Once again, Hietala had escaped the jaws of death. But why? Living was so much worse than being dead. She grits her teeth and winces in pain. Nymeria’s fangs had torn open several gashes in her neck, her thick polar coat didn’t spare her from the Dragon Queens ferocity. But why did she spare my life? That question had burned in the back of the fallen ice queen’s brain ever since that fateful night. The day that her bitterness and anger had cost her too much. “Ashitaka,” she calls his name softly, “I failed you my little brother.” Through blind eyes the old wolfess stares at her own reflection in the clear stream. Even without the cataracts, she still would not recognise the wretched creature staring back at her. She turned into her own worst nightmare.

Hietala, injured and near death, had stumbled into this quiet little sanctuary about a week ago. She had been surviving on carrion and attempting to keep her wounds clean in the stream. And failing. Her back, between the shoulders, the wound burned deep. She can feel the roots of infection spreading down her spine, around her ribs and it will be in her internal organs in a matter of days. She could smell the gunky puss in the hot air all around her. It was putrid and disgusting.

Panting heavily from the summer sun and pain, Heitala was lying in the soothing waters. This had got to be a joke, right? Mother moon, please tell me you are playing some silly game with me? The Ice Queen could not pass through this world like this. Homeless, nameless and dead without my kin nearby to guide my soul to the stars. She feels something knock into her hip and she watches as the small stick travels downstream. With a soft sigh, she remembers something her mother told her once when she was a young pup. “We’re all like sticks lost in the current, no one’s really in charge of anything for long.” Shifting, she tries to make herself comfortable before she freezes. She just heard something.

Inhaling she tries to catch a scent on the wind. But she couldn’t smell them, they were too far away or the wind was blowing the wrong direction. But she could hear them, they were good at being silent, but Hietala was better at hearing than anyone. Suck on that Nymeria! Despite the agony her whole body was in, the hackles began to rise up her white spine. Her teeth bared. “Leave me be,” she hisses down stream, her voice reverberating between the sandy banks before fading to silence.

It was a warning, but really she was in no shape to fight. The infection on her back and shoulder was so horrendous it felt like the size of her skull. It certainly felt like she was carrying another wolf on her back.

The water around her ripples as she growls. She doesn’t have the energy to lunge, but she refuses to die without a fight. Nymeria might have changed her mind and sent the guards after her. And then there’s the killers in her own family that she had to worry about now. She’s lost her trusted lookout, she doesn’t know where her sister is, her daughter was dead, her mate had been murdered and her sister in arms had died in childbirth. The Ice Queen has been left to face the cruel world by herself, and she will face it with her fangs bared.

Yours Sincerely,

Hietala *, The Fallen Ice Queen