I'm not sure when the first tears came to my eyes, but I blinked them away as I looked up into the fading light that filtered through the trees, unable to move or call out. I had spent so much of my life being afraid, but I had never known fear like this. For so long I had thought I was alone in this world, but now more than ever that knowledge was driven home. Swallowing hard, I was reminded of the pain in my throat and more tears sprang to the corners of my eyes. Was this really all that my life had amounted to?

The sound of movement made an ear flick towards the source and my eye roll back in panic. Had the bear come back, after stashing her cubs elsewhere, to finish me off? There was nothing I could do, paralyzed by fear and pain. Maybe it was for the best. Breaths came in short gasps, troubled and panicked all at once, but I could not see the bear, and then the sound halted. The not knowing was torture, but then in a flash a shadow was cast across my bodice. I winced, anticipating the final blow, but it did not come. Instead, there is a voice, and my bright blue eyes cautiously open, only one able to see the shewolf who stands over me. Relief washed over me, that sense of being totally and completely alone abated, but as I tried to lift my head to greet her I was reminded of my dire situation. The shift increased the flow of blood from the injury at my neck and for a moment the world spun. My head dropped back to the ground, but an ear remained fixated upon the girl. Sila from Spirane....help...heal. I heard her words, but hopelessness began to well within me again, only blotted out for a moment by the relief of someone's company.

A dull whimper slipped from my maw as she set to cleaning the injury on my side, accompanied by more bubbles of blood. Sila did her best to reassure me, and her voice was soothing and comforting, lending me some semblance of strength. But even though the bleeding had slowed somewhat, it had not ceased. I was still cold, so very cold, and that was not going away. My inner weaknesses were seeping out into the ground around me, and I felt so tired. Maybe if I just closed my eyes for a moment, I would wake up back in the forests of Taviora with my family all around me. Lids slipped closed, imagining that this was just all some horrific nightmare that I would soon wake from. But as Sila continued to work at the injuries, sending the occasional bolt of pain sensors to my brain, I knew the reality of my situation.

Breaths that had been coming short and quick to me before were now becoming shallow, slow, and infrequent. Opening my eyes, I tried once more to lift my head and look at Sila. I was barely able to cock it away from the ground, so little strength was left in me. "A...Asariel," I managed to say, my voice broken and soft, more blood coming up with the words, "f-from Tav-" I couldn't finish the word, swallowing back the blood and pain as my head slumped once more. But she had to know, she had to know who I was so that she could tell my family. I didn't want to die, I was so afraid of what I did not know, and there was no greater unknown than death. And maybe there was some part of me that desperately held onto the idea that Sila could do it, that she could save me. She was doing a good job, in fact the wound on my side was finally beginning to clot, but the one on my neck was the real trouble. But in the back of my mind I knew what was happening, and I found some comfort in the acceptance of my fate, as terrifying as it was.

Against all odds, against every predisposition I had shown towards fear and tentativeness, I was beginning to come to some kind of peace. What it was that brought it on was beyond recognition. Maybe in my death I would be remembered, more so than I was in life. I could go and live among the stars that my sister looked so fondly upon, and perhaps I could offer her something more from such a distant residence than I had ever been able to in life.