musk of everyone mixed into an overwhelming cloud that seemed to hang in the air, and choking through it all was the carcass; freshly killed, ripped into, ravaged. There was something else; a taint. It made her exhale sharply, trying to clear that unnatural, almost coppery scent from her lungs, but then she could taste it and it was just too much.

This was one time even her mask failed her. From a distance, she eyed them all with disgust before turning away, flopping her body down to the hard ground near the base of a tree. Its branches clawed at the sky, resembling the bare bones of a skeleton. How fitting, she thought to herself, before turning her attention to something more important; herself. Lore groomed her coat in an almost absentminded way, letting her thoughts drift away from the madhouse that was not too far off.

All she could hope is that no one would break this new-found solitude that she now coveted. With a tinge of bitterness, she noted to herself that she never seemed to be that lucky.









LORE