Every night his dreams were filled with terror. The sounds he had heard that day swarmed in his mind, reliving the horror that he could only imagine had transpired. Abel's scream transformed and became his own, and the sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bone shifted to that of eyes being torn from their sockets. His world was a constant swirling darkness, but when his lids fell shut at night it was as though that fathomless pit reached up and swallowed him whole.
He woke gasping for breath, reaching a paw up to his face and scraping it over his eyes, ensuring the useless orbs were still there. Sightless eyes rolled in his head until he was assured that it was just a dream, just a nightmare. Inhaling deeply, he lowered his head to the earth, growing himself and finding his center. Cartel had happened upon the gathering of his brother, half-brother, sister, and at least two others whose scent he had not recognized, and by some stroke of luck had remained out of sight of them all. His nose told him of the wolves present, but not who had done what, but he could not mistake the sound of teeth sinking into flesh as anything but that. The crack of bone breaking had made his useless eyes open wide, and shock had set in when he heard Abel's scream.
What happened after that was a blur. Cartel had run, following familiar trails that he knew well until he reached a point within the pack lands that he did not recognize. Then he stumbled his way through areas he hadn't traveled before, continuing north until he couldn't run anymore. For days now he had been tucked away in a den far removed from the busier areas of the pack. The part of him that wanted to prove he was strong and capable despite his lack of sight wanted to delve back into the heart of the pack and seek out Abel, to make sure he was still alive. He had to be, surely, the boy had reasoned with himself. Once his mind had stopped racing he had realized the truth - they had removed Abel's deformed leg, of that he was sure. Would they come for him next? Would they pull the defective eyes from his skull?
After waking from nightmares of his family pinning him down and ripping malleable tissue from his head, he ventured from the makeshift den. It had taken a couple of days for him to leave its protection, though he was sure if Eden was looking for him he would have already been found. But since then he had begun to follow a routine. Each day he traveled north to the freshwater river to drink, then circled back to the sheltered area he had found just west of the upper point of Glorall's mainland. He knew that he needed to do something to prove that he was capable of serving some purpose, but he had no one to turn to. His sisters had shunned him from birth, and he hadn't seen much of his brother in the past year and a half, since they were weaned. There had been that girl...Samia...she had been so nice to him. But he didn't even know where to begin searching for her. And if he needed some nice girl to make him feel better then he wasn't really proving himself as worth anything, was he?
Cartel bared his teeth in a silent scowl at his own inner thoughts, snorting out a huff of air as he reached the northern river for his morning drink. Lowering his head, he hovered over the water for a moment like that, a soundless growl etched on his face, mentally berating himself for his weaknesses. He finally shook his head and then proceeded to take a long drink from the cool liquid that steadily flowed to the east.
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